MX4/MX5 thingy. Need help setting it up, if i can. [HELP]

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 27th, 2008, 9:23 pm

A few years back I bought a Matrix orbit thingy off ebay. 4X20 lines i think. I saw your forums tonight and thought i would try and make the old thing work, cos i never managed to get the software at the time to work.

So i have pluged it in to the USB (port_#0002.Hub_#0003) and set the matrix.dll. But what port is it? I have tried everything.

Should the screen light up at all too? Cos at mo, nothing.

Little information if this helps:

Vista 64bit SP2 Beta
Connected to floppy cable and USB.
LCD Smartie 5.4
No drivers installed on screen.

Thanks for your help

Post by **caesar** » December 27th, 2008, 9:31 pm

Can you please look on the back of the display and see the exact model?

Should be a code near the company logo.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 27th, 2008, 9:33 pm

Umm, I see these numbers:

LK204-24-USB
UK204-24-USB
PK204-24-USB
and..
Rev1.1

Is that it? I can upload pic if not.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 27th, 2008, 10:08 pm

OK, i have found the drivers and installed them. But can't find it in device manager now.

I am getting this error all time now:

Failed to open device: DLL Initialize error: MATRIX.DLL Exception: Can not find USBPort.dll

Post by **caesar** » December 28th, 2008, 10:03 am

You have to find a virtual com port in device manager and use

COM1,19200 or COM1,115200 as Smartie startup parameters.

replace the one after com with your virtual com port number.

USB, as you have it now, is only for PalmOrb devices.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 28th, 2008, 12:25 pm

How do i go about finding the virtual port in device manager. I have 2 at the mo.

Com1
Com2

Do i try these or will it be another one. Will it have anything in the description about what it is?

Also, the LCD is ticking, is this normal? I am worried it brocken cos i managed to connect with some matrix test software on com1, but that was it. The device hasn't lit up or displayed anything let?

Thanks for your help.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 29th, 2008, 1:35 pm

:BUMP:

Post by **caesar** » December 29th, 2008, 4:14 pm

Then COM1 it is. Baudrate should be 19200 or 115200 depending on display settings.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 29th, 2008, 5:27 pm

Like the test program, no errors on either rate, but nothing on screen, nothing changes lights up, moves, blows up. Just nothing!

That can't be a good sign...

Anyway to manual test it? EG get the screen to display blocks or something. Cos i think its dead, which is crap.

Thanks

Post by **caesar** » December 30th, 2008, 2:28 am

look at www.matrixorbital.ca for the manual and see what is needed in order to reset the display.
I suspect that you changed the default parameters to some odd values.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 30th, 2008, 1:01 pm

After looking at the manual. Here

Its says

The unit should be connected to the USB and the backlight and custom startup screen should come on.

I don't get this, it doesn't do anything when i plug in it. Just load the drivers on the PC. The backlight doesn't come on, the screen has no text. Nothing.

Does this mean that is has gone to a better place? Cos by the look of it, its dead.

Post by **caesar** » December 30th, 2008, 3:43 pm

You can program the display to act dead on insertion so just see first if you can't reset it to defaults.

If it still doesn't light up then you can call it officially dead.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 30th, 2008, 4:43 pm

caesar wrote:You can program the display to act dead on insertion so just see first if you can't reset it to defaults.

If it still doesn't light up then you can call it officially dead.

OK, so how can i do that. Had a look in the manual and there doesn't seem to be abything about that?

Thanks

Post by **caesar** » December 30th, 2008, 10:15 pm

Well, first you have to see what is the display model.
In the topic title you said mx4/mx5 and in the previous post you referenced the LK204-24-USB.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 30th, 2008, 11:32 pm

caesar wrote:Well, first you have to see what is the display model.
In the topic title you said mx4/mx5 and in the previous post you referenced the LK204-24-USB.

Yes, it said MX4/5 in device manager. But after your post for the version number it has LK204-24-USB next to the logo.

The version number matchs the website ones and manual.

Post by **caesar** » December 31st, 2008, 10:05 am

See? I am pretty sure there's the problem, you loaded the wrong drivers.

If you look at the manual, the two display types have different VID/PID combinations.

Download them again. And I hope that you manage to install the new version. This could be very hard to do as windows will try to keep the installed version. Maybe try it also on another computer.
The display lights up only with the good driver installed (this is what the manual says).

You could also make a photo of the backboard so the we can see the jumper placement. Are you good at soldering? The jumpers are bridges of solder.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 31st, 2008, 2:53 pm

The drivers are for 'LK/VK/PK-USB and MX' version 2.05

From here

Here is the image

I am powering the device by USB.

Post by **mattcro** » December 31st, 2008, 7:20 pm

Have you tried using COM2 since installing the drivers? It's possible that COM1 is on your motherboard and COM2 is the virtual COM port in the LCD module. Check the ports again in device manager. What are the full names of any COM ports? Try different baud rates like 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 31st, 2008, 8:20 pm

Ok, i don't seem to get any error messages with these settings:

COM2,19200

4x20

but nothing is on screen

Is there anyway to make the back light come on? Just to test that. Make sure the device is getting insructions?

EDIT: The vista (You have just pluged a device in) sound when you first plug it in, then storly after say 10secons, it makes the (Unpluged) sound. The another minute or so later the same again? I havn't heard the niose every minute, so weather it does it on and off ramdonly i don't no. I heard it the other day too.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 31st, 2008, 8:37 pm

Here is a screenshot of the device manager. If it helps.

Post by **mattcro** » December 31st, 2008, 10:04 pm

Hmm, random/repeated plugged/unplugged alerts sounds a bit like a faulty USB cable. Does one or both of the COM ports disappear and reappear when the alters happen? You'll have to refresh device manager (scan for hardware changes).

You mentioned a noise (ticking) coming from the LCD earlier. It could be that the unit is damaged as you feared... I see some bent pins in your photo. Did you get the unit new or used?

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » December 31st, 2008, 10:20 pm

mattcro wrote:Hmm, random/repeated plugged/unplugged alerts sounds a bit like a faulty USB cable. Does one or both of the COM ports disappear and reappear when the alters happen? You'll have to refresh device manager (scan for hardware changes).

You mentioned a noise (ticking) coming from the LCD earlier. It could be that the unit is damaged as you feared... I see some bent pins in your photo. Did you get the unit new or used?

Used, ebay a good year ago, the guy 'said' it worked but at the time we couldn't find any software that would work, so gave up. He used a fopply cable and USB? But as i understand the USB powers the device.

Yer, faulty i would say. The com ports that there all the time. Even when the USB is unpluged.

Intresting, when you scan of new hardware the ticking stops... yep its dead. Out the window you go!

O and sorry for bent pins, been in one of my many hardware drawers. You should have seen the face plate it was fixed to! lol.

Thanks for your help anyway guys. How much would a simple 4X20 display, no fans or anything. Just for desktop? I don't mind used (As long as it works). Just out of interest, would like to see one working.

Post by **caesar** » January 1st, 2009, 4:37 pm

robyholmes wrote:Yer, faulty i would say. The com ports that there all the time. Even when the USB is unpluged.

Then it isn't even installed, those 2 com ports are from the motherboard...

Like mattcro said, maybe try another USB cable.

Plug it directly into a motherboard USB port without putting the floppy cable in and without connecting anything else to the LCD.

robyholmes · Post by **robyholmes** » January 1st, 2009, 6:21 pm

caesar wrote:
robyholmes wrote:Yer, faulty i would say. The com ports that there all the time. Even when the USB is unpluged.
Then it isn't even installed, those 2 com ports are from the motherboard...

Like mattcro said, maybe try another USB cable.

Plug it directly into a motherboard USB port without putting the floppy cable in and without connecting anything else to the LCD.

I am not using a floppy cable. I am only using the USB, the past user i got it off from ebay gave me a floppy cable with it, custom made for the device, sleathed and shit.

How could i uninstall the driver? I could try a system restore as the marchine is only for testing.

I will try that later to tomoz, thanks for advice.

lucas_siglo21 · Post by **lucas_siglo21** » January 1st, 2009, 9:11 pm

?did you try to connect it to the pc via serial port? maybe the usb controller is damaged, but serial part is fine, you could find the datasheet, and watch for the serial header, and you can make a cable and have a serial display.