Okay this may seam outright retarded, but is there a way of displaying lap times and other data like speed on an old alarm clock screen? I know very little about outgauge, and stuff. Im just wondering if it would be possible.
Would it be possible to use a USB connector on the clock's display wire thingys, and then make a driver in C#? It has the LPT yoke for drivers, but would it work for USB too??
what kind of clock is it? led number bits? lcd calculator like screen or a open lcd screen? if it was like a calculator screen you probably wouldnt be able to because it would have things like pm and am built into it, if its a open lcd screen you may be able to write some code to put some stuff where you want it but it may be incredibly hard unless you can get some sort of coding base to see the values you need for the particular screen.
Just had a quick look, SerialPort can communicate with USB
The MSDN page didn't say anything about drivers, it just said that it can communicate with GPS, Mobiles, etc. Would a driver be possible to make using SerialPort?
Sure you can. But you'll need to build a display driver circuit, since the built-in circuit (usually a single-chip alarm clock + display driver chip) probably doesn't provide a way to show your own data.
it's more practical to just buy a HD44780 compatible display, they are really cheap and easy to use.
Or get some 7 segment displays, BCD decoders and a bunch of resistors and build your own display like this.
Well, those HD44780 displays can be connected directly to a parallel port. You'll only need an extra variable resistor for the display contrast, and an optional transistor if you want to be able to switch the backlight on and off. You'll also need a power supply, you can use an USB port for that.
Using USB for interfacing isn't easy.
looking at all these things has really made me want to make a cockpit like go the whole hog with the electronics eg switch for lights indicator storks hazards button etc even with a gear shifter and a handbrake damn clever people i would love to get an lcd screen and display what i wanted on it