3rd National Conference on Advances in Energy Conversion Technologies (AECT 2009), April 3-4, 2008

LCD Device Driver for Reconfigurable Instrument Cluster

Veeresha.K.B, Ajjanna.N.G, Prof. D.S.Prakash Wadeyar
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engg, JNNCE Shimoga, Karnataka Phone: 9916006205, E-mail:kbveeresha@gmail.com

AbstractThis paper presents design of reconfigurable Instrument cluster with LCD Device Driver for vehicle consisting of Controller area network (CAN) so as meet the challenges such as regulations, desired look, specifications, and have low cost. Along the last decade significant changes occurred in the technologies used to accomplish these challenges. This design offers value to the automotive customer by helping to differentiate their vehicles through technology, features and appearance. Index TermsInstrument Cluster (ICL), Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Controller Area Network (CAN) and 16 bit Microcontroller. 1. INTRODUCTION Instrument Cluster (ICL) is an information cluster located at the edge of the drivers primary field of view. It provides the current state of some important parameters like speed, engine rpm, and distance traveled engine coolant temperature etc. to the driver. Although most of the cars use mechanical ICLs, electronic implementation of the same will have enough flexibility to cater to varying customers choice without too much additional cost [1]. LCDs are a good choice for the electronic ICLs as they operate at low voltages, consume very little power and are also economical. In fact, high-end cars have LCD panels in their dashboards. A different set of masks could be used during photolithographic process to change the format and appearance of the display. The backlight in the dashboard could also be used to heat the display cell in subzero temperatures. It is preferable that the cost of the drive electronics (drivers as well as the controller) is low. This is achieved by using Binary Addressing Technique (BAT) [2]. It has simple addressing waveforms with just two voltage levels and needs a lower supply voltage as compared to any other techniques for driving matrix LCDs. The drivers as well as the controller for the ICL display are implemented using BAT. The BAT can be reconfigured for a new design by reprogramming

it with appropriate code. Design and format of the display can also be changed easily. Hence the design of a new ICL display can be achieved in a short duration without high tooling cost [3]. 2. DESIGN CHOICES WITH AUTOMOTIVE MCU There are different choices a designer has when implementing an automotive embedded system. Selection of hardware devices is crucial part of system design since hardware offers much greater speed than software. For software development, Embedded C is preferable. Instrument cluster can be implemented by using an Automotive Microcontroller. The system requirements include Automotive MCU with CAN controller which can support CAN V 2.0A and/or LCDdriver which can drive 512 segments. Some of the design choices with Automotive MCU available in the market are shown in figure-1.

Figure-1: Design Choices with Automotive MCU 2.1 ON-CHIP CAN CONTROLLER

In this option automotive MCU has on-chip CAN controller. But with this, an external LCD driver is required. These are some MCUs that are considered for design AT90CAN32, PIC24HJ64GP506 or dsPIC33FJ64GP706.

Dept of Electrical & Electronics Engg, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University

3rd National Conference on Advances in Energy Conversion Technologies (AECT 2009), April 3-4, 2008 2.1.1 ATMEL MCU (AT90CAN32):

This 8-bit Automotive MCU has On-chip CAN (one module), Throughput of 16 Millions Instruction per Second [MIPS], 1Kb EEPROM, 32KB FLASH memory at $4.50.
2.1.2 MICROCHIP MCU (DSPIC33FJ64GP706)

compared to other choices. 3. INTERFACING OPTIONS B/W MCU AND LCD BASED ON THE LCD CHOSEN LCD based software for instrument cluster was implemented depending on LCD chosen [4] [5] [6]. There are basically four types of interface is possible in between MCU and LCD based on the LCD selection as shown below figure-2,

This 16-bit Automotive MCU has On-chip CAN (2 modules), Throughput of 40 MIPS, no EEPROM, 64KB FLASH memory at $4.21. dsPIC33FJ64GP706 is best suited for the Instrument cluster concept.LCD driver that can drive 512 segments is used; its cost is $1.8 almost similar to CAN controller.
2.2 ON-CHIP CAN AND LCD CONTROLLER

Automotive MCU with on-chip CAN and LCD controller is best option. It will offer highly integrated solution, occupying less area and power consumption. The following MCU may be considered for design. The MC9S12XHZ512, a 16-bit MCU from Freescale semiconductor, especially designed for ICL offers 2 CAN modules, LCD driver capability to drive TFT Display with 512 segments at $9.53 [7].
2.3 ON-CHIP LCD CONTROLLER

Figure-2: Interfacing Options between MCU and LCD 3.1 EXTERNAL LCD CONTROLLER DRIVER (LCD Glass) AND/OR

In-built CAN and LCD controller of MCU is inconvenient option because of high cost. But another option is on-chip LCD or CAN controller. The following MCUs provide on-chip LCD controller.
2.3.1 FREESCALE MCU (MC9S08LC60)

This 8-bit MCU is a member of S08 family. It can provide features like in-built LCD controller which can drive 160 segments, on-chip EEPROM. Its low-cost MCU ($3.70) with many communication models in built on it [8].
2.3.2 ATMEL MCU(ATMEGA3290)

This level is the basic level where you are responsible to provide the complex AC waveform that will control the status of the opacity of each segment/dot on the Liquid Crystal Display. This can be done by specialized driver chips typically used for stand-alone Liquid Crystal Display Glass (non-module) applications, which come as an individual ICs, or integrated into a microprocessor IC.
3.2 LCD MODULE DRIVER (LCD Module)

ATmega3290 is AVR family 8-bit automotive MCU. It has in-built LCD driver for 160 segments and also has 1KB EEPROM. But its quite expensive MCU with $5.73.With this in-built LCD driver, an external CAN controller is also required. Microchip MCP2515 ($1.91) or Philips SJA1000 ($1.76) may also be considered for CAN controller. ATmega3290 choice is ignored because it cant drive 512 segments. With above design choices available On-Chip CAN controller MCU dsPIC33FJ64GP706 was selected, because other choices make cost higher and results complex design of overall system, as

The module needs complex AC voltage waveforms for the LCDs and require an controller external to the module to keep refreshing the individual pixel information to their drive circuitry. The configuration uses a controller integrated into your microprocessor.
3.3 LCD MODULE CONTORLLER AND DRIVER (LCD Module)

These ICs interface to the customers data bus and allow the user to specify the status of the pixels in the LCD Module display. These ICs will take care of the entire house keeping and refresh activities.
3.4 EXTERNAL LCD CONTROLLER AND LCD MODULE DRIVER (LCD Module).

Dept of Electrical & Electronics Engg, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University

3rd National Conference on Advances in Energy Conversion Technologies (AECT 2009), April 3-4, 2008

The module needs complex AC voltage waveforms for the LCDs and require an controller external to the module to keep refreshing the individual pixel information to their drive circuitry. The configuration uses an controller IC that will interface to your microprocessor on you PCB. In the above interfacing options External LCD driver is chosen as the segmented LCD is selected. The segmented LCD is chosen because Low price, Easy programming, Easy creation of bar-graph display, 7-Segment and 14-Segment display and also custom design is easy. 4. DEVELOPMENT TOOLS The development tools used design work is shown in figure-3. It consists of 3 parts [7] [8].

4.1.1 COMPILER MPLAB C30

The MPLAB C30 compiler is a full-featured ANSI-compliant C-compiler for Microchip 16-bit devices: PIC24, dsPIC30F and dsPIC33F. MPLAB C30 is fully compatible with Microchips MPLAB IDE, allowing source-level debugging with the MPLAB REAL ICE Emulator, MPLAB ICD-2 and MPLAB SIM Simulator.
4.2 INTERGRATED CIRCUIT BOARD-2 (ICD-2)

The MPLAB ICD-2 connects using USB or RS-232 between the design engineer's PC operating with MPLAB IDE and the ICL board being developed. It allows the engineer to look into the active target board's microcontroller, viewing variables and registers at breakpoints with MPLAB watch windows. At breakpoints, data and program memory can be read and modified. Additionally, the MPLAB ICD-2 can be used to program or reprogram the Flash-based microcontroller while installed on the board.
4.3 ICL BOARD

The MCU dsPIC33fj64gp706, LCD Driver, Segmented LCD etc. form the ICL board. After coding, the same is tested in this environment. Then finally ICL Board is tested real-time. 5. SOFTWARE FLOW BLOCK DIAGRAM

Figure-3: Development Tools

4.1 SOFTWARE - MPLAB IDE

MPLAB IDE is a free, integrated toolset for the development of embedded applications employing Microchip's PIC and dsPIC microcontrollers. The IDE runs as a 32-bit application on MS Windows, is easy to use and includes a host of free software components for fast application development and super-charged debugging. MPLAB IDE also serves as a single, unified graphical user interface for additional Microchip and third party software and hardware development tools. Moving between tools is a snap, and upgrading from the free software simulator to hardware debug and programming tools is done in a flash because MPLAB IDE has the same user interface for all tools.

Figure-3: Software flow Block Diagram

The Microcontroller acts as a Master thereby handling the data coming from Slave devices such as CAN messages from ECU, discrete telltale inputs and key inputs (switches of Trip Odometer). The raw data coming above slave devices is converted into useful information with the help of MCU. The data from ECU taken

Dept of Electrical & Electronics Engg, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University

3rd National Conference on Advances in Energy Conversion Technologies (AECT 2009), April 3-4, 2008

through CAN and then CAN TXYR (MAX3051ESA) stored in the DMA RAM Buffers. This data is converted into segmented and mapped data as per LCD driver (HT 1625). Then using I/O ports of MCU, it is serially sent to LCD driver for displaying on the LCD. The discrete telltale inputs coming from car hardware are stored in the input buffer (74LCX16244) and taken to MCU. These telltales and telltale signals come from CAN messages and are processed by Change notification interrupts. The processed data is sent to output buffer (74LCX16244) for displaying telltale information on the instrument cluster panel. The output compare peripheral module of MCU used to generate the PWM pulse for backlight. The PWM pulse is generated is given to backlight driver (MCP1652) in order to control the intensity of the backlight. The voltage translator circuit is used to convert the 12V input available battery of to 3.3 and 5V for MCU, LCD driver, backlight driver and EEPROM. EEPROM (M24C08-WMN6TD) is communicated with I2C peripheral module of MCU for storing the information of Odometer and Trip Odometer. In the above software flow the following programs are written. 1. Oscillator Configuration for 40MHz. 2. Data to take from the DMA RAM Buffer of MCU (came from CAN), Converting in to segment information and stored in the OutTable [63] array. The data stored still in the NonMapped format. 3. I2C Interfacing to EEPROM in order to store the data of the Odometer, Trip-Odometer. 4. I/O ports to handle Discrete Telltale inputs come from CAN and Hardware of the Car. 5. Output Compare Module to Configure as a PWM module for controlling the intensity of the backlight. 6. Converting a Non-Mapped data into Mapped data as per the LCD driver Connection to LCD and stored in the OutMatrix [63] array. 7. MCU interfacing with LCD Driver and to send data from MCU through I/O ports to LCD Driver RAM. In order to have continuous display of data one can run all the above codes in a super loop, the flowchart used for this is shown in figure-4. This

loop will complete within 10 ms as the information from CAN is taken at every 10 ms.

Figure-4: Super loop

6. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The main results expected for proper functioning of displays are, 6.1 Conversation of raw data into Segment Information. After conversion of raw data (CAN, Telltales and Key Inputs) into segment information, one can use OutTable [63] array to store segment information. Figure-5 shows the OutTable [63] contents in the watch window captured during module running.

Dept of Electrical & Electronics Engg, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University

3rd National Conference on Advances in Energy Conversion Technologies (AECT 2009), April 3-4, 2008

6.3 Interfacing of LCD Driver with MCU for displaying information on LCD. After data is converted into segmented and mapped is sent to LCD with help of LCD Driver at 150 KHz frequency data rate with help of RF6 as Clock and RB9 as data pins of MCU. While the data and clock has been sending to LCD Driver from MCU we captured these signals with Digital Oscilloscope as shown in figure-7.

Figure-5: Watch window of OutTable [63] array

6.2 Conversion of Segment Information into Mapped data. After conversion of segment information into mapped data, one can use OutMatrix [63] array to store mapped data. Figure-6, shows the OutMatrix [63] contents in the watch window captured during module running.

Figure-7: Clock and data signals from DSO

Figure-8: Clock and data signals from logic analyzer

Figure-6: Watch window of OutMatrix [63] array

In the figure-7, first signal is Clock (RF6) and second signal is data (RB9).one can seen that

Dept of Electrical & Electronics Engg, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University

3rd National Conference on Advances in Energy Conversion Technologies (AECT 2009), April 3-4, 2008

clock is running at 150 KHz, in order to enable the LCD Driver for displaying information on the LCD. The signal captured during simulation with help of logic analyzer is shown in Figure-8. 7.CONCLUSION With an even growing need for increasing the quantity for information being processed during motor vehicle operation, the amount of information displayed by electronic ICLs is rapidly increasing. Fully graphic displays are likely to emerge in the next generation of motor cars. Finally, we conclude that the appropriate cost parity strategy with respect to the ICLs consists in providing greater added value and there producing more appealing display devices. Future needs will undoubtedly demand our continued effort towards the improvement of the various types of ICLs so as to continue to meet customer satisfaction. 8. REFERENCES [1] Hironyuki Masusda and Takayoshi Inoue, Cost Parity of Electronic, Electromechanical and Mechanical Instrument Clusters. IEEE [2] EM MICROELECTRONIC, Digitally Programmable 2, 4 and 8 multiplex LCD Driver, V6123 [3] ZHANGWei, ZHANG Xian-kui, ZHU Lei_ZHANG Rui and CHEN Zhi-Bin, Study on the Evaluation System of Instrument Cluster IEEE. [4] A.R. Shashidhara, Liquid Crystal Display for an Automobile Dashboard Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Tumkur, INDIA. [5] Hiromu Shinga, Display System for Automobile, International Congress on Transportation Electronics Proceedings, 1988. [6] Henry C.Pao, Recent Advances in Flat-panel Display and Drive Electronics Technology, SAE 891697, 1989. [7] Fang Anping, Ma Xiaoning and Wang Zhen, Design and Implementation of Instrument Clusters Management Unit Based on Embedded Linux, IEEE, 2007. [8] Book, Programming 16-Bit PIC Microcontrollers in C, Author Lucio Di Jasio Elsevier [9] William Buxton and George Fitzmaurice, Large displays in automotive design IEEE Computer graphics and Applications, 1997.

[10] Massimo Aiello and Antonio Cataliotti, A Low Cost Easy Re-configurable Instrument for Power Quality Survey, IEEE, IMTC, 18-20 May 2004. 9. AUTHORS BIOGRAPHIES First Author: Veeresha K.B He received the B.E. in Electrical and Electronics Engg, from AEC, Bhatkal in 2005 and the M.Tech in Digital Electronics from SDMCET, Dharwad, Karnataka in 2008 and is presently working as lecturer in the Department of E&E at JNNCE, Shimoga. His research interest includes Automotive Electronics and Embedded Systems. Second Author: Ajjanna N.G He received B.E degree in Electrical and Electronics Engg from Kuvempu University, in 1998 from SJMIT, Chitraduga and the M.Tech degree in Energy system Engg form B.V.B.C.E, Hubli in 2001 and is presently working as Senior Grade Lecturer in the Department of E&E at JNNCE, Shimoga. His research interests include wind energy conversation systems. Third Author: D.S.Prakash Wadeyar He received the B.E in Electrical and Electronics Engg from MCE, Hassan in 1982 and the M.Tech in Industrial Electronics from SJCE, Mysore, Karnataka in 1990 and is presently working as HOD of E&E at JNNCE, Shimoga. His research interest includes embedded system, signals and system. .

Dept of Electrical & Electronics Engg, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University