lcd4linux-users

[lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Cuddles <cu...@fl...>]

Ok folks, I've finally given up on the Optrex panel (nearly a week of 
phone calls all over the world and I'm still no closer), and I'm getting 
a few HD44780 panels given to me.

Now for the silly question.. Is it possible to wire more than one panel 
together (yes, I have a good reason for this) on the same connector (in 
this case, the parallel port)? Yes, I know both panels would be 
displaying the exact same thing, that's what I want. :) Why? Well, one 
panel would be mounted on my system's case, and the other would be on a 
cable run into another room (sort of a "remote" status display).

So... Can it be done? Or is it a pipe dream?

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi there,

> Ok folks, I've finally given up on the Optrex panel (nearly a week of 
> phone calls all over the world and I'm still no closer),

too bad!

> Now for the silly question.. Is it possible to wire more than one panel 
> together (yes, I have a good reason for this) on the same connector (in 
> this case, the parallel port)? Yes, I know both panels would be 
> displaying the exact same thing, that's what I want. :) Why? Well, one 
> panel would be mounted on my system's case, and the other would be on a 
> cable run into another room (sort of a "remote" status display).

Hmmm... you for shure won't be able to use busy-flag checking. But 
without, at may work.

Maybe there's a problem of too much electrical load on the parport with 
two displays in parallel. I can't tell, you'd have to try this.

But I could think of another idea: if the two displays have only one 
controller each (and therefore only one ENABLE line), you could use tham 
as one bit display by using "Controllers 2" and "Wire.ENABLE2 
<anything>". Just use different lines for the enable signals.

This way It would be even possible to display different things on both 
displays.


bye, Michael

btw, if you succeed, could you please describe this geek idea in the 
wiki? Thanks!

-- 
Michael Reinelt <re...@eu...>
http://members.eunet.at/reinelt
GPG-Key 0xDF13BA50
ICQ #288386781

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Cuddles <cu...@fl...>]

Well, IF I get it working, I'll definitely write it up for you. :) I 
should be getting the parts in around Tuesday of next week.

As for the two displays having only one controller each... The problem 
I'm going to have is the fact that the system in question has only ONE 
parallel port. And no way to add a second one.

Michael Reinelt wrote:

> Hmmm... you for shure won't be able to use busy-flag checking. But 
> without, at may work.
>
> Maybe there's a problem of too much electrical load on the parport 
> with two displays in parallel. I can't tell, you'd have to try this.
>
> But I could think of another idea: if the two displays have only one 
> controller each (and therefore only one ENABLE line), you could use 
> tham as one bit display by using "Controllers 2" and "Wire.ENABLE2 
> <anything>". Just use different lines for the enable signals.
>
> This way It would be even possible to display different things on both 
> displays.
>
>
> bye, Michael
>
> btw, if you succeed, could you please describe this geek idea in the 
> wiki? Thanks!
>

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi there,

> As for the two displays having only one controller each... The problem 
> I'm going to have is the fact that the system in question has only ONE 
> parallel port. And no way to add a second one.

No, you wont need a second parallel port!

You connect every line from the displays in parallel to the lines from 
the parallel port, except the enable signals. you use different parallel 
port output signals for each display.

and afterwards you'll have to define the display in lcd4linux.conf as 
twice the size it really is (e.g. if each display has 2 rows and 20 
columns, the resulting display woult be 4 rows by 20 columns. row 1 & 2 
would be the first display (the oen connected to Wire.ENABLE), row 3 & 4 
on the second one (Wire.ENABLE2)

bye,Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt <re...@eu...>
http://members.eunet.at/reinelt
GPG-Key 0xDF13BA50
ICQ #288386781

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Cuddles <cu...@fl...>]

Ok, I see what you're saying now. :) Guess I just need to wait until the 
parts get here and I get them wired up.

Next question...

Say I've got a bash script that outputs several values for me (right now 
it outputs to /dev/tty11 for a display). Can I use the lcd4linux text 
widgets to read the values from that script?

Michael Reinelt wrote:

> No, you wont need a second parallel port!
>
> You connect every line from the displays in parallel to the lines from 
> the parallel port, except the enable signals. you use different 
> parallel port output signals for each display.
>
> and afterwards you'll have to define the display in lcd4linux.conf as 
> twice the size it really is (e.g. if each display has 2 rows and 20 
> columns, the resulting display woult be 4 rows by 20 columns. row 1 & 
> 2 would be the first display (the oen connected to Wire.ENABLE), row 3 
> & 4 on the second one (Wire.ENABLE2)

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi,

> Say I've got a bash script that outputs several values for me (right now 
> it outputs to /dev/tty11 for a display). Can I use the lcd4linux text 
> widgets to read the values from that script?

I'm afraid not at the moment. There's no such plugin that handles this, 
at least it's not coded out. It *is* in my head :-)

There will be some sort of a 'generic file reading/parsing' plugin, 
which should be able to read from a pipe or fifo, too.

should be quite easy to code. Have you got some spare time? :-)


bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt <re...@eu...>
http://members.eunet.at/reinelt
GPG-Key 0xDF13BA50
ICQ #288386781

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Cuddles <cu...@fl...>]

Time I've got. Knowledge of programming I don't. :)

I can do a LITTLE programming in certain languages, but nowhere near the
level you do.

Mike

Michael Reinelt wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm afraid not at the moment. There's no such plugin that handles 
> this, at least it's not coded out. It *is* in my head :-)
>
> There will be some sort of a 'generic file reading/parsing' plugin, 
> which should be able to read from a pipe or fifo, too.
>
> should be quite easy to code. Have you got some spare time? :-)
>
>
> bye, Michael

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi,

>> There will be some sort of a 'generic file reading/parsing' plugin, 
>> which should be able to read from a pipe or fifo, too.
>>
>> should be quite easy to code. Have you got some spare time? :-)

> Time I've got. Knowledge of programming I don't. :)

Ok, I'll try to find some time...

Could you please open a ticket for this?

and 2nd, could you explain in more detail what kind of information your 
script collects, and how this stuff should/could be parsed by lcd4linux?


bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt <re...@eu...>
http://members.eunet.at/reinelt
GPG-Key 0xDF13BA50
ICQ #288386781

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Cuddles <cu...@fl...>]

I can do better than that... :) I can post a partly-done script showing 
what I mean...

-------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash

# Network Status:
ping 192.168.0.1 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s1="ok" || s1="error"
ping 192.168.0.2 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s2="ok" || s2="error"
ping 192.168.0.3 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s3="ok" || s3="error"
ping 192.168.0.4 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s4="ok" || s4="error"
ping 192.168.0.5 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s5="ok" || s5="error"
ping 192.168.0.8 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s8="ok" || s8="error"

if [ "$s1" = "error" ]; then
  sys="Zuul offline"
elif [ "$s2" = "error" ]; then
  sys="Toadstool offline"
elif [ "$s3" = "error" ]; then
  sys="Bessie offline"
elif [ "$s4" = "error" ]; then
  sys="GayMer offline"
elif [ "$s8" = "error" ]; then
  sys="Mavus offline"
else
  sys="Ok"
fi
echo "Systems: $sys"

exit
-------------------------------------------------------

Yes, it's kludgy, but it works. :) I use a similar script to output more 
detailed into to /dev/tty11 on that box too.

Basically, I'd like lcd4linux to read the output of the script (in this 
case, the "Systems: Ok" message) and display it on the lcd panel.

Shouldn't be too difficult. :)

Mike

Michael Reinelt wrote:

> Hi,
> Ok, I'll try to find some time...
>
> Could you please open a ticket for this?
>
> and 2nd, could you explain in more detail what kind of information 
> your script collects, and how this stuff should/could be parsed by 
> lcd4linux?
>
>
> bye, Michael

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Michael R. <re...@eu...>]

Hi there,

> I can do better than that... :) I can post a partly-done script showing 
> what I mean...
> # Network Status:
> ping 192.168.0.1 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s1="ok" || s1="error"
> ping 192.168.0.2 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s2="ok" || s2="error"
> ping 192.168.0.3 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s3="ok" || s3="error"
> ping 192.168.0.4 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s4="ok" || s4="error"
> ping 192.168.0.5 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s5="ok" || s5="error"
> ping 192.168.0.8 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && s8="ok" || s8="error"
> 
> if [ "$s1" = "error" ]; then
>  sys="Zuul offline"
> elif [ "$s2" = "error" ]; then
>  sys="Toadstool offline"
> elif [ "$s3" = "error" ]; then
>  sys="Bessie offline"
> elif [ "$s4" = "error" ]; then
>  sys="GayMer offline"
> elif [ "$s8" = "error" ]; then
>  sys="Mavus offline"
> else
>  sys="Ok"
> fi
> echo "Systems: $sys"

I think you can achieve this with the current lcd4linux and the exec plugin.

write a little shell script:

system_status.sh

#! /bin/bash
ping $1 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && echo "ok" || echo "error"


and use the exec plugin:

exec('/home/me/system_status.sh 192.168.0.1', 10000)

WARNING: this is untested!


bye, Michael

-- 
Michael Reinelt <re...@eu...>
http://members.eunet.at/reinelt
GPG-Key 0xDF13BA50
ICQ #288386781

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Cuddles <cu...@fl...>]

Yes, that would work... :) BUT (there's always a but) it would require 
the script to be run 6 times (at least, on my network)... However, for 
now I guess it would work. :) Thanks!

Mike

Michael Reinelt wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I think you can achieve this with the current lcd4linux and the exec 
> plugin.
>
> write a little shell script:
>
> system_status.sh
>
> #! /bin/bash
> ping $1 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && echo "ok" || echo "error"
>
>
> and use the exec plugin:
>
> exec('/home/me/system_status.sh 192.168.0.1', 10000)
>
> WARNING: this is untested!
>
>
> bye, Michael

Re: [lcd4linux] Silly question...or is it?

[Cuddles <cu...@fl...>]

Yes, that would work... :) BUT (there's always a but) it would require 
the script to be run 6 times (at least, on my network)... However, for 
now I guess it would work. :) Thanks!

Mike

Michael Reinelt wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I think you can achieve this with the current lcd4linux and the exec 
> plugin.
>
> write a little shell script:
>
> system_status.sh
>
> #! /bin/bash
> ping $1 -w 5 -c 1 >/dev/null && echo "ok" || echo "error"
>
>
> and use the exec plugin:
>
> exec('/home/me/system_status.sh 192.168.0.1', 10000)
>
> WARNING: this is untested!
>
>
> bye, Michael