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VFD to BS2 — Parallax Forums

VFD to BS2

RobbanRobban Posts: 124
edited 2007-04-02 04:59 in BASIC Stamp
Hi!

I just want to be sure before my intended buying.
Can this VFD (see datasheet) be connected directly to a BS2? using the serout command?


http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/90808.pdf

Comments

  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2007-03-22 18:47
    It should work. The key is the statement that the serial interface is TTL compatible. You will need to manually configure the serial interface as described in the datasheet. The Baud needs to be 9600 or less. The default is 19200 Baud which is too fast for a BS2.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-03-22 19:14
    Mike,

    The BS2 can control the VFD at the 19.2K baud rate…In fact, our Serial LCD Displays run at 19.2Kbps. The BS2 just cannot receive packets of data at those speeds. With the PSC the BS2 can do 38.4K since it only needs to deal in smaller packets of data. Take care.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • RobbanRobban Posts: 124
    edited 2007-03-27 08:08
    Do i have to connect both the RS and TX or is it enough with one line and ground? Or should i use the SIN pin?
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-03-27 15:02
    Page 3 of the datasheet attached in the first post describes the connections used for the different communication modes.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • RobbanRobban Posts: 124
    edited 2007-03-29 08:07
    Hi!

    Now i got my vfd but now´s another problem.....i have a Board of education to my BS2,I connected as followed

    here are the pins on vfd

    2,1
    4,3
    6,5
    8,7
    10,9

    i connected pin 1 on the VFD to my VDD on the stamp and·pin 5 on the VFD·to the VSS on the stamp

    but all i get is that the led on the BOE is dimming and after a while turns off...

    if the BOE not able to "drive" the VFD?

    or what am i doing wrong?

    You can see the datasheet on the VFD here http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/90808.pdf
  • RobbanRobban Posts: 124
    edited 2007-03-29 09:17
    Now i finally got it working....can set the baudrate,parity etc

    but now for another question...

    i guess i should use Asynchrous interface,but what pins should i use....i tried with one wire to connect the pin 2 on the stamp to pin 3 (rxd) on the vfd and wrote "serout 2,16468,[noparse][[/noparse]"Hello world"],but nothing is showing...

    anybody got any ideas?

    /Regards
    Robban
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-03-29 15:05
    Robban, the datasheet says the default baud rate is 19200...You're using 9600 inverted. I don't see anything to indicate inverted baud mode on this VFD. It also says the COMMS configuration is set by a button on the back. Are you setup for asynchronous?

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • RobbanRobban Posts: 124
    edited 2007-03-29 17:30
    i have set up the vfd with the button on the back to Asynch,9600,parity,none

    and wrote serout 2,84,[noparse][[/noparse]"hello world"] but no luck..

    is·it correct with the pin 2 from the stamp to the RXD pin on the VFD?

    Do i have to connect more pins on the vfd?

    Post Edited (Robban) : 3/29/2007 6:37:29 PM GMT
  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2007-03-30 02:20
    A ground between the stamp and the vfd would be nice.

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    - Stephen
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-03-30 14:28
    And when you say pin 2, are you actually referring to P2 (pin 7) or physical pin 2?

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • RobbanRobban Posts: 124
    edited 2007-03-30 16:26
    i got it working,i had forgot the High MB signal....once i connected it to the pin 0 and wrote High 0 then there were light wink.gif
  • NNNNNNNN Posts: 3
    edited 2007-04-02 01:59
    I have some old school vfd's, they're tubes... I also have a prop-1 chip, and I'm trying to figure out how to use it to control a number of tubes, maybe to do scrolling text or something like that. All I can think though is to use the 8 outputs to control 8 segments of one tube, but each tube has 16 segments (each lead coming off corresponds to a segment to light individually. Is there a more economical way? There's some french guy on the internet that's done it, but he's using a maxim ic driver and a 32 pin flash memory chip....and some other stuff. Not that I wouldn't be opposed to doing it that way, but I'm totally new to all this and wouldn't know how to put it all together. Any ideas?

    1.jpg
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-04-02 04:59
    You might want to start your own new thread since the question isn't really relevant to this thread.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
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