Dead L.I.S. VFD ?

lisvfd · Post by **lisvfd** » March 8th, 2008, 12:33 am

Hi guys,

I am pretty new on the LCD/VFD thing and bought a 'L.I.S. 2 Blue Eyes' VFD screen. When plugging the power into the screen (regular molex adapter) the screen lights up a bit, even if the PC is turned off ! But that is not the big problem, the big problem is that I can't get anything usefull on it. When I start up the PC the screen displays some strange charachters and thats is. The screen does not respond to the bundled software and neither does it to LCD Smartie (lis vfd plugin). That the bundled software isn't working does not surprise me, it doesn't support Windows Vista. But I thought that LCD Smartie should work with this display... Can anyone help me to get something usefull on the display ?

If there is no other option I can try installing Windows XP but maybe the screen is just dead ? Below is a photo of what the screen is displaying, does it mean it is dead or just getting no input ?

(clickable)

Post by **caesar** » March 9th, 2008, 9:29 am

Those block characters you have on the screen are normal for HD44780 compatible LCDs, that is what they should show up on the screen at powerup.

On the producers site they say it is win2k3 compatible, so theoretically it should work with Vista32bit at least or set in compatibility mode for XP.

Abi_J · Post by **Abi_J** » March 9th, 2008, 12:43 pm

looks like an lcd, not a vfd to me, have you tried running it through LCDS with the HD44780 driver?

lisvfd · Post by **lisvfd** » March 11th, 2008, 8:59 pm

You are right, it is a LCD instead of a VFD. My mistake, I knew it was a LCD don't know why I typed VFD

Anyway, I tried the lisvfd driver and the hd44780 driver, but whatever I do, I don't get any response. I already tried it in XP compatibility mode but that makes no difference. Are there additional settings that I have to use with this screen ? (note: It is connected by USB).

At least I am happy to hear that what I see on the screen is normal for a HD44780 compatible screen !

Abi_J · Post by **Abi_J** » March 11th, 2008, 10:02 pm

Unfortunatly I am running a plain ol' parallel LCD so I don't really know about settings for USB connections, you might just have to wait until someone a bit more "techy" than me comes along on here.

You may want to check that any drivers are installed correctly, I've gotten a headache from reading the "english" FAq's on the VLS site (should get my boss to translate, he's korean) http://vlsys.co.kr/English/supdown_faq.php.

Also maybe check for a later version of the control software that was bundled with the display.

Note: Just had a bit more of a read (thanks Exedrin!), looks like the display gets set up on a virtual com port, so check in device manager (sorry if the name has changed, I'm on XP, not even touched Vista yet) at your ports, check which ports are listed, COM1, COM2 etc., then try entering COMn,9600 into the driver parameters in LCDS (n being COM numbers, one at a time), as I can't find a lot of info about the display you will have to try with the different drivers supplied with LCDS.

I see there are 2 other (very short) posts about the blue eye in the forums, but nothing other than people asking how to get it working, and then Limbo offering to help, no further details, hopefully Limbo may stop by to offer some wisdom.

Hope this helps, and hope you get the display working.
Abi.

grantb3 · Post by **grantb3** » March 11th, 2008, 11:50 pm

Abi_J wrote:Note: Just had a bit more of a read (thanks Exedrin!), looks like the display gets set up on a virtual com port, so check in device manager (sorry if the name has changed, I'm on XP, not even touched Vista yet) at your ports, check which ports are listed, COM1, COM2 etc., then try entering COMn,9600 into the driver parameters in LCDS (n being COM numbers, one at a time), as I can't find a lot of info about the display you will have to try with the different drivers supplied with LCDS.

Yeah, maybe try the HD44780S driver ('S' is for serial).