Abstract: Advanced Composite Communication System is an IP based integrated communication system designed to provide quick and reliable communication over Very Low Frequency, Medium Frequency, High Frequency and Very/Ultra High Frequency bands on board naval ships and submarines for facilitating ship to ship, ship to shore and ship to air communication. The Communication Access Terminal (CAT) is an important and integral part of ship communication system. CAT is a PC104 Single Board Computer (SBC) based system for internal and external communication. To provide visual information to the end user about line status, network status, information about connected radio number, CAT number etc. As a part of CAT development, interfacing of LCD board to PC104 Mother Board using RS232 based serial protocol is the main objective of this project. Programming the board is done using Qt Creator in C++ language. The Liquid Crystal Display interfaced to the PC104 mother board is tested using Graphical User Interface (GUI) application developed in Qt. The testing steps of display include 1) Displaying a preloaded logo on startup. 2) Faulty display detection using full pixel illumination. The current CAT is a simplified version of earlier CAT, which best suits for extreme weather conditions. The current CAT is designed so as to withstand the temperature range of -400C to +850C, relative humidity up to 80% at 250C, vibration 10g.

Keywords: PC104 Mother Board, Communication Access Terminal, RS232 serial protocol, Qt creator, Graphical User Interface, Liquid Crystal Display.