Hello. As some of you may already know, I am working on rebuilding my TARDIS console, but this time with a lot more electrical components. One of these components will be a coordinate display system. (If you've seen 13drwho's build diary, you'll know that me and Dino had a rather lengthy discussion about using binary encoders and what-not).

My idea is to have a computer keyboard connected to an LCD character display via USB. However, I'm not sure how to achieve this and was wondering if any of those tech-savvy amongst you could help me out. (Bearing in mind it would have to be quite cheap, as I only have £15 in my budget).

Thanks for reading. Any help would be gladly appreciated.

Nice idea.

I think you'd need a middle man in there somewhere, a controller that knows how to tell the screen to interpret your keyboard input. Say like a Raspberry Pi, but if thats the case you could just connect a small HD monitor in there and have a flash component receive the input.

Just googling 'lcd character display usb' brought up this page: http://hackaday.com/2012/10/23/driving-an-lcd-character-display-using-custom-hid-codes/ that gives you an idea of where to go with what you're after - may need a bit more than £15 though!

Unless of course you have the USB interface controller, which can be found on this page: http://www.noritake-itron.com/subpages/frontpagese/newspage.htm say purchased from eBay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20x4-LCD-Display-Module-With-I2C-Serial-and-Keypad-Controller-/110893433937?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item19d1c38451

Good luck!

Thanks. I may increase my budget if there's no other option, but at the moment I'm just collecting ideas and deciding which way will work best.

I've been searching all over Google and I found a site that gave a slight outline to the project I'm trying to achieve, but he didn't go into much detail. So I was wondering if this would shed any light onto the situation:

If I connected a matrix keypad with an LCD text display, it would display the numbers that I enter into the keypad. However, I don't know how to do this.

p.s. here's the keypad in question: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/330925209095?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=m&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108
And here's the LCD display:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281346022679?cmd=VIDESC&gxo=true

(And the great thing is, all those parts will cost me less than a fiver!)

I originally wanted a keyboard, but a keypad would work just as well. Besides, in the classic-era, coordinated were often given as numbers anyway.

Ooh there are cheaper things to be had!

Also, instructables.com is your friend: http://www.instructables.com/howto/lcd+display/

Thanks! Instructables has exactly what I need! And it works with a keyboard! 

The keyboard is a PS2 keyboard, and I could probably pick one up for about £4 on eBay. And then there's the LCD display, and I've found one of those on eBay (£3). And then there's all the extra parts (adapters, etc.) which will only cost me a couple of pounds, if I know where to look.

Excellent! An LCD coordinate display for £10! Brilliant!