@ Electronics-Display
Compact display units, typically liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, are used in robotics as a way for the machine to talk to its master. Many display modules for robotics use a serial communications scheme that requires only one or two I/O lines from the robot's microcontroller or computer. This conserves the robot's available I/O lines for other tasks.
SEE ALSO:
Electronics-Circuit Example: How to build your own serial LCD interface
Kits-Electronic: Additional LCD circuits Retail-General Electronics: Source for small
LCD panels
Retail-Surplus Electronics:Source for used LCD panels
Bitworks Inc. 202159
#1 Bitworks Way Prairie Grove, AR 72753 USA
(501) 846-5777 (501) 846-5016 lenny@bitworks.com http://www.bitworks.com/Bitworks produces display products, including:
• 320_240 LCD touch screen
• Scalable flat panel monitor card for DOS/VGA/SVGA/XGA
• Compact Flash to IDE adapter
x
Control a Serial LCD from a PIC 202147 http://www.mastincrosbie.com/mark/
electronics/pic/lcd.html
BiPOM Electronics,Inc.
http://www.bipom.com/
Products include serial LCD displays
Matrix Orbital
http://www.matrixorbital.com/
Serial interface displays
Sample code for interfacing a PIC to an LCD via a serial line. Requires a serial LCD, such as those sold by Scott Edwards Electronics.
CrystalFontz America Inc. 203459 15611 East Washington Rd.
Valleyford, WA 99036 USA
(509) 291-3514 (509) 291-3345 (888) 206-9720 sales@crystalfontz.com http://www.crystalfontz.com/CrystalFontz makes LCD displays and drivers. Their products include the usual 1x16 and 2x16 line LCD, as well as models with graphical display, backlighting, and serial connections (most LCDs are for parallel connec-tions, which takes up more I/O lines on your micro-controller or computer).
x V
Manufacture of low-cost OSD (on-screen display) mod-ules and other video function blocks for use by system designers. Easily connected to microcontrollers or com-puters. The products serve as character overlay genera-tors for video overlay and can be used on robots with analog video transmitters.
x
Designtech Engineering Co. 202363 2001 S. Blue Island Ave.
Chicago, IL 60608 USA
(312) 243-4700 (312) 243-4776 http://www.designtechengineering.com/Designtech makes graphical LCD panels with touch control.
x
Earth Computer Technologies, Inc. 202192 32701 Calle Perfecto
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675 USA
(949) 248-2333 (949) 248-2392 lcdking@earthlcd.com http://www.earthlcd.com Makers of display electronics:• LCD panels: text, graphics, industrial LCD monitors
• Low-cost LCD kits for popular single board computers
• LCD controllers
• Touch screen controllers
x V
E-Lab Digital Engineering, Inc. 202490 Carefree Industrial Park
1600 N. 291 Hwy. Ste. 330 P.O. Box 520436
Independence, MO 64052-0436 USA
(816) 257-9954 (816) 257-9945 support@elabinc.com http://www.elabinc.com/2x16 LCD display, from CrystalFontz. Photo Crystalfontz America, Inc.
Decade Engineering 203064
5504 Val View Drive, SE Turner, OR 97392 USA
(503) 743-3194 (503) 743-2095 info@decadenet.com http://www.decadenet.com/Graphics LCD display, from CrystalFontz. . Photo Crystalfontz America, Inc.
E-Lab makes a series of building block ICs and modules that support various microcontrollers, including the Microchip PIC or Atmel AVR. Among their products are:
• Serial text LCD controller IC
• Octal seven-segment LED decoder
• Unipolar stepper motor controller
• Bipolar stepper motor controller
• Serial to parallel-printer IC
x
EMJ Embedded Systems 203065 220 Chatham Business Dr.
Pittsboro, NC 27312 USA
(919) 545-2500 (919) 545-2559 (800) 548-2319 emjembedded@emj.com http://www.emjembedded.com/Products include serial-interface LCD displays, PC/104 single board computers, embedded modems for PC/104, miniature hard drives, and Flash memory.
x
HDS Systems, Inc. 203538
P.O. Box 42767 Tucson, AZ 85733 USA
(520) 325-3004 (877) 437-7978 Sales@hdsSystems.com http://www.hdssystems.com/Makers of super-duper bright LEDs in LED arrays and housings.
x
Interfacing an LCD Display
with the 8051 202931
http://www.hawkeselectronics.com/lcd.htm
How to marry a parallel LCD to an 8051 microcon-troller.
LedVision Holding, Inc. 202348 303 Sherman Ave.
LedVision makes large LED displays, the kind used by retail shops and movie theaters.
x
Lumitex designs, develops, and manufactures custom backlighting for LCDs, machine vision systems, and other applications. Some good technical notes and fact sheets.
x
RS232-interfaced LCD Display 202161 http://www.geocities.com/mdurller/lcd.html In the words of the Web site: “This is the schematic for the serial interface board. It consists of a MAX232, ATMEL AT90S2313 microcontroller and some support circuitry for the IR receiver module and LCD panel.
The design goal of this project is to make a small, embedded RS232 TTY that has an alphanumeric LCD as monitor output and an IR remote control as the 'key-board' input.”
Scott Edwards Electronics, Inc. 202179 1939 S. Frontage Rd. #F
Sierra Vista, AZ 85635 USA
(520) 459-4802 (520) 459-0623 info@seetron.com http://www.seetron.com/Scott Edwards Electronics (otherwise known as Seetron) manufactures and sells serial LCD and VFD displays that easily interface to a computer or micro-controller. The company also offers the Mini SSC II interface to control up to eight R/C servos from a sin-gle serial connection.
x d V
Electronics2000.com 204172 http://www.electronics2000.com/
Resource page for electronics information and calcula-tors. The Web site also provides an online store for sell-ing inexpensive CD-ROM compilations of small elec-tronics-related utility programs.
Innotek, Inc. 203870
One Innoway Garrett, IN 46738 USA
(219) 357-3148 (219) 467-5102 (800) 826-5527 support@innotek.net http://pet.innotek.net/Innotek manufactures a line of pet containment receivers and transmitters, suitable for dogs and wan-dering robots. On a robot, the transmitter could be used as a homing beacon or as an invisible fence to keep the robot from leaving an area.
x V
PetSafe 203869
10427 Electric Ave.
Knoxville, TN 37932 USA
(800) 732-2677 freedog@pet-containment.com http://www.petsafe.net/Makers of indoor pet containment systems. The “fence”
is an electronic transmitter that's located at the exit point of the house. A lightweight receiver goes around the neck of your Golden Retriever; if your dog tries to escape, a warning signal is sounded on the receiver (the receiver worn by the retriever). Consider the uses in robotics.
x V
Radio Fence Distributors, Inc. 203868 1133 Bal Harbor Blvd.
Ste. 1151
Punta Gorda, FL 33950 USA
Here, you'll find electronics odds and ends, including online calculators for electronics formulas, sources for electronics-related swap meets, and electronic pet con-tainment systems that can be retrofitted to work with robotics.
SEE ALSO:
Fests and Shows: More electronics swap meets Internet-Reference and Internet-Search:
Where to find additional electronics resources
ARRL: Database of Hamfests 203549 http://www.arrl.org/hamfests.html
Database ofupcoming hamfests, swap meets set up and patronized by ham radio enthusiasts. But you'll find more than radio gear at most hamfests; many are good sources for general surplus electronics and surplus mechanicals, including motors, solenoids, relays, soldering stations, tools, and more. Hamfests are usually held on Saturdays, and many start early in the morning. To get the best deals, get there as early as possible, or else the good stuff will already be gone.
(941) 505-8220 (941) 505-8229 (800) 941-4200 info@radiofence.com http://www.radiofence.com/Makers of electronic pet containment and training products. These devices are used to keep Bowser from leaving the yard. One application in robotics is to pro-vide a radio “fence” for a security or lawn-mowing 'bot.
Put the perimeter wire around an outside yard or inside room, and hack the collar receiver to interface with your robot's microcontroller. If the robot wanders near the perimeter wire, the receiver will signal its proximity.
Electronic Pet Fences—For Robots
You may have seen them advertised on TV or in one of those "everything for your home"
catalogs. They're electronic pet containment fences, and they're made to keep a wan-dering dog inside your house or yard. The idea behind them is simple. When you know how they work, you'll instantly see their application for robotics.
A wire is placed around some perimeter—say, your back yard. Attached to the wire is a transmitter that produces a low-level radio-frequency signal. The receiver is attached to your dog's collar. As the dog approaches the perimeter wire, the signal radiating from it gets stronger. At a certain point, when your dog is right beside the perimeter wire, the signal is at its strongest. The collar receives this strong signal and produces either a tone and/or a mild shock as a means of controlling the dog's behavior. The tone isn't loud, and the shock isn't painful; rather, they are meant to help condition the dog that going beyond the perimeter is not allowed.
You can use a pet containment system for robotic control, as well. One potential use is for a robotic lawnmower. Place the perimeter wire at the edges of your lawn. Then retrofit the collar receiver so that instead of emitting a tone, or producing a shock, it sends a sig-nal to the robot's microcontroller.
Another method leaves the collar receiver intact, but involves more experimentation on your part. A telephone pickup coil—the kind designed to attach to the handset of a phone to record a conversation—makes for a good induction pickup for most pet containment systems.
Consider that while electronic pet containment systems may be designed to prevent an animal from going beyond a perimeter, for robotics, they can be used to keep a robot within a specified zone. Merely reverse the logic condition of the robot's programming:
Keep the robot near the perimeter, instead of avoiding it. In this way, the robot can follow an invisible electronic "guide fence," a kind of track that keeps the machine on course.
Pet containment fences can be purchased online (several are listed in the
Electronics-Miscellaneouscategory), as well as from most pet supply stores and from a number of discount department stores such as Target or Wal-Mart.
IC Cabinet Kits
A number of electronics specialty retailers, such as Jameco and Digi-key, offer preselected kits of common TTL and CMOS integrated circuits. The kits include a labeled cabinet.
Before buying any IC kits, be sure to do the math: TTL and CMOS chips are among the least expensive electronic components, so there's no need to pay more than you have to.
Figure the cabinet costs no more than $10. If the kit retails for $140 and contains 350 pieces, then you are paying an average of 37 cents per chip. That's not bad. But if the kit contains 200 parts, then the price per chip skyrockets to 65 cents each. You might as well make up your own IC selection. It'll be a lot cheaper.
Of course, you're not limited to using perimeter fences to keep a robot from crossing over. Just as easily, the fence can be used as a guiderail, keeping a robot on course as it rolls around the house or side yard. A side benefit of adapting an electronic pet containment fence to your robot is that, unlike your dog, your 'bot won't leave behind unpleasant little surprises for you to step in.