ViKi LCD - A sleek LCD control interface for your 3D printer by Roy Cortes

Remind me

Sleek and versatile LCD Control interface for your 3D printer / CNC and micro controller projects. Lots of nav functions and LEDs.

What is ViKi LCD?

ViKi is an easy to use LCD control panel interface designed for 3D printers and CNC machines but can also be used for other micro controller projects. It allows your 3D printer to operate without a PC always connected and provides visual indication of things like temperature and peripheral activity. It can also be used on most micro controller / Arduino projects that require a display and control interface. Give that project of yours a professional looking panel!

ViKi stands for Visual Kinetic control Interface.

Viki LCD is based on AdaFruit's RGB LCD Shield and is compatible with the same Arduino library that is uses. Lincomatic also has the faster LIQUIDTWI2 LCD library with support for ViKi.

Currently Viki LCD works nicely with the latest Repetier firmware and Lincomatic's fork of Marlin. If you can help with other firmware please contact me. It will work with most 3D printer controllers that has at least 128kb of programming space, tested with Azteeg X3, Azteeg X1 v1.5, RAMPS, Sanginololu with 1284P and PrintrBoard. Should work with RAMBo, Gen7 with 1284P and other controllers as it just needs the i2c pins and 2 pins for the encoder to get basic control. If you have ATmega644P on your controller, there is a pledge reward with an MCU upgrade.

Features:

20x4 Character LCD (nice and bright, good viewing angles)
I2C communications (less wires)
microSD slot with card detect
Rotary Encoder with center button
Pause/Reset Button
4 way Navigation Buttons
3 addressable LEDs, 1 SD card LED
Dimmable backlight using PWM pin
Arduino compatible library by adafruit and Lincomatic's LIQUIDTWI2
Poly-carbonate graphic overlay to protect LCD
Built-in shift register. 5v and 3.3v compatible

Color options:

Right now there are 2 graphic color options, Black and White. The pictures don't do justice (these look better in person) specially that it doesn't show that the gray portion is glossy and the white area is matte . I think you can't go wrong with either and matching it with your printer or project should be easy.

Two options are available for the LCD backlight, Yellow-green and Gray-blue. Both are easy to read and nice to look at, have good contrast and viewing angles.

Black overlay with Gray(light bluish) LCD backlight

Only 4 wires(i2c,+5 and ground) to have basic nav control and LEDs

Kickstarter Goal:

The goal for this LCD project is to manufacture the first batch and to reach out to more possible users with the help of kickstarter. Beyond that, this project will continue to provide an easy to use, sleek and versatile control panel interface for any project that needs visual feedback to the user.

The difficult part of having a working unit is done, the above picture shows an almost final version with just minor tweaks. Artwork may change a little bit and more colors are being considered (right now it's just black and white) including LCD backlight colors.

The pledges will go to the production of the project and logistics of getting the rewards to your doorstep.

Open hardware:

Yes, this an open-source project. All files will be released once we get it to final production version.

Production Details:

The PCB and LCD panels will be coming from our very reliable supplier in China. The rest of the parts with be sourced here is the USA. Assembly will be done here in Southern California USA using one of our many reliable contract manufacturers. Partial testing will be also be done at the contract manufacturer side and we will be handling final testing and packaging.

Reward Details:

A basic kit contains the following.

1 ViKi LCD control interface

2 sets of wiring harness with end connectors. The ends are individual female headers to adapt to different pin locations on controller board.
Mounting screws

MCU upgrade kit contains the following:

Basic Kit
Pre-programmed(Arduino bootloader) Atmega1284P ( Through-hole or SMD version). SMD version requires advance soldering abilities.

Special Thanks:

A big THANKS to those who helped get this project up and running.

John (jcabrer), Roland(Repetier), Sam(lincomatic), Rich(whosawhatsis), Diego(Deezmaker) and numerous testers. This would not have been possible without your input and support.

About me

Basically an unknown to the DIY/maker world, here are the stuff that I have made and designed so far. Maybe some of you have heard of these.

3D Printer Controllers Azteeg X1 and Azteeg X3

Helios 200 Heated Bed for 3D printers

Azteeg M-CNC Controller

For more info please read my full bio or visit my website.

Thanks!

Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

The picture shown is the 3rd iteration of the product and another one is on its way. There is a working firmware and is currently being ported to others. BOM is complete and parts sources has been identified. Basically the tough part of getting a working unit has been accomplished.

One of the possible risks of any starter project is delayed delivery. While we expect this to be a relatively straight forward manufacturing project, we cannot set aside the possibility of production delays due to missed supplier deliveries or unexpected part shortage. We are countering this by reserving parts and manufacturing time even before the campaign ends. This way we can get the tightest schedule possible and have more time testing each unit.

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