Front panel PC device
12/6/2015
Recently I've been working on a front PC panel device.
Seeing as there are plenty of unused slots I've designed and created a display panel containing a 16*2 LCD display and a small OLED screen.
They are powered by an Arduino with the data coming from an application made in C++/Qt communicating via a serial connection via USB. Currently it can play a few songs through a piezo buzzer, and just for fun, I created a simple flappy birds clone.
The arduino has an internal controller made up of 3 buttons; however for external interaction I have added an infra-red reciever; this allows me to control the entire project with an IR controller - I have chosen and programmed my RGB LED controller -any controller can easily be added.
The arduino is currently sitting inside my PC and the mounting for the screens are ugly. But it isn't done; I plan to make it look better and add features such as CPU/RAM etc monitoring with graphs and a weather display.
Here is an image of the current application controlling the Arduino:
And here is a horrible image of the display (shitty webcam):
I'll repost any updates made.
update:
Have done some major work to the UIs back end.
It downloads a weeks worth of data for your location and stores it all etc.
Also allowed the user to display custom text on either screen, makes your computer look more personal.
I've now published the code on GitHub and will update it regularly.
https://github.com/daniel-Jones/PC-Panel-Display