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#19 Display gets corrupted after a while - D.VINE 4 w/VFD
I have D.VINE 4 with VFD DISPLAY, I use paralel port to
connect it to my PC, I use 2x16 option. I love this tool
but after using it for a while my display gets garbage
characters on the screen, all I have to do it then to
close program and start again. I think that for some
reason it either buffer gets messed up or the port that
is using it gets some problems, as I said restart of the
program fixes it. Maybe there could be some buffer
cleanup's or something added in? or some kind of port
restes put in? I dont know, but I love this tool and I
wish it did not have this small little problem... :) great
job everyone...
Chris
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I have reimplemented the HD44780 support - hopefully your
problem is fixed.
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RE-opened, user is still having the problem.
It may be a hardware problem - I've asked the user to check
display with alternative software, so we will know if the
display or smartie is at fault.
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May be a timing issue - please retry with beta 1, set
"timing multipiler" to 5, and restart.
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Setting to 5 did not help user.
They have tried alternative software (jalcds) and the
problem did not occur within 30 hours (usually happens
within 2 hours with LCD Smartie).
So it looks like there is a bug in LCD Smartie...
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Lowering priority as all attempts to remote troubleshoot
have failed.
Priority will be raised if we ever get our hands on that
make/model of display.
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Hi,
I have similar case (Accent HT200), with same VFD and have
exactly the same problem. However, the problem occurred
only when I changed from using the Parallel port on the
motherboard (IntelD865PERL) to using an internal Parallel port
on a PCI card (a Kouwell 220N-2).
This internal parallel port looks like it only supports ECP, and
the LCDsmartie docco mentiones the port should be EPP.
I am still trying to find drivers that allow me to change the
port to EPP - maybe this weekend.
Thanks,
Danny
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If you are using XP then this may be your problem:
Some versions of Windows XP look for devices by periodically
writing to the port. A registry key can disable this behavior.
The following registry setting disables the port writes:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Parport\Parameters]
"DisableWarmPoll"=dword:00000001
[Tell me if this works for anyone]
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[I forgot to say that a reboot is needed after setting that
registry key]
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Hi Chris,
The Registry Edit did not work for me - the display is still
corrupted after a period of time. Note that I have 3 parallel
ports in the machine: 1 on-board, 2 on PCI card. The PCI
card has 1 external and 1 internal port, and I have the VFD
connected to the internal parallel port. I used Windows
Device Manager to change the identity of the ports so that
the internal port is LPT1, the ext port LPT2 and the onboard
LPT3. I did that before realisng Smarties uses the I/O
Addresses of the ports.
I haven't tried setting the PCI ports to EPP yet, they are still
in ECP mode with an LCDSmartie timing of 5.
Cheers,
Danny
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I have followed up with the manufacturer, and EPP mode
cannot be set manually on the card. Apparently, the
card "autosenses" bewteen EPP and ECP and switches
accordingly - I don't know what that means for the
LCDsmartie driver....
I will probably return to using the motherboard parallel port (I
haven't tried jaLCDs - apparently, CPU usage is too high...)
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I'm not completely sure why the mode (ECP/EPP/Normal)
matters to Smartie. We treat the parallel port as if it was
'normal' - so the only difference (IMHO) is speed. [So EPP
should be able to send data faster].
I wonder if the problem is that the port95nt driver doesn't
work correctly with all parallel ports? [Maybe a change to
CanIO, which is used by CrystalControl, would be a good idea.]
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Works well now, main thing is to make sure EPP is selected
in BIOS.
Many thanks!!!!
Chris
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Hi Chris,
I uninstalled DLportIO and installed CanIO (by installing
CrystalControl). When smarties starts, I get the error cannot
finf DLportIO, and nothing displays on the screen.
How do I try canIO instead of DLportIO?
Thanks for your help,
Danny
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Hi Danny,
I need to make code changes before you can use CanIO. I
will try to look in to it either tomorrow or some time next
week.
Chris.
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Danny,
I've uploaded a version of Smartie that can use CanIO - you
will need to have CanIO already installed for it to work (I
think installing CrystalControl will do).
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/lcdsmartie/LCDSmartie-canio2.zip?download
Let me know if it behaves differently.
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Hi Chris,
The CanIO version is working well - 12 hours of up time on
the LCD! I'll give it another day or so before closing out the
bug.
Thanks very much for your help and responsiveness.
Cheers,
Danny
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Hi Danny, Is that on your internal card?
Thanks for the feedback,
Chris.
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Yes - it is attached to the internal port of the Kouwell PCI
card. It's still going fine - almost 18 hours. I think CanIO has
fixed it...
Note, I think my "Timing" setting is still on 5 (or maybe 3 - I
was playing around with it). If this stays up for a few days,
I'll play around with timing again (it used to work fine on 1
when the LCD was attached to the porton the motherboard.
I just wanted the internal card so I didn't have to loop a
cable out the back of the machine! All this just for
aesthetics... :)
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Spoke too soon! Display just got corrupted (It was displaying
only a clock and a scrolling static message being fed from the
Meedio application plug-in the whole time).
I will try with different timings to see if that helps.
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Another update:
I disabled the only plugin that I use (Meedio plugin), then re-
booted the PC. The only thing Smartie is configrued to
display is date/time. The display has not been corrupted for
almost 24 hours.
May be a problem with the plugin, or with the
amoutn/frequency of data updates. Meedio is a HTPC front-
end software, that alo has built-in video/dvd playback plus a
beta TV module. There are lots of messages being sent from
Meedio to the smartie plugin, even though I display very little
(usually only track information - name, time elapsed, time
remaining, scrolling).
I may look at restricting the redundant message that are sent.
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Danny, When only displaying the date/time does using (or not
using) the canio make any difference?