Hi all. I am currently working on a custom electronics project and would love your feedback and feature ideas. In short, I have always wished that my Elk system had a prominent information screen so that I could easily see system state, messages, and other critical information quickly and easily. Most importantly, I want to see this information at night and in the dark from across the room. Thus, I started working on a project to hopefully accomplish these goals and more.
To start with, I obtained some 8in x 2.5 in Vacuum Florescent Displays that are very bright, readable in the dark, and large enough to be viewable from a distance. The displays are made up of dots, so they can do basic graphics and such too. Next, I added a serial over USB interface and wrote a driver program that connects to the elk Ethernet expander and scrolls status messages and such out to the screen. Here is a pictures of the screen driven off the microprocessor:
For those electronics types, I am using Atmel 8 bit microprocessors and bit-banging the multiplexed columns at > 60 hertz. My wife was kind enough to find me a project box at the local craft store to put the prototype in too. It is still an unfinished box and purely a prototype but you get the idea of what it will look like:
No, the multimeter in the background is not part of the project
. Any way, as fun and useful as this information functionality is, I quickly let the project scope creep to include a Zigbee wireless interface. I am working on a Zibbee transmitter that will attach to a serial expander inside the main Elk panel. Then, you can attach as many wireless receiver units to it as you might want. My wife loves the idea of being able to put a status display panel next to the bed so she can quickly check to ensure the system is armed, doors are closed, etc, all without getting out of bed.
So, right now I am still working out the Zigbee interface to complete making this wireless. However, I am wondering what other useful things I might be able to do with this project? Unfortunately, I choose pretty high-end parts and the costs have gone past “weekend project” into the realm of “it better do something darn useful or my wife is going to be vengeful”. Any ideas as to other useful things I might make this project do? What kind of information would you wish to see scrolled across the screen? Thanks for any feedback or suggestions!
To start with, I obtained some 8in x 2.5 in Vacuum Florescent Displays that are very bright, readable in the dark, and large enough to be viewable from a distance. The displays are made up of dots, so they can do basic graphics and such too. Next, I added a serial over USB interface and wrote a driver program that connects to the elk Ethernet expander and scrolls status messages and such out to the screen. Here is a pictures of the screen driven off the microprocessor:
For those electronics types, I am using Atmel 8 bit microprocessors and bit-banging the multiplexed columns at > 60 hertz. My wife was kind enough to find me a project box at the local craft store to put the prototype in too. It is still an unfinished box and purely a prototype but you get the idea of what it will look like:
No, the multimeter in the background is not part of the project

So, right now I am still working out the Zigbee interface to complete making this wireless. However, I am wondering what other useful things I might be able to do with this project? Unfortunately, I choose pretty high-end parts and the costs have gone past “weekend project” into the realm of “it better do something darn useful or my wife is going to be vengeful”. Any ideas as to other useful things I might make this project do? What kind of information would you wish to see scrolled across the screen? Thanks for any feedback or suggestions!