Anybody Using Silver's LCD Gen Software?

[NinjaEpisode]

Saw on Minwah's site that he's got support for Silver's LCD Gen Software (http://www.silverfoxy.plus.com/LCDGen.html) and I'm just curious if anybody is using it and if you can post some sample screenshots?

Also, do you find it helpful?

As I finish gathering supplies to get started building, I came across this today, and it looks cool, but I don't want to go through the steps if you don't find it useful.

[Navmaxlp]

Not sure if the program supports MAME but, on my HTPC, I use LCD Smartie and it works flawlessly. Has great support for music ie, it can show "nowplaying" info as well as date/time info and custom info. I had it running a dialogue for a while that looked like the computer was talking to the viewer. Might want to check it out and see if it fits your needs.

[Silver]

Have a look at this thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,17856.0.html

Its what gave me the idea to get an little LCD screen. My program basically displays the info in exactly the same way as in the thread - there were originally other peoples programs that did the same thing.... not sure if they are still around.

Note that Minwah's support is not just for my program -  my program just makes a load of text files (named *.lcd) for each game in your collection and puts the best available description of the controls in it (Controls.dat or Mames own xml info). Mamewah will read in the text from this file and shunt it out to a Com port of your choosing and settings. This means that you will have to be using an LCD panel that supports this (typically with a built in rs232 interface).

Oh, I've just found out that the XML info in Mame changed slightly for 0.95...  no idea if this breaks my program or not, I'll have to go and check.....

[jfunk]

What LCD do you recommend using?  I've looked at CrystalFontz and such, but they all seem pretty pricey and don't have all that much 'space'..?  Can't be the (cheaper) parallel port stuff, because I'm running XP, right?

[Navmaxlp]

Parallel port LCDs work in XP. I'm using one myself. I'm not sure off hand what brand it is without checking the packaging info. It came with my case but it's a 2x16 parallel. I tested quite a bit of software before finally going with LCD Smartie. There's a good forum for this kind of stuff over at HTPCNews.com also at AVSForums. I'm sure you can find a good bit of help here but those two sited focus mainly on HTPC rigs which use LCDs much more frequently.

[JoyMonkey]

Good god! I bought one of these LCD screens for $20 about a year ago, now the auctions are starting at $45!!!! That's insane!
Still haven't hooked the thing up, I really need to prioritize all the projects I start. (can't remember the last time I actually finished anything) 

[JoyMonkey]

On a related note, does anyone know how to send a text file to the serial port? Preferably using a DOS command?

[GadgetGeek]

On a related note, does anyone know how to send a text file to the serial port? Preferably using a DOS command?

My DOS is a little rusty, but wasn't it something like

Code: [Select]

copy yourfile.txt com1:
Or something along those lines.  You might have to do a mode command prior to that to open the com port at the baud rate your device is expecting.  HELP MODE should give more help than I can.

[JoyMonkey]

Thanks GG, that's very helpful!
For anyone interested, here's info on the Mode command:
http://www.computerhope.com/modehlp.htm

I'll try this out tonight if I can dig up an old serial cable.

[Silver]

I've got one of those 24x8 serial LCD's.  And yes the price has gone up recently!

They are handy because they are so easy to drive - you can just copy a txt file. If you have one of those this should work:

mode com1: baud=19200 parity=n data=8 stop=1

then

copy text.txt com1

You can set similar settings in Mamewah (19200,8,n,1 or whatever order it is).
These screens also support a set of commands for different fonts (it has 4 in built), scrolling along the line, bold text etc... The commands can be included in the txt file - check the linked thread above or look at this site for detailed info on the commands:
http://www.pjrc.com/tech/mp3/lcd_protocol.html

I've picked up a cheap graphical LCD I want to try out too, but need to hook a parallel port connector first....

[JoyMonkey]

I just tried it out (it only took me a year to get around to it, not bad eh?) and I've run into some trouble.
First of all, I tried the mode setting above, but I'm working from an old PC that doesn't support 19200 baud rate, so I set it to 9600 instead.
Now when I try to send a text file to it I get

Write fault error writing device COM1
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail ?

then I get

Fail on INT 24 - com1

I used a regular male->female DB9 cable and I'm giving the board 5v from the PC's power supply.

Any ideas?

Oh, and when I do a mode com1: /status I get
Status for device COM1:
Retry=NONE

Edit Never mind, after reading through the big old LCD thread I realized that a DOS machine needs a different cable pinout than an XP machine. So I hooked it up to an XP machine and it's displaying stuff now. When I have time I'll rewire that cable so it'll work in DOS for me. Right now I'm going to look into some of that fancy text formatting.....

[jfunk]

Yeah, I was too late to get one of those 24x8's for that price 

Still looking for good prices..  Backlight would be nice, too 

[JoyMonkey]

I was just about to post another question, when...

YAY!

[vibez]

this looks cool!. will this lcd be ok to run on xp

http://www.watercoolingshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=62&products_id=392

its 20x4 display. will that be fine for showing control.dat info?

[Silver]

It is certainly capable of showing the text, although currently the way I do it - and the one posted above - and from within Mamewah is using a Serial connection LCDne - not a parallel port one like you have linked to.

Parallel port is actually superior for LCDs as it can sustain a much higher data transfer - allowing for pictures/constantly updating stuff like a Winamp equalizer.

You will need to find out how to send plain text to it (which should be extremely easy - have a look at the forums for the type of software linked to by the LCD)

[vibez]

so for compatabilty it looks like i'll have to find a serial lcd. These things are quite hard to find in the uk 

[NinjaEpisode]

Ok so I bought one.   Now the guy said I can backlight the thing but the website he pointed me to is out of kits.

Anybody know of  a place making backlights for the 24x8 LCDs?

[JoyMonkey]

Techknowman sells them, but he has a minimum order of 6 kits. If you don't find anywhere else that sells them and want to do a group buy, put me down for one.
http://www.techknowman.com/Kits/Kits.htm

[Silver]

@vibez

well I am sure a parallel one will work. I'm getting my hands on one to play with so when I get it running I'll look into using it for plain text files which I'm sure will be easy.....

[vibez]

Thanks alot Silver!

[NinjaEpisode]

Techknowman sells them, but he has a minimum order of 6 kits. If you don't find anywhere else that sells them and want to do a group buy, put me down for one.
http://www.techknowman.com/Kits/Kits.htm

I shot techknowman an e-mail regarding pricing.  Haven't heard anything yet.

fyi, gang, I actually picked up the 24x8 LCD for $25 bucks with controller card off of e-bay this weekend.

Do a search on Serial LCD and you'll find several at decent prices.

[vibez]

I spotted this one on ebay.co.uk http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4660&item=7507211411&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

But it looks like connecting it up to a pc will be well beyond my electronic abilty (I can just about put batteries in my remote the correct way )

looks like i'm going to have to go without an lcd for the moment

[vibez]

Techknowman sells them, but he has a minimum order of 6 kits. If you don't find anywhere else that sells them and want to do a group buy, put me down for one.
http://www.techknowman.com/Kits/Kits.htm

Is anyone seriously interested in doing a group order? I know a guy who wants 3, I want one, so we just need 2 more.

Any serious takers? (BTW we are based in the uk)

[jfunk]

Techknowman sells them, but he has a minimum order of 6 kits. If you don't find anywhere else that sells them and want to do a group buy, put me down for one.
http://www.techknowman.com/Kits/Kits.htm

Is anyone seriously interested in doing a group order? I know a guy who wants 3, I want one, so we just need 2 more.

Any serious takers? (BTW we are based in the uk)

How much are they?  Although, I'm in the US...

[vibez]

i'm having trouble contacting him to get a price. the guy just wont reply to my emails 

[Stu_C]

Hi Vibez,

I'm in the UK and interested.  Let me know the price if the guy emails you.

Cheers,

Stu

[NinjaEpisode]

i'm having trouble contacting him to get a price. the guy just wont reply to my emails

[vibez]

I hope he is only on holiday, I have a 24 x 8 that desperatly needs a backlight. Although I'm sure we might be able to build the kits ourselves. Shouldnt be too hard.

[NinjaEpisode]

So what's the easiest way to power that 24x8?

[JoyMonkey]

It takes 5v that you can grab from any power connector on a PC.
ie, those white plugs that power floppy drives, hard-drives and cd-roms in your PC - here's a pinout diagram

[NinjaEpisode]

LOL.  Good enough. Simple Molex hack.

[Silver]

In testing mine I found that it worked fine powered off the IPAC LED headers. (and one of the screw-down grounds).

However, no idea what load it pulls so this may not be a good suggestion as I suspect its more than an LED.

[vibez]

are standard molex connections 5v or 12v? I dont want to overload my lcd 

[Dire Radiant]

They're both. Connect red and black you get 5v, connect yellow and black you get 12v, connect red and yellow you get 7v. Doesn't matter which black pin you use btw.

[vibez]

thanks dire. I have power to it now.

Only trouble is I cant get anything to display on he lcd


Ok I have this hooked up to com1. i've gone to a command prompt & typed 'mode' This is what I got

Status for device COM1:
-----------------------
    Baud:            1920
    Parity:          None
    Data Bits:       8
    Stop Bits:       1
    Timeout:         OFF
    XON/XOFF:        OFF
    CTS handshaking: OFF
    DSR handshaking: OFF
    DSR sensitivity: OFF
    DTR circuit:     OFF
    RTS circuit:     OFF

I've created a little .bat file to test sending text to the screen

 here's my test.bat:
copy test.lcd com1

and here's my test.lcd:
work damn you!


The file gets sent ok

C:\>copy test.lcd com1
        1 file(s) copied.

but no text shows up on the screen.  Any idea what is wrong? I'm using xp by the way.

[Silver]

If you are using a 24x8 try:

mode com1 baud=19200 parity=n data=8

then copy the text file. you will probably have to reset the com port every time you open a dos box from windows....

[vibez]

interesting, why though?

I mean the port always keeps these settings, even after re-boot

    Baud:            1920
    Parity:          None
    Data Bits:       8
    Stop Bits:       1

::EDIT

i'm afraid that didnt work either. I have noticed there is a slider on the top of th lcd. I guess this is for contrast. Should the display change even without any text on it if I move the slider?

[Silver]

note there is a difference between 19200 and 1920. I am not sure that the 24x8 with a rs232 interface will work as low as 1920.

I gave those settings as they are known to work, and work with mine. If you enter the mode command with the settings as above, does it report the baud as 1920 or 19200? If it stays as 1920 it sounds like there might be a problem.

Could you elaborate how you connecting the LCD, what cable, what OS etc. Some of these 24x8 LCD's come with a mini daughter board plugged in the back with just 4 or 5 pins on it (+5v, ground, send, recieve..). IF you are using Win XP you can get away with only wiring the send and recieve to a comm cable, I think earlier versions of windows may need the various "Send ready" lines to activated to work. The thread I linked to above has info on some of this I think, although you may have to search for it.

Slider - yes its contrast. When powered, if you move it all the way to the right the whole display should fill with solid dark rectangles. This dark, and you can't see any text when you send it but you know its powered. I would suggest moving to the right fully, then move to the left and stop just when the rectangles don't appear obvious. This will let you see the text.

If you do not get a display full of dark rectangles with just the power attached and the slider to the right fully, I would suggest you are not powering it correctly.

[NinjaEpisode]

Got mine powered up tonight.  Looks awesome!  Really needs a backlight kit though, so, since Techknowman isn't responding to anybody, I guess I need to come up with something other method to light this baby.  I don't think I'll get the same effect from LEDs so it's time to search.

beingseen.com has EL sheets but they're not cheap.

Silver, two questions:  I noticed on a couple of the .lcd files that when I sent them to the LCD as a test, the title bar did nothing but a super fast scroll causing it not to be legible?  I assume it's the length of the title?

Second question:  For mamewah, do I just modify the .ini file to give the location of the .lcd files and mamewah will do the rest?

[vibez]

This is the lcd here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7507211411

I thinking its a power problem, because moving the slider does nothing to the screen. The LCD board has a little led in the right hand corner, that lights up, so I assumed it ment the power was ok. But i'm not getting these black blocks when I turn the contrast up, so I must of powered it wrong. I cant think how though. I'm connecting it to 1 red & 1 black of a molex connection, so that must be 5v. Is there a way to get 5v off the jpac?