LCD + USB + PIC - connect with mobile phone datacable?

The thought from the beginning was to somehow connect a parallel LCD display to the computers USB-port. A PIC-micro could take care of the serial-to-paralell conversion, but how connect a cheap PIC to the USB-port? A converter chip would be great, but then I came to think of data cables for mobiles. They are just that, USB to serial converters, they are cheap and I don't have to solder the little USB-ic myself. Like this: USB-port -- data cable -- PIC-processor -- LCD Can this work? Is a PIC16F84 enough?

Reply to
Patrik
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Why not just use a USB-parallel (printer) adaptor?

Reply to
Ian Stirling

One thing to keep in mind is that there are devics that act like a USB device when hooked to USB and act like RS232 when hooked to a serial port - thus needing nothing more than a cheap adapter or adabter cable that acts as a "USB to serial converter." This scheme is quite common on mice and keyboards. In industrial controllers, you sometimse see a USB port that becomes I2C when connected to another I2C. These "USB to serial converters" will

*not* work with a USB that is not programmed to imitate another kind of connection.
Reply to
Guy Macon

Check out the FT245 from

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It's a great chip that provides a really easy USB interface for microcontrollers.

Perhaps also check out the lcdinfo project at

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which seems to be concerned with people connecting little LCD screens to their PCs in various ways.

Jaye.

Reply to
Jaye Gallagher

Thanks for your answers! A USB-parallel converter would be great, but it's more expensive than a data cable. The FT245 also looks nice but it costs nearly as much as the cable and I have to solder a 32-pin SMD... Sure I can do that but I think a finished cable would be easier.

Reply to
pather

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