I've been thinking about setting up the 2004 IFI controler to interface with some sort of external device with a display of some sort. I've been doing lots of research on the types of connections that could be used such as I2C, TTL, and RS-232. Basicly what I'm after is like a display console with buttons that has a menu interface. Some of the items I'm considering to use for a display are a Matrix Orbital LCD screen, my ti-86 graphing calc, or my nokia 7210.
Matrix Orbital displays use microchip PICs to control the LCD screen, but I'm unsure of which model chip they use. They have a whole array of displays inwhich you can check out at
http://www.matrixorbital.com/
My secound choice is to use a ti graphing calc which I"m perty shure uses TTL for the 3-ring mini jack at the bottem. The only problem is I'm not framiliar with programing it in asembly or asembly its self.
For the third option I was thinking a J2ME application that can use the POP port on the bottem to establish an interface. The POP is on several models including the 7210 6610 and the 6800. This would be the coolest option becuase of the color screen.
The goal of the project is to have an intuative menu system for the robot control so that no one screws up a switch configuration. It would basicly store its options into either the EEPROM or the flash memory. I've constructed an example layout.
Main menu
>Autonumous Mode
>>CopyCat 1
>>CopyCat 2
>>Line Track
>>Encoder Track
>Driver Profiles
>>Bob
>>Jack
>>Jill
>Misc. Settings
>>Drill Motors disable/enable
>>Mag Motors disable/enable
>>Horn disable/enable
>Printf Display
>>Battery: 9.62v DC
>>Motor Temp: 70 F
>>Status: OK
For those of you car people its kinda simular to the ODB2 setup that the mechanic uses to read info from the car and do things like turn off that ever so anoying check engine light.