I had less time to play than I thought I would have this Thanksgiving weekend, but I did make a little progress.  I started the actual code, included libraries, did some reading up on how to use them.

I also hooked up a simple LCD display.  Here it is:

My plan is to use this setup to develop code to read the data from the Syncal, piece by piece.  This alphanumeric display is extremely simple to use so I can concentrate on the radio interface and not have to develop and debug both the radio interface and the graphic display at the same time.  I can decode what I get from the radio and display as text, each element of the display one by one, this way.  Once I know I have all the data received properly I can replace the display with the actual graphic one I will use and concentrate on the graphical layout of the data I have.

My next step will be to finalize my understanding of the Syncal display mapping, then how the two LCD chips are addressed, then lift their response pins on the I2C bus, wire up the I2C ground and power and route them out of the radio with a small connector to tie to my little Arduino test board.

Then it’s just a matter of slogging through the different segment mappings.