{{Infobox software , name = LCD Smartie , title = , logo = LCD_Smartie_Logo.jpg , logo size = 100px , screenshot = LCD_Smartie_5.4_screenshot.png , caption = LCD Smartie 5.4 , collapsible = , author = BasieP, Chris Lansley , developer = , released = {{Start date, 2001, 8, 24, df=yes , discontinued = , latest release version = 5.6 , latest release date = {{Start date and age, 2023, 10, 19, df=yes , latest preview version = , latest preview date = , frequently updated = , programming language =

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), was an ancient sacred precinct and the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient Classical antiquity, classical world. The A ...

, operating system =

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, platform = , size = , language = , status = , genre = , license = GPL or

LGPL The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...

, website = {{URL, lcdsmartie.org/ LCD Smartie is

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...

for

which allows a character LCD to be used as an auxiliary display device for a PC. Supported devices include displays based on the Hitachi HD44780 LCD controller, the Matrix Orbital Serial/USB LCD, and

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a discontinued mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. ...

devices (when used in conjunction with PalmOrb). The program has built in support for many systems statistics (i.e. CPU load, network utilization, free disk space...), downloading RSS feeds,

Winamp Winamp is a media player (software), media player for Microsoft Windows originally developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev by their company Nullsoft, which they later sold to AOL in 1999 for $80 million. It was then acquired by Rad ...

integration and support for several other popular applications. To support less common applications LCD Smartie uses a powerful plugin system. The project was started as

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

by BasieP who wrote it in

. After running the software as freeware from 2001 to late 2004, BasieP passed the project on to Chris Lansley as an Open Source project hosted on the

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service founded by Geoffrey B. Jeffery, Tim Perdue, and Drew Streib in November 1999. SourceForge provides a centralized software discovery platform, including an online platform for managing and hosting open-source soft ...

servers. Chris Lansley maintained the project for few years, and now the whole project remains alive thanks to the program community. LCD Smartie is a relatively mature software and development of the main executable has slowed considerably, most of the new features are introduced by new plugins which are released by both the core team and by the community. The LCD Smartie forums are the primary source for support and developer discussion. To facilitate the use of LCD Smartie on modern PCs running version of

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

and 8 the team has started working on a

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

interface to connect LCDs to a PC that does not require any additional kernel driver and provides a complete plug-and-play experience. As of end 2023, the main program development has moved to

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

. A new version (v5.6) has been released with significant updates and improvements. Additionally, a new Android app which acts as an LCD screen

emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...

is available on GitHub under

https://github.com/eeyrw/LcdEmulator/releases). A DIY project to drive LCD screens via

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

is also available on GitHub at

https://github.com/eeyrw/LcdTcp). File:LCD Smartie.jpg, LCD Smartie running the BigNum plugin on a 20x4 Parallel port, Parallel LCD File:LCD Smartie official hardware.jpg, LCD Smartie official hardware PCB File:LCD Smartie Orange LCD.gif, Orange LCD mounted on the LCD Smartie official hardware

External links

Official project page
on

.
Official program forumLimbo's home page
with plugins for LCD Smartie.
New home for Limbo's updated plugins and skins

The new official repositoryAndroid LCD screen emulator
Software using the GNU General Public License Liquid crystal displays Free software programmed in Delphi Software using the GNU Lesser General Public License Windows-only free software