interface LCD displays to other kinds of microcontrollers,
although you may need to port the C code to the selected
architecture and map the LCD pins accordingly. The PIC18
series in particular will work by selecting the target
processor and recompiling using PIC18 C with only minor
changes to the C firmware.
I have shown you how to interface your own low cost
LCD to a VEX microcontroller and now it is up to you to put
this information to good use in your own applications.
The Official VEX LCD Display
The new VEX LCD display shown in Figure A,
measures 2. 6” W x 0.63” H and provides 16
characters x two lines. You can use this display to
receive real time feedback from your robot to
perform live debugging, view multiple stored
program configurations and select between them, or
provide additional user input to your robot.
There are two interconnect ports on the side of
the LCD module. These ports are labeled RX and TX.
The RX and TX ports are labeled with respect to the
device that connects to the LCD display module.
There are three pushbutton switches located on top
of the VEX display module. These three pushbutton
switches can be configured by the user through
software.
FIGURE A. The new VEX LCD display.
66 SERVO 06.2010
