I got an email back from David Maxwell at IFI answering some of my questions about using a Matrix Orbital LCD display and thought I'd share it.
Quote:
Q: Is it possible to hook up a serial LCD display from http://www.matrixorbital.com/? The displays use Microchip processors to control them and support I2C, TTL, and RS-232 communication. If the hardware is compatible what set of function would I use to establish communication between the two and what would be the ideal type of connection whether it be I2C, TTL, or RS-232.
A: Yes it is possible. Do a search for LCD in our FAQ on our web site.
Your best bet is probably to use the RS-232 serial port to communicate with something like the Matrix Orbital units, although this is the more expensive option. This would require only programming, and no extra wiring or circuitry, I believe.
I've done some experiments using the digital I/O on the EDU to control an Optrex module which uses the Hitachi LCD controller, but had limited success. I used both the external LCD functions (from the MPLAB C18 C Compiler Libraries manual) and bit-banged it, but couldn't get results as reliable as if I used a Microchip PicDem2 demo board. That's about as far as I got.
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For now this thread will be my official development page until I get a project site setup.