EPSON R300 lcd panel help

AnalogRocks · Post by **AnalogRocks** » August 14th, 2006, 10:07 am

Hi, I have the LCD panel out of an EPSON R300 printer. It's attached to the keyboard that controlls the functions of the printer.

I took it out but it has no markings on it. It's connected to the control panel via a 19 pin cable.

Can I use this on a parallel port in my HTPC? Does anyone know the wiring specifications for these?

Thanks

Post by **limbo** » August 14th, 2006, 1:03 pm

Can you post a photo or something?

Most of the character LCD modules are using 16 pins for connection...
you can easily find the power connection to your lcd by examining the pcb but you have to find the rest of the pins in order to make it work with your parallel port

Post by **mattcro** » August 15th, 2006, 10:22 am

Isn't the R300 a photo printer with a colour LCD for previewing pics?

That can't be used with LCDSmartie, unfortunately. Smartie is designed to drive alphanumeric character LCDs. You would need to obtain the manufacturer's info/datasheets for the R300 LCD, which may well be impossible... You may be able to get some idea of how to interface it by looking at info for similar LCDs, but you may well be out of luck.

AnalogRocks · Post by **AnalogRocks** » August 15th, 2006, 11:31 pm

mattcro wrote:Isn't the R300 a photo printer with a colour LCD for previewing pics?

That can't be used with LCDSmartie, unfortunately. Smartie is designed to drive alphanumeric character LCDs. You would need to obtain the manufacturer's info/datasheets for the R300 LCD, which may well be impossible... You may be able to get some idea of how to interface it by looking at info for similar LCDs, but you may well be out of luck.

No it's the LCD on the control panel of the printer.
Here's some links to pictures of it:
http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/album_pa ... &mode=next
http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/album_pa ... &mode=next
http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/album_pa ... pic_id=289

Post by **mattcro** » August 16th, 2006, 11:39 am

OK, I think it's the LCD I meant although I maybe wasn't clear.

I guess it's a colour graphic LCD. Smartie can't control that unfortunately. I don't know if there's any software that could control it natively, since it's probably a specialised interface to suit the Epson controllers in the printer...

It sure would make a cool display for HTPC, although it's probably a bit small to easily read unless you're up close. You may have to do some hardware probing and hacking to figure out what sort of signal/data you need to drive it with... probably not easy.

Matt

AnalogRocks · Post by **AnalogRocks** » August 16th, 2006, 5:36 pm

mattcro wrote:OK, I think it's the LCD I meant although I maybe wasn't clear.

I guess it's a colour graphic LCD.

Matt

Nope it's monochrome.

The little LCD monitor you're talking about plugs into a port on the back of the printer. This printer didn't have that option.

Post by **mattcro** » August 16th, 2006, 6:25 pm

I've been talking out of the wrong end... thinking of other models.

But it looks like that's a graphic LCD on the panel, which wouldn't work with Smartie. If you can figure out the connections, it may be possible to make it do something with other software. Dunno...

AnalogRocks · Post by **AnalogRocks** » August 17th, 2006, 2:07 am

mattcro wrote:I've been talking out of the wrong end... thinking of other models.

But it looks like that's a graphic LCD on the panel, which wouldn't work with Smartie. If you can figure out the connections, it may be possible to make it do something with other software. Dunno...

Yes it is a graphic LCD. Maybe I was missunderstanding you. Ok then how about some sugestions for an LCD that is compatable with Smartie?

LIke I said above. I have an open parallel port and I'm brand new to LCD's.

Help....

Post by **mattcro** » August 17th, 2006, 3:50 pm

OK, if you're handy with a soldering iron, you can buy a standard alphanumeric LCD module and wire it to the parallel port relatively easily. There are some schematics for this on the Smartie website here.

The LCD module has to use a HD44780-compatible controller chip. Most LCDs use this, but a few don't. It's difficult to specify an exact part number because it depends how big an LCD you wand and where you can buy. In the US, places like Digikey stock a range of suitable LCDs. I'm in the UK, so I can get LCDs from Maplin, Rapid, Farnell/CPC, and a few other component suppliers. There are several Ebay shops selling LCDs too - there are some threads on this forum about where to buy - see here. You can also look in electronics surplus warehouses, where you may be able to get the LCD itself or equipment containing a suitable LCD cheaply. Some printers and faxes do actually use suitable LCDs. Look for dot-matrix character (not graphic) LCDs with something like 16 or 20 characters wide on 2 or 4 lines.

You're looking for something like this 20-character 4-line LCD. That's a good size for displaying things like PC system temps, CPU load and media player info, but there are several standard sizes like 16 characters by 2 lines. You can just wire it to the parallel port according to the Smartie schematic, mount it in a box and go. The 5-volt supply can come from a spare disk drive connector in the PC.

If you want a full-blown microcontroller/electronics project, you can build your own mini-terminal based on an LCD and a couple of buttons, like several members here have done. These emulate the intelligent LCD modules made by Matrix Orbital and Crystalfontz, which are designed to connect to the serial port and which Smartie works well with.

Hope that's enough to get started!

Matt

AnalogRocks · Post by **AnalogRocks** » August 18th, 2006, 3:37 pm

mattcro wrote:OK, if you're handy with a soldering iron, you can buy a standard alphanumeric LCD module and wire it to the parallel port relatively easily. There are some schematics for this on the Smartie website here.

The LCD module has to use a HD44780-compatible controller chip. Most LCDs use this, but a few don't. It's difficult to specify an exact part number because it depends how big an LCD you wand and where you can buy. In the US, places like Digikey stock a range of suitable LCDs. I'm in the UK, so I can get LCDs from Maplin, Rapid, Farnell/CPC, and a few other component suppliers. There are several Ebay shops selling LCDs too - there are some threads on this forum about where to buy - see here. You can also look in electronics surplus warehouses, where you may be able to get the LCD itself or equipment containing a suitable LCD cheaply. Some printers and faxes do actually use suitable LCDs. Look for dot-matrix character (not graphic) LCDs with something like 16 or 20 characters wide on 2 or 4 lines.

You're looking for something like this 20-character 4-line LCD. That's a good size for displaying things like PC system temps, CPU load and media player info, but there are several standard sizes like 16 characters by 2 lines. You can just wire it to the parallel port according to the Smartie schematic, mount it in a box and go. The 5-volt supply can come from a spare disk drive connector in the PC.

If you want a full-blown microcontroller/electronics project, you can build your own mini-terminal based on an LCD and a couple of buttons, like several members here have done. These emulate the intelligent LCD modules made by Matrix Orbital and Crystalfontz, which are designed to connect to the serial port and which Smartie works well with.

Hope that's enough to get started!

Matt

Thanks for all the links I was hoping somone would do that for me. I'll have a look tonight and let you know later which LCD I went with.

Thanks again