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EZIO Driver for LCDproc

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  • F
    fmertz
    last edited by May 25, 2017, 5:07 PM

    The server needs to be told where to find the drivers.

    Add this to LCDd.conf:

    [server]
    DriverPath= /usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
    

    Make sure there is a slash at the end..

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    • U
      uknownme123
      last edited by May 25, 2017, 5:38 PM

      Alright, now it's : Listening for queries on 127.0.0.1:13667,
      and just waiting here.

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      • F
        fmertz
        last edited by May 25, 2017, 5:45 PM

        Ok, so now you can start a client. Something like:

        /usr/local/sbin/lcdproc -p 13667 -h 127.0.0.1 G K
        
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        • U
          uknownme123
          last edited by May 25, 2017, 6:41 PM

          [2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/usr/local/sbin: /usr/bin/nice -20 /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13667 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P &
          [1] 71213
          [2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/usr/local/sbin: /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13667 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P &
          [2] 81824
          [1]    Done                          /usr/bin/nice -20 /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13667 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P
          [2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/usr/local/sbin: /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13666 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P &
          [3] 82399
          [2]    Done                          /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -p 13667 -s 127.0.0.1 C T U I D M L P
          [2.3.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/usr/local/sbin: /usr/local/bin/lcdproc -s 127.0.0.1 -p 13666 C T U I D M L P &
          [1] 37831
          
          

          Tried different variation nothing shows on the screen. Its taking the command for sure, but I don't know where.

          Confirmed the lb216 driver does work somewhat for this screen, buttons are not functional. So at least I know the screen works.

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          • F
            fmertz
            last edited by May 25, 2017, 6:45 PM

            Can you post LCDd.conf?

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            • U
              uknownme123
              last edited by May 25, 2017, 6:49 PM

              
              [server]
              DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
              Driver=hd44780
              
              [hd44780]
              ConnectionType=ezio
              Device=/dev/cuau1
              Keypad=yes
              Size=16x2
              KeyMatrix_4_1=Enter
              KeyMatrix_4_2=Up
              KeyMatrix_4_3=Down
              KeyMatrix_4_4=Escape
              
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              • U
                uknownme123
                last edited by May 25, 2017, 7:30 PM

                [server]
                DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
                Driver=hd44780

                [hd44780]
                ConnectionType=ezio
                Device=/dev/cuau1
                Keypad=yes
                Size=16x2
                KeyMatrix_4_1=Enter
                KeyMatrix_4_2=Up
                KeyMatrix_4_3=Down
                KeyMatrix_4_4=Escape

                Woops, this was actually LCD.conf. LCDd.conf still contained information regarding lb216 driver.

                Issue was, I initially created LCD.conf, instead I should had wipe out LCDd.conf and replaced with above code. commands mv LCD.conf LCDd.conf.

                Now its working. Now I'll try out the buttons and let you know.

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                • F
                  fmertz
                  last edited by May 25, 2017, 7:52 PM

                  @uknownme123:

                  Now I'll try out the buttons and let you know.

                  You might have to enable the internal menu for this:

                  
                  [server]
                  DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
                  Driver=hd44780
                  
                  ToggleRotateKey=Enter
                  PrevScreenKey=Left
                  NextScreenKey=Right
                  
                  [menu]
                  MenuKey=Escape
                  EnterKey=Enter
                  UpKey=Up
                  DownKey=Down
                  
                  
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                  • U
                    uknownme123
                    last edited by May 26, 2017, 2:37 AM May 26, 2017, 2:11 AM

                    Awesome, the buttons work. I did notice that after a while it gets very laggy in response, this is probably because of the 2400 baud rate.

                    Hope to see this driver it in the WebGUI. I know a lot of folks out there have this LCD screen. I saw a lot of Checkpoints. I saw one on an Xceedium GateKeeper. The one I have was Smoothwall. I though I saw then on Mikrotek's x86 devices, I could be wrong on this tho. Thanks.

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                    • F
                      fmertz
                      last edited by May 26, 2017, 1:48 PM

                      Thanks, good to hear confirmation that it works on the real hardware. I was developing this on an ARM NAS (running Debian Linux) with a USB/Serial adapter.

                      At this point, the code change has been merged upstream with the lcdproc project: https://github.com/lcdproc/lcdproc/pull/82

                      I assume the pfSense maintainers will pull the lcdproc package after the next release, so everyone can use these EZIO devices right out of the box.

                      The only "open item" is a (minor?) change to the pfSense lcproc PHP package to include this connection type in the pre-defined list…

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                      • G
                        grahama
                        last edited by Jun 8, 2017, 3:25 PM

                        Thanks for your efforts here.  This thread has made me join this forum.

                        You've helped me to make use of the LCD panel on a "Smoothwall S4" that I bought 2nd hand. Smoothwall didn't work for me, so I've been using pfSense for a few days. So far, it's meeting my needs.

                        I do have LCDproc enabled, but it doesn't run for some reason. I haven't been able to work that out yet nor make use of the menu buttons.

                        But what I have done is used the stty command and hex file Steve provided to initialise my LCD successfully.
                        I then have a cron job which keeps the screen updated with CPU temp and time every few minutes.

                        So thanks for that.

                        If needed, I can expand my simple shell scripts to show any statistic I can get to fit on the ?32? characters :)

                        Does anyone have tips for writing on the second line neatly? Right now I just pad in 20+ characters to cause word wrap to happen.

                        Cheers,
                        Graham.

                        ó¿ó

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                        • F
                          fmertz
                          last edited by Jun 8, 2017, 4:19 PM

                          @grahama:

                          Does anyone have tips for writing on the second line neatly?

                          It's in the spec. You can put the cursor at the beginning of the second line with something like this:

                          printf "\376\300" > /dev/cuau1
                          

                          From the larger perspective, though, you might want to download and replace the hd44780.so driver file so you have the new code for this EZIO device (make sure you pick the right version for your OS, these files are attached to the first post in this thread). Then make sure LCDd.conf is updated, in particular the device and connection type. As noted above, this code is not available in pfSense, yet, and the glue pfSense package has not been updated either so this new "ezio" connection type is not showing as an option in the GUI. You seem familiar with the command line, though, so this should not be too much of a problem to get up to speed.

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                          • G
                            grahama
                            last edited by Jun 10, 2017, 5:59 AM Jun 10, 2017, 5:39 AM

                            Yep, RTFM  :-[

                            New line works a treat, thanks!

                            Actually, I tried to read the specification, but the link "http://drivers.portwell.com/CA_Manual/EZIO/EZIO-FINAL.PDF" no longer works.
                            Couldn't find any other links to EZIO-Final.PDF online either which is unusual.

                            I have now installed the driver (and maybe fixed something with cron) and now LCDd / lcdproc / lcdexec are all working - buttons worked to navigate the menu and change settings.

                            It didn't work after a reboot, so I have to work that out, but I'm happy that I've been able to re-utilise all of the hardware :)

                            update: /usr/local/etc/LCDd.conf was overwritten on reboot, losing my changes.
                            I'm finding this aspect of pfSense to be frustrating as well as it's use of tcsh. I'm yet to customise these things to suit my preference.

                            ó¿ó

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                            • fabricioguzzyF
                              fabricioguzzy
                              last edited by Jun 17, 2017, 7:12 PM

                              Hello Everyone,
                              I am facing problems to make lcdproc work.

                              I got a LCD Display "HD44780 Compatible" connected via FTDI USB (Chipset is FTDI 245) - It works fine on Windows so I know the display is fine.
                              Now trying to make lcdproc work is being really difficult. The Service does't stand up in anyway and I can´t find any LOG for troubleshooting.
                              Could anyone help me with that?

                              Reading other posts I could find the hd44780 driver that comes with pfsense 2.3.4 is wrong. is it true? I tried to replace it with no sucess.

                              Any help will be really appreciated.

                              Thanks
                              FAbricio.

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by Jun 18, 2017, 11:51 AM

                                This thread is for the EZIO display only. I have replied to your post in the main LCDproc thread.

                                Steve

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                                • R
                                  regexaurus
                                  last edited by Jul 12, 2017, 10:41 PM Jul 12, 2017, 10:03 PM

                                  Working here on a SmoothWall UTM-300 (Caswell CAR-3030)


                                  At first it seemed not all the display buttons were working, but after hitting ESC (maybe a few times?) a menu appeared that I could navigate through to change settings (e.g. disable heartbeat, etc.). Relevant sections of my LCDd.conf:

                                  
                                  [server]
                                  DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/
                                  Driver=hd44780
                                  Bind=127.0.0.1
                                  Port=13666
                                  User=nobody
                                  WaitTime=5
                                  ToggleRotateKey=Enter
                                  PrevScreenKey=Left
                                  NextScreenKey=Right
                                  
                                  [hd44780]
                                  ConnectionType=ezio
                                  Device=/dev/cuau1
                                  Keypad=yes
                                  Size=16x2
                                  KeyMatrix_4_1=Enter
                                  KeyMatrix_4_2=Up
                                  KeyMatrix_4_3=Down
                                  KeyMatrix_4_4=Escape
                                  
                                  

                                  Is this pretty much a manual thing for now, or can we use it with LCDproc in WebGUI?

                                  Thank you!

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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by Jul 17, 2017, 6:10 PM

                                    Nice GIF.  ;D

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • B
                                      Boyer1701
                                      last edited by Aug 13, 2017, 2:08 AM

                                      OMG THANK YOU - this thread is what caused me to register for this forum - the driver works like a charm, amazing!
                                      (Caswell CAR-3000 board)

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                                      • C
                                        ColdStoner
                                        last edited by Aug 14, 2017, 6:33 PM

                                        Love to see this!! I was previously getting by w/ the lb216 and the hex dump method.

                                        Anywho, I've downloaded HD44780_EZIO_Driver_pfSense2_3_32bit.zip and have extracted the .so to the specified location…

                                        however I am getting an error when starting lcdproc:

                                        Could not open driver module /usr/local/lib/lcdproc/hd44780.so: Shared object "libftdi1.so.2" not found, required by "hd44780.so"

                                        I'm not sure how to get that library installed on pfSense... Ideas?

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by Aug 15, 2017, 7:57 PM

                                          Are you running 32bit 2.3.X?

                                          Though that file doesn't seem to be present anyway. Are you sure you selected the correct driver and connection type? Can we see you lcdproc.conf file?

                                          Steve

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