Interface Products
Interleader produced a number of sub-systems as part of its development of products. These were made available to third party OEMs and systems integrators. Such sub-systems are generally designed to simplify and enhance both the construction and operation of the main systems. A good example is shown below.
LCD & Keypad Interface
The LCD and Keypad interface is designed specifically to fit into a Storm Interface™ 5000 series enclosure, picking up the enclosure mounting holes and keypad header without any additional hardware or wiring. The picture right shows the interface mounted in the enclosure. Note that an RJ45 cable is being used to connect to the the main CPU - dramatically reducing the amount of wiring required (in fact the entire main system is built inside the enclosure).
In this configuration the 20 characters x 4 line LCD panel is already connected to the interface board but for remote mounting, either or both the LCD and keypad can be connected via multi-way wiring if required.
A TE™ 6 way header is the standard connector for power, and both RS-232 and I2C interfaces. An optional RJ45 6/6 connector can also be fitted carrying the same circuits or the board may be populated with a 9 way 'D' connector for direct connection to legacy wiring systems (picture bottom right).
The interface is controlled by a PIC™ microcontroller and supports both serial (switchable to either TTL or RS-232 level) and I2C communication protocols automatically detecting which protocol to use at start-up.
Software Capability
The interface unit is a complete sub-system and capable of off-loading a significant amount of processing from the main CPU. In addition to performing all of the basic interface and communication tasks, the software also supports high level commands to make displaying information far simpler. These include; cursor addressing and management, line and block clearing, auto-formatting as well as a series of diagnostics and testing routines.
In addition, the interface may be programmed to different baud rates, I2C addresses, backlight management options, key-bounce and autorepeat periods etc., all of which are retained in on-chip EPROM.
The interface turns a simple keypad and LCD display into an intelligent mini-terminal with both simple hardware and software interfaces making it a very quick and easy product to integrate into other systems.
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Future Development
No further development of this product.
Storm Interface is a trading name of Keymat Technology Limited