LCDInfo.com

I recently bought a 128x64 glcd with a t6963c and I was looking for a way to get -10v from +5v. I found lcdinfo(which I intend to use) and this forum. I looked at the plethora of inverting circuits that were here, and realised that every schematic had one part I could not get hold of, or was just too dangerous for me to contemplate .

Today I was messing with UART on one of my avrs. My veroboard-max232 setup had just died (I accidently gave it 24v instead of 5v ) so I grabbed a few from the local electronics shop. On the way home I was thinking about setting them up and remebered that rs232 uses negative voltage. As soon as I got home, I looked at the datasheet. Lo and behold, it has a -10v charge pump in it. Am I the first to see it, or is there something wrong with this approach? I need <12mA; can I take this from a max232?

Cheers,
Jeremy

PS: I have a quite a bit of experience with avrs and character lcds

It has already been suggested in one of the stickies. It works, but according to the datasheet under a 12mA load the voltage will "drop" to -8V with 1uF caps, and -5V with 0.1uF caps.