FRM101 LCD firmware chip

A quick question for Technical or hippy.

Is there any limitation, within reason, on the length of a row of characters if one uses the FRM101 LCD controller chip?

Many of us have 16x2 and 20x4 LCD displays.
Can, for example, the FRM010 be used with a 24x2 display?

I ask this because, by way of example, the Spark fun SerLCD V2 backpack which has been used by some forum members here in the past as part of Sparkfun LCD modules does have a definite limit to number of characters per line (it can be 16 or 20 characters).

You can use any size e.g. 16x2 20x2 40x2, 20x4 (remembering that a 20x4 is always electrically made as a 40x2, ie lines 1 and 3 are the virtual top line and 2 and 4 are the virtual bottom line)

So a 24x2 should also work fine.

Technical is too fast. ;-)

e

as far as I can tell, each character sent to the display is dealt with and displayed as it is recieved. So in other words, the input buffer is 1 character long, and because the firmware is written in assembler it is quick enough to display that character before the next one arrives.

I could be very wrong, but thats how it seems to operate.

Westaust, I'm not teaching you to suck eggs, just adding detail for other readers

Thanks Technical & Eclectic.
Having identified the limitation in the "other" LCD backpack where the supplier could only suggest I re-program their on board firmware chip to suit, I just wanted to ensure there was no such "hidden" limitation with the FRM010.

Having built 1-Wire network and shift register based home brew LCD interfaces in the past, the requirements to drive the actual LCD are understood

@BG,
Never a problem with someone adding their comments.
You never know when such a comment may just add that exta bit of information to the knowledge bank


EDIT:
Based on the response(s) I will proceed to purchase a couple of FRM010's from my "local" friendly outlet (MicroZED) who are only ~0.25 of a world away

Does Rev-Ed still sell the FRM010? Don't see it on their site.

http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/docs/frm010.pdf

It's $18.70 in Australia at http://www.microzed.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=138

Seems like a much cheaper PicAxe could be programmed to do that job.

Yes.
In Ron Hacketts book:
"PICAXE® Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius"
He uses a 20X2 as a serial to 8-bit LCD interface.

Others have also done the same thing and post on this forum as well.

Ron even goes further to use a 20X2 for a combined LCD and keypad interface

and . . .
(but wait there's more . . )

The FRM010 is still available at the TechSupplies website for £4.00 (£4.80 inc. VAT):
http://www.techsupplies.co.uk/epages/Store.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Store.TechSupplies/Products/FRM010

Thanks westaust55! You answered 2 different posts (with perfect answers) in just a few minutes. I'm going to double the rate I'm paying you!

erco said:

Does Rev-Ed still sell the FRM010? Don't see it on their site.

Click to expand...

How hard did you look exactly?

nick12ab said:

How hard did you look exactly?

Click to expand...

The screen shot is just one level higher than the direct link already given in post 8

Another contender is my LCD #117 at http://www.phanderson.com/lcd106/lcd107.html which accommodates a number of configurations;

2X16, 2X20, 2X24, 2X40, 4X16 and 4X20

Less than $5.00.

Peter Anderson, http://www.phanderson.com/picaxe/

ValueAdd said:

The screen shot is just one level higher than the direct link already given in post 8

Click to expand...

This wasn't relating to WestAust55's post, it was for erco's post:

erco said:

Does Rev-Ed still sell the FRM010? Don't see it on their site.

Click to expand...

and it was a rhetorical question about him not being able to find something that was in plain sight.

Serial LCD Firmware Documentation Errors

Just thought I ought to point this out, but for the heading for the contents, it says 'Serial Printer Firmware Contents' rather than 'Serial LCD Firmware Contents'.

Confirmed.
The FRM010 datasheet has a carry over from the FRM015 Printer interface chip.
Rev Ed will no doubt action a correction in due course.

@nick: I was looking under products & modules at http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe/ Seems like it should be mentioned there, with the other ICs for clocks, EEPROMS & motor driver.

@peter: I found your chip yesterday, it's perfect. I will be placing an order Tuesday once the banks open and I can can transfer money. I totally drained my Paypal account Saturday when I won this new toy on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/160643186282 An unbuilt Heathkit HW-9. Now I have to decide whether to build it or save it!

nick12ab said:

it was for erco's post:and it was a rhetorical question about him not being able to find something that was in plain sight.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the shoutout, Nick. Way to make this newcomer feel welcome! Are Brits only polite in person?

erco said:

Thanks for the shoutout, Nick. Way to make this newcomer feel welcome! Are Brits only polite in person?

Click to expand...

I'm sorry if I offended you but it's also common sense to do a search in Techsupplies for FRM010 which does come up with the chip you're after, plus you're now a senior member. I don't react that way for questions that don't have such obvious answers and probably almost everyone will have or will say something wrong or ask something obvious.

For the Serial LCD datasheet error post, I could have instead of pointing out the error had said 'Can erco guess what's wrong with this?'

Nick, the first comment was more sarcastic and not really rhetorical.
But if I were you I'd quit while you're behind
It'll be interesting to see how politely you react when someone is sarcy to you...


erco; Nick is a youngster so maybe let him off easy this time please.
The Internet sometimes encourages people to say things that they wouldn't say face-to-face.

All's good, Dippy. We Yanks are thick-skinned as a rule. Thanks for intervening.

Nick, I'll bet you're a smart guy, but your effort to shame me was simply wasted time. Had that time & effort gone into something constructive, the world would be a better place. BTW, I earned my newfound "senior member" status (100 posts) during these last few posts bantering with you. Cheers, mate!

westaust55 said:

Confirmed.
The FRM010 datasheet has a carry over from the FRM015 Printer interface chip.
Rev Ed will no doubt action a correction in due course.

Click to expand...

Comparing the datasheets for both, the contents list is different and the rest of the datasheet has nothing inn common so I'm surprised this went unnnnoticed when they would have only been copying and pasting a couple of lines (note that the datasheet hasn't been corrected yet).

That FRM010 datasheet has been around for well over ten years, no-one has pointed the typo out before!

However you may also consider the new seriall OLED kit, which uses an 18M2 as the firmware:

http://www.picaxe.com/Hardware/Add-on-Modules/Budget-Serial-OLED-Module