Driver Available for Soundgraph OEM LCD / UltraBay

[b00sfuk]

There is one function I would love with this plugin. I don't know if it is possible but can a message be left on the VFD when it goes into standby? Specifically I want to leave the name/day/time of the next scheduled recording. As my HTPC uses a shared STB (with a TV) it is nice to know when it is next going to wakeup and change channel etc.
Currently I can do this using another PVR (GB-PVR) with the older version of LCDSmartie (5.3). There are 2 automated steps, firstly get the data out of the database (e.g. with GB-PVR a CLI command to write to a text file) and secondly the posting of that on the VFD at shutdown (LCDSmartie 5.3, but not 5.4, can display the contents of a textfile on exit).
I currently can't see a way to do either step with Mediaportal and wonder if this plugin could be made to do this?

Thanks
Simon

[Crewone]

Ralphy,

I can debug this. I have a mediaportal system with VS.net and the error.

[ralphy]

Originally Posted by Crewone

I have the same problem with this plugin.

It seems it expects a "PixelsToScroll" integer variable in the processplugins.externaldisplay.settings namespace/class, but it isn't there.

Aha! The smoking gun, and I am extremely embarrassed by this It turns out that I didn't extract the stable release source code from the store and I was working off some really old code. And then I downloaded some code that isn't compatible with 2.2 stable (I am completely new to downloading SVN/CVS code from sourceforge (or anywhere else for that matter). I'm still trying to get the stable release code.

But I believe there is a solution in the interim - simply rename ExternalDisplay.xml to ExternalDisplay.xml.old (in mediaportal folder), and the plugin will automatically create a new one.

Unforutanately, since I compiled an old version of ProcessPlugins, I have no idea what other plugins may not be working. But I will get it sorted out soon.

JoeDalton, I haven't forgotten about you, and as I PM'd to you, I will get you the source code for inclusion in the next release once I get this all sorted out.

Originally Posted by b00sfuk

There is one function I would love with this plugin. I don't know if it is possible but can a message be left on the VFD when it goes into standby? Specifically I want to leave the name/day/time of the next scheduled recording. As my HTPC uses a shared STB (with a TV) it is nice to know when it is next going to wakeup and change channel etc.
.....
I currently can't see a way to do either step with Mediaportal and wonder if this plugin could be made to do this?

Thanks
Simon

Simon, I'll defer to JoeDalton on this one. My changes to this plugin discussed here relate only to the Soundgraph LCD display (and not the Soundgraph VFD or other displays)

[mimk97]

Originally Posted by ralphy

Aha! The smoking gun, and I am extremely embarrassed by this It turns out that I didn't extract the stable release source code from the store and I was working off some really old code. And then I downloaded some code that isn't compatible with 2.2 stable (I am completely new to downloading SVN/CVS code from sourceforge (or anywhere else for that matter). I'm still trying to get the stable release code.

But I believe there is a solution in the interim - simply rename ExternalDisplay.xml to ExternalDisplay.xml.old (in mediaportal folder), and the plugin will automatically create a new one.

Unforutanately, since I compiled an old version of ProcessPlugins, I have no idea what other plugins may not be working. But I will get it sorted out soon.

JoeDalton, I haven't forgotten about you, and as I PM'd to you, I will get you the source code for inclusion in the next release once I get this all sorted out.

Simon, I'll defer to JoeDalton on this one. My changes to this plugin discussed here relate only to the Soundgraph LCD display (and not the Soundgraph VFD or other displays)

Thanks for the Tip, ralphy

But it doen´s work. I renamed externalDisplay.xml to ExternalDisplay_old.xml, but the Error is the same when I select "Soundgraph IMONLCD USB Driver 1.0", please see attached

[ralphy]

Let's try again.

I've now found the 2.2 stable code, and have recompiled the iMONLCD driver, and made a slight change. Unfortunately, it doesn't handle the umlaut's for the German text.

I've noted a problem that I think is causing the stack overflow error. I believe it's caused when the iMON LCD is already open (eg with iMON Manager), and MediaPortal tries to open it again. I changed the code a little to get around this problem, but it shouldn't be necessary, so I'm going to think about this some more.

But I still believe that you should start MediaPortal BEFORE iMON Manager, irrespective of the setting of the "external plugin" option of FrontView.

Please give this a try and let me know how it goes.

This External Plugin is for the 2.2 stable release.

Thank you for your patience.

[mimk97]

Originally Posted by ralphy

Let's try again.

I've now found the 2.2 stable code, and have recompiled the iMONLCD driver, and made a slight change. Unfortunately, it doesn't handle the umlaut's for the German text.

I've noted a problem that I think is causing the stack overflow error. I believe it's caused when the iMON LCD is already open (eg with iMON Manager), and MediaPortal tries to open it again. I changed the code a little to get around this problem, but it shouldn't be necessary, so I'm going to think about this some more.

But I still believe that you should start MediaPortal BEFORE iMON Manager, irrespective of the setting of the "external plugin" option of FrontView.

Please give this a try and let me know how it goes.

This External Plugin is for the 2.2 stable release.

Thank you for your patience.

I can now select "Soundgraph IMONLCD USB Driver 1.0", but my Display doesn´t show anything

I have tested Frontview activated with Plugin and disabled in IMON Manager.

[ralphy]

Originally Posted by mimk97

[
I can now select "Soundgraph IMONLCD USB Driver 1.0", but my Display doesn´t show anything

I have tested Frontview activated with Plugin and disabled in IMON Manager.

At least you can now select the LCD Driver, I guess that's one step forward

Please send the logs (I assume debug level logging has been enabled), and then

Do not run iMON Manager - make sure it was exited normally.
Start MP
Send Logs

and we'll take it from there.

[mimk97]

Originally Posted by ralphy

At least you can now select the LCD Driver, I guess that's one step forward

Please send the logs (I assume debug level logging has been enabled), and then

Do not run iMON Manager - make sure it was exited normally.
Start MP
Send Logs

and we'll take it from there.

Attached see the Logs

[ralphy]

mimk97,

I cannot see what might be going wrong with your display from these logs. Assuming iMON Manager was never started (or if it were, it was exited) before starting MediaPortal, the data being sent to the LCD should be displayed.

My only other suggestion is to try the demo program to make sure that you can communicate with the display outside of iMon. (You'll need to ensure that the SG_VFD.dll file is in the same folder as the demonstration code.

I'm running out of ideas. I'm sure you've tried re-booting the system too.

[mimk97]

Originally Posted by ralphy

mimk97,

I cannot see what might be going wrong with your display from these logs. Assuming iMON Manager was never started (or if it were, it was exited) before starting MediaPortal, the data being sent to the LCD should be displayed.

My only other suggestion is to try the demo program to make sure that you can communicate with the display outside of iMon. (You'll need to ensure that the SG_VFD.dll file is in the same folder as the demonstration code.

I'm running out of ideas. I'm sure you've tried re-booting the system too.

I checked the LCD Demo. But the Display shows nothing when I click "Scroll Lines", for Example.

I´ve tested it with following Settings:
- IMON Manager not started
- IMON Manager started, but Frontview set to Plugin Mode


Any Ideas???