LCDProc 0.5.4-dev

Brak

Holy #$&$ it works.

I love you guys. :D

I guess if we can move this to 0.5.4, it can be put into lcdproc-dev

fmertz

Good to hear. Try the sdeclcd driver again now that the parallel port is enabled in the BIOS.

Brak

@fmertz:

Good to hear. Try the sdeclcd driver again now that the parallel port is enabled in the BIOS.

Doesn't look like the sdeclcd works. I think the Lanner version specifying "connectiontype=lanner" means there is something funky with the implementation.

Only issue I see about the lanner driver is that the backlight doesn't timeout (maybe I'm stupid and that's an LCDProc config) and enabling the heartbeat on LCDProc limits the screen updates and actually closes the window the key presses can be detected (I think.)

Macom2007

Years ago i had lcdproc working with pfsense on my IPC2U/Lanner FW 7550. DSH made a path to support the special hd44780 wiring on this box. But in the actual lcdproc package this patch seem to be missing. You can find the path here : http://cvs.pfsense.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/tools/pfPorts/lcdproc/files/

Can someone include this into the current lcdproc package ?

mdima

Hi Marcom,
if you can let me have the .so driver compiled for version 0.5.4 (x86 and/or x64) I'll be glad to add it to the package!

If you need any other configuration for that driver (heartbeat, blacklight, and so on) please tell me so I can include them in the driver's configuration.

Ciao,
Michele

Macom2007

Hm, i dont know how to do that. I have the .so driver compiled for lcdproc version 0.5.1. See :

http://www.mfc-nordhorn.de/hd44780.so

Does this help ?

Can you compile the .so with the information given at : http://cvs.pfsense.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/tools/pfPorts/lcdproc/files/ ?

mdima

mmhhh… if you already have the .so file, instead of publishing a new version of the package without knowing if it works or not, we could manage a 20 minutes skype + remote assistance session to test the driver on your box, and if it works I can include it in the package...

what do you think about it?

Ciao,
Michele

Macom2007

Great idea. I am currently unavailable, but be on later this evening. I already tried to use my .so file. Than i get the error message that this file is missing :

libusb-0.1.so.8

mdima

mmhhh… if it does not find that library means the driver should be recompiled (I am almost sure that library is already included in 0.5.5). If you were able to get to this point, I think a remote-connection is not needed... ;)

Probably we could work on the "connection type" in the configuration. Look here:

[hd44780]
ConnectionType=lcd2usb

and here:
http://lcdproc.sourceforge.net/docs/lcdproc-0-5-5-user.html#hd44780-howto

The driver should be hd44780, if you find the correct combination of ConnectionType and port, probably we can skip the compile step. If we are lucky and find it, I can add a new "driver" that uses the same hd44780 driver and the connectiontype you discover.

Ciao,
Michele

mdima

Marcom, according to this post:
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.lcdproc/10937

it should work on a parallel port (0x378).

mdima

Brak, Fmertz,
let me summaryze:
I should add a new driver from https://github.com/downloads/fmertz/sdeclcd/hd44780.so that I will rename "lcm-162 (x86)", then add a new port "lcd" (change: "led" port), is it correct?

If this is correct I will do it asap…

Ciao,
Michele

Brak

Truthfully, I'm not sure. The driver is for 0.5.2, and that's what I've used it with. I didn't seem to be able to get 0.5.4-dev working with it, but I don't know enough about the package to be able to get it working.

I would assume tho it would be better to call it the "Lanner LCM" driver/port since it's neither the HD44780 spec nor the LCM-162 spec (at least the comments on the patch make it seem that way.)

mdima

@Brak:

Truthfully, I'm not sure. The driver is for 0.5.2, and that's what I've used it with. I didn't seem to be able to get 0.5.4-dev working with it, but I don't know enough about the package to be able to get it working.

I would assume tho it would be better to call it the "Lanner LCM" driver/port since it's neither the HD44780 spec nor the LCM-162 spec (at least the comments on the patch make it seem that way.)

well, if the driver is for 0.5.2 I don't think it will work for 0.5.4. But if someone could compile it for 0.5.4 I could integrate with the name you just told…

Ciao,
Michele

fmertz

Brak,

If you can make the Lanner hardware available to me, I can come up with proper driver code for it. This thread is labeled 0.5.4, but I think the lcdproc-dev package is actually on the current production release 0.5.5 (New development is done against 0.5dev). We probably have enough of the base functionality to take it from here and get it working completely. I would hope we could get the big clock, vbars, hbars, maybe even special characters and menus. If there are enough differences with an existing driver (HD or sdeclcd), then I can submit a patch upstream so this would become supported going forward. I would make the driver against 0.5dev, and backport it to 0.5.5. I could test Linux and FreeBSD, and compile with OpenBSD and NetBSD to be sure. Let me know.

Macom2007

I have it working with the 0x378 port. My problem is, that on every reboot my LCDd.conf file is overwritten. Esp. the line ConnectionType=winamp is reverted ti ConnectionType=lcd2usb. How can i make my changes permanent ?

stephenw10

The LCDd.conf file is generated each time the package is synced, which happens when ever the service is started.
If the required connection type is not in the package yet then you would have to edit /usr/local/pkg/lcdproc.inc to include it (or ask someone else to).

It's interesting though that only one connection type (encoding type?) is available for hd44780 when there are many supported.

@LCDproc:

The HD44780 driver supports various ways of connecting HD44780 devices to your system. Each of these different ways is called a connection type of the driver.

On a parallel port, probably the first interface type HD44780 devices were historically connected to, the driver supports the connection types:

4bit: 4bit Wiring

8bit: 8bit Wiring ("lcdtime")

winamp: 8bit Wiring "winamp" Style

serialLpt: Serial LPT Wiring

For serial RS-232 ports you can choose among these connection types:

picanlcd: PIC-an-LCD serial device

lcdserializer: LCD serializer

los-panel: LCD on Serial panel device (http://www.xs4all.nl/~mlf/los/)

vdr-lcd: VDR LCD serial device

vdr-wakeup: VDR-Wakeup module

In recent years, with with parallel ports and serial ports being declared legacy and on the demise on modern computers, the USB connection types get more important. Here are the USB connection types the HD44780 driver supports:

pertelian: Pertelian X2040 LCD display (http://pertelian.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=48)

bwctusb: BWCT USB LCD module (http://www.bwct.de/lcd.html)

lcd2usb: Till Harbaum's LCD2USB (http://www.harbaum.org/till/lcd2usb/)

usbtiny: Dick Streefland's USBtiny (http://www.xs4all.nl/~dicks/avr/usbtiny/)

uss720: Display connected to USS-720 USB-to-IEEE 1284 Bridge (Belkin F5U002)

lis2: LIS2 from VLSystem (http://www.vlsys.co.kr)

mplay: MPlay Blast from VLSystem (http://www.vlsys.co.kr)

ftdi: Display connected to a dual channel FTDI 2232D USB chip

usblcd: USBLCD from Adams IT Services (http://www.usblcd.de/)

Last but not least, for special purposes, there are even more connection types:

i2c: LCD driven by PCF8574(A)/PCA9554(A) connected via I2C

ethlcd: Display connected via TCP to PoE powered ethlcd device (http://manio.skyboo.net/ethlcd/)

mdima

@Macom2007:

I have it working with the 0x378 port. My problem is, that on every reboot my LCDd.conf file is overwritten. Esp. the line ConnectionType=winamp is reverted ti ConnectionType=lcd2usb. How can i make my changes permanent ?

Hi Macom2007,
I will release a version of the package with the driver "HD44780-winamp", so you won't have to change it manually on every reboot…

I let you know when the new release is online!

Ciao,
Michele

scratchi

Hello

I have a Nexcom NSA3110 and NSA5130 both of which have the same LCD assembly. The display works great on both but I can't get the keypad to work. Are the drivers for the keypad seperate from the LCD? Has anyone gotten the keypad for the Nexcom to work? Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

fmertz

@scratchi:

I have a Nexcom NSA3110 and NSA5130 both of which have the same LCD assembly. The display works great.

What driver/connection combination are you using? I assume this is with the lcdproc-dev package in pfSense…

mdima

scratchi,
try to change the menu section of the lcdproc.conf file using the following data:

# If you have a keypad you can assign keystrings to the keys.
 # See documentation for used terms and how to wire it.
 # For example to give directly connected key 4 the string “Enter”, use:
 # KeyDirect_4=Enter
 # For matrix keys use the X and Y coordinates of the key:
 # KeyMatrix_1_3=Enter
 KeyMatrix_4_1=Enter
 KeyMatrix_4_2=Up
 KeyMatrix_4_3=Down
 KeyMatrix_4_4=Escape

this is the only information I found on the nexcom.so driver. Unfortunately the nexcom driver is not in the official release of LCDProc, so it's hard to know what is its code and if it respects all the LCDProc directives…

Ciao,
Michele