LCD Display question

[phil73]

I am working on a design for a airbus a320 and am trying to keep the cost down somewhat. I have a couple of questions about lcd displays and i did a search and couldn't find anything so here goes. I',m using FSX, and will be buying fsuipc, an OC lcd display card.

I was looking at the ps1 screens for the CDU and i keep coming across the PSP screens for pretty cheap. Since i have a need to conserve space, i have been downsizing a lot of things and i was thinking about going with a smaller screen for the cdu. has anyone found or modified a psp screen to work with the OC lcd card?

Second, to save space and conserve on the greenbacks, i was thinking about using 2 or 3 line lcd for things such as the nav, radio and autopilot instead of the 7 segment displays. So i would only need one display for the autopilot and one for the radio and one for the nav info. does anyone one know if this would be possible?

Thanks for the help.

[Buddym]

The answer on using the LCD for autopilot/nav functions is 'yes'. I have done this in a couple of different ways. One very easy method is to use FSLCD with 2 displays connected on a parallel port. I have done this and it easy and very cost effective since it only requires a a cable and the displays. No fuss no muss.

Another method I have used is to connect LCD and or VFD displays to a controller of some sort and write some code to get the data you want from FSUIPC. I have done this with ARM micros, PICs, and a single baord controller from Rabbit (I use the RCM2200). It has multiple I/O lines, 4 serial ports, and a onboard ethernet with RJ45. I wrote a small bit of code for it that uses DHCP to get an address, then looks for FSUIPC and gets data according to a cfg file. The data is then displayed either on one of the serial ports or on one of 3 LCDs connected in nibble mode to some free I/O pins. This method is not for beginners, but does give you a very robust method of displaying lots of data.

If you are just starting out, I would say that FSLCD is a great way to do what you describe with just a little wiring and a free program. For high-visiblity, you can find some VFDs that have the standard Hitachi interface that the LCDs use. I have used some that are a pin-for-pin swap.

Buddy