pylcdsysinfo

Python interface to Coldtears Electronics LCD Sys Info device (http://coldtearselectronics.wikispaces.com/)

Installation

Note: On some Linux platforms like Ubuntu, only root has write permission to USB devices unless permission is is given to other users. You may need to copy the provided 99-lcdsysinfo.rules file into /etc/udev/rules.d/ in order to grant pylcdsysinfo permission to claim the device without running as root.

Example:

sudo cp 99-lcdsysinfo.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

If the screen is already plugged in, unplug and plug back in again after copying the udev rules file.

pylcdsysinfo relies on the Python USB library http://pyusb.sourceforge.net/ - this can be installed via pip/easy_install

Example:

pip install pyusb

or through the distribution specific package install, example for Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get install python-usb

Note: using the operating system packages is likely to install an old version.

For Windows an additional step is required, a USB driver is required to allow the Python USB library to talk with the display. A signed driver for Windows 7 (and XP) 64 and 32 bit can be installed by using zadig_v2.0.1.160 from http://sourceforge.net/projects/libwdi/files/zadig/

Ensure the LCD device is not plugged in, run zadig, insert the device, change the driver to libusb-win32 and hit install. libusb-win32 version 1.2.4.0 from http://sourceforge.net/projects/libusb-win32/files/libusb-win32-releases/1.2.4.0/ is also known to work under Windows XP, with Python 2.6.4 and Python USB 1.0.

On OS X, it is most straightforward to use the homebrew package manager to install the dependencies (libusb and pyusb).

brew install libusb python
pip install pyusb

Usage

For help on usage of the pylcdsysinfo module and API, see the file USAGE.txt (pydoc)

Tools and examples

• show-icon.py - command-line tool to display icon at specific index

• write-icon.py - command-line tool to load an icon into the flash of the LCD Sys Info

• show-image.py - command-line tool to display image at specific index

• write-image.py - command-line tool to load an image into the flash of the LCD Sys Info

• testsuite.py - unit tests for the module

• clock.py - a simple clock display

• demo.py - loops through various pylcdsysinfo functions

• imageloop.py - displays all of the images from flash in sequence

• info.py - prints out LCD Sys Info serial, firmware, storage info etc at the console

License

This code is distributed under the GPL v3 license, see LICENSE.txt for more information.