http://www.microchip.com/lcdexplorer The LCD Explorer Development Board enables designers to evaluate and design systems with a complex 8 common LCD display. The 296 segment LCD display is driven by 37 Segment and 8 common lines and allows customers to utilize a 37 x 7 segment banner. The on-board potentiometer, temperature sensor, 4 buttons, mTouch key and PICtail(TM) Plus expansion connectors provide a versatile platform for low power system development.
@NGinuity It is difficult to answer your question without knowing more detail about you application, but the GA3 family (32 MHz) is fast enough to push data through a shift register, or serial channel to an LCD driver. Doing so typically requires an external LCD driver or a driver on the glass, to generate the appropriate AC waveforms. In some applications separating the driver makes sense. When pins are not an issue it often makes sense to integrate the LCD Drivers.
MicrochipTechnology 1 month ago
Do you think the micro run fast enough to use shift registers in between the micro and LCD instead of 45 pins? I know the PIC24's can run around 80 MHz but I've never messed with this particular application.
NGinuity 1 month ago
@Volta500 There are a couple of documents that will help you get started quickly. The first is our LCD Fundamentals AN658 and the second is Microchip’s LCD Tips and Tricks document. Both documents and more can be found on the LCD Design center on the Microchip website.
MicrochipTechnology 1 month ago
Nicely done! If it is not too expensive I'm going to pick one up and get started with programming a PIC for a display.I have done quite some PIC projects but LCD's are still new to me. Do you have some programming guidelines available? I am using MPLab with a PICKit 3.
Volta500 1 month ago