vfd with parallel connection

[jrhessey]

Is there any add-on like the neilm and andersons that would allow me to display on my vfd that is hooked up by parallel using lcdsmartie? Thanks!

[gplasky]

There's a plugin that use LCDSmartie to show some Sage details. Check in the downloads.

Gerry

[jrhessey]

I have tried both of them, however both of them use a tcp connection, I need a parallel (LPT1) connection. Thanks for your help though!

[gplasky]

The TCP connection is the way the Sage plugin talks to LCD smartie. LCDSmartie talks to your vfd any way it can. parallel, serial, usb, etc.

You need the getstatus plugin
Get status

And the LCDSmartie plugin
LCDSmartie plugin

TCP is how the GetStatus plugin is listening. Not how it talks to your VFD. LCDSmartie and it's own plugins handle talking to your vfd. GetStatus and the Sage LCD Smartie plugin handles talking to Sage and LCDSmartie. The Sage stuff doesn't talk to your display and doesn't care how it is connected.

This starts a TCP server listening for connections from the local host only on port 20000 by default.

The address to bind on, and the port can be configured in the Sage.properties/SageClient.properties file using the parameters:

nielm/getstatus/bind_addr=127.0.0.1
nielm/getstatus/port=20000
NOTE: The bind_addr IP is the IP address of the PC that is running the getstatus monitor, it can be set to 127.0.0.1 to allow connections from the local machine only, or to 0.0.0.0 to allow connections from any machine on the network.

The default of 127.0.0.1 is for security reasons: it prevents anyone from outside of the local machine from monitoring your viewing habits.

You get LCD Smartie working with your display first. The drop the sage.dll into your LCD Smartie installation per the instructions. Now it can talk to the External Status plugin you configured first and that communication is TCP.

Instructions:LCD SMartie plugin instructions


Gerry

[jrhessey]

My apologies Gerry, I will work on that tonight... Thanks for your help (and stick-to-it-tiveness)

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by jrhessey

My apologies Gerry, I will work on that tonight... Thanks for your help (and stick-to-it-tiveness)

No problem. First step is to get LCD Smartie working with your display. Once you confirm that is working then work with the Sage plugins. I never did get the latest version of LCD Smartie working properly with mine but I did get a previous version working. I think it was 5.3 rc3.

Gerry

[jrhessey]

I have lcdsmartie working, used it GBPVR. I just got an error when I used the sage.dll on my VFD saying it couldn't load the plugin. I assume now from what you're saying that is actually info from Sage?

[jrhessey]

Sweet, got it working for the most part with 5.4 and mizhook plugin. Only problem is that the vfd refreshes to the first screen. I'll post on their thread for the actual plugin, thanks for your help Gerry!

[gplasky]

Glad to hear it's working. It took me a little while for it to work the way I wanted it to. You'll get there.

Gerry