TextStar as a display for Arduino

'TextStar' has been designed to be a small, easy to use and adaptable LCD display for connection to a UART or serial-enabled device. It is a thin chip on glass display that can be powered directly off an Arduino and simple to use by sending familiar serial print commands.

The data sheet requires a little bit of studying but once you spend a little time with it and decode it you realise how powerful this display is. The following code runs on an Arduino and just use 2 serial pins and +5 volts & ground. The code will display a empty to full bar graph.

/* 
3rd Jan 2011 - experiments with Textstar LCD
objectives
1 - connect to screen and display message - done
2 - draw a static graph - done
3 - draw a dynamic graph - done
4 _ read buttons when pressed - not done
5 - display live data from sensors - not done

with thanks to
 Rowan Simms (http://rowansimms.com) textstar tutorial
 Mikal Hart (http://arduiniana.org) New Soft Serial Libralty

*/
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial mySerial(10, 11); // RX, TX

void setup (){
 Serial.begin(9600);
 Serial.println("Arduino & TextStar LCD example");
 mySerial.begin(9600);
 mySerial.println("Hello, world?");
mySerial.write(12); //clear screen

mySerial.write((byte)254);
mySerial.write('C');
mySerial.write((byte)0);

}

void loop (){ 
 battery();
}

void battery() {
    mySerial.write(254); // tells display we are sending a command
    mySerial.write(76); // tells the display to go to a line
    mySerial.write(1); // clears the line 1 aready for re-filling
    Serial.println(" BATTERY LEVEL ");
    for (int count = 0; count <=100; count += 5)
    {
        mySerial.write(254); // tells display we are sending a command
        mySerial.write(76); // tells the display to go to a line
        mySerial.write(2); // clears the line 2 aready for re-filling

        mySerial.write("E "); // Prints an "E"

        mySerial.write(254); // tells display we are sending a command
        mySerial.write(98); // tells the display we want a Capped Bar Graph
        mySerial.write(12); // sets the Capped Bar Graph width in character
        mySerial.write(count); // sets the % to be filled
                delay(50); // .25s delay
        mySerial.write(" F"); // prints an "F"
        delay(250); // .25s delay
    }
    mySerial.write(254); // tells display we are sending a command
    mySerial.write(76); // tells the display to go to a line
    mySerial.write(2); // clears the line 2 aready for re-filling
    Serial.println("E FULL F"); // prints a "FULL" indicator
    delay(2500); // 2.5s delay before repeating
}