[lcd4linux] Re: M50530

[Michael Reinelt]

Hi Benjamin,

> I got an 24x8 LCD with an Mitsuibishi M50530 display controller and tried to get
> it to work with lcd4linux.
>
> By starting up the display shows to black rows, one on the upper and one in the
> middle of the screen. The screen goes blank by starting LCD4Linux.

Half of the display black means "uninitialized". If it goes blank, this
means it has been reset.

I've checked my wirings but found no mistake (using the wiring sheme
showed in
> lcd4linux m50530 driver). I also tried to load the parport, partport_pc and
> ppdev modules without success....
>
> Do you have any idea whats the problem (maybe the timing cycles ?!) ?

Maybe, maybe not. The M50530 normally works reliable.

I'd need your lcd4linux.conf and the output of 'lcd4linux -Fvvq'

bye, Michael

--
Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at

[Andrew Chapman]

Has anyone managed to use a Futaba VFD, M202MD10AA? It is from an IBM
SureOne POS machine and has a 8 pin phone-type jack connector. The cable
and connector seem to be a one-off for this machine as far as I can tell. I
can't find any documentation for the connector other than that it is serial,
9600 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 2 stop bits. Without knowing which pins
are which, it is a bit difficult to try it out. The display has no power
connector so must also be powered through the serial connector too.

Any suggestions for how to connect this or test the pinouts?

thanks,
Andrew Chapman

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Reinelt" <***@eunet.at>
To: "Benjamin Eichhorn" <big-***@web.de>
Cc: "lcd4linux-users" <lcd4linux-***@lists.sourceforge.net>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 5:26 AM
Subject: [lcd4linux] Re: M50530


> Hi Benjamin,
>
> > I got an 24x8 LCD with an Mitsuibishi M50530 display controller and
tried to get
> > it to work with lcd4linux.
> >
> > By starting up the display shows to black rows, one on the upper and one
in the
> > middle of the screen. The screen goes blank by starting LCD4Linux.
>
> Half of the display black means "uninitialized". If it goes blank, this
> means it has been reset.
>
> I've checked my wirings but found no mistake (using the wiring sheme
> showed in
> > lcd4linux m50530 driver). I also tried to load the parport, partport_pc
and
> > ppdev modules without success....
> >
> > Do you have any idea whats the problem (maybe the timing cycles ?!) ?
>
> Maybe, maybe not. The M50530 normally works reliable.
>
> I'd need your lcd4linux.conf and the output of 'lcd4linux -Fvvq'
>
> bye, Michael
>
> --
> Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
> Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
> A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials
> Free Linux tutorial presented by Daniel Robbins, President and CEO of
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> administration.http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1470&alloc_id=3638&op=click
> _______________________________________________
> Lcd4linux-users mailing list
> Lcd4linux-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/lcd4linux-users
>
>

[Michael Reinelt]

Hi Andrew,

> Has anyone managed to use a Futaba VFD, M202MD10AA? It is from an IBM
> SureOne POS machine and has a 8 pin phone-type jack connector. The cable
> and connector seem to be a one-off for this machine as far as I can tell. I
> can't find any documentation for the connector other than that it is serial,
> 9600 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 2 stop bits. Without knowing which pins
> are which, it is a bit difficult to try it out. The display has no power
> connector so must also be powered through the serial connector too.
>
> Any suggestions for how to connect this or test the pinouts?

Hmm, dis will be difficult. Can you see which chips are on the device?
As it's a serial device, the beast must consist of two logical parts:
the LCD controller itself (which has for shure a microcontroller
interface, and not a serial one), and a microcontroller, which handles
the serial protocol.

Is there a backlight? If so, it would be easy to find out at least these
pins. Maybe this is the power for the rest of the display, too.

Do you have access to such a POS machine? Maybe you could find out
something about the connctors...

If you have to go for the "trial and error" way, a power supply with
good current limiting is a must. Otherwise you have this special "smell"
quite soon :-)

bye, Michael

--
Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at

[Andrew Chapman]

Michael,

The controller is a Phillips P87c52. It also has two OKI 8382532 which I
assume are memory chips. Isn't it likely to use +5v as power? Presumably
if I identify ground, which shouldn't be too difficult, I could then apply
+5V to the other pins to see which seems to be for power. Or would doing
this potentially fry my chips?

There are specs available for other VFD's in the M202 series, but not for
this model, presumably because it was a custom design for IBM. The M202SD08
display uses 5V power but is parallel (see
http://mem.tcon.net/users/5010/5491/vfd.htm).

IBM uses a standard serial controller to drive the device from the Pc end
(the SureOne is a Pc with a Via C3 chip and Windows OS), so I would expect
the cable to be similar to a standard RS-232 one. The following seems to be
the common layout for an 8 pin serial cable, but this doesn't account for
power. The SureOne technical documentation gives pinouts for all the other
connectors, including both unpowered and powered serial connectors but omits
the VFD display connector.
1) DSR 2) DCD 3) DTR 4) SG 5) RD 6) TD 7) CTS 8)
RTS

thanks,
Andrew

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Reinelt" <***@eunet.at>
To: "Andrew Chapman" <***@bioch.ox.ac.uk>
Cc: "lcd4linux-users" <lcd4linux-***@lists.sourceforge.net>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: [lcd4linux] Futaba VFD with phone jack connector


> Hi Andrew,
>
> > Has anyone managed to use a Futaba VFD, M202MD10AA? It is from an IBM
> > SureOne POS machine and has a 8 pin phone-type jack connector. The
cable
> > and connector seem to be a one-off for this machine as far as I can
tell. I
> > can't find any documentation for the connector other than that it is
serial,
> > 9600 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 2 stop bits. Without knowing which
pins
> > are which, it is a bit difficult to try it out. The display has no
power
> > connector so must also be powered through the serial connector too.
> >
> > Any suggestions for how to connect this or test the pinouts?
>
> Hmm, dis will be difficult. Can you see which chips are on the device?
> As it's a serial device, the beast must consist of two logical parts:
> the LCD controller itself (which has for shure a microcontroller
> interface, and not a serial one), and a microcontroller, which handles
> the serial protocol.
>
> Is there a backlight? If so, it would be easy to find out at least these
> pins. Maybe this is the power for the rest of the display, too.
>
> Do you have access to such a POS machine? Maybe you could find out
> something about the connctors...
>
> If you have to go for the "trial and error" way, a power supply with
> good current limiting is a must. Otherwise you have this special "smell"
> quite soon :-)
>
> bye, Michael
>
> --
> Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
> Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
> A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials
> Free Linux tutorial presented by Daniel Robbins, President and CEO of
> GenToo technologies. Learn everything from fundamentals to system
> administration.http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1470&alloc_id=3638&op=click
> _______________________________________________
> Lcd4linux-users mailing list
> Lcd4linux-***@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/lcd4linux-users
>
>

[Thomas Siedentopf]

Hi,

Andrew Chapman schrieb:

| IBM uses a standard serial controller to drive the device from the Pc end
| (the SureOne is a Pc with a Via C3 chip and Windows OS), so I would expect
| the cable to be similar to a standard RS-232 one. The following seems to be
| the common layout for an 8 pin serial cable, but this doesn't account for
| power. The SureOne technical documentation gives pinouts for all the other
| connectors, including both unpowered and powered serial connectors but omits
| the VFD display connector.

;-)

The connecter that is described here is used on nearly all IBM POS systems for
the special POS hardware (cash drawer, LCDs, MSRs etc ...). It is a serial
RS485 port with a special kind of connector. No - I currently do not have a
pin-out for this device. The only thing that I know now is that the power is
also coming over this "RJ-like" cable and that therefore this:

| 1) DSR 2) DCD 3) DTR 4) SG 5) RD 6) TD 7) CTS 8)
| RTS

maybe wrong.

|
| thanks,
| Andrew

CU,
Thomas.
- --
thomas siedentopf - public key available.
This is Linux Country. On a clear silent night, you can hear Windows
reboot.

[Michael Reinelt]

Hi Andrew,

> The controller is a Phillips P87c52. It also has two OKI 8382532 which I
> assume are memory chips. Isn't it likely to use +5v as power? Presumably
> if I identify ground, which shouldn't be too difficult, I could then apply
> +5V to the other pins to see which seems to be for power. Or would doing
> this potentially fry my chips?

That depends. That's why I have a power supply with current limiting. If
the display decides to take 15 Ampere at +5V, and the Power Supply
decides to supply 15A at 5V, guess what will happen :-)

--
Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at

[Kevin Liu]

Dear Michael,

I'm download LCD4Linux v.0.9.11 tar ball, my system do not support X11, and
I have configuration with --disable-x option, but it seems still somewhere
wrong, can't build makefile. would you like tell me how to solve this problem.
I don't need build binary with X11 suport.

Best regards,
Kevin Liu

--
MIS Family Technology, Inc.
No.10, Shuren Rd., Shanhua Jen,
Tainan, Taiwan 741.
http://mis-family.ath.cx
Tel:[phone] Ext.801
Fax:[phone]

[Michael Reinelt]

Hi Kevin Liu,

> I'm download LCD4Linux v.0.9.11 tar ball, my system do not support X11, and
> I have configuration with --disable-x option, but it seems still somewhere
> wrong, can't build makefile. would you like tell me how to solve this problem.
> I don't need build binary with X11 suport.

Hmmm... AFAIK the optins's called '--without-x'. This would explain why
you couldn't even build the makefile (which would be a very strange error).

If this does not solve your problem, please send me the output of the
configure un.


bye, Michael

--
Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at

[Kevin Liu]

Hi Michael,

The following session one is error messages after configure and the other is
occur at configuration time.
Need your help, Thanks.

-----------------------------
***@Develop ~/software/lcd4linux-0.9.11# ./configure --without-x >err.lst
configure: WARNING: gd.h not found: PNG driver disabled
configure: WARNING: gd.h not found: PNG driver disabled
configure: error: X11 headers or libraries not available: X11 driver disabled
-----------------------------

-----------------------------
***@Develop ~/software/lcd4linux-0.9.11# cat err.lst
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for working aclocal-1.4... missing
checking for working autoconf... found
checking for working automake-1.4... missing
checking for working autoheader... found
checking for working makeinfo... found
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for log in -lm... yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for egrep... grep -E
configure: checking location of ncurses.h file...
Found ncurses on /usr/include/ncurses.h
checking for ncurses version... 5.2
checking for X... disabled
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking gd/gd.h usability... no
checking gd/gd.h presence... no
checking for gd/gd.h... no
checking gd.h usability... no
checking gd.h presence... no
checking for gd.h... no
checking which drivers to compile... done
-----------------------------



On Sat, 13 Mar 2004 19:12:50 +0100, Michael Reinelt wrote
> Hi Kevin Liu,
>
> > I'm download LCD4Linux v.0.9.11 tar ball, my system do not support X11,
and
> > I have configuration with --disable-x option, but it seems still somewhere
> > wrong, can't build makefile. would you like tell me how to solve this
problem.
> > I don't need build binary with X11 suport.
>
> Hmmm... AFAIK the optins's called '--without-x'. This would explain
> why you couldn't even build the makefile (which would be a very
> strange error).
>
> If this does not solve your problem, please send me the output of
> the configure un.
>
> bye, Michael
>
> --
> Michael Reinelt Tel: +43 676
> 3079941 Geisslergasse 4 Fax: +43
> 316 692343 A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail:
***@eunet.at


Best regards,
Kevin Liu

--
MIS Family Technology, Inc.
No.10, Shuren Rd., Shanhua Jen,
Tainan, Taiwan 741.
http://mis-family.ath.cx
Tel:[phone] Ext.801
Fax:[phone]

[Michael Reinelt]

Hi Kevin Liu,

>>>I have configuration with --disable-x option, but it seems still somewhere
>>>wrong, can't build makefile. would you like tell me how to solve this

Looks like you've found a bug in the configure scripts!

In 'configure.in', line 228, replace AC_MSG_ERROR by AC_MSG_WARN, and
everything should be ok!

Thanks for the hint!


bye, Michael

--
Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at

[Kevin Liu]

Hi Michael,

I think I find the problem, replace AC_MSG_ERROR by AC_MSG_WARN the problem
still exist until I chnage default value to 'no' in configure driver select
session. That in 'configure', line 5341.
I can compile right now, I'm running lcd4linux and modify a lcd4linux.conf,
but the process just exit, nothing to do. Does something wrong??
Thanks a lot.


On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 07:05:49 +0100, Michael Reinelt wrote
> Hi Kevin Liu,
>
> >>>I have configuration with --disable-x option, but it seems still
somewhere
> >>>wrong, can't build makefile. would you like tell me how to solve this
>
> Looks like you've found a bug in the configure scripts!
>
> In 'configure.in', line 228, replace AC_MSG_ERROR by AC_MSG_WARN,
> and everything should be ok!
>
> Thanks for the hint!
>
> bye, Michael
>
> --
> Michael Reinelt Tel: +43 676
> 3079941 Geisslergasse 4 Fax: +43
> 316 692343 A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail:
***@eunet.at


Best regards,
Kevin Liu

--
MIS Family Technology, Inc.
No.10, Shuren Rd., Shanhua Jen,
Tainan, Taiwan 741.
http://mis-family.ath.cx
Tel:[phone] Ext.801
Fax:[phone]

[Michael Reinelt]

Hi Kevin,

> I think I find the problem, replace AC_MSG_ERROR by AC_MSG_WARN the problem
> still exist until I chnage default value to 'no' in configure driver select
> session. That in 'configure', line 5341.

Strange. Maybe hou had cached results from a previous confiure run?

> I can compile right now, I'm running lcd4linux and modify a lcd4linux.conf,
> but the process just exit, nothing to do. Does something wrong??

How does your lcd4linux.conf look like?

try running lcd4linux with the arguments '-Fvvq' and have a look at the
debugging output. If you can't find the reason, just send me both the
lcd4linux.conf and the debugging output.


bye, Michael

--
Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at

[Michael Reinelt]

Hi Benjamin,

> Now here are my lcd4linux.conf and the outputs of "lcd4linux -Fvvq".

Please, PLEASE, never NEVER send configs, logfiles etc. as HTML!!!! It
took me half an hour to extract the real content!

Just to tell you that everything looks fine.

There may be several reasons:

- a wiring fault (you cannot check your wiring often enough :-)
- a timing problem (hard to find)
- a level problem
- a defect display

Does the display work with some other software? Maybe with W*ndows?

I had some problems with T6963 displays in the past, they really want a
high level of +5V on the interface, where most modern parallel ports
work on a 3.3V basis.


bye, Michael

--
Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at

[Michael Reinelt]

Hi Benjamin,


> sorry for my terrible HTML-Logfiles.
Forget about it.
But I've got another point: why are you sending two very similar, but
slightly different mails?

> I'll check my wirings once again. In the display datasheet I've read that 100
> Ohms resistors in series to the LCD-Interface will protect the parallel port by
> wiring faults, but there is nothing said about things like the input impedance
> and logic levels (CMOS or TTL). This would be VERY interesting.

YOu could easily tfind out the level of your parallel port with a
multimeter.

> So finally I'll remove the resistors and take one more try.
may be worth a try..

> On the other hand I don't understand why lcd4linux detects 1991,55300 MHz by my
> Athlon XP 2400+ machine, I think this processor is running at exactly 2,000 GHz...
lcd4linux does not detect the processor clock, it uses the one detected
by the kernel, taken from /proc/cpuinfo. If you have a look at this
file, you will find exactly this 1991,5 MHz there.

bye, Michael

--
Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at

[Marco Lück]

It works with LCDHYPE on Windows !



And it works fine !



Marco

[Michael Reinelt]

Hi Marco,

> It works with LCDHYPE on Windows !
> And it works fine !

Fine. But I'm afraid this will be not of much help for Benjamin. If it
works with windows, this means that neither the display nor the parallel
port have a problem, and that there is a working wiring scheme. But this
is valid for _your_ computer, _your_ wiring, and _your_ display.
Benjamin may have another display, another PC and another wiring.

Benjamin, do you have a possibility to try LCDHYPE? (whatever this is...)

bye, Michael

--
Michael Reinelt Tel: [phone]
Geisslergasse 4 Fax: [phone]
A-8045 Graz, Austria e-mail: ***@eunet.at