help with old vfd module

[yoelian]

Hello, i have an old vfd module which i think/guess is from "noritake" because it has "itron-ise.co.jp" printed inside the vacuum display.
I have been able to do the wiring and successfully connect it to my PC serial(COM1) port and i can make it "do things" by sending escape character sequences according to some pdf manuals from other similar vfd customer displays i have found on the internet.
But i have been unable to make LCD Smartie work properly with it. Have used the 'testdriver' but every time it has to update/refresh the text it appends it to the end instead of clearing the line and then showing the new text.

[dperrow]

Sounds like the setposition escape sequence isn't working correctly.
Have you tried the sequence manually.

What pdf manual have you used ( ie for what display ) and what sequence
Are you using. Might just be starting at 1 and not 0.

[yoelian]

Thanks for the quick reply dperrow!
All PDF manuals i have consulted are "VFD Customer Displays" manuals which are similar to mine in the followin aspects:
-they use RS232 Asynchronous Serial to comunicate with host
-2 lines x 20 characters(5x7 dot matrix)
-they all have 12 DIP switches to setup the vfd module(before powering on) and their functions match the ones on my vfd(i have tested several combinations)
-they use the same "Command emulation modes" (ESC/POS, CD5220, DSP800, etc)

About the command sequences, they depend on the above emulation modes though there are many common commands, here some examples(CD5220 mode):
- 1B 51 41 d1..dn 0D Sets string display mode, writes string(bytes d1..dn) to upper line
- 1B 51 42 d1..dn 0D Sets string display mode, writes string(bytes d1..dn) to lower line
- 1B 5B 44 Moves cursor left
- 1B 5B 43 Moves cursor right
- 1B 5B 48 Moves cursor to home position
- 1B 5B 4C Moves cursor to left-most position
- 1B 6C x y Moves cursor to specified position 1 x 20 (column) ; y=1,2 (row)
- 1B 40 Initializes display
- 0C Clears display screen, and clears string mode
- 18 Clears cursor line, and clears string mode

Maybe these are too many details for a post, or maybe(must probably) you already know all of this stuff, i'm just trying to supply the most information in order to get help.

About the 'set position' you wrote about i am looking up for something like that in the pdf manuals.
Hope this had helped you help me, thanks.

[dperrow]

A while ago I created a display driver for a WD-202 vfd display which looks like it uses the same command sets. The driver is based on the CD5220 command set.

I can't upload the file to this board but you will find it along with the history of it's development at http://forums.lcdsmartie.org/viewtopic. ... 2&start=30

It's the one attached to the very last reply you should use.

The display needs to be in CD5220 mode (using it's switch settings)

You should copy this to the smartie displays folder, then restart smartie and select it and set the com port.

Give it a try. Good luck.

[yoelian]

"DigiPoS-display WD202-manual138.pdf" was one of the manuals i was talking bout, it looks like that's the one.

I downloaded the attached file and i will be trying it as soon as i get home, i left the vfd there and i'm at work right now, but the internet is here and not there so tomorrow i'll be telling you about it.

Thanks a lot man! you have been very helpful and precise.

[dperrow]

Ignore the ncr dll it's for a different display.

You are obviously in a different time zone if you are still at work (or working very late) cause it's after 9p.m. here.

[yoelian]

Diferent Time Zone here (-5 UTC).
The wd-202 driver worked! I gotta say thanks again!
I have one WD-202A and one WD-202 .pdf manuals ,the DIP switches combinations doesn't exactly match the ones on my VFD(mainly 3 first switches used for command mode selection) , still, the driver has proven to be compatible.
The only thing that's not showing right are the "DBh" character which was supposed to be used for the bars for CPU%, RAM%, etc. instead it shows 9eh,83h,84h.(USA Standard Europe Table)
Where might be the problem?
I really would like to know how all of this works. Is it too hard to edit/make a driver? Could you share the source and tools you used?

[yoelian]

Diferent Time Zone here (-5 UTC).
The wd-202 driver worked! I gotta say thanks again!
I have one WD-202A and one WD-202 .pdf manuals ,the DIP switches combinations doesn't exactly match the ones on my VFD(mainly 3 first switches used for command mode selection) , still, the driver has proven to be compatible.
The only thing that's not showing right are the "DBh" character which was supposed to be used for the bars for CPU%, RAM%, etc. instead it shows 9eh,83h,84h.(USA Standard Europe Table)
Where might be the problem?
I really would like to know how all of this works. Is it too hard to edit/make a driver? Could you share the source and tools you used?

Maybe Smartie uses a custom character set? 'cause the BigNums plugin doesn't show properly neither, again those characters(9eh,83h,84h)appear.

[dperrow]

Sounds like it. That driver doesn't support custom characters at all cause I couldn't figure out how to do it from the data sheets. I'd be happy to add it to the driver if we could work out how.

BTW I use 'Codeblocks' (you'll find it via google, it's free) for development and it's all written in C/C++. Happy to share the source for the driver though I cant put it up in this forum.

[yoelian]

I think i read something on this forum about replacing characters in a string with other chr, i could use something like that to try to partially fix this particular issue by replacing Chr(158) by Chr(219) and most probably as a substitution of both Chr(131) and Chr(132) 'cause i don't think my VFD has special characters equivalent to those two. I haven't been able to see how it would look normally but i have deduced Chr(131) is some character representing 1/3 of a box(219) and Chr(132) something like 2/3 of a box.

About the code, i appreciate it anyway and thank you for all the help. Should it be any way you upload it to somewhere i could get it from, just let me know. If there were any rule that forbids it, i would understand.

Thks and Good Night!

[dperrow]

I could introduce a substitution so that the display driver would always substitute one character code for another?

There's no rule that forbids sharing the code it's just that this forum doesn't have the upload functionality. If you register on this site I could send it via a private message?

[yoelian]

Just to let everyone know that this post can be marked as [solved] it is now working thanks to dperrow's assistance.
Now i am working on my own dll driver for this kind of Displays which use command emulation modes, i have added custom character definition(at initialization time) via text(ini) file and might add some other stuff...