Modding Noritake GU126x32F-K612A4 graphic VFD

Hi Steele,

The downside would be that it does not contain data for transitions where an effect is generated between screens, nor does it have certain elements that are used by the screens you may have seen from links on page 1 of this thread.
I suppose in view of the fact that you wouldnt be able to use the screen definitions from here anyway without editing them first makes that a moot point.

If you want to discuss more things, then feel free to email me directly.

paradyne@mac.com


Cheers,
Nick R

 

New LCDC Plugin for Noritake Bargraphs

Hi Guys, time for a surprise!!

I've coded a plugin for LCDC that allows the drawing of bargraphs using data from other LCDC variables and named it NorTool. You can create horizontal or vertical filled bars, and line and block styes for horizontal ones... having a Winamp play position marker looks neat! or how about a working temp gauge

Here is a pic of the configuration screen to whet your appetite...



And a couple of demo images



So get over to my site, download it and try it out. I welcome suggestions for improvements too.
http://www.paradynedsl.force9.co.uk/

The site also has some other info and downloads.

cheers,
Nick R

 

Hi All!

I've received a reply today to my question to Noritake about extending the charset of the display. Here it is:

I think this effectively means that unless anyone writes a plugin for LCDC to interpret (as in drawing them graphically) extended characters differently it won't be possible.

Good news about the future though!!

 

TSS, I have a tool for creating the LCDC data for the characters on my site. You can also use it to load the custom char data banks that LCDC uses.


http://www.paradynedsl.force9.co.uk/ and goto the downloads page. Look for NCCM.

cheers,

Nick R

 

Paradyne: I downloaded your NCCM tool but I get an Error when I try to run it:

Component 'MSCOMM32.OCX' not correctly registered: file is missing or invalid

Has anyone else had this problem? I
s this file part of the standard Windows XP installation?

Also, as I remember it, your program ,although very nice, only puts the extended chars in Macros and the LCDC plugins won't know to look in the macros for these chars. Could I change this behavior with a reference to the relevant macro in the def file?

 

Hi TSS, I've not had feedback to say that it hasnt worked so far. I guess your windows setup hasnt got that particular com port control installed. (i'm running XP btw). should be simple to fix by downloading the ocx and then register it to windows using regsvr32

I've had a quick word with Matt (LCDC's creator) and I think that the ICM feature would possibly allow the mapping of your character code to a macro character code, ie chr(220) to chr(5)
I'll look into it some more.

Cheers,
Nick

 

Your input required!!

After creating my Bargraph plugin for the Noritake displays, and having had very little feedback, I've been left wondering how many (if any) of you have given it a go?

I'm considering an expansion to it for producing historical bargraphs, mimicing the LCDC HIS plugin.... and would like some feedback as to whether there is any interest in this?

I'm also open to suggestions as to extra things youd like to be able to do with the display via LCDC.

Cheers,

Nick R


GUVfd site

 

Ok, here's some feedback.

I tried the plugin and the screens and events for both the VU and the SA3. I only get the SA style on both screens though. I imported all the events and screens for the VU and only screens and events for SA3 not the previous ones.

When I only had the VU screen and events imported I sometimes get what appear tho be the bar graphs at the very top edge of the screen (one pixel high). Sometimes I get nothing there either. The area for the bar is empty.


When I had both active I also had residue of the VU screen or the transition on the bottom half of the SA3 screen. On the VU screen I get residue from transitions, mostly in the upper right quarter of the screen.

I haven't really started making my own screens yet so I'm not very good at editing screens and finding problems. Hopefully this is something simple to solve.

I use a registered version of 1.05(.26?) and have tried both the standard defs and your clean defs without transitions. WinAmp 2.91 and lcdc->wa2 plugin 1.0. What "LCDC data access" should I set the plugin to?

As for your webpage I often get crashes in both Opera 7.10 and IE 6. I'm guessing it has something to do with WMP9, since I get it in both browsers, but I have the latest version of it.

What I would want to be able to do in LCDC screens:
1. Get title and playing time info from WMP (9).
2. Get some kind of solution for non-ascii characters like discussed earlier. Could I put several characters in the same Macro and only draw the part of the Macro containing that character for it? I don't really want to sacrifice all or most of my Macros for these chars.
3. Email-plugin that knows how many messages was in my mailbox the last time and only displays the email screen if there are new mails. I haven't yet figured out how to reset it though...
4. Weather plugin that displays the correct icon for different forecasts of weather. A sun for good weather, cloud for overcast, rain for rains, snowflake for snow etc.

 

Hi TSS!

RE: Not getting the VU Bars. This could be a couple of things. Firstly it might be that the Noritake is drawing the bars horizontally rather than vertically. In my def file I have the WriteVert command [##26][##128] and I suppose that could somehow be missing!? make sure it is somewhere either in the before screen event or on one of the line command fields.
Other posibility is that the macro didnt program correctly. To test that I'd use LCDC's test mode then send the following.
ResetDisplay [Send]
WriteVert [Send]
CustomChar 0 [Send]
CustomChar 1 [Send]
and so on to make sure they are drawing correctly.

I'm using the same version of LCDC.
I have noticed that by adding a few zero's as a padding characters after drawing/cleardisplay/resetdisplay is useful to correct glitches. Didnt seem necessary pre 1.05

For the Winamp Plugin I select the "Live Data" mode.

Thanks for the info on the web-page, I'll take a look at it, I've tested with IE6.1, Mozilla 1.3, Safari - havent ever tried Opera!

In response to your other points..

1) Soon as I get the WMP plugin I'll write some screens using it. I'm sure what you want is possible.

2) There is no way to sub-divide a macro.
BTW I did have a go with the ICM idea and it does work, so potentially you could map 7 ascii codes to the 1-7 macros

3) I can see what you want it to do , but dont think the current email support can do that.

4) I've talked with Matt a lot about ways to show a different Icon for each weather condition... and each time not had a very simple solution. I do however want to find a way to achieve it also!

Cheers,
Nick R

 

You know, A while ago I found a way to get Vis' working (or so I suspected), and I played around with it a little. and I posted that it may have been possible (And here's how to do it) on the LCDC forums.

The thread (And anything partaining to it) was promptly deleted.

The method I proposed was using the "Custom Characters" definition files, and making custom defs for left-to-right and bottom-up meters.

I've not grabbed the latest LCDC (I think this definition signing is silly), and as I done quite a bit of customisation in the def file to get more interesting effects and suchlike, I shan't be upgrading.

*IF* LCDG comes out, I will give it a try, but as it is, LCDC doesn't really hold that much interest to me (And I'm a-working on possibly my own version, albeit in VB for now).

Things I'd like to see in a version of LCDG/New Program:

• "Smooth" scrolling (scroll Xpx/sec, not 1 letter)
• Fades/wipes/transitions
• "Scrolling Areas" (IE, this message scrolls in a box Xpx by Ypx, at x,y)
• Graphics per event (So icons depending on Weather, Winamp status, etc)
• Sending at full speed, with definable breaks
• Integrated smratdraw(?) algorithm ('specially for complex gfx)
• Bars control (Like Paradyne's), though with the option of no borders

I'm sure there's more I've missed, but that'll do for now.

 

Hi Anakha

I've already planned to update the bargraph plugin to allow drawing without the borders after another user mentioned it. I should have that done within the next week.

Custom Characters - yeah, I worked with Matt to be able to do exactly that, storing the character data in lcdc-cc files, and a modified def file command setup for programming macros, allowing duplication of the functionality the LCD boys get. The theory was perfect - in reality though the lack of a delay between data bytes whilst programming the macro stopped it from working - I did at least end up with a utility for making the data though
What started to worry me about it was the fact the the EEProm memory where the macros would be stored only has about 100000 write cycles, and programming them on every screen change would eat through those cycles a bit to quick for my liking. With software other than LCDC, just drawing them inline with the other text would work better overall IMHO

As for LCDG... Matt has been extremely busy and to be honest I dont see it being finished any time soon
Thats a shame really, but given that there are only a handfull of us Noritake people, an the majority of displays people have are LCD, I dont see it being worth his time and effort to complete. Should MO suddenly bring out new graphic displays though, that might spawn the need for it.

With regard to your ideas/wishlist.

I've played with pixel scrolling in LCDC with a plugin... I have to say that it didnt look as good as I'd hoped, and I cant quite figure exactly why.
One idea was to try and use the plugin to shift the text by 5/ 6px in between LCDC moving the text by a character. I think the idea has merit and may spen some more time playing.
Other Noritake displays can do the scrolling in their hardware and would be better suited than ours for this.

I think the lack of a logic function like an IF in LCDC is a missed opportunity for thing like alternate icons for the weather etc. I keep pestering Matt about it!!

The great thing is forums like this that alow us to do some brainstorming as rarely does one person come up with all the good ideas!

Cheers,
Nick R

 

Hmm, worrying, but since I'm not up to speed with how Macro-writing usually works here's a question. Are macros written for every or most screen changes on the display? Because then if you switch screen every ten seconds (with macro writing) the eeproms would be burnt out in about *counts* 274 hours. And that's not good.

 

As it stands, the macros are only reprogrammed either when starting LCDC if the macro programming event is set to Sys -> On Start or before the screen shows if using a Before Screen event.
If you only have the one style of bars then it makes a lot of sense to program them once in an On Start event, then disable the event itself.

I have to admit I dont know if you can exceed the 100000 writes or whether thats an average guaranteed cycles.

I think I'll mail Noritake and see what they say about it.

 

Re: problem with bar-vis.
-Ok, since the def is signed I can't add the VertWrite in there. I've tried to look for it but do you mean the event from the file WinampVU.lcdc-evnt? Is this the event that programs the macros with the bar-blocks? I can not find the [##26][##128] commands either in the event or in the screen for the VU Screen. Where is it referenced for you, and is that the same file version as you put on the site?
-When I try your test-sequence I get the vertical lines from the SA screens, not the blocks for the VU screen even though the SA screens and events are unchecked in the file. I'm guessing that's wrong but is it the prev. mentioned event that should program the bar-blocks in the macros? If I have it checked and it is a Sys->On Before Screen should it then program the Macros before the screen starts? Can I then make this a Sys -> Startup event instead, if no other screens use macros? Can I trigger an event maually in LCDC?

In fear of starting a browser war I'll just defend Opera as being very fast, and slightly better than both IE and Mozilla. It works on just about all pages except those blocking it actively.

The WMP plugin is out!!! Beta as it is it should still be something to build a screen from I guess. I'm one step closer to bliss.

I'm giving up on special chars for now (and probably ever). I really wanted it with the Winamp plugin but if it needs 6 macros I can't have bar-vis and I'm sooo shallow

 

Oops, my bad.
I too cannot see the necessary commands in the event either!

I have corrected the event and screen
and you should be able to get it from the website now. I added the [##26][##128] as the first command on line1 of the screen def.
I also discovered an error in the code for macro7 which may have stopped the macros being programmed correctly - my apologies for that.

Cheers,
Nick

 

Ok, now we're getting somewhere, I get output now.

It now appears the bar is one block to long, it wraps the final block on to the next line. There is residue from the bars old positions (the area is not cleared).

Also there is residue from previous screens or transitions to the WinAmpVU screen. How do I stop that from appearing?

Just to clarify, I'm only using the screen and the event from the WinAmpVU.zip file. This is correct I hope. (Ok, the NOR plugin is installed and activated as well of course.)

Have you tried testing this in clean environment with just standard def, the Noritake plugin, screen and event from your website?

---

About the screen(s) for WMP; could you make one with large font title (srolling if neccesary)? I can't figure out how to do it.

 

Cool, we're getting somewhere!

I must admit for most of my screens I'd have a second event which would do a ClearDisplay,WriteVert etc so that everything is blank ready for the actual screen to be drawn. For a simple solution, create a new Sys -> On Before Screen event that has an action of DSP -> Process Commands, the command being ClearDisplay,0,0,26,128
That should sort it out.

Check that in LCDC config page 1 the Bargraph size is set to 7. Its also an idea to make sure the Bargraph null chr is [##32]. That should eliminate the wrapping across lines.

Nick.

 

Now the bargraph is there and I can see it's motions mainly but only because the split block (partly lit block) moves. The wrapping is gone.

The bargraph length was set to 10, but I don't think I ever fiddled with it before. Setting it to 7 solved the wrapping issue. (Maybe you should add this to your instructions.) Null char for bar was already [##32]

I have the Sys->On Before Screen (WinampVU). The residue however is still there for the parts of the bar-VU that has been used but should be blank.

 

Display Crashing

I'm new to the the whole VFD and LCD thing. I just got a Noritake GU126X32f not too long ago, and I've finally gotten it mounted and connected to my computer. However, every single time I try and run my display with LCDC (the latest version, whatever it is) it crashes. I can't figure out what is causing the problems. I've followed the directions that have been given on this site, but it still crashes. I don't know what to do. Here are my system specs...

GA-8IHXP Rev 2.1
P4b 2.26Ghz
2xMaxtor 80Gb Hard Drives
1Gb PC-1066 RDRAM
SB Audity Platinum EX
Gainward GeForce4 750XP Ultra Edition
AverMedia AverStudio (tv tuner card)
Pioneer 16x DVD Drive
Plextor 24x10x40A CD-RW
3 1/2" Floppy Drive (Sony)
Antec TrueBlue 480 Power Supply

I really would like to get this working so any help that someone could provide would be appreciated. Every time I run the default definition file that is provided with the Bit-Tech Definition files at the beginning of this thread the program crashes at different points. Sometimes it gets farther than others, other times it doesn't get past the first screen after the Bit-Tech intro.

Thanks for your help!

 

Try the cable mod in the first post of this thread.

Rob.