Wrong chars on LCD

[Purzelkater]

Hi,

I have an Abacom USB LCD, it's a HD44780 compatible 4x20 LCD with CH341A USB Chipset and an own Smartie display DLL.

Well, first I have tried some chars:

• @ works.
• $Bar is correct on preview window on my PC but on LCD I have "blank blocks"
• "Block" is empty on preview window on my PC and blank on the LCD
• ° (Degree) is empty on preview window and - (Minus sign) an LCD
• $Chr(255) is empty on preview window but correct black block on LCD

Then I have tried bignum and perf plugins with near the same result. Bignum is correct on preview window but crippled on LCD. Only blanks or - are shown.

Because $Chr(255) is shown correct on LCD I would say it's a problem with custom char defintion on Smartie but I don't know how to slove.

I have tried LCD Smartie 5.4, 5.4.1 beta and 5.5 tricolor.

Any hints?

Best regards,
Frank

[Purzelkater]

Okay,

now it's a little bit crazy...

I have tried to make my own custom chars. But the first char is always the minus sign "-" and all others are blank - doesn't matter what was defined on CustomChar function. Well, maybe my LCD can't use custom chars? - But now the crazy part: After that I have tried LCDHype without loading new custom char definitions but with a script to show all custom chars. And there where all the custom chars shown, defined with Smarties.

Ao, CustomChars are defined right with Smarties but not shown with it. But with LCDHype I can show this chars on the LCD.

Regards,
Frank

[mattcro]

Bizarre... it sounds like there may be a problem with Abacom's Smartie plugin - specifically the custom character generation/handling.

The Smartie degree symbol is generated as a custom character. On my LCD I use $Chr(223) to get the LCD's own degree symbol. The block symbol is also generated as a custom character. Just use $Chr(255) to get a standard block.

[Davegsm82]

I'm having this same problem on a serial VFD display (epson char set i think)

When you try to use the 'Block' and bar graph all I get is blank spaces.

Could someone tell me what character is usually the block so I can remap it to one that I know works ($char(219)) gives the correct character.

Thanks, Dave.

[mattcro]

The block in Smartie (if you insert a Block symbol from the picker menu) is generated as a custom character. You can just use $Chr(255) (for most LCDs) or $Chr(219) if that works on your VFD.

The bar graph (and similar graphs) is also generated as a set of custom chars, so you are probably out of luck unless you can get custom characters working. You may be able to find a Smartie driver (plugin) to work with it - check the Plugin Announcements.

[Davegsm82]

Ok, well i'm using the test LCD DLL as my display isn't supported by smartie directly, so i dont think it will support the custom characters.

Is there any way you can think of to implement the 'block' character in light of this?

Thanks, Dave.

[mattcro]

Do you just want to get the solid block symbol? It sounds like you can get that by inserting $Chr(219) in a screen. This is normally $Chr(255) on most LCDs.

Custom Chars are not supported at all in the test driver - it's only a very simple debugging/testing system.