• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

VFD Headaches

W

Wampa

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 24, 2003
Messages
284
I just bought a 1x16 VFD from B.G. Micro a few days ago (link here: http://www.bgmicro.com/prodinfo.asp...ACS1385&page=1&cri=VFD&stype=3&time_out=19:58) and it arrived today. I connected it to my COM1 port with a serial cable, and the 5v and ground directly to the 5v and ground on my power supply. Here is what the back of the VFD looks like.

vfd0.jpg


The problem is, I have no idea how to get this working. No hardware is automatically recognized in Windows 2000, and I have messed around with VFD Thinger and LCDC with no success. The power it wants in the crappy 1-page instructions from B.G. Micro is 5v at 300-500mA. Anyone here used these 1x16 BG Micro VFDs before and got them running? I am on the verge of going crazy here :). I tried without success to find any previous VFD threads that addressed this issue.
 
Make sure the serial ground is also connected to the power supply ground. Also double check that your PC's transmit pin is connected to the VFD's receive pin.

Does it power up btw?

Check your jumpers as well.
 
Originally posted by Wampa
No hardware is automatically recognized in Windows 2000,
Click to expand...
That's because it is a serial device. Serial devices will not "automatically" be recognized by any operating system unless the OS is actively polling the com port (which no Windows system will do). Anyhow, the VFD you have there only accepts data from the PC, it does not send anything back to it (one-way communication). Therefore, assuming Windows WAS looking for devices on the serial port (which I think it *may* do with the plug-and-play installation wizard), it would never know that anything was connected because the VFD does not send data back to confirm its presence. Ohh, and there are no drivers built into windows to send data to pretty much any display connected to a serial or printer port (correct me if I am wrong). You can ask people to add support, but there will be no easy plug-and-play answer for right now.

Originally posted by Wampa
and I have messed around with VFD Thinger and LCDC with no success.
Click to expand...
Neither supports is. The VFD you have there has a custom serial->parallel backpack that accepts (as far as I know) only the basic ASCII set with no special instruction characters or custom characters. (trust me, I know, I set up 4 of them for a lab I worked at at Princeton U.)

Want to know if it works? Plug it in and open up a terminal program and try sending out some text to the com port it is connected to. As long as you have the baud rate, parity, & stop bits correct, you should see information on your screen. Otherwise, 2x check your jumpers on the backpack and 2x check the settings in your terminal program. Once you get data sent to it, you are in buisness! Now all you have to do is write a program that does what you want... I would help, but I don't have any of the displays and I don't have the time to write MORE demo software :-p Good luck though!

-special [k]
 
Originally posted by Adisharr
Does it power up btw?
Click to expand...
He should look at the screen in a dark room when power is applied and if he sees the filaments glowing orange. If he does, then the VFD is receiving power. Otherwise, check your wiring. Because it is a serial device, it is dead simple to connect to a PC, just make sure you have the com settings right.

-special [k]
 
im 99% sure somone has one of those working... check the cool case gallery, i think its posted in there, then you can ask him :)
 
Any hints as to how recent the project was or what it was titled?

I got a response back from a guy at B.G. Micro who told me to type this into DOS:

mode com1:9600,n,8,1
copy con com1:
This is a test
^Z (^Z is CTRL+Z)

Am I supposed to type this all out on one line, or what? I typed it all on one line in the CMD prompt in Windows 2000 and it said "Invalid parameter - copy". Also, I turned on the modular power supply and turned all the lights off and I didn't see any filament glowing. The PSU 5v line runs at about 5.1v, and I don't know what the mA rating is. I could always build a little 5v power supply if that is the problem.

I also dug up this while researching. I can't understand a whole deal on that page, as I am not really a programming guy, but it looks useful.

Would more pics of my wiring for the power be useful? I can take a few after school.

Thanks for the help so far!
 
no, those are 4 seperate lines. enter after each.

windows 2000 cmd prompt is NOT dos. I dont think those commands will work in windows 2000.
you could scrounge up a dos floppy to try what he said.

you may also have it hooked up to a com port other than 1. (like com2).

You may be able to fool with hyperterm to get those settings, but theres probably a better free/share ware terminal program you can get and use those settings:

9600 baud/bits per second/whatever
No parity
8 data bits
1 stop bit
 
Good news; my connection for the power was bad (the pin was not all the way in the connector), so I fixed it and now I see the faint orange lines. I downloaded FreeDOS and put it onto a boot disk and booted into it fine. However, when I tried to go through the four lines the BG Micro guy gave me, it said:

"Error reading from device COM1: write fault"

I tried both COM1 and COM2 and got the same error for each. I also tried a program called "COM Inspector 2.0" in Windows, but when I try to select Com1 or Com2 it says "Port already open". Would it be easier for me to take off the serial adapter and try to wire it up to the parallel interface, or is there something else I am missing? I feel like I am so close but I just can't get anything onto there :(. Thanks for any help.
 
those are NOT dos commands

open up hyperterminal and make a new connection on the com port you are using with the settings they gave you 9600,n,8,1,n

then type in "this is a test" ctrl+z
 
I am sorry. I opened up HyperTerminal in Windows 2000, and went to the settings tab, and have these settings for COM1.

screenie1.png


I press okay and then end up on the main screen. You can't type in this screen...? I try to type and nothing shows up, it stays blank.

screenie2.png


I am not really sure what I am doing wrong here.
 
your not going to see what your typing since the VFD is not going to echo what you send to it IIRC...

just type in some stuff and hit ctrl+z see if anything appears on the display
 
alive.jpg


It's alive!

Thanks a ton! I did a combination of what you suggested and I also uninstalled a program I had a while back called Girder which reads a remote control from an RF receiver hooked up to the COM port. I think Girder was hogging the port and keeping the programs out.

Now all I have to do is figure out how I'll program this (I have no idea how to program). LCDC kind of works with it; it flashes oddly but the regular text goes through for the most part. I'll have to see how hard it might be to add a data file for LCDC or maybe VFD Thinger that follows this display.

Any suggestions on which way to go with the software?

EDIT: I am going to see what I can do with the LCDC software. There apparently are some people with 20x2 BG displays with unofficial plugins that are having some luck.
 
Originally posted by Wampa
EDIT: I am going to see what I can do with the LCDC software. There apparently are some people with 20x2 BG displays with unofficial plugins that are having some luck.
Click to expand...
Congrats! Good work on getting it to display!

Just to let you know though, the BGMicro 2x20 and 1x16 are VERY different in what can be sent and displayed. The 2x20 allows for some custom characters and has an instruction set that allows for control of the display, but the 1x16 will only display text sequentially with no custom characters and no instructions to control it. The flashing you are seeing is very likely LCDC sending clear, move cursor, and custom character commands (none of which are supported with your display).

-special [k]
 
How would you be able to have the VDF display the CPU's Temp? Or the HDD Temp? Or both?

If you can do it, and it's not too hard, I'd like to buy one also.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top