Re: [lcd4linux] serial HD44780

[paul k. <pau...@xs...>]

Ognjen Bezanov wrote:

>But will serial connections be supported in future?
>
>  
>
Only if someone finds the need for it, and does all the work. Just like 
Luis and I need the I2C support, so we did the work for it.

>What exactly is I2C, I know it is a serial bus, but where is it? Is
>there a I2C connector on my motherboard? or does it work using the
>serial/parallel ports. Where can I find more information regarding how
>to connect LCD displays
>to the I2C bus.
>
>  
>
I doubt if there is een i2c connector on your mainboard. I have a VIA 
EPIA mainboard, which has one. But most mainstream PC mainboards don't 
have one.
I2C is a 2-wire (clock and data line) serial bus. Mainly intended to 
interface with peripheral devices (NVRAM, digital potmeters etc.)
In 99-100% of the cases, to interface with user hardware (like an lcd 
display) a PCF8574 chip is used. This is a I2C to 8-bit IO expander.
datasheet can be found here:
http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/cgi-bin/pldb/pip/pcf8574p

I know there is kernel support to emulate i2c over the parallel port. 
But I am not sure if it is supported to do the same thing over serial 
port. (theoretically it is possible)

Good luck,

Paul