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I am working on a project to come up with a way of reading electronic flow meters and sending the various info to a wireless modem.
They all have a way to communitat via a Modbus RS 232 or 485 port.
Problem is that with various manufacturers the protocols all vary and are difficult to get that info from them. We are trying to build a unit that is easy to use and for the customer to install. ALl or most have an LCD display. It seems alike the protocol for the dispaly is universal or appears to be. Can you confirm that it is and if is there a device that can plug in to the display socket that could read the output or would it be possilbe to build such a device and mount it between the display and the socket so it could be used to read what the EFM is sending to the display and capture that data and sent it to a Wireless modem.
Thanks for you help

Pretty much all LCD controller IC's use their own different protocol. But if we are talking about character displays here they often use a HD44780 compatible controller.

If you are planning to interface many different models this way you should be prepared to tweak the reading routines for each model though. So for installation in uncontrolled environment by customers might be asking for trouble this way.

You could post more information about the hardware and displays in question and maybe some helpful advise could be given.