off topic: LCD Terminal

HI,



I want to have a server PC without keyboard and monitor. I'd like to
make all the maintenance through a terminal connected to a tty.

I'd like to know if ther's existed such thing which have a small
keyboard, and an LCD display and it acts like a terminal. I have some
electronic skill, so I can program MCU or whatever... I was looking for
such thing in google, but I didn't find anything useful.

Levente

In <20050209115647.5e6f3348.Levente.Kovacs@cern.ch> Levente:

[Snip...]

> I want to have a server PC without keyboard and monitor. I'd like to
> make all the maintenance through a terminal connected to a tty.

I think what you're looking for is generally called a "thin client" in
terms of connectivity. Any particular reason you're looking at tty and
not ethernet instead? Certainly tty is OK, but not as easy (IMO).

As for the LCD, it's just the analog end of the logical link (tty), so
it would work on ethernet instead, too. The quickest thing I can think
for LCD either tty or ethernet is an spare laptop sitting around.

> such thing in google, but I didn't find anything useful.

I got some hits with the search string

thin client tty

at

http://www.google.com/linux

Ignoring for the moment ethernet, a link specifically mentioning tty:

http://www.linux.is/howto/howtoview.php?id=174

There's several other links listed--HTH...

--
Regards, Weird (Harold Stevens) * IMPORTANT EMAIL INFO FOLLOWS *
Pardon any bogus email addresses (wookie) in place for spambots.
Really, it's (wyrd) at airmail, dotted with net. DO NOT SPAM IT.
Kids jumping ship? Looking to hire an old-school type? Email me.

On 9 Feb 2005 11:40:30 GMT
Harold Stevens <wookie@aces.localdomain> wrote:

>
> I think what you're looking for is generally called a "thin client" in
> terms of connectivity. Any particular reason you're looking at tty and
> not ethernet instead? Certainly tty is OK, but not as easy (IMO).

I meant tty as serial port. No ethernet. It's for the case, when
ethernet is not available.

On Wed, 9 Feb 2005 11:56:47 +0100, Levente KOVACS <Levente.Kovacs@cern.ch> wrote:
> I want to have a server PC without keyboard and monitor. I'd like to
> make all the maintenance through a terminal connected to a tty.

The search term you need is "headless", which means no graphics card.
But an interesting hardware solution to headless computing is
described at:
http://www.realweasel.com

> I'd like to know if ther's existed such thing which have a small
> keyboard, and an LCD display and it acts like a terminal. I have some
> electronic skill, so I can program MCU or whatever... I was looking for
> such thing in google, but I didn't find anything useful.

--
Dale Dellutri <ddelQQQlutr@panQQQix.com> (lose the Q's)

Levente KOVACS wrote:
> HI,
>
>
>
> I want to have a server PC without keyboard and monitor. I'd like to
> make all the maintenance through a terminal connected to a tty.
>
> I'd like to know if ther's existed such thing which have a small
> keyboard, and an LCD display and it acts like a terminal.

A used (i.e., old and cheap) laptop with a null modem cable is your best
bet. Run minicom on the command line.

Dumb terminals are generally CRT-based rather than LCD. And even those
ones can sometimes be surprisingly expensive. The "thin client" network
stuff is also alarmingly expensive (IMHO). But any laptop with a
working display should suffice. Even an old 486 with 8MB RAM is enough
to install a Linux kernel and minicom and use it as LCD-based dumb terminal.

Levente KOVACS wrote:
> I'd like to know if ther's existed such thing which have
> a small keyboard, and an LCD display and it acts like a
> terminal.

A google for < rs232 lcd terminal > gives several promising looking
results including

http://www.awce.com/gp1.htm
.... with the GP-1 kit you can connect an ordinary PS/2 keyboard and a
common Hitachi-style LCD display to any computer that can use RS232.
.... All you supply is an LCD, a keyboard, an optional LCD contrast
voltage (depends on your LCD module; often you can simply connect the
contrast voltage to ground) and a DC power supply (the GP-1 has an
onboard 5V regulator, or you can supply 5V regulated directly to it).
Now your Basic Stamp, PIC, or other micro project can have a full text
terminal. You can even use the GP-1 to talk to modems (cross cable
required) or even a PC.

http://www.bobblick.com/techref/proj...m/lcdterm.html
.... self-contained serial terminal using a PIC16F84 microcontroller
chip, an inexpensive LCD character display, a keypad, and very little
else ...

http://www.elzet80.com/perlcdterm.shtml
.... RS232 terminal electronics for character LCD displays and keyboard
encoder for all kinds of matrix keyboards up to 8x8 keys. ... uses
ASCII control characters and escape sequences common to many office use
terminals. It interprets backspace and CR, line and form feed, home and
clear display. Added features are direct cursor positioning, clear to
end of line/display, cursor size selection, status report and the
selection of a german, international or japanese character set.

http://www.acscontrol.com/Pages/Prod...y_Terminal.htm
.... Simple ASCII serial commands sent to the 128 x 64 Graphic LCD
Display Terminal, display text in multiple fonts/styles/justification,
graphics, and generate tones via the onboard 250mW speaker driver.
ASCII serial commands from the 128 x 64 Graphic LCD Display Terminal
debounce switch closures from either a scaned row & column keypad, or
individual contacts.

http://www.beyondlogic.org/serial/serial3.htm
various applications, hardware and source code

http://www.nti1.ca/terminal-drawer.html
Rackmux terminal drawer (commercial soluition)

http://www.ezl.com/~rsch/projects.htm
The Two Line Mini-Terminal is a embedded microcontroller board designed
to implement a limited but low cost terminal. The board was designed to
be the same size as a 2 line by 40 character LCD such as the OPTREX DMC
40218. With mounting holes in the same pattern as the LCD the
controller board can be piggy backed with the display. As an input
device the terminal uses standard IBM compatible PC keyboard. In a
normal full duplex mode the controller converts the keyboard scan codes
to ASCII and transmits them to the RS-232 output. Input from the RS-232
is displayed on the LCD. The software does vertical and horizontal
scrolling of the incoming characters.

http://www.grifo.com/QTP/uk_qtp.htm
Quick Terminal panels

You might also look at blinux other linux options for use with braille
displays which have a limited number of characters 'visible' at a time.


Owain

"Levente KOVACS" <Levente.Kovacs@cern.ch> wrote in message
news:20050209115647.5e6f3348.Levente.Kovacs@cern.c h...
> HI,
>
> I want to have a server PC without keyboard and monitor. I'd like to
> make all the maintenance through a terminal connected to a tty.
>
> I'd like to know if ther's existed such thing which have a small
> keyboard, and an LCD display and it acts like a terminal. I have some
> electronic skill, so I can program MCU or whatever... I was looking
for
> such thing in google, but I didn't find anything useful.

I heard it was possible to use a Psion 5 as a terminal like this. But my
Psion died too long ago for me to test this.

Have you looked at any Linux PDAs?

Frank

In article <2gaduc.2p2.ln@mail.binaryfoundry.ca>, John-Paul Stewart wrote:
> Levente KOVACS wrote:
>> I want to have a server PC without keyboard and monitor. I'd like to
>> make all the maintenance through a terminal connected to a tty.
>>
>> I'd like to know if ther's existed such thing which have a small
>> keyboard, and an LCD display and it acts like a terminal.
>
> A used (i.e., old and cheap) laptop with a null modem cable is your best
> bet. Run minicom on the command line.
>
> Dumb terminals are generally CRT-based rather than LCD. And even those
> ones can sometimes be surprisingly expensive. The "thin client" network
> stuff is also alarmingly expensive (IMHO). But any laptop with a
> working display should suffice. Even an old 486 with 8MB RAM is enough
> to install a Linux kernel and minicom and use it as LCD-based dumb terminal.

But getting Linux on a such a thing may be problematic. I recently
resurrected an old laptop to do DHCP/DNS service (for home use behind a
firewall), and had to go back to RedHat 6.2 to get an easy-to-install
version that could install into 16MB of RAM; RH 7.x required 64MB, and
I had to do a network install--no CD drive.

--
Dave Brown Austin, TX

Dave Brown wrote:
> In article <2gaduc.2p2.ln@mail.binaryfoundry.ca>, John-Paul Stewart wrote:
>
>>Levente KOVACS wrote:
>>
>>>I want to have a server PC without keyboard and monitor. I'd like to
>>>make all the maintenance through a terminal connected to a tty.
>>>
>>>I'd like to know if ther's existed such thing which have a small
>>>keyboard, and an LCD display and it acts like a terminal.
>>
>>A used (i.e., old and cheap) laptop with a null modem cable is your best
>>bet. Run minicom on the command line.
>>
>>Dumb terminals are generally CRT-based rather than LCD. And even those
>>ones can sometimes be surprisingly expensive. The "thin client" network
>>stuff is also alarmingly expensive (IMHO). But any laptop with a
>>working display should suffice. Even an old 486 with 8MB RAM is enough
>>to install a Linux kernel and minicom and use it as LCD-based dumb terminal.
>
>
> But getting Linux on a such a thing may be problematic. I recently
> resurrected an old laptop to do DHCP/DNS service (for home use behind a
> firewall), and had to go back to RedHat 6.2 to get an easy-to-install
> version that could install into 16MB of RAM; RH 7.x required 64MB, and
> I had to do a network install--no CD drive.

I suppose the ease of installation depends mostly on RAM and somewhat on
distro. I've had zero problems installing/running Debian (Woody, the
current "stable" branch) on systems as old as 486s and with as little as
16MB RAM. But those were desktops, and there may be some hardware
oddities in the laptops of that era.

Dave Brown <dhbrown@hobbes.dhbrown.net> writes:

>In article <2gaduc.2p2.ln@mail.binaryfoundry.ca>, John-Paul Stewart wrote:
>> Levente KOVACS wrote:
>>> I want to have a server PC without keyboard and monitor. I'd like to
>>> make all the maintenance through a terminal connected to a tty.
>>>
>>> I'd like to know if ther's existed such thing which have a small
>>> keyboard, and an LCD display and it acts like a terminal.
>>
>> A used (i.e., old and cheap) laptop with a null modem cable is your best
>> bet. Run minicom on the command line.
>>
>> Dumb terminals are generally CRT-based rather than LCD. And even those
>> ones can sometimes be surprisingly expensive. The "thin client" network
>> stuff is also alarmingly expensive (IMHO). But any laptop with a
>> working display should suffice. Even an old 486 with 8MB RAM is enough
>> to install a Linux kernel and minicom and use it as LCD-based dumb terminal.

>But getting Linux on a such a thing may be problematic. I recently
>resurrected an old laptop to do DHCP/DNS service (for home use behind a
>firewall), and had to go back to RedHat 6.2 to get an easy-to-install
>version that could install into 16MB of RAM; RH 7.x required 64MB, and
>I had to do a network install--no CD drive.

IF you do not want to run X, then 16MB should be fine. It is a dumb
terminal after all. If you want to run X, then all bets are off.

There exist versions of say Mandrake which fit onto a CDRom (600MB) which
You could put onto the disk and run. There are also loads of other lite
Linux versions.