ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
- VFD Clock - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AAM7tP
VFD 40x2 USB Display - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AdFWS9
Other links from the video:
Realterm terminal application - sourceforge.net/projects/real...
EEVblog VFD video - • EEVblog #717 - How To ...
Reusing Vacuum Fluorescent Displays - • Reusing Vacuum Fluores...
Serial Port Monitor - www.serial-port-monitor.org/
CH340 driver download - www.wch-ic.com/downloads/file/...
Matrix Orbital LK40x2 - www.matrixorbital.com/lk402-25
Notepad++ - notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/
Notepad++ HEX viewer plugin - appuals.com/how-to-install-no...
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:11 Clock Display Overview
01:59 40x2 Display Overview
03:04 Connection display to PC
03:32 Installing Drivers
04:13 AIDA64
09:09 RealTerm
11:42 Serial Port Monitor
18:33 RealTerm, but now it works
20:44 Getting VFDs from old equipment
21:00 What I have so far...
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Hello! This is my first testing of VFD displays. This technology is quite old, and those displays are not used anymore, as they were replaced with "better" technology, like LCD and OLED. However, there is one thing that you cannot simulate, and that´s the retro-futuristic sci-fi feel of those VFD Displays. I don´t know about you, but I simply love that glowing green light. It reminds me of the movies TRON and Back to the Future.
I was looking into options for getting the ready-to-use displays, and I did find two suitable displays - a clock display, and a 40x20 character display. The 40x2 character display could be connected directly to the PC via micro USB cable and used with the application AIDA64 to display system status information - memory usage, processor usage, time, date, CPU and GPU temperatures, fan speeds, etc. You can also use a terminal application like RealTerm or Putty to display your own data by just sending the strings directly.
Unfortunately, I wasn´t able to create my own characters or do any advanced drawing with the 40x2 display. It doesn´t work and I don´t know why. Hopefully next time. If you have any idea why you think it´s not working, I would be very glad to know it.
Do you have any questions? Suggestions for the next video? Please put those down in the comment section. I try to answer as many questions as I can. Thank you for watching, and reading the video description and I hope to see you next time. Good luck with your projects!
#arduino #vfd #futuristic
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Keywords related to this video:
VFD, Vacum Fluorescent Display, Sci-fi display, Back to the Future display, Glowing display, Retro display, old technology, retro-futuristic display, Arduino UNO, Arduino, OLED, u8g, u8g2, Arduino Display, Arduino Free Code, esp32, Arduino project, Arduino display, Arduino ideas, new project ideas, Arduino 2022, Arduino project 2022, Arduino project ideas, Arduino tutorial, microcontroller, arduino projects for engineering students, arduino based projects, microcontroller projects, cool projects, mini project using arduino, arduino mini projects, electronics projects using arduino, how to make arduino project, arduino uno projects for beginners, projects with arduino, projects using arduino, project using arduino, arduino based projects for final year, TRON
Look at the manual titled "Manual for PCB Revision 2.0". That one includes the missing commands. 0xFE 0x43 enables auto-line wrapping, so the text will automatically go to the next line if the cursor reaches the end.
As for why the text buffer requires you to enter the full set of characters, I think that's so your software doesn't need to implement any special delays to account for shorter vs longer text when animating. Since you always send the full buffer width, there's no difference in communication time between sending "Hello" vs "Hello world".
To avoid showing the startup screen, there's a command (0xFE 0x40) which lets you set the text to show during startup. You can use that to display an empty screen instead.
Beyond that, if you hook this up to an arduino, you'll likely need to build the whole 80 character string for the next frame in software prior to writing.
This is the comment I was looking for, thank you very much for providing those additional details.
I have tried the 0xfe 0x40 for setting the intro screen content, but it wasn´t working. In fact, most of the commands listed in the PDF were not doing anything. I though that the display is locked, but even the "unlock" command was not doing anything. Unfortunately, I´m not even sure what commands are supported with this display, which makes it little bit harder. I still hope to get back to this display in the future.
I'm suspicious about the character set on this display as it doesn't seem to match the one in the manual very well. For example:
1. The $ symbol is clearly not correct as it's missing part of the vertical bar
2. The & symbol has a squared top part which also doesn't look correct
3. The G character has a rounded bottom-right corner where it should be squared
4. The A character has a flat top instead of a triangular shape
5. The DegreesC character (instead of pipe symbol) is non-standard
Based on this, I wonder if it's just a clone of the matrix orbital which doesn't implement all of the command set, so this might explain why some of the control codes don't seem to do anything?
If it supports custom characters in the same way as the genuine LK402, then the following sequence should display a custom smiley face, but I guess it's not going to work? :
0xfe 0x4e 0x01 0x0e 0x1f 0x13 0x1f 0x13 0x1b 0x1f 0x0e
Then to display a screen-full of smiley faces:
0xfe 0x48 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01 0x01
Good luck!
Even though we've moved on to OLED and LCD based displays with inverted polarizers (to make the digits light instead of the blank space) VFDs still have a special place in my heart as a really cool looking display technology.
I couldn´t agree more. I love VFD displays, they look stunning.
For me, they're second only to nixie tubes.
Love VFDs. I have a VFD clock, the infamous Adafruit Icetube, but with custom firmware and some hardware mods: GPS module for automatic time-setting as well as a photoresistor cell for auto-dimming/shutoff. It has 8 digits with decimal separators between each, the display is a Russian IV-18 tube, meant for calculators.
Thank you for your comment. I haven´t heard about the Adafruit Icetube until now, and it looks like I´m too late since it´s discontinued. I will try to get it somewhere anyway, it certainly looks cool.
@@upir_upir The board schematics, case, software, everything is opensource, and you could just throw the project over to any PCB maker and have a batch made. The tubes are getting harder to find though, that'll be the most expensive part most likely. You can (and should) also substitute the ATMEGA-168V microcontroller for an ATMEGA-328P.
VFD is truly a really nice display to look at. I love them.
Fully agree. I have tried to capture that unique look as best as I could, but it still looks much better in person.
@@upir_upir It certainly reminds me of the same feel as neon lighting. Which is also really hard to convey how magical it looks on camera. Be a sad day when literally everything is LED :(
@@jessejuliano8056 Good point with the neon lighting. Hopefully some of the VFD displays would still be around in the future :)
I love these VFD displays. My 1988 Toyota Cressida have this display as its digital cluster (I have a video showing it in my channel). They look great when driving as it's clear and sharp so I don't have to stare my dash for too long just to see how fast I'm driving
Thank you for your comment, I have seen the video, it looks great. Next time, feel free to post a link to the video, I´m sure others would appreciate it as well.
th-cam.com/video/cZQDo2CLqFg/w-d-xo.html
I had a pocket calculator in 1980 with this type of display, 10 digits. It was my favorite calculator because it was so bright and easy to read. Through the glass, I could see the high-voltage cathode wires and the individual elements that light up. I found the melted bit of glass where it was evacuated and sealed. I examined the tiny HV oscillator with its tiny transformer (or maybe just a single coil) with its super fine windings. Fascinating little thing! I have an even older Commodore calculator with 8 super tiny red LED digits. Both devices ran on a 9V battery.
Sounds like a great memories! I had a handheld game with VFD display, but at that time, I didn´t even know what VFD is. It was still cool to look at. I miss those days :)
I love these displays! In the older Jeep ZJs they had an information screen which showed a top down wireframe of the vehicle, showing the doors open, low fluids, tail lights out, etc.
Unfortunately they don't work 9 times out of 10, the power supply boards traces burn up for some reason. But getting my hands on a handful I was able to rewire one to work again. It's one of my favorite parts in the Jeep, it has such a retro futuristic vibe :D
That´s great to hear! Is there any change you could record the display and put it on your channel? Or is it perhaps there already? I haven´t found it and I would love it see it in action! Thank you in advance.
@@upir_upir I plan to on my next update on the Jeep! :D
@@fangthewarrior Great, I look forward to it! Please send a link once you have it. Thank you and have a nice day!
One of my goals in life is to work on a VFD ( Variable Frequency Drive ) that has a VFD ( Vacuum Fluorescent Display ) at a VFD ( Volunteer Fire Department )
That´s surely a nice goal! :) I would be very happy to watch the project video!
Funny how I just designed a vfd experimentation board and you post a video about vfds! Must be a sign lol!
Is that something you already have on your channel? I’m very interested!!
@@upir_upir still debugging it, I'll probably have a video up in a week or two maybe if I can figure out the filament drive issues I'm having. It's basically an arduino uno with an onboard high voltage boost converter (up to ~55v max), AC squarewave filament drive, 40 serial high voltage IO so you can multiplex large tubes, and last but not least a mems rtc and supercap. It'll all run and program happily off of 5V usb. Basically an all in one board to design clocks around different vfds. I've got it working with an external filament drive supply, but hoping I can bodge that internally or I'll just have to fall back on DC drive.
Sounds great! Is this something that you will sell? I would be the first one to buy it
@@upir_upir I probably wont sell to the public but if you want one I can hook you up once I get the bugs ironed out
My old Lexicon PCM80 multi-effects processor had this type of display. So many great electronics from the past also had them.
All the great electronics had it :)
they look so pretty especially vfd clock I don't know where you'll find it it's beautiful
you can still find it on aliexpress, perhaps on a different shop, for example here - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DEe7ax7
They may have drawbacks but they look cool.
Agreed, it´s hard to simulate that retro sci-fi feel with any other display technology.
underrated channel , keep it up 🔥
Thank you for your comment, but I´m quite satisfied with the progress so far, since I have barely started and I already have much more views and subscribers than I was expecting. Everything is great :)
Thank you for the video! might salvage one from an old device.
You are welcome. If you do, please record a video. I would love to see others using the VFD displays for projects.
I love their look.
Yep, me as well! The retro-futuristic look of those displays it very hard to simulate in any other way. I hope someone will start producing those displays again in the future...
@@upir_upir Maybe with future display technologies we could finally get to see darker screens with barely any backlight like for these.
Great video. Thanks
You are welcome!
I'd like to get into VFDs. It would be really cool to use a matrix VFD and build a radio that can show the frequency waterfall on the display. Using an SDR for example. Makes for a really cool versitile radio, without needing a normal display.
VFD displays are great, it’s unfortunate they are not produced anymore and thus hard to get and expensive. I do have a video on my todo list with matrix VFD, I hope to finish it soon.
Great Video!
Thank you, I´m glad you like it!
What a amazing job you just did
Thank you, I´m glad you like it!
I have 2 (bare) VFD displays laying around for playing with. One is MN28016A (The same display with your 40x2 display module), another one is MN15439A I took from Sony car CD player. Both manufactured by Noritake Itron (Japanese). Nice to see the ready to use module of that 40x2 VFD. Since controlling these type of VFD Display is a real pain xD.
Yep, this is also Noritake display. Although I would like to use some salvaged VFD displays in the future, it was nice starting with the ready to use display and get the feel of what could be achieved.
@@upir_upir I have the full datasheet of MN28016A I got from Noritake Itron Engineer couple years ago. Maybe you wanna take a look at them.
@@TiNredstoner I have this file - www.ineltro.ch/media/downloads/SAAItem/21/21187/54e3847a-0beb-4330-80f3-1afe381ddfa5.pdf
Is it what you have, or perhaps you have more details? Thank you.
The Medion MD8800 PC's used to come with a VFD in the front panel. I probably still have it if the brother hasn't junked it yet. a Futaba M18ST05B I think.
is it this one? th-cam.com/video/RJ_aTljgeOg/w-d-xo.html
variable-frequency drive (VFD) is a type of motor drive used in electro-mechanical drive systems to control AC motor speed and torque by varying motor input frequency and, depending on topology, to control associated voltage or current variation.[1][2][3][4][5] VFDs may also be known as 'AFDs'
I wasn´t the one who decided to call those displays VFD :)
Nostalgia...
Yep. Those displays make me feel old :)
I wonder if the software, or the driver is limiting that VFD to only be a 2X40 character display, where it could be a full matrix display, and also the ability to display larger characters, such as what is shown on the display’s startup?
I believe it´s the driver of the display that´s configured to work in the "character" mode. What you see on the splash screen is a clever use of defining 8 custom characters - that´s why some pieces of the text looks "strange". I still hope to get this display fully working.
Have you tried to get this working on Linux or any SBC? Connecting this to a stationary Windows PC is a very very limited use of this display.
I haven´t, but I don´t see any reason why you couldn´t use Linux, since this is a standard serial communication.
the clock display could be a cool vu meter display
That´s an interesting idea. You can use the inner tickmarks for the actual value, and the outer tickmarks for the ma x value. Would be quite different VU meter for sure.
What happens if you send 0xfe 0x43 aka the unknown command? Maybe it is to disable the demo text?
Thank you for the suggestion, I did forgot to mention that I have tried to send those commands, but it was doing nothing to the display. That said, LimitedWard already found that the 0x43 is for enabling auto-line wrapping.
Hmmm, pěknej kanál, subbed
Díky díky! :)
Were you ever able to get this thing working without the stupid aida64 software? I have the same one and would like to use it for other projects
Yes, I was able to get this working, it´s shown at the end of the video, it´s just I wasn´t able to display custom characters.
DAMM, that clock is no longer available
Looks like you can still get it from here - s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DnFE3oT
@@upir_upir thank you
how long does the disply need to be on to get burning (to not have burning)?
where do you get these and are other different sizes of these?
As for the time for burning in the pixels/segments, I’m not quite sure, but it would definitely be years, not days or months.
As for where to get those displays, the link is in the description. I believe there are 2 or 3 different sizes for USB displays. You can or course get other displays, without the USB connection, but those would be harder to interface.
You can also of course reduce burn-in by turning down the brightness of the display.
idk how but vfd screen in the car from center control panel which is media panel making a weird noise like bad ground or ground loops idk what is it it just noises sound system
The vfd screen uses high voltage. It´s possible that some component is approaching it´s end, and could be a source of the buzzing sound..
@@upir_upir is there any way to fix it
@@justchill4886 I´m sure there is, but that´s unfortunately outside the scope of what I could do...
A Series of Unfortunate Displays?
Wouldn´t it be "fortunate" to fit the VFD? :)
@@upir_upir en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Series_of_Unfortunate_Events (the mysterious "V.F.D" is a central part in the plot :-)
Sad it's not volunter fire department. Oh well
Well, the display is getting quite hot when in use, so maybe the other VDF might be needed eventually..
I wonder if the actual display part is the same one used on some vending machines? That's because it seems doubtful they'd have enough demand just to make them for a rather niche product. It'd make more sense that the consumer product with the driver stuff is a spin-off development upon yet another OTS component.
This display was produced for all kind of machines, and a vast amount of displays was produced. This device which you see here is just a reminiscent of those displays - those displays are not manufactured anymore, so it´s most likely from some canceled production / leftover.
More on that 2x40 display. If you look at the board it's an atmega164 (atmel microcontroller, similar to what's on arduino) connected via a 16-pin header to the actual display module.
I don't have that board. I do have that display module, or least one *very* similar. If you unplug/remove that board, what you're left with is a VFD module that speaks the same language as the very-popular HD44780 character LCDs...
... which means the arduino lcd library drives them perfectly.
th-cam.com/video/kpuxNOgN2Zk/w-d-xo.html is a device that uses the 2x20 variant and has been reprogrammed from scratch using the arduino library. th-cam.com/video/3z0PumUPCB0/w-d-xo.html is exactly the same code running on the same hardware except that an LCD module has been plugged in in place of the VFD one.
Thank you for your comment and for providing links to the videos, that´s really helpful.
I see 4 connections for the VFD display that should be probably connected to Arduino, and those are labeled LAT, BLK, CLK, and DATA. Do you have any idea what pins I should use and what library I should use to use the right protocol? Thank you.
🔥
Thanks!
Renault Scenic 2 and Espace 4 had VFD dashboards
Good point. I believe much more cars had VFD displays, but I don’t think there is a complete list anywhere..
@@upir_upir Chevrolet Astro had digital VFD gauges too if I'm correct
Flip-dot display by mohl být další zajímavý projekt. PS: Skvělé video
Díky díky! Na flip-dot se určitě dostance, ale teď tu mám hromadu displejů a nevím který vzít dřív :)
I have 2 VFDs ripped off from old amplifier, it's using CXP82440A and CXP82616 but i don't know how to hack them :(
Is it just the display, or perhaps with some driver board? If the later, it´s probably much easier to use. Please see some of the videos I´ve linked in the description.
> As you can see, everything works as expected
> Pipe ("|") got converted to "°C"
Yeah, as expected :D
Well, the pipe is just an ASCII value. The driver chip for the display stores the individual characters in the memory, and someone has decided that the pipe would look like °C. Don´t ask me why :)
@@upir_upir I wonder how you'd put real pipe character
Anyways, it's nice to know that VFDs are still being produced and used, they look so nice, compared to all of that colorful white rectangles we got used to
Sorry, VFD will always stand for Variable Frequency Drive; you guys have to get a new one.
That´s fine, it´s not VFD. It´s just VF-Display. "VFD Display" would not make sense, right?
You mean an AFD, right? :)
I'm not sure about this make/model but it looks very similar to the Noritake Itron displays, which can also be driven from Arduino with a standard command set (parallel or serial depending on the age/model). It is possible these have some commands or functionality in common. The Noritake boards support both character sets and direct graphics (framebuffer) writing. I know because I've used them myself in projects. Researching the datasheets for the Noritake boards might offer some clues to this one? Try looking up GU280X16G for more info.
You are correct about the brand, it´s indeed Noritake Itron display, but it´s not the "GU" version. It´s the display "MN27016A". I have a datasheet, and it displays the data pins as BK, CLK, SI and LA. That´s what I don´t understand. Is that SPI, I2C, or perhaps some completely different serial connection? A different datasheet lists those pins as LAT, BLK, CLK, DATA. What should I be looking for if I want to initiate this type of communication?
I have found libraries and some examples for the GU displays (www.noritake-elec.com/support/design-resources/support-guide/arduino-code-library-quick-start-guide), but nothing for this particular one.
Anyway, thank you for your comment!
@@upir_upir ah ok i mistook this unit for a different or clone brand. I don't remember the serial details offhand but will look later today at the datasheet and libraries to see if there are more clues I can drop here. IIRC some of the ambiguity over the connections is due to configurable pins (e.g. the parallel port had a configurable pin which could be either acknowledge or reset, something like that... so the names are not necessarily obvious). also the newer boards are more likely to support SPI or I2c. I think older the GU models are RS232, either normal or TTL level.
@@upir_upir It seems the docs I have on the GU series are not much use, for various reasons - but I think its significant that the GU series has on-board controller and exposes a simple RX/TX serial interface, while the only info I could find on the MN??? series is that the CPU is not on-board, so the interface is more like a synchronous bus. I'm not sure if that's true for your specific unit, but you can find some extra info & datasheets by searching for other devices in the same line, MN12832, MN12832J / JC, MN32032 which do list the pins and give some interfacing / clock signal diagrams as well as example hookups to an external CPU/controller.
I'm not keen on posting links but some other devices you might get useful search hits for: MN14016, MN14032, MN25632, MN25664, MN256128, MN32032... all just display size permutations. There are plenty more but that should be enough to find the others. Good luck.
@@doug694 thank you very much for providing all the details, it’s very helpful! I will try to give this display one more chance and share the result. Thanks again, much appreciated!
😮😮😮
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21:15 it sending serial data. so make program that send serial data. huh? try python or easy c# examples how user serial there is plenty
Sending serial data is simple. It´s just that not all those serial data get interpreted as expected (like setting the splash screen or defining a custom character), so I guess the only option is to directly talk to the display. Hope it does make sense.
talk fast man me no undasthand him
Please use the playback controls to slow down the video. Thank you.
@@upir_upir how did you understand what I typed.