controlling hd44780 based lcd direct from pc (winxp cli) with ftdi ft232bm module

quite a mouthfull for the title… controlling hd44780 based lcd direct from pc (winxp cli) with ftdi ft232bm module (should work with other newer ver’s of win… and other ver of ftdi232 modules, but didn’t test anything)

I have seen and ren across a few sites that do similar, or close, but I wanted a bit more. Add to that wishing to learn some more about programming in windows, and flexibility, and access to code, I started this project on the winter break. There was a shutdown at my comapany, so I managed to stretch a nice ~3 weeks of ‘idle time’ to dedicate to the project, learning and putting it all together.

Anyways, I wanted to drive from 1 to bunch of LCD(s), that I obtained, when they were being disposed of. They are the Hitachi based HD44780 interface ic. I had a wide dip module by DLP Technologies, from a while ago, based on FTDI’s FT232BM ic. And I wanted to get started in c++ again, to learn about the API calls and to do it over USB.

I didn’t want to try to find another way to reuse the serial port as is, or use virtual ports with other means, but I wanted a bit more direct access to the hardware, to see what I can learn, adopting the USB bus. Also, I didn’t want to just use a microcontroller, but wanted to have a direct to pc interface.

Gathering info from FTDI, win api references, and the original idea with the LCDSmartie projects, I got started.

To get it working though, the LCD(s) had to be used in the 4-bit mode.

This is where I left it as a stable working and usable project. There are more items on the wish list, a few more things to do, but not requred, and so on.

The end goal would be to have a standalone and a .dll to interface to the LCDSmartie project, for windows… but also to do the virtual display splitting across multiple smaller lcds.

…for now, here’s the package, my lcd ver 2.8, with the few samples to hopefully get you started: sample default .ini, and a few direct ‘scripts’, and batch files to show different way of using the application.

as usuall, no ASSumed or implied warranties or guarranties of any kind are available. use at your own risk, and all that fun stuff. would appreciate credit, or notice if you like it and use it. not releasing code just yet, but i’ve been thinking about it.

lcd v 2.8, with samples.zip (86)