LcdMarker, a Lcd Device and Its Case Made of Wood

by fleck in Circuits > USB

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LcdMarker, a Lcd Device and Its Case Made of Wood

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This instructable shows how to create a Lcd device and its case made of wood.

I wanted to have a Lcd device, which shows the song currently played by rhythmbox. And I wanted to make it by my own.

This instructable contains 3 subinstructables.

1st:
the Lcd device
2nd:
the case
3rd:
the SW, which controls the Lcd device

The Lcd Device

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The Lcd device is inspired by a DIY project in the most known, german computer magazine, called 'c't'.

This project was thought to create an additional Lcd display, which can offer infos about the computer, it is connected to.

The computer magazine also runs a related shop, where the main electronic parts needed can be bought.
The remaining parts were bought in our local electronics shop and at an online shop in the net.

The device contains an IOWarrior.
This controller works as an USB device and a SW driver for this device is offered in the Linux Kernel 2.6.

The Case

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I first searched the net for a case, but I didn' t find any matching things. So I decided to create one on my own.

The case is inspired by a project in the 'make:' magazine. That project was a table made of wood, but without any screws.
The table was assembled using bolts. That doesn' t work with a case which has to be kept close. So I had the idea of using wooden clips.

On the left side you can see the front, back and side parts.
The 2nd from the top is the back part. It has a hole where the USB connector gets plugged into.

The 4th from the top is the front part, which carries the Lcd display.

Note:
The back and front parts have slots showing upwards. That' s necessary during assembling, to avoid a jam of the parts.

The 2nd column shows the lower and upper lids of the case.

The right side shows the clips.
During 'making' the parts, it' s a good way to first make the parts and lids, assembling them loosely and then prepare the clips. These have to sit tight on the lids to fix them strongly.
Mark your constellation of parts when prepared.

The measures are missing, because I think no one needs a case of the size I do. The idea has to be adapted, not the measures.

The Case, Assembling

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Now we can assemble the case.

I fixed the IOWarrior controller with 2 small pieces of electronic wire. I was afraid of hearing a 'ClingCling', when the case is moved. The controller is not soldered. It' s located on a soldered socket, to have the possibility of changing it.

There' s an important point while assembling the parts:
The USB connector will be plugged into the back part. To avoid a jam of the remaining parts, the part which carries the controller has to be put together with the back part first.
It' s important, that the back part has its slots showing upwards. This will make it easier to put the remaining parts together, TRUST ME. You' ll get into trouble, if you don' t follow this tip.

The SW, Which Controls the Lcd Device

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To control the Lcd device, a SW on your machine is necessary.

I wrote a script in Ruby which controls the Lcd device.
To make that possible I wrote a 'C Extension' which offers an interface to the IOWarrior. This interface is now used by a Ruby script to show the currently played song on the Lcd display.

The script gets the song from rhythmbox using the DBUS interface.

Soon I' ll release the 'C Extension' and the Ruby script on http://rubyforge.org/.

In Action

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On the images below you can see the LcdMarker in action.
The last image shows the finished case.


By the way:
You can see a glas of a german drink called 'Apfelwein' or 'Ãppler'.
That' s an alcoholic drink made of apples.