Got my Arduino LCD message scroller working last night, will post a video later when I do an end to end test with my Twitter mentions.

Here is the code (also at GitHub https://github.com/alastairhm/arduino.git)

// Auto scroll a message on the LCD and receive new messages via Serial port.
// Alastair Montgomery (c) 2013
// Version 1.02
 
// include the library code:
#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
#include <string.h>
// initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins
// below for SainSmart LCD Shield
LiquidCrystal lcd(8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7);
        

First test of Twitter updates getting written to the Arduino from Ruby didn't go quite right as seen from the video below, some debugging required.

Testing writing the same message from the Arduino IDE gives the same results so looks like problem is in the Arduino code. Maybe the message is too long for the LCD's buffer?



The Twitter to Serial port Ruby script can be found at https://github.com/alastairhm/arduino/tree/master/SerialMessage

Doodle's Geek Monkey by Alastair Montgomery

Idea was to use it to display tweets, just need to write the Ruby code to get the tweet and send it over the serial port now.




Here is the first version of the sketch uploaded to the Arduino.
All code can be found at https://github.com/alastairhm/arduino.git

// Auto scroll a message on the LCD and receive new messages via Serial port.
// Alastair Montgomery (c) 2013
// Version 1.00
 
// include the library code:
#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
#include <string.h>
// initialize the library with the numbers of the interface pins
// below for SainSmart LCD Shield
LiquidCrystal lcd(8, 9, 4, 5, 6, 7);