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Thread: A question for you tech heads out there!

  1. 04-03-2002, 04:02 PM #1
    King_Xerxes
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    A question for you tech heads out there!

    Okay, I have data sheets from Noritake for a VFD and a serial interface card that is supposed to work with it. I've looked them over and from what I can gather, the interface card attaches to the rear of the VFD module and you can just power the interface card and plug an RS232 serial cable into the interface card and it "takes care of the rest." However, I am not certain and I'd like to make sure what's going on here. I'm posting the data sheets for the VFD and the serial interface card and I'd really like y'all to look them over for me to verify my assumptions.

    Basically, I want to ensure that I can just plug a standard RS232 serial cable into the interface card without having to solder, splice, or otherwise mangle my hardware. I also want to ensure that this this will interpret serial-line data the same way as an LCD because the program I'm using was written for an LCD. I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but that's why I'm asking. THanks for the help!
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  2. 04-03-2002, 05:27 PM #2
    Rob Withey
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    You'll still need a cable from the 6 pin serial port to your PCs serial port. Hope you can get one of those if you are not wanting to do any soldering or building of cables.

    Whether it works will be mostly down to your software. The protocol is defined on the datasheets. It'll be easy to program for. A program written for your average parallel port LCD probably isn't gonna work here (needs to write to serial port for one thing).

    The parallel interface looks to be starightforward (44780 compatible). The serial interface adds the additional interesting twist on the escape character which the software will need to be able to cope with.


    Rob
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  3. 04-03-2002, 05:38 PM #3
    King_Xerxes
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    After I posted this, I noticed that 6-pin RS232 annoyance... Assuming I somehow find a connector from there to my serial port, would the display be able to handle a program written for a serial LCD? I know this module is technically a parallel display but would it display correctly from a program written for serial displays?

    Also, should my fortune take an awful twist, it there a how-to on cable building...?
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  4. 04-03-2002, 05:45 PM #4
    Rob Withey
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    Originally posted by King_Xerxes
    would the display be able to handle a program written for a serial LCD? I know this module is technically a parallel display but would it display correctly from a program written for serial displays?
    Depends entirely on the program. What protocol? Is it written for 44780 protocols? Will it cope with the escape character weirdness? Will it be able to configure the serial controller part of the device? In short, there is no easy answer to this question without giving more information.


    Rob
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  5. 04-03-2002, 05:59 PM #5
    King_Xerxes
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    Again, my lack of programming knowledge comes and bites me in the butt...

    I'm planning on using a rudimentary Linux program called Blaine

    http://www.opensores.org/blaine

    I suppose I'll email its author about these issues but I've been pestering him an awful lot... oh well, that's what open source is all about... :-D

    If you know a thing or two about programming, maybe you could look at the code but I wouldn't presume to ask you to do that. I imagine it would be quite an undertaking.
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