I have 2 lcd's and I am confused,

[jjandrj6679]

Hi All,
Ok in the device manager under "Ports (COM & LPT)" i found this:-
NetMos PCI ECP Parrallel Port (LPT3)
& under "Multifunction adapters" I found this:-
NetMos 9805 PCI Parrallel Port

So looking at the resorses tab of the NetMos PCI ECP Parrallel Port (LPT3) I found this:-
I/O Range EC00 - EC07
I/O Range E880 - E887
I tried all the ways I could enter the numbers into the "Plugins", "Display Settings", "Startup Perameters" but nothing.
I set the "Display Plugin" to HD44780.dll
I tried, LPT1 & 2 & 3 as well as EC00 & EC07 & $0 & $7 $00 & $07 and many others but nothing changed on the screen.

I know its a simple case of lack of knowledge.
This version 5.4 looks nothing like the Instruction page Ver 5.3, should I uninstall 5.4 and replace it with 5.3 so at least the help file is the same.

I see in the FAQ section Epp is better than ECP, which is what my Pci Parallel card is running, I cant figure out how to change it.
The card did come with over 600mb of drivers which I thought was strange, so I chose the closest match to the chip on the PCI card. It installed fine, so I assuimed that I have the correct drivers installed.

The chip details are:-
Moschp
MCS9805CV
F0Y46-001

If that is any help
Any ideas?
JJ

[Abi_J]

After re-reading a different thread (http://forums.lcdsmartie.org/viewtopic. ... 4&start=15), where the person had the same problem as you, using a PCI-LPT card, I offered the same info as I gave you, he managed to get his to work by entering the address with a $ in front of the whole thing, so try...

$EC00

I'll keep my fingers crossed that it works for you (meaning do it as quick as you can, I'll need to uncross them soon!)

Abi.

[jjandrj6679]

Nope that didn't work so I am at a loss as to what the physiscal address is of this PCI card.
Here is a screen dump of the device manager, just in case I have missed somthing.

So any one got any ideas, is my cable wrong??
I have checked and re checked with a meter too for continuity.
here is the wiring list for my modual.

LCD 01-------->Cable 02-------->Parallel 18-->25-------->Cable 26-------->Molex - - -------->Switch Com 1,2,3,4-------->Pot 10k Leg 1-------->BC517 Leg 3------->

LCD 02-------->Cable 01-------->Cable 24-------->Red wire-------->Pot 10k Leg 3-------->Red wire----&---->Molex + + -------->Red wire-------->Cable 22-------->Cable 16-------->LCD 15-------->

LCD 03-------->Cable 04-------->Cable 23-------->Yellow wire-------->Pot 10k Leg 2

LCD 04-------->Cable 03-------->Parallel 16

LCD 05-------->Cable 06-------->Parallel 14

LCD 06-------->Cable 05-------->Parallel 01

LCD 07-------->Cable 08-------->Parallel 02

LCD 08-------->Cable 07-------->Parallel 03

LCD 09-------->Cable 10-------->Parallel 04

LCD 10-------->Cable 09-------->Parallel 05

LCD 11-------->Cable 12-------->Parallel 06

LCD 12-------->Cable 11-------->Parallel 07

LCD 13-------->Cable 14-------->Parallel 08

LCD 14-------->Cable 13-------->Parallel 09

LCD 15-------->Cable 16-------->Cable 22-------->Red wire-------->Molex + + ----&---->Red wire-------->Pot 10k Leg 3----&---->Red wire-------->Cable 24-------->Cable 01-------->LCD 02

LCD 16-------->Cable 15-------->Cable 21-------->Green wire-------->Pot 100ohm Leg 3

Parallel 10-------->Cable 17-------->Yellow wire-------->Switch 1

Parallel 11-------->Cable 18-------->Blue wire-------->Switch 2

Parallel 12-------->Cable 19-------->Green wire-------->Switch 3

Parallel 13-------->Cable 20-------->White wire-------->Switch 4

Cable 21-------->Green wire-------->Pot 100ohm Leg 1-------->Cable 15-------->LCD 16

Cable 22-------->Red wire-------->Molex + + -------->Cable 16-------->LCD 15

Cable 23-------->Yellow wire-------->Pot 10k Leg 2----&---->Cable 04-------->LCD 03

Cable 24-------->Molex + + ----&---->Cable 01-------->LCD 01 & 15-------->Pot 10k Leg 3

Cable 25-------->White wire-------->Res 1k-------->BC517 Leg 1

Cable 26-------->EARTH-------->LCD 01-------->Cable 02-------->Parallel 18-->25-------->Molex - - -------->Switch Com 1,2,3,4-------->Pot 10k Leg 1-------->BC517 Leg 3

BC517 Leg 2-------->Pot 100ohm Leg 3


If I knew what program you used to draw scmatics the let me know and I'll use it to draw a wiring diagram.
I'll up load a picture of the cable & board, tonight if I get time
Let us know if anything is amiss. cose I'm all down in the dumps, I kinda hoped it would work. but it doesnt..Grrr
JJ

[Abi_J]

If your display is lighting up and the top row shows a full row of solid blocks, then I believe the wiring is correct, it is an addressing issue - telling LCDS where to send the screen data.

One thing I have just realised, you have not listed what software you have (other than LCDS obviously), do you have Port95nt installed? (http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net/port95nt.exe I belive this driver gets windows and allows direct control of the LPT ports, which LCDS requires.

Abi.

[jjandrj6679]

Hi all

Yes I did have Port95nt installed.
I am at a loss as to what it is. I'm going to see if I can find a better driver for the PCI card, what else can I do, I'm out of Ideas.

Here is a list of the programs that I have installed already

Smartie V5.4
Port95nt

3DMarK06
ABF Outlook Express
Adobe Flash Player Active
Asus AI Suite
ATI - Software Uninstall Utility
ATI - AVIVO Codecs
ATI - Catalyst Control Centre
ATI - Display Driver
ATI - Hydravision
ATI - Problem Report Wizard
AVG 7.5
CCleaner
DriverLinux Port I/O Driver
Electronics Assistant Google Earth
Google Earth
Google Sketchup 6
High Def Audio Dricer Pack KB888111
K-Lite Codec Pack 3.8.0 Full
Marvell Mini Point Driver
MS Net Framework 1.1
MS Net Framework 2.0 Serv Pk 1
MS Net Framework 3.0
MS Visual C++ 2005 Redistriutable
MSXML 6.0 Parser KB927977
NetMos Multi IO Controler
Powerquest Partition Magic 8
SoundMax
VideoLAN VLC Media Player 0.8.6c
Winamp
Windows Installer 3.1 KB893803
Windows Internet Explorer 7
WinRAR Archiverle Sketchup 6

If you need it I can lis the updates to in KB format to.

I assume that Port95nt when installed, installed these two progs
VBPortIO
C++PortIO
Which I can oly assume that they are progs to either write messages with or to write programs & functions to the LCD. I havn't a clue.
Over to you guys, I have faith in you, You got me this far, we can get it running.
Yours
JJ

[jjandrj6679]

Hi all
Just found the the drivers for my PCI Parallel card chip.
I went to http://www.moschip.com/html/download_drivers.html
and chose xp for MCS9805, it installed over the old supplied drivers ok, without a hitch.

Could one of you go there and possibly download the DOS version, in the Zip file is a PDF, which if I am not mistaken shows you how to change the port settings. I am happy to do this but I'd rather have some one look at it with experience in these matters.

Also there was a loads of answers in the FAQ that I downloaded, non worked, but still interesting to read.

The name has changed in the device manager to MosChip PCI Parallel Port (LPT1)
But still nothing has chainged on the LCD.

I havn't any bios options as far as I can see.
Here are the details to my Asus Motherboard.
http://support.asus.com/download/downlo ... uage=en-us

On the right of the Download page are 3 drop down menues, the answers are

Motherboard
Socket775
Maximus Formula

From there you will find all you need, hopefully.
I am on Bios 9.07
Thanks again
JJ

[jjandrj6679]

Hi All,
Just installed LcdSmartie 5.3
Still no change.
Think I am going to have to build another pc with an onboard parallel port, plug this into it to see what happens.
If nout happens then its something to do with the wiring, if it works, then its the PCI card thats the problem.
I have no idea realy, but what else can I do?
According to what I have read, and I have read an awful lot in the past couple of weeks, everything is normal, just missing the link between Parallel & LCD.

Just a thought is there a list of port numbers specific to the parallel port that I can enter in one by one to see what happens?

I have a selection of bug reports, if anyone cand understand them.

Just been looking around and I have noticed that my PCI card port, has no IRQ assigned to it, does that matter?
Off to bed my brain hurts
JJ

[Abi_J]

J,
Sorry for not replying sooner, had an overnight in Chicago with friends.

There are no specific port numbers for LPT cards, only on-board LPT controllers, which generally use the 0378 address set in the bios. I've not downloaded the stuff you posted yet (just got home 2 minutes ago) so give me a little while to check through that lot and see what I can come up with.

As far as testing on another system, do you know anyone who has a compy with on-board parallel ports? rather than building a system to test it, all you need is to install port95nt and LCDS to test, 5 minute job max.

I'll try to get back to you asap after looking at your driver docs etc.

Abi.

[jjandrj6679]

Hi Abi
Thanks for getting back to me.

You said "all you need is to install port95nt and LCDS to test, 5 minute job max."
Realy??? ...lol... I wish I had your confidence
It is installed, I just dont know what its for or how to use it. I've done a search, but come up with nothing realy, is there a tutorial on how to use it and what its for?
What do I do with VBPortIO & C++PortIO? they are something to do with the ports i can see that.
Apart from that I'm lost.
Off to work now be back at 10pm-ish BST
JJ

[Abi_J]

J,
Not pulled all your hair out yet, have you?

For port95nt, all you need to do is install it, you don't need to use the programs themselves, LCDS interfaces with the files installed to gain direct hardware access to the port, without windows getting in the way.

So to test your display on another system, you install port95nt and LCDS. Providing the system you test on has a parallel port set as LPT1/0378 then LCDS should work just by selecting the HD44780.dll display driver with LPT1 in the parameters box.

As far as the PCI parallel port, I must admit, I'm at a bit of a loss since I've not had to configure LCDS to use one before, my systems all have on-board LPT ports. One thing I can think to try, since the addresses you got from device manager are not having any effect in LCDS is this...

In the device manager, open the properties for the LPT port (LPT3 I believe in your case - I am also wondering why it was listed as LPT3, any cards I've installed defaulted to LPT1), you can try changing the port to a different number under the "port settings" tab, and in the resources tab, deselect "use automatic settings", then select a basic configuration from the drop down menu (001, 002 or 003), apply the changes and then try entering the addresses listed like you have tried already - you can also try entering just LPT1 (if you chenged the port to 1).

I'll continue to look into the problem, somewhere around here I have a couple of PCI parallel boards, I'll throw them into a space system and set up a display and have a mess around to see what settings work consistently, I'm determined for you to get that display working, so I'm not giving up yet!

Abi.

[jjandrj6679]

Hi Abi,
I am at work at the mo, so I cant check or do as you suggested, but I agree with you on the LPT3 biz, for my board has no parallel or serial ports. I wasn't fussed about it at the time coz i knew that I could either go usb or put a card in. But then I found this red display and its gone down hill from there after, including my grumpy partner, who has no inerest at all, and getting less interested by the day..lol

Thanks for the determination to complete the task in hand.
So to help you here is the ebay url that I bought
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=016
If you cant access it cos its ended here is the url for an active one.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/High-IEEE-1284-Pa ... dZViewItem

Funny thing is the second line of the description says
"Plug & Play - Automatically selects IRQ and I/O address "
& then it says
"Supports PCI IRQ sharing ~ Saves valuable resources for other I/O expansion cards. "

But I can't find an IRQ for it anywhere, I would have thought it would have been in the same place as the I/O range, but there isn't one on my works pc, that has 2 I/O ranges that are consistant with what every one else has, then below it, it has a DMA 03??? whats that about. I only have I/O range on my pc.

Under the Resorces tab "Use automatic settings" is greyed out, I can't adjust it.
Under the Port settings tab, I have manally set it to LPT1 but nout, should I put a check against "Enable legacy Plug & Play detection" will that do anything? Usefull?
Gotta get back to work now, loads o do, I am contactable at work thru email. So feel free, I am usually here till 8pm BST, But I have no problemtaking time out as I help run the place.
www.x19spares.co.uk
josh@x19spares.co.uk
Thanks again Abi, your a star.
Cheers
Josh

[jjandrj6679]

Hi all
I just found this, it has a pdf attaced, just wondered if it was any use.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=025

Other than its already up and running, I am seriously thinking of buying it, but then on one hand thats defeatist attitude, & on the other I have two red displays, in my rig...cool... yes I know I'm sad.
JJ

[jjandrj6679]

Hi all,
Boo hoo I'm all alone with my weird sence of humour.
Ok update time.
I unplugged the parallel connector that we all made, restared pc.
Exactly the same display, all lit up and no party to go to.
So I dug around for my trusty parallel web cam, (Best pic by far over anything usb that I have used) even though its only got 98 me & NT4 drivers its always worked in xp. But not this time.
Ive reinstalled all drivers many time for card and cam.
So I can only assume that the card is Bo**ocked, or none of us have found the magic secret button to getting it working.
Driver for the chip that is on the pci card as supplied to me from the ebay card vendor is below
http://www.moschip.com/html/download_drivers.html
I am waiting on a responce from the supplier.
I will build the other pc over the weekend to see if I can get the Lcd up 'n' runnin, finally.
Keep you posted
Josh

[jjandrj6679]

Hi All
Is anyone still there or am I on my own on this its kinda 5 days and I here from no one.

Ok I been hard at it
Built a PII system with an onboard adjustable parallel port
Built a simpler 2x16 Blue LCD with 10k & 100ohm trimpots
fiddled with the bios, changing its settings
ECP, EPP, Bi-Dir, Normal
Auto, Disabled, 378, 278, 3BC
Version 1.7 & 1.9
IRQ's 5, 7
DMA Channel 0, 1, 3

Adjusted smartie to the appropriate settings

In LCDSmatrtie 5.3
I've tried 278, 27F, 378, 37F, 3BC, 3BF, LPT1,2 & 3
Adj Driver boot delay from 0s to 10s
Adj Timinig Multiplier from 0 to 5
Clicked & unclicked "Use alternative addressing"

In the Device Manager
Ive clicked & unclicked "Try not to use an interupt"
Ive clicked & unclicked "Never use an interupt"
Ive clicked & unclicked "Use any interupt assigned to the port"
Ive clicked & unclicked "Enable Plug & Play Detection"
Adj LPT Port 1 to 3
If I set it to 3BF like it is in the port settings it blurs the monitor so I have to go into safe mode and kill the startup entery

It generates a bug report if I select LPT1 but I dont understand why or it.

In LCDSmatrtie 5.4 there seems to be no affect when selecting LPT1
Theres not a lot i can fiddle with in 5.4 apart from changing the port numbers.

Thats it, Ive checked and rechecked my wiring against all that I have been given and nout, zip, nothing.

I am at a complete stand still, to the point where I went out and ordered this:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 2BI%252BSS

I kinda got the hump with life and thought, this must work, musnt it???
At least it has all the wires soldered & its identical to the LCD I have been struggling with over the past 2 weeks and getting no where slowly.

It would be nice to hear from some one soon, as you guys stop me from giving up, I nearly gave up then bought anonther LCD.. Foolish I know, but if it works?? then I can see how its wires up in the flesh instead of a diagram.
Kind Regards
JJ

[Abi_J]

J,
Appologies for the silence, I'm getting swamped with work right now, I've had 2 customers suddenly decide to switch to different web hosts, meaning I have a total of 14 web stores and 22 sql d/bases to migrate to new systems, on top of setting up another 3 stores for clients and revamping a couple more. I've had a few days of 20 hour days at the computer, getting 3-4 hours sleep here and there, It's mad enough that my o/h is even spending more time using the keyboard of a computer than using a screwdriver inside one! That and the dog is getting mad because she's not had her daily hour walk all week.

For the system you built, what is the "disabled" setting in relation to? - nevermind, re-read and realised you were listing avaliable options.

If it is an onboard port, in the bios, assign the address of 0378 to the port (I believe default settings are usually 0378, IRQ 5, DMA 3, so loading bios defaults should set it all), I don't think the port type will not make too much difference, as you are only writing to the port, not reading from it, so ECP, EPP etc. is not much of a concern., example is ECP, V1.9, 0378, IRQ5, DMA3

In the OS, you can verify the port settings with device manager (had a couple of ports would not even show in device manager before, so always good to check everything before cursing at software).

In LCDS, if you have the port set as above, selecting the HD44780.dll driver, and the default LPT1, or $378 should work.

Just to confirm, when you plug the display in and fire up the computer, the display shows a full row of solid blocks and an empty row below, correct?

If you recieve errors through LCDS, can you post the details in here, may help to figure out whats causing the errors.

If your still not sure about the wiring being correct, please post a pic of the wiring connected to the display, and the wiring on the DB25 connector (if you can open the shell) or list the colors for the individual wires at each connector pin.

If only I was still living in England, I'd have probably driven down to figure this out in person! (drove to Swansea from Rugby once cause a friend couldn't get flight sim 2000 to run properly and I gave up trying to give directions through email).

I'll try to respond sooner when you post again, but please forgive me for any delays, someday soon I'm gonna say "screw it" and sleep all day, I need it!

Good luck,
Abi.

[jjandrj6679]

Hi Abi
Sorry I realy am, crap workload and I've pulled you away. Its your living, I of all people should know how it works, I & my friend run www.x19spares.co.uk together, I get hardly any play time at all. So again Sorry.

Ok you said "disabled" setting in relation to?
I said "Huh?" Then I said would that mean setting the parallel in the bios to Disabled? so I did, got N/A across everything and in xp they wern't in the device manager. o I can assume that I miss underheard you.

"I believe default settings are usually 0378, IRQ 5, DMA 3"
Mine is 0378, IRQ 7, DMA 3 on ECP
Didn't make any differance.

The Device manager always shows the ports in detail. I aways check it before starting Smartie.

"In LCDS, if you have the port set as above, selecting the HD44780.dll driver, and the default LPT1, or $378 should work. "
"Nope"

" the display shows a full row of solid blocks and an empty row below, correct? "
"Yes on both the Red LCD to PCI & the Blue LCD to O/B Par"

I'll take a few pics for you hopefully tomorrow if I get time.
Thanks again for stopping for me.
Yours
Josh

[jjandrj6679]

Hi
I haven't had time to take some pictures yet.
I have noticed something though.
The four switches that I have used have yellow led's in them
See this url
DPDT MOMENTARY SWITCH TYPE 3 YELL LED RC 78-2268
I used yellow not cos it was on sale, but cos my theme is yellow orange and red, its just good when I want something a bit differant it doesnt cost the earth.
Any way. I had the Molex connector unpluged for a while, last night and forgot to plug it in, so when I started the pc tonight the display was completely blank, naturally. But as the pc went thru its boot phase the switches, momentarly lit up, (XP screen with blue line on it) once to the login and desktop it was business as usual, nothing. Normally when there is power to the switch board the lcd is top row lit bottom row not.
So my led's are recieving power from the PCI card, is that supposed to happen?
I know they share the same earth, but when no power is at the switch board there should be no lights.
Humm
Thinking?
But that still doesnt explain why the PCI card insists on calling itself EC00 & EC07???
JJ

[jjandrj6679]

Hi all
Found a few momets to upload some pictures of my wiring, under the lens it looks bloody awful, I thing I might be needing some glasses..grr.

Any how its a 36mb file that I have uploaded to sendspace, its been virus checked, but feel free to do it your selves.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/6rc0t7

As for a schematic like the ones in this post, what programs are used to draw them? once I've doen that all my wiring will become clear.
JJ

[jjandrj6679]

Hi is anyone there?
JJ

[jjandrj6679]

Hi all, in an earlier post I said that I ordered this
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=025
Well it arrived, with cable & power connection all made up, alas no contrast or brightness control, a cd with smatrie 5.4 and 3 manuals.
Plugged it it and it worked first time.
So either I have a bunch of duff screens or my wiring is not right even though I have tripple checked it, and if thats the case then may be I am miss reading the wiring diagrams, how? you tell me??
So when I get time I am going to dismantle the connector to see exactly what they have done and hopefully where I went wrong.

I'll let you know how I get on.
As to the PCI Parallel card that refuses to find LPT1 I got a reply from the suppliers and they are sending me a new one, I'll let you know how that pans out too.
Meanwhile, . But all the previous work is still unsolved as I now own 2 Red LCD's and 2 Blue Lcd's and assuming theyeare not duff, I would like to make the read the same port, I know there is a wiring diagram somewhere for it, any one got one?
Thanks for the help so far.
Yours
JJ

[jjandrj6679]

Ive given up on parallel as I cant seem to get any pci cards to work, so its over to USB.
Ive started a new thread on that one as it all went quiet here.
http://forums.lcdsmartie.org/viewtopic. ... 3792#13792

Thanks to all that helped me so far (I learnt a hell of a lot from you guys) and hopefully you can join me on the other thread.
Josh