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VFD Brightness Control?

General discussion about LCD Smartie.

Moderators: _X7JAY7X_, caesar, IFR, mattcro, limbo, Fast351

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FormatC:

VFD Brightness Control?

Post by FormatC: »

Can LCD Smartie control the brightness of the VFD? I have a Noritake ISE Elecronics CU24025ECPB-U1J 2 X 24 VFD and it has 4 Levels of software brightness can I controll that through LCD Smartie?
Eugene
Posts: 22
Joined: May 10th, 2006, 7:48 pm

Post by Eugene »

I modified HD44780.dll driver for Smartie 5.4B3 to work with my Futaba VFD (LCD compatible). Now it changes brightness and turns display on/off. It also may be compatible with your VFD. I could send you the modified dll.
lazybones
Posts: 16
Joined: September 21st, 2006, 7:56 am

Post by lazybones »

Hmm I also have a Futaba VFD, I would love a copy of that DLL.
Eugene
Posts: 22
Joined: May 10th, 2006, 7:48 pm

Post by Eugene »

Your e-mail?
Fast351
Developer
Posts: 233
Joined: February 17th, 2006, 3:23 pm
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA
Contact:

Post by Fast351 »

Is this a change that broke other things or are you just adding functionality? If so, I would encourage you to add the code to the production DLL. I can add it if you're not set up as a developer. Let me know...
Eugene
Posts: 22
Joined: May 10th, 2006, 7:48 pm

Futaba VFD driver

Post by Eugene »

Nothing has been broken, I've just added new functionality. Brightness can be changed in 5 steps from no backlight to maximum.

Look into your mailbox on fastec.com. I've just sent you a rar with the driver.
limbo
Plugin Author
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Joined: February 13th, 2005, 7:38 pm
Location: Athens - Greece
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Re: Futaba VFD driver

Post by limbo »

Eugene wrote:Nothing has been broken, I've just added new functionality. Brightness can be changed in 5 steps from no backlight to maximum.

Look into your mailbox on fastec.com. I've just sent you a rar with the driver.
Can you upload this driver here in order to help more people? (use the attach function :lol:)
Fast351
Developer
Posts: 233
Joined: February 17th, 2006, 3:23 pm
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA
Contact:

Post by Fast351 »

Here is the compiled image. I will include it in the official release when we do that....

http://www.fast351.com/hometheater/htpc ... FD_LCD.dll

(Couldn't figure out how to attach a file...)
lazybones
Posts: 16
Joined: September 21st, 2006, 7:56 am

Post by lazybones »

Just wanted to follow up and say this works on my display.

I wish there was an action for brightness.. It would be nice to be able to dim the display along with an action.
Eugene
Posts: 22
Joined: May 10th, 2006, 7:48 pm

Post by Eugene »

lazybones
Fast351

I made a solution for brightness control in actions:

FutabaVFD_LCD.dll can decrement brightness level from maximum to no backlight and back to maximum. This feature is included in the dll that I sent to you earlier. In addition I made a special dll that can be called in actions. This dll uses display driver function SetBrightness(-1). I sent this dll to you by e-mail because I can't attach files here.

Put the dll into plugins directory and add this action: If $dll(hotkey,1,,) > 0 then $dll(DecBrightness,1,FutabaVFD_LCD.dll,)

Please take into account that this is rather experimental.

P.S. You need hotkey.dll to use global hotkeys.
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