led, keybord, display... will something born from this??? :D

[raikoug]

hi, I'm from italy, and I wish my English will be good.
I made the 50$ robot (by the way here in Italy it is quite difficult to find something.. and it was a 50€ robot!!)
It works greatly!! only thanks to the robo society guide.
I made other robots and maybe I will purchase the axon microcontroller.
But now I've in mind another project, and it regards Leds! I would like to make a 20x200 led screen, and to write on it. my project is ambitious! I would like to have a keyboard, a display, and this 20x200 led screen, everything portable. Write with the keyboard, see it with the display, and at the end see the writed thing on the led screen. I've 2 problems...
1: the 20x200 led screen... how in the world I could point a led with (x,y) coordinates?? (obviously the problem regards the controller i suppose...) making such a thing means I plugged 4000 led somewhere... but... i wonder if a 4000 output microcontroller could exist, and it have to be connected to a display and keyboard too... maybe there is another way.
2: the keyboard... regarding this i really don't know anything!!! the way I imput anything and the display will (it is a word game??) display the typed thing on it in real time, than, from the diplay to te led display. (i'm not worried about the programming, how to write letter with leds... once i know how to point a (x,y) led I can write anything and make animation too, i'm quite good in programming, c, c++, fortrain, visual basic, and java...).. but to imput letters is a pain in the *** for me!!
Surely you know a lot more than me the electronics world and i hope could help me...
thanks for the time spent reading.

Don't warry about the language, maybe my english is very scholastic and error full, but I understand correct english
And don't warry about saying i'm ignorant of electronics, cose it is real!!! so, write anything you think, although you think is a noob thing!!! becouse i'm noob!! But I learn fast.
thanks a lot!

Greetings, Riccardo.

[billhowl]

Must you need 20x200? can it be 16x256?
for 16x256 LED display you can use this 16 number of "0832 LED Dot Matrix Red Display Information Board" arrange in 2X8

Picture is in 2X4


http://cgi.ebay.com/0832-LED-Dot-Matrix-Red-Display-Information-Board_W0QQitemZ250569862375QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3a5720ace7#ht_2518wt_1165
http://www.sure-electronics.net/download/down.php?name=DE-DP104_Ver1.0_EN.pdf

[raikoug]

Nice solution to the problem.... 
I could start with 2 of this and try it out...
What about the keybord? any nice solution as before ??

thanks a lot billhowl!!

[raikoug]

AH, for the led solution... the matrix board.. do I need this too?
Maybe there's a method to plug it to a simple keyboard and a screen...

[billhowl]

That Driver board only drive 2x4, but it can interface with PC computer to display messges.

You can check this out, this is using standard PC PS2 keyboard interface with AVR uC.
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Main/PS2Keyboard
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Main/PS2KeyboardExt

[raikoug]

That Driver board only drive 2x4, but it can interface with PC computer to display messges.

You can check this out, this is using standard PC PS2 keyboard interface with AVR uC.
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Main/PS2Keyboard
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Main/PS2KeyboardExt

I think this will be very useful! thanks a lot, and the 2x4 board it's ok, 32x4 is already a nice number!! Only a doubt... you said arduino controller... but the arduino controller you are talking about is the one I posted? (this)
if yes (but i don't see in the image what I need)... does it support a display too? I think no

if not.. does this arduino controller, control the matrix dot? and same as before... does it support a display? thanks, you are very gentle replying all my strange and newbie question!

lots of greetings!!!

[billhowl]

I think this will be very useful! thanks a lot, and the 2x4 board it's ok, 32x4 is already a nice number!! Only a doubt... you said arduino controller... but the arduino controller you are talking about is the one I posted? (this)

The controller board you posted are not arduino controller, is a PIC controller.
You can refer to this forum to get the code.
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1225239439/110

[raikoug]

I think this will be very useful! thanks a lot, and the 2x4 board it's ok, 32x4 is already a nice number!! Only a doubt... you said arduino controller... but the arduino controller you are talking about is the one I posted? (this)

The controller board you posted are not arduino controller, is a PIC controller.
You can refer to this forum to get the code.
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1225239439/110

Amazing... there is really a lot of work already done there!! That's gold for me!! I think I will only can plug 1 line of screen this way, but it is just a lot of work done...

(by the way I saw that someone did it with 2 line boards... but I think it will be too difficult for me just understand the first part!!! HAHAH)

Maybe you will say now "ok, now my work is done, read everything you can, good job!"
BUT... i've another (LITTLE) question... I heard about arduino... but never worked with it.. Wich one do you suggest me?? you know I want to plug a matrix led screen, a keyboard, and a display... thank for helping me so much!!
really a tons of greetings!!

[billhowl]

If you can afford you can get the Arduino Mega, if not you can try the Arduino Duemilanove.

[raikoug]

If you can afford you can get the Arduino Mega, if not you can try the Arduino Duemilanove.

Billhow my best greeting for all the help you gave me... you are really really gentle...

thanks a lot!

Riccardo