I was inspired by the "LCD backpacks", but underwhelmed by their lack of utility. Their sole purpose seems to be making the LCD operate like a serial device. I also saw the "LCD shields" which are closer to what I am looking for, but not only do they seem to be exclusively arduino (trademark?). They are also cluttered with other components. Is the "shield" name reserved for a narrow product line?
The only other thing I've seen a mounting platforms go was wastefully minimal- it only held the LCD and took too much space (IMAO).
Now what I have in mind would be the LCD on one side, and the uC on the back with very few other components. There would be a footprint for a 28 pin device, a clock crystal, a separate 32kHz crystal, and hopefully a minimal switcher for the backlight to minimize the power budget. There would not be a regulator for the LCD or the uC since they both operate over a wide range that could be satisfied by a direct connection to a battery. Nearly all the I/O pins would have a through-hole pad available for off-board wires or headers, and none of them would be committed to the LCD (to allow flexibility of design, but would require manually soldered wires). There would also be an ICSP header. That with a few filter caps would use all the space available on the back of the PCB that the LCD clips to. I want to keep to this size because one of the main attractions of this LCD is it is small. I think any accessories (buttons, LEDs) will vary with the project and don't need to be on the platform.
Now that I've finished my long winded pipe dream, what search keywords would help me find similar items? Is anybody else already working on something like this?
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