LCD Display

[theshoeshineman]

Here's something different for ya's.

Can you think of any practical uses for a 2x16 LCD parallel display on the front of a computer?

So far I've come up with:

* Display current date/time
* Display current song playing
* Display outlook events such as appointments and new mail
* Display fan speed or temperatures
* A count up timer (to show how long computer's been on)
* Display current user and IP address
* Display warnings such as low memory or low disk space on a drive

All the above info I can get fairly easily using visual basic, it would then just be a matter of transmitting that data to the parallel port in a way the LCD can interperate.

Can you think of any other practical uses as I'm considering this as a possible run-off project

[rendermandan]

you should look into LCDC. http://www.lcdc.cc/ they have all sorts of plugins for lcd panels.
I'm currently using it to develop the Matrix Orbital panel I bought for my project.

[theshoeshineman]

Thanks for the link... Hmmm yeah just had a look. Pretty much all of their "links" on the link page are broken which is a bummer!

If I was to purchase one I'd probably stay away from 3rd party apps. Yes they make programming the things a breeze but have limited use.

I did pick up a few idea's from that site though.

* Show frame rate
* Show internet use (downloaded/uploaded) + refresh each month - usefull as a guide for your broadband caps.
*RSS Headers

What I'm thinking is to write a program that will have an option to monitor all these things. The program will be split up into two sections

Warnings/Alerts and Constant readouts

Everything in the warnings and alerts will only get displayed if a certain threshold is reached and the message will flash for a couple of seconds and then stay up for another x number of seconds.

The constant readouts will be just that... a constantly displayed readout. If multiple boxes are ticked in the constantly displayed section then it will slowly rotate between them.

Another couple of ideas

* Custom message
* Random taglines pulled from a txt file eg. "4 out of 5 people think the 5th person's an idiot"