Another LCD

When writing that last blog entry about an LCD with time and date display and programmable temperature for Node-Red Dashboard, it occurred to me that it would be worthwhile making a simple one-liner (6*1) LCD with a 20-character display. At the same time I wanted to simplify it right down and here’s the result. Should make a good starting point for anyone wanting to develop their own.

In this case you simply fire a message at the template node. You only need one font for this from the ones used in the previous entry (really you should read the previous article to understand how to load the fonts in – trivial).

I’ve done a check on msg.payload and if the first character is a period I then use the remainder of the message to select colour – hence…

.blackOnOrange
.blackOnGreen
.blackOnBlue
.blackOnYellow
.blackOnWhite
.blackOnPink
.yellowOnRed
.whiteOnCyan
.orangeOnBlack
.limeOnBlack

And that really is it – really simple to use – make the template 6*1,insert the code, make sure the font is in place and when you run it – you can select the sample text or play with the colours – enjoy.

[{"id":"7744e0e4.38986","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"","topic":"","payload":"Hello there","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":800,"y":1180,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"543d4cba.38a7a4","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"green","topic":"","payload":".blackOnGreen","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":790,"y":1220,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"658a2f15.d95bc","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"orange","topic":"","payload":".blackOnOrange","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":790,"y":1260,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"b60e3a3f.931078","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"blue","topic":"","payload":".blackOnBlue","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":790,"y":1300,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"62767df.a99d984","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"yellow","topic":"","payload":".blackOnYellow","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":790,"y":1340,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"ad983ec0.bd2ed","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"white","topic":"","payload":".blackOnWhite","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":790,"y":1380,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"a046dc0e.953ea","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"pink","topic":"","payload":".blackOnPink","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":790,"y":1420,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"8372ff69.e0a4c","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"red and light text","topic":"","payload":".yellowOnRed","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":820,"y":1460,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"5fcd3b1d.a64954","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"cyan and white","topic":"","payload":".whiteOnCyan","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":820,"y":1500,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"a81aab9f.8f78a8","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"lime on black","topic":"","payload":".limeOnBlack","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":810,"y":1540,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"864d97a5.30d348","type":"ui_template","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","group":"33279d5b.72b122","name":"LCD","order":0,"width":"6","height":"1","format":"<script>\n var LCDColours={\n \"blackOnOrange\": {items:[\"#222\",\"#fb7c00\"]}, \n \"blackOnGreen\" : {items:[\"#222\",\"#66ac66\"]},\n \"blackOnBlue\" : {items:[\"#222\",\"#8888ff\"]},\n \"blackOnYellow\" : {items:[\"#222\",\"#bbbb44\"]},\n \"blackOnWhite\" : {items:[\"#222\",\"#aaaaaa\"]},\n \"blackOnPink\" : {items:[\"#222\",\"#ff8888\"]},\n \"yellowOnRed\" : {items:[\"#ccaa22\",\"#aa2222\"]},\n \"whiteOnCyan\" : {items:[\"#dddddd\",\"#227777\"]},\n \"orangeOnBlack\" : {items:[\"#ff8800\",\"#000000\"]}, \n \"limeOnBlack\" : {items:[\"#00cc55\",\"#000000\"]} \n } ;\n\n (function(scope){ \n scope.$watch('msg', function(msg) {\n if (typeof(msg.payload) != \"undefined\") \n {\n if (msg.payload.substring(0,1)!=\".\") $(\"#LCDTextBody\").text(msg.payload); \n else\n {\n msg.payload=msg.payload.substring(1);\n $(\".LCDWrapper\").css('background-color', LCDColours[msg.payload].items[1]); $(\".LCDTextFront\").css('color', LCDColours[msg.payload].items[0]); \n if (LCDColours[msg.payload].items[1]==\"#000000\") $(\".LCDTextBack\").css('color',\"rgba(255,255,255,0.15)\"); else $(\".LCDTextBack\").css('color',\"rgba(0,0,0,0.1)\"); \n \n }\n } \n });\n })(scope);\n\n</script>\n\n<style type=\"text/css\">\n@font-face {\n font-family: \"D14MI\";\n src: url(\"/myfonts/DSEG14Modern-Italic.woff\") format('woff');\n}\n\n\n.LCDWrapper{\n\tposition:relative;\n\tborder:3px solid #000;\n\tborder-radius:8px;\n\theight:66px;\n\twidth:304px;\n\tcolor: 0;\n font-family: \"D14MI\";\n\tbackground-color:#66ac66;\n\tbox-shadow: 3px 3px 10px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.3) inset; \n}\n\n.LCDTextBack{\n\tz-index:50; color:rgba(0,0,0,0.1); \n}\n\n.LCDTextFront{\n\tz-index:51; color:rgba(0,0,0,1);\n}\n\n.LCDTextBack,.LCDTextFront {\n \tposition:absolute;\n\ttop:3px;\n\tleft:6px; \n\tfont-size:18px;\n}\n\n</style>\n\n<div class=\"LCDWrapper\">\n\t<span class=\"LCDTextBack\">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span>\n\t<span class=\"LCDTextFront\" id=\"LCDTextBody\" ></span>\n\n</div>\n","storeOutMessages":false,"fwdInMessages":false,"x":990,"y":1320,"wires":[[]]},{"id":"8e623ee.81f9bc","type":"inject","z":"c552e8d2.712b48","name":"","topic":"","payload":"Goodbye","payloadType":"str","repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"x":800,"y":1140,"wires":[["864d97a5.30d348"]]},{"id":"33279d5b.72b122","type":"ui_group","z":"","name":"LCD Test","tab":"34cddaf3.8a9cd6","disp":true,"width":"6"},{"id":"34cddaf3.8a9cd6","type":"ui_tab","z":"","name":"testz","icon":"dashboard"}]