VFD with Basic Stamp Primer
Johnmark
Posts: 10
I found a great display option for the Basic Stamp while working on an audio preamp project. It uses a Noritake 3900 series VFD display. While some of this has been covered by Parallax when they had a Noritake display as an option, the method they had to use for graphics was time and memory consuming. It turns out there is a much easier way to do graphics. Here is what is needed.
- A Noritake 3900 series FVD display (some 7000 series displays work as well).
- The Noritake GUD 10K application
- A cable to go from a serial port to the module. The schematic is on their site.
To make a graphic you just use paint or any program that can create black and white bit map graphics. Decide how big you want the graphic to be in paint. Then just draw it. Hook the VFD up to your computer with the adapter cable and open the GUD program to communicate with the VFD. Go to the graphics section and click on the "From Image" tab. Press the "Edit Image List" button. A new window come up. There you just add the image to the list, there is even an invert check box for the image. The graphic is stored in the VFD, not in the stamp. You can then use the "Display from Image" command to see how it looks on the VFD.
A few words of caution. Noritake's web site takes some time to figure out where everything is, plus you do have to create an account. The directions for the cable and the GUD program are pretty vague. There are many different pin outs for the cable, make sure you get the one for your exact VFD. It is very important to not mix the power and ground lines. This will blow the fuse on the VFD. I did it twice and had to jumper the fuse. The GUD program is not intuitive, it takes some time to figure out. After down loading an image go offline, power down the unit and then restart, otherwise you can get some strange behavior.
The GUD program has some other great features, like user definable windows. This makes have multiple images on the display much easier to manage. For instance; I have the volume setting in two digits, source, channel balance, mute and whether or not the source is balanced or single ended. I did not have to rewrite the entire display when I changed only one thing. My favorite feature is the window that shows exactly what is being sent to the display in Hex for any command you use. This saves a lot of time. You can model everything you want to do on the display, see how it works and see the exact Hex command to do it.
The VFD displays are on ebay all the time at reasonable prices. You can even buy eval kits from Notritake with everything you need.
John
- A Noritake 3900 series FVD display (some 7000 series displays work as well).
- The Noritake GUD 10K application
- A cable to go from a serial port to the module. The schematic is on their site.
To make a graphic you just use paint or any program that can create black and white bit map graphics. Decide how big you want the graphic to be in paint. Then just draw it. Hook the VFD up to your computer with the adapter cable and open the GUD program to communicate with the VFD. Go to the graphics section and click on the "From Image" tab. Press the "Edit Image List" button. A new window come up. There you just add the image to the list, there is even an invert check box for the image. The graphic is stored in the VFD, not in the stamp. You can then use the "Display from Image" command to see how it looks on the VFD.
A few words of caution. Noritake's web site takes some time to figure out where everything is, plus you do have to create an account. The directions for the cable and the GUD program are pretty vague. There are many different pin outs for the cable, make sure you get the one for your exact VFD. It is very important to not mix the power and ground lines. This will blow the fuse on the VFD. I did it twice and had to jumper the fuse. The GUD program is not intuitive, it takes some time to figure out. After down loading an image go offline, power down the unit and then restart, otherwise you can get some strange behavior.
The GUD program has some other great features, like user definable windows. This makes have multiple images on the display much easier to manage. For instance; I have the volume setting in two digits, source, channel balance, mute and whether or not the source is balanced or single ended. I did not have to rewrite the entire display when I changed only one thing. My favorite feature is the window that shows exactly what is being sent to the display in Hex for any command you use. This saves a lot of time. You can model everything you want to do on the display, see how it works and see the exact Hex command to do it.
The VFD displays are on ebay all the time at reasonable prices. You can even buy eval kits from Notritake with everything you need.
John