Hello World GLCD Version

I thought people may be interested in another hello world LCD demo, but instead of using a standard alphanumeric display, I'm using a snazzy graphical one.  The display is only black and white.  Control could consist of only a couple of pins and a port expander.

I fully intend to use this circuitry and software in my robotics and RFID projects, but wondered if rather than using a larger alphanumeric display with the new menu system, a graphical display might be more suitable.  I'm not sure how much info needs to be displayed so I'm open to ideas.  Ideas on a postcard please - okay use the comments section below instead.

My code is an adapted version of the sample code from the Arduino website.  Is a GLCD the next logical step for the SumPod?  Let me know what you think.

SumPod Guinea Pig is sleepy.
Zzzz...

SumPods Have Landed and Dancing Motors

I spoke with Richard earlier this evening and he confirmed other SumPods had been released into the wild.  This can only be a good thing, with eager owners now (feverishly? God I've got to get out more!) building their new 3D printers and Richard getting the feedback he desires.

Me, I'm still waiting for a print bed part to arrive. I noticed at the beginning of the week when I started assembling the SumPod MDF parts that something was missing.  I'll proceed with the mechanical build when the missing part arrives - it should have turned up two days ago checking with Richard.  Richard isn't the only one suffering from delays - hurry up Royal Mail!  Rather than sit on my hands or write  more of my thesis (God I hate thesis writing and this blog provides some light relief), I soldered up a few more bits of the SumPod and coaxed a few of the stepper motors into life.  The following short video shows my progress.

It may not seem much, but to me it's significant, the equivalent of getting a LED to flash at the right frequency on a newly designed board.  It proves the software toolchain and hardware are working.  For the SumPod it means I've correctly soldered the RAMPS board; downloaded the complete Sprinter firmware from GitHub, modified it to work with the RAMPS hardware and uploaded it to the Arduino Mega 1280 board; soldered up the steppers correctly and got ReplicatorG working.  Phew!