I made a VFD display controller. it emulates the noritake T23A command set, and im using an ATmega163. i use LCDhype and winamp to talk to the display. its got a couple of quirks, but for the most part, it works awsome what do ya think? cant upload, so here is the link to where I uploaded them to: http://lcdhype.de/index.php?showtopic=4378
Wow, that looks more complicated then it probably is! Also, that is a pretty sexy VFD, when are you going to etch it? -CollinstheClown
its a VFD that was designed for a CD compact stereo. but it was never used, and the surplus is being sold on ebay for about 8 bux a peice. thats where I got mine. So i wrote firmware for the ATmega to run the display. and used LCDhype noritake T23A plugin to drive it I emulated the commandset. I still got some quirks i gotta work out, I have to emulate the cursor addressing exactly as per the T23a, because I didnt do that yet. and if i try 2 row support, it makes the display all funkified. so I gotta fix it. but if i set LCDhype as 24x1, it works beautiful. some bugs in the LCDhype scripting though, if you do scrolling of the ID3 tag, it scrols the spectrum with it, which is bad.
let me know what project you wanna do, and which VFD your gonna use, and if you need help? and need firmware to control it with an ATmega? im your man. Anyway about my project: VFDs in multiplex mode require a rather high of a voltage. somewhere around 24V or more. i had an old scanner power supply, that gives me +5, +12 -12 and +24. perfect. I used (3)20-bit HV shift registers. nothing more than a regular serial in, parallel out shift register with a HV buffer. UCN5812, although the SED2002, etc series is the same, cept mine is a DIP. not SMD like the SED. the shift registers have a latch, and a blanking pin. the atmel serially loads the shift registers. treats one of the shift chips as a ring counter for the grids. (multiplexed scanning). and timer0 of the ATmega is round-robin based interrupt. its crazy. LOL. I have the code, but I cant upload it. you can find it at AVR freaks, and its well commented.
How much does the whole thing cost?(controller+vfd) If you get it fully working i maybe interested in ordering a complete unit from you.
its actually not that hard to build. the coding was the hard part. there is only 4 chips, 1 pullup resistor, and an RC network for SCK filtering for in circuit programming of the CPU, and a transistor for driving the filiments. its mostly just wires. I gotta get a schematic drawn up. probably use eagle.
Im no good at programming. I don't have the attension span for c and ive been struggling to learn Parallax basic for 7 years (pbasic stamp) Thats why i asked, i like it and have an idea for the unit. As i said if you make one up that i just have to plug into the relevent ports i have a mod thats perfect for it.
modding logs.... ok..... anyway, im currently doing som research so i can re-engineer it with more commonly available parts.such as the SED2032 anode driver. the supplier of the VFD glass himself is going to help me on this endevour. when we get these rare parts of mine replaced with commonly available parts, i will draw up a new schematic. and make you one. ;-)