Mini Project - External Matrix Orbital LCD

StevenG

StevenG

StevenG

Soldato
Joined
25 Jan 2006
Posts
3,071
Location
Gateshead, Newcastle
Okay, since going matx i dont have the space to install a quad line Matrix Orbital Display...

A soultion to this would be to make some form of external stand for it to be used on.

The display its self is a USB model so for communications a standard USB cable can be used, unfortunately to power the unit a Floppy Power cable is needed so i will have to extend a molex > Floppy cable for use outside of my case.

The stand will be designed by me and made by tom with his new CNC machine

Watch this space for updates, the design of the stand / mount for the display will start once i have received the LCD to get dimensions etc for it.

Thanks for Reading
StevenG
 
LCD unit will be delivered tomorrow so should get a good look at it. from what the seller said it might be the USB version in which case the usb will power the display as well as the communications. which means less modding for me :)

i'm currently waiting on my cad sofware downloading, for some reason i deleted it when i did a re-install which is a pain as its rare software and is taking an AGE to download.

updates will come once the unit has arived and i'll get some pics up and some mockup mounts.

thanks for reading
StevenG
 
Good luck mate - remember though that without the floppy power connector installed the unit wont power up until it hits windows.

IIRC different flavours of the MX bays support boot up power though (everything after the MX3) since it was a known disadvantage with the MX2/3 if you used it as a fan controller the fans wouldnt power up until windows. Slightly worrying if you had the CPU cooler connected :p

My setup has a MX610, Silverstone MFP51 VFD and Webbos ScreenDuo (once I upgrade to Vista ;))

Been wanting to set it up so that the MX6 is an intelligent fan controller so it increases fan RPM when an area of my case gets too hot; whereas the VFD will be a graphics equaliser and multimedia controller. The ScreenDuo will eventually allow me to work Sideshow (hopefully)...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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even if the unit powered up before windows starts its not going to be displaying anything useful is it? or do these have some ram installed to remember a splash screen for the boot time?

StevenG
 
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Rough drawings well i say rough its exactly to scale etc but the software i use is that advanced it wont let me put text onto it.

i want some text or graphic to be either engraved or cut out of the bottom part where there is a bigger gap.

i may just get Matrix Orbital written there or something but we'll see.

StevenG
 
steve.jpg


ive had someone do this on a CNC machine as i decided i wanted text on my mount.

simple writing would be cool, it could be smaller, i mean as it is thats quite small but i think something along the lines of whats written on the ruler.. i.e small engraving so its visible and not that deep.

i'll probably want things like temps, network, cpu, ram etc written on the aluminum and probably my name somewhere on it too.

i'm talking with the guys over at matrix orbital atm trying to get some information as to what kind of buttons i can use, and leds etc.

once ive done that i'll be sending some drawings over to the guy and getting it all cut and should see some progress soon.

edit: heres the display im using. VFD version of the 24x4 line display.

vfd.JPG


ignore the little green kinder egg monster thing keeping it up lol

StevenG
 
Okay had a little search round the program and hidden away in a menu was the ability to add text to my design... what you guys think of this.

a series of led's will light up depending on tempereature and speed boundaries that i setup.

comments please:

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Thanks
StevenG
 
Will the extreme/High/Low text be illuminated by the LED's or just the dots to the sides?

Personally i think it would look better if the text lit up too, but hey its your build.

Looking good though.
 
zootfloot said:
Will the extreme/High/Low text be illuminated by the LED's or just the dots to the sides?

Personally i think it would look better if the text lit up too, but hey its your build.

Looking good though.
Click to expand...

well the problem i have is that i think im going to have it made from aluminum so illuminating text would be quite difficult. i.e getting the text that small wouldnt be possible when cutting through the entire piece of metal and id have to put some kind of plastic behind the text and illuminate that.

its a bit fiddily but i'll have a think about it. as it stands the holes will have led's in them which will light up depending on the speed i download or the stupid temps of my passive cpu

StevenG
 
New design / Final design just need to figure out what im doing with the switches. trying to find a way to have them almost flush with the stand or at least so its just the swtich you see and not the sorround.

LED's will be yellow green and red within LED holders :)

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StevenG
 
I think StevenG gave on the project as he doesnt have the time to dedicate to it - sure I saw the MO LCD display he was using was on the MM :(...

Fingers crossed Im wrong - nice to see some 'BitTech' stuff on here

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
I havent replied in a while because i just dont have the time to spend on the project. even though its small, its because its that small i had to research into switches and things and i just didnt have the time to put into it.

going to have to call this a dead project but hopefully we'll see something like this pop up at a later date.

may re-attempt this with a better lcd maybe a matrix lcd that i can control via LCD studio to get graphics etc on.

StevenG
 
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