I always wanted to have my own LCD display, to make it display system info, text etc. So, I began looking for prices, and places were I could buy one. I was getting very upset when I saw the LCD I wanted, over $100. Then I thought, “you idiot!” DIY! This guide will explain how I got the LCD display, I wanted, for about $30 all together. Note: you can build your own LCD for much cheaper or more, depending on the LCD you choose, and what parts you have on –hand and stuff. Before I start, I would like to apologize for the bad pictures. This camera was donated to me. Hey! It’s better than nothing. (Update: during the recent LAN Party I used my friend camera, and made some better pictures :-))


Here’s what you would need to complete this project:

Parts:
• 1 x LCD Display
• Wire(old printer cable works well :D)
• 1 x Male 25-pin connector
• 1 x 10 k ohm potentiometer
• 1 x 100 ohm potentiometer
• Molex connector
• Project box (if you want to make an external LCD)

Tools:
• Execto knife
• Wire cutters
• Wire strippers
• Soldering iron/solder
• Soldering skills – priceless


If your doing a mod then you also need:
• 2 x Blue LED’s
• Hot Glue Gun

Note: you can get all of these things at your local Radio Shack, or other electronic store.

You can buy LCD Displays from a lot of places some of the “cheaper” sites are http://eio.com and http://bgmicro.com . Some of the more expensive sites are http://crystalfontz.com though they do offer much nicer LCD’s. It don’t really matter what site you order from or what LCD you get, as long as it has a HD44780 controller chip.

I decided to order from http://eio.com. I bought myself a Seiko L2014 4X20 LED Backlight LCD - with HD44780 Controller Chip for $20. I liked it because its filter was blue, and it matched my equalizer.

A week later a deliveryman knocked on my door with a box! Inside, I found my LCD!

Before I ordered the LCD I knew that I won’t be placing the LCD inside my cdrom bay, I am using 3 of them. To fit this LCD you need 2 free bays. I decided to mount my LCD inside my floppy drive bay. Since I can’t remember the last time I used my floppy drive, it was perfect. Here’s a pic to give you an idea: (this is what it looks like after the mod :-D and this picture is old, now the sides are straight)

Hint: Think were you can place the LCD before you order one, and remember to check the mesurments of it.

So now I just couldn’t wait no more and began wiring it up. http://eio.com has provided us with a nice schematic of how we can do this.

The schematic is pretty self-explanatory. The 100 ohm potentiometer adjusts contrast of the letters on the display, 10 k ohm potentiometer adjusts the backlight brightness. Here’s a little hint for those people that get the same LCD as I did: pin #15 is “A” on the side of the LCD and pin #16 is “B” on the side of the display. (That took me a while to figure out!). Now, we do the wiring and you should end up having something like this:

Note: in the picture i have those connectors, there just for me, so i can take off the faceplate of my rig when i need to without cutting or desoldering the wires....something to think about!

Now since we have everything wired up, we can test this bad boy. You know you plug the Molex connector to your power supply, and plug the 25pin connector into your parallel port (known as printer port). If you wired everything up correctly you should see the initialization screen. The first and the third lines of the screen would be lit (if you got a 4 x 20 display) this is a good sign :-D if you don’t see this screen, please go back and recheck all the wiring.

Now for software. I found a few good programs to control this display, and no worry here all of them are freeware.

Note: to get this working under Windows 95/NT/2k or XP you need to install port95nt.exe

• LCD Smartie - displays sysinfo, text, winamp stuff, weather, some games and programs
• LCD Winamp plug-in - this does spectrum analyzer for winamp, and winamp stuff
• JaLCD - its in german, so didnt figure it out, i think it displays system info....also it has some nice effects

Note: There are other programs out there, but these are the ones I found so far