Is A CFA835 Compatible With LCD Smartie?

[Dark Phoenix]

Okay, so I bought this LCD screen. I took out the USB micro to USB 2.0 header and plugged the one end into the USB slot on the CFA835, and the other into a loose header on my motherboard, turned the PC on, and nothing from the screen. No lights, no screens, no nothing. I'm about 95% sure I did something wrong, since I didn't get any instructions. Is this LCD compatible with LCD Smartie, and if so can someone explain what I'm doing wrong?

[hydrolisk1792]

Get the pinout of the motherboard's USB header from the manufacture. Then match up the connector on your display to the pins described from the pinout from the motherboard. Google the colours that USB use and what they do to fact check me. I'm pretty sure that red is 5v+ green is D+ White is D- and black is GND. Cheers!

Also more information on your display would be greatly appreciated, like a link to the datasheet, a picture or two, picture of the end of the cable, OS that is running on your PC, Make and model of your motherboard? All this information would be very helpful to help us help you sort out your issues. If it is a Crystalfontz module you are using then I think you can use the Crystal display driver to run it just fine.

[dperrow]

Unfortunately the cfa835 appears to be a graphic display which is not compatible with smartie. If you do a google search you will find lots of details on it. You could develop a display driver for it if you are able to code in c.

[hydrolisk1792]

Unfortunately the cfa835 appears to be a graphic display which is not compatible with smartie. If you do a google search you will find lots of details on it. You could develop a display driver for it if you are able to code in c.

Lol, I should have googled it as well. I have the CFA635 which can be a graphical as well as a 4 x 20. Maybe it can also be used as a 4 x 20.

[dperrow]

Should work. Google for cfa635 lcdsmartie

[Dark Phoenix]

Yeah, I grabbed the CFA635 now. Still can't seem to get it to work, but it looks like it has something to do with the DLLs, not the hardware (which is displaying using CrystalControl2, so I know it's taking input).

I'm getting the error "The handle is invalid" from the Crystal.dll. I'm guessing the DLL's aren't compatible with Windows 10 x64?

[hydrolisk1792]

Yeah, I grabbed the CFA635 now. Still can't seem to get it to work, but it looks like it has something to do with the DLLs, not the hardware (which is displaying using CrystalControl2, so I know it's taking input).

I'm getting the error "The handle is invalid" from the Crystal.dll. I'm guessing the DLL's aren't compatible with Windows 10 x64?

Okay, go to the crystalfontz website and get the wintest program for the 635 and make sure your display is working and communicating with your PC correctly. You may have to run it in compatibility mode to get the test to work.

As for Smartie? I don't remember exactly what I had to do to get smartie working for win 10 but I know it will work. I think it has something to do with the hot fix pack or something like that. Also you may have to run smartie in compatibility mode as well.

Furthermore the 635 runs at the following serial (Com) port settings in windows:

Bits per second (Baud Rate): 115200
Data Bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop Bits: 2
Flow Control: None

Now in smartie you need to do the same thing when setting up the startup parameters, here is an example that might work, just replace the com port I have on here with the one your display is on:

COM8,115200,8,N,2

Furthermore, Any crystalfontx USB type displays requires their driver to be installed on to the PC to get the PC to notice it on the com ports. Here is an example of what it will say in device manager under Ports (COM & LPT)

Crystalfontz CFA635-USB (COM8)

Again, your com port will differ from the one I have stated herein. Good luck and let me know what you can come up with.

[Dark Phoenix]

Yep, it's showing up in my port list (in my case, it's COM3). So I'm putting "COM3,115200,8,N,2" into the arguments field with the crystal.dll display, and when I restart it, compatibility mode or not, I get

Failed to open device: DLL Initialize error: CRYSTAL.DLL Exception: The handle is invalid

[hydrolisk1792]

Did you make sure to setup the same settings in your port settings inside device manager in windows as well? Just want to make sure to rule out everything.

I will grab one of my spare 635s and do a fresh install of smartie that I haven'e messed with and try and replicate your problem on a win 10 64 pc...

[hydrolisk1792]

Okay, just tried it out.

Try to just put COM3,115200,2 in the field. Maybe it is running into an error because there are too many arguments. Let me know how it goes.

My test works just fine with what I have stated above. Fresh install of samartie from the website (not one of my modified versions), fresh win10 x64 pc (also non modified), and brand new spare 635 is what I tried it with.

[Dark Phoenix]

Yeah, I figured out why the DLL error was happening; it was because I can't have CrystalControl2 and LCD Smartie running at the same time. But now LCD Smartie immediately goes into "Not Responding" as soon as it starts, and the LCD blanks out completely. I made sure the settings matched, and I downloaded the test program and confirmed that the LCD is working correctly.

[hydrolisk1792]

Yeah, I figured out why the DLL error was happening; it was because I can't have CrystalControl2 and LCD Smartie running at the same time. But now LCD Smartie immediately goes into "Not Responding" as soon as it starts, and the LCD blanks out completely. I made sure the settings matched, and I downloaded the test program and confirmed that the LCD is working correctly.

Try to download smartie again and see if that helps. You are running win 10 x64 correct?

Also try not running it in compatibility mode but just normal mode. That is how I did my test yesterday.

[hydrolisk1792]

Furthermore only one application can access a COM port at a time, so make sure that the port is not in use, as you stated above. Let me know how it goes, Cheers!

Also, if you have not restarted your computer since installing the CFA635 drivers, you need to do that. Another thing as well, make sure you unzip LCD smartie to run it. What I do is put all my lcd smartie instances into a folder directly in the C drive. For example my file path is

C:/CONTROL on (O;)/LCD-SMARTIE (EASTGATE)/LCD SMARTIE (COM-01)(SSIM)/"here are my smartie files for the display on COM 1 and for machine SSIM which is one of the security systems "

So yours could be something much simpler because I assume you only have that one display running, so this would work for you:

C:/LCD-SMARTIE/LCD SMARTIE (COM-03)(CFA635)/"Put your lcd smartie files in here for your cfa635

So this way if you wanted to add more to your infrastructure, you already have your directory setup! And the file folders don't have to be the exact setup I used above, that is just an example and template that I came up with to make it easier for me to modify and repair any files in the future.

Some further information: I don't think that smartie can go past COM99, however I haven't tried it. I know for sure it goes up to at least 82 on one machine, but that is as far as I have gone with it on one machine

[Dark Phoenix]

Tried in compatibility mode, not in compatiblity mode. Uninstalled Crystal Control, restarted, made sure it showed up and was using the CrystalFontz driver. Even tried removing it from Device Manager, restarting and having Windows rediscover it. Tried turning off the FIFO, tried turning down the bits per second rate to 9600, tried switching COM ports. Tried deleting LCD Smartie, downloading it fresh from the site, and re-extracting it to the folder. Still hangs on startup immediately with a blank display.

[hydrolisk1792]

Tried in compatibility mode, not in compatiblity mode. Uninstalled Crystal Control, restarted, made sure it showed up and was using the CrystalFontz driver. Even tried removing it from Device Manager, restarting and having Windows rediscover it. Tried turning off the FIFO, tried turning down the bits per second rate to 9600, tried switching COM ports. Tried deleting LCD Smartie, downloading it fresh from the site, and re-extracting it to the folder. Still hangs on startup immediately with a blank display.

Well damn. Okay, I need some details about your setup. Is it a desktop or laptop? If it is a desktop, what is the make and model of the motherboard and processor? What version of Windows 10 are you running? Is your .NET framework updated at least past 4.0? Is there anything running in the background that is maybe using that com port?

About the display: what version of the CFA635 do you have? Do you have the SCAB attached to the back of the display with all the sensors? If you could post a picture of your module that would help as well. Furthermore I don't know if Crystalfontz has done anything with their firmware on those displays since 2014 because that could also be an issue as well. I got all of mine back between 2005 and 2014, got a quantity of about 600 for a massive server project I was doing. I do know that they won't run in smartie unless the baud rate is 115200 though especially if the cable is more than 6 feet (about 2 metres). That seemed like the sweet spot with no glitching and whatnot. Let me know. Cheers!

[hydrolisk1792]

Also, does it hang with no driver selected? Does it hang with the driver selected and setup without the display connected to the PC?

[Dark Phoenix]

It's a desktop. The processor is an AMD FX-8520 and the motherboard is an ASUS M5A78L-M Plus/USB3. The specific Windows version is the Enterprise LTSC version, which means it doesn't have the App Store. I tried installing .NET 4.0, but Windows says I already have it, so it's definitely installed.

As for the module itself, I didn't get the version with the SCAB, so there's just one wire coming out the back, which is the USB wire. I downloaded CrystalFontz's test and confirmed that the unit is taking commands from Windows, as the test worked 100%. If I just pick the driver and don't put any options in the option box, it won't start. If I don't pick a driver at all, it starts. It's only if I select the crystal driver and put at least the com port and baud rate in for arguments.

[hydrolisk1792]

I believe your hardware is compatible with smartie and the display you have, however the OS you have, I don't think it has been tested with smartie.

Is there a way you can side load win 10 pro or home on a different hard drive or a different partition on the same drive and try that?

The frame work only has to be 4.0 or higher. So anything higher will do you fine.

[Dark Phoenix]

Okay, so I went and installed Windows 10 Pro, and I tried running LCD Smartie in it again. It doesn't lag out anymore, but it still lags, and nothing shows up on the display.

[hydrolisk1792]

Okay, so I went and installed Windows 10 Pro, and I tried running LCD Smartie in it again. It doesn't lag out anymore, but it still lags, and nothing shows up on the display.

Please check out this forum post for the latest lcd smartie build. It is a very stable build as I have been testing it for about 2 weeks non stop and no issues.
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