LCD Smartie

Is there a way to trap the data being sent by a program to control specific features of an LCD?

What I'd like to do is find out what signal is being sent and to where on the CF-635 from Crystalfontz by their WinTest program, with an eye towards using that info to write a plugin that allows a user to control the LEDs from Smartie. My thinking is that changing the on/off state and colors of the LEDs is working like the backlight and brightness/contrast settings, but with a different ID or something.

I could be totally off-base, being a n00b to LCDs and programming, but that's how an analog circuit would work...

Any ideas/comments from the "old hands"?

--edit--

Since I posted this, I found I could get the source code for the CF WinTest program for this display - though I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at, I think I understand the flow of code for the LED settings, and it does indeed look as if it talks to the display as I assumed... so I guess now I have to figure out how to use this information

Any experienced coders who want to help me figure this out drop me a line, the code is available on the crystalfontz website. I'll post if I make any progress or totally get lost.

--/edit--

Ok, I figured out some of this after looking thru various docs and at various sources, and some stuff I gleaned from the test program from CF, so I'm now working on writing a plugin for Smartie to control the 635's LEDs. I may crash & burn, since I'm new at C++, and I'm using this as a learning exercise.

I don't exactly understand the demo plugin files, but I want to try to work it out for myself before flooding with questions.

In the meantime, a probably obvious n00b question, if I want to pass 3 parameters into a function, how do I go about that? basically I need to feed this dll the function number, the color identifier, and the percentage brightness to use. I have seen that people have used a # as a delimiter, but I don't really get how to parse that; can someone explain that to me or show me an example? thanks!

I have done this before, there are utility that will show you raw data being sent. All you do it download a utility, hook two computers together witha null modem cable and run the software. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack though.


J