I have a 2x40 IEE S03601-43-080 VFD display that is a pull from broken equipment. I know that the VFD is good. I'm having a heck of a time trying to interface this monster to my pc! It says in the spec sheet that it is TTL and RS232c compatable and hints that it can use an lpt interface. Can anyone help? Spec sheet Pinout diagram: Pin Function 1 -- Serial In / Self Test (t0)* 2 -- Common 3 -- Device Select (CS)* 4 -- Interrupt (INT)* 5 -- Read (RD)* 6 -- Common 7 -- Address Zero Bit (A0) 8 -- Common 9 -- Write (WR) * 10- Common 11- Data B0 (LSB) 12- Common 13- Data B1 14- Common 15- Data B2 16- Common 17- Data B3 18- Common 19- Data B4 20- Common 21- Data B5 22- Common 23- Data B6 24- Common 25- Data B7 (MSB) 26-Common The power, ground and reset are on a seperate plug Everything maked with an * has a line above the word on the spec sheet (I've shorted the correct jumpers as stated in the spec sheet for RS232c operation) I've tried connecting the Tx from the serial to J5 and the Rx to J1 to no avail. The only thing I haven't done is the lpt as I can't figure out what goes where. If anyone can help me get this going, you will be my new hero
The RS232 input scheme seems very encryptic. 1200BAUD with 11 bit transfer. Thats not going to be easy. It even says 3 character per second speed. The parallel lines seem alot more intuitive. You can rig the D0-D7 lines to D0-D7 lines on a standard lpt port. You will also have to wire *CS, *WR, A0, and maybe reset to the 4 other outputs on the lpt port. I wouldnt care about rigging up the *RD line. That just makes the LCD send its buffer back to you for verification. Not needed. Section 5.5 shows you the timing you will need to interface your lpt signals. Outptu should go like this: Change D0-D7 to data you want to send. Change A0 high/low (high for data word, low for command word). Bring your *WR line low. Delay for minimum of 200ns. Bring *WR high. Setup next data/command byte. Section 4 shows your command data. Interfacing through lpt means creating a windows interface. That VB6 tutorial done by Acrymonious would be a good start. Im seeing now that section 4 also reffers to the serial interface as well. Im not sure how to setup a COM port for 11 bit transfer (probably a software thing). Either way you go, serial or parallel, you will most likely need to make your own windows interface unless you can match this VFD commands to another similar VFD/LCD that is supported by one of the software utils.
:/ ZOOM!!! Right over my head... No idea how to do that... So I guess the answer to me would be that it's not really worth it...
I wouldnt say that. How were you going to operate this after connecting to the serial port? The data sheet says this thing has an internal microcontroller that allows you to use 11bit serial interface. The unit can take the +12v to -12V serial voltage swing, so you can hook this up to your serial port without worry. But what software were you going to use to drive it? That datasheet is very very explanatory (although a little disorganized). It gives all of the commands and line operations. But I cant find an LCD controller that uses the same commands (for emulation). Of course, Im not looking at VFD controller stuff. See if you can find some common 2x40 VFD modules that have the same command set as this thing does, and then find a LCD/VFD program that uses that type of module. Im gonna search cheeses thread to find something comparable (i have time to waste).
Cool, yea, any help would be appreciated. As far as software goes, I haven't really decided on any yet. I'm going to use this in an HTPC that I will be building soon and haven't even decided if I'm going with Windows or Linux to be honest! If I go with Windows, I'll probably use LCD Smartie or LCDC - if I use Linux, I'd use LCDProc.
Well, this friggin thing doesnt match any of the common types of VFD command sets. Sigh. This means that most likely, any of the LCD software out there wont support it. One thing is clear though: find a VFD with serial using 11 bits (2 for stop bits), and you will find compatability. I would suggest making your own interface. Visual Basic is simple to learn some easy commands. Just take a look at the VB tutorial on how-to section to see.
Eh, not worth the effort to me. Like I said, it was a freebie and I don't really have the time to screw around with learning VB right now. Plus I don't have VB, so it won't help if I did try and learn Thanks for the help anyway!
Just to confirm, I looked through VFDworld. They support the IEE 03601-96 2x40 VFD , pinout looks very comparable. Command sets match almost perfectly. Since your VFD has serial inputs, there are a few commands left out (not a big deal). The only 2 commands different are the brightness control. Your VFD has 3 commands (dim, bright, brightest) while the VFD supported has only 2 (dim, bright). All this means is that you will have to play around with the brightness part after hooking it up to see what does what. By following the VFDWorld hookup instructions and downloading thier software, you should be able to get this thing running easy.
Would I still need to hook up the +5 and Gnd to the connector? My VFD already has a seperate 5v, gnd and rst connector for power. I'm completely lost. :/ To me the pinout looks completely different.
