programmable LCD-Switch

[Stefanho]

Hello midiboxers,

i found programmable LCD switches at http://www.e3-keys.com. Here's the datasheet: http://www.e3-keys.com/downloads/SA_Technical_Datasheet_v1_1.pdf (2.6 mb!)

The datasheet shows a Sample Schematic with an PIC16F62x. so ... is this possible with MIOS too?

regards, Stefan

[Duggle]

hi,

its a brilliant product concept, probably unique (up until now, that is) and for that reason I expect that one of these switches costs as much as parts for a whole midibox costs. ;)

One complaint I would have, is that it is not possible to read the state of the switch over I2C. You can read the serial number of each switch but not wether it is pressed. To do this you need another interface to monitor the switch contacts.

Also the application shows multplexed clock and data lines, requiring many I/O's. It seems that there is no software unit address as there is with other kinds of I2C devices.(see MIOS bankstick for example of this, you can have multiple eeproms attached to the same I2C bus).

It would have been better if each keyswitch had a unique address fixed at manufacture time. This way it would be possible to wire as many switches as you want with a single four wire bus:+5V,0V,CLK,DAT.

So to summerise:

Fantastic concept :D

unfortunate digital interface implementation :-/

may be expensive ???

cheers!