Updated iMON (Soundgraph) LCD Driver

[Pro-Pain]

Originally Posted by ralphy

Please note that these drivers are for the LCD display only, NOT the VFD display, so if you had the 'old one' working, I assume you mean you were using the old VFD drivers successfully.

For the other folks who would like some enhancements (standby/contrast/backlight etc), for the moment, sorry, but I am unable to get around to these in a hurry. But with the source code and limited API published, I am sure that there are others out there who are able to make the changes.

Once again the problem was behind the eyes and between the ears
I didn't notice that these are 2 different displays.

[darkaz]

ok I'm no expert but I'm guessing that line 280 of settings.cs is what's defaulting the contrast to a mid-range value:

private int m_Contrast = 127

I'll try pulling down a copy of visual studio express edition and see what I can do but I haven't done any c# programming to date so will have to get my head around how things are structured as far as recompiling bits are concerned

if anyone would like to change this to another value I'd happily try it out

I've also found another good reference to the various calls for this LCD at: http://imonapi.tripod.com/

so fingers crossed we can get things working at a higher (more complete) level soon...

time for me to brush up on my client side programming skills and get stuck into this

[Johan]

Originally Posted by darkaz

ok I'm no expert but I'm guessing that line 280 of settings.cs is what's defaulting the contrast to a mid-range value:

private int m_Contrast = 127

I'll try pulling down a copy of visual studio express edition and see what I can do but I haven't done any c# programming to date so will have to get my head around how things are structured as far as recompiling bits are concerned

if anyone would like to change this to another value I'd happily try it out

I've also found another good reference to the various calls for this LCD at: http://imonapi.tripod.com/

so fingers crossed we can get things working at a higher (more complete) level soon...

time for me to brush up on my client side programming skills and get stuck into this

Thanks for looking into this. The reference page you are refering to is the page with the discoveries for the API made by Ralphy which also is the author of this LCD driver.

I don't think that lowering the contrast will help to turn the display off. The iMON software are sending certain code to the display when it exits. Ralphy has however not yet decoded how this works.

[darkaz]

Hi Johan,

no I agree that lowering the contrast will not help turn the display off - I was referring to the problem I have of a very low contrast screen (light blue text on a mid-blue background) - whilst the supplied antec software allows the contrast to be turned down thus resulting in a much better contrast (go figure!) of a mid blue on a near black background.

As for turning the display off - I'll happily have a look into this also once I get a chance - it would be great to get this fully functional for media portal

[cybrmage]

The correct way to turn off the LCD is to use SendData(0x5000000000000008). This will completely blank the display.

If you want to get reaaly fancy, you can enable clock that is built in to the display.
IE:
----------------- c++ example ------------------
SYSTEMTIME st;
Int64 data;
GetLocalTime(&st);
data = ((Int64)0x50 << 56);
data += ((Int64)st.wSecond << 48);
data += ((Int64)st.wMinute << 40);
data += ((Int64)st.wHour << 32);
data += ((Int64)st.wDay << 24);
data += ((Int64)st.wMonth << 16);
data += ((uint64)st.wYear << 8);
data += (Int64)0x80;
SendData(data);
-----------------------------------------------------

This will disable control of the display and show the built in clock at the current contrast level.

---- correction ----

The sample code snippet posted above is for c++... The iMon driver is written in c#... the correct code snippet is below.

------------------ c# example -------------------
DateTime st = DateTime.Now;
Int64 data;
data = ((Int64)0x50 << 56);
data += ((Int64)st.Second << 48);
data += ((Int64)st.Minute << 40);
data += ((Int64)st.Hour << 32);
data += ((Int64)st.Day << 24);
data += ((Int64)st.Month << 16);
data += (((Int64)st.Year &0x0F) << 8);
data += (Int64)0x80;
SendData(data);
-----------------------------------------------------

[Hades]

Hi All,

Does this pluigin work on the LCD supplied with the Antec Fusion HTPC v2 Case?.. ( i keep getting the idea,that either the LCD is feature crippled..or is it only the software that is lacking)?

I am kinda confused on the whole Imon part of the software you guys talk about, my case came with the "Practiacally Useless" VFD software supplied by ANTEC

I have currently switched to LCDSmartie which is able to display more pertinent info.

Cheers

[iSP]

Originally Posted by darkaz

Hi Johan,

no I agree that lowering the contrast will not help turn the display off - I was referring to the problem I have of a very low contrast screen (light blue text on a mid-blue background) - whilst the supplied antec software allows the contrast to be turned down thus resulting in a much better contrast (go figure!) of a mid blue on a near black background.

As for turning the display off - I'll happily have a look into this also once I get a chance - it would be great to get this fully functional for media portal

With this driver version by any chance?; http://www.antec.com/download/Fusion_driver.zip
This is one of the 3 functions I'm really missing atm.

Won't work on my Silverstone due the different firmware

[darkaz]

Hades - yes this plugin works with the Antec Fusion LCD - that's what I'm using it with....

only difference to the install is that instead of grabbing the DLL from the imon installation, grab the DLL from the antec installation

let me know if you get stuck

[cybrmage]

iSP: here is the definition for the display control command on the LCD.

The display is controlled by command 0x50:
Byte 7 = command = 0x50
Byte 6 = clock seconds
Byte 5 = clock minutes
byte 4 = clock hours
byte 3 = clock day
byte 2 = clock month
byte 1 = clock year
byte 0 = display control
bit 7 = set to 1 to display the clock
bit 6 = set to 1 to clear the clock
bit 5 = set to 1 to enable the alarm
bit 4 = no known function
bit 3 = set to 1 to disable (and turn off) the display
bit 2 = no known function
bit 1 = set to 1 turns on the "TV" icon (don't know why)
bit 0 = set to 1 turns on the "music" icon (don't know why)

The alarm is set with command 0x51:
Byte 7 = command = 0x51
byte 6 = clock day (not 100% certain)
byte 5 = clock month (not 100% certain)
byte 4 = clock year (not 100% certain)
Byte 3 = clock minutes
byte 2 = clock hours
byte 1 = no known function
byte 0 = no known function

Also... In the API that ralphy developed, he has determining what the LCD3r functions do on his "to do" list. They are for the LCD device designed by 3Rsystems and manufactured by SoundGraph. It is in their HT-100 case. (1x12 character LCD + curved multisegment equalizer + multisegment CPUsped disaplay + 3 x multi segment fan speed display... looks a lot more limiting than the Antec or Soundgraph units)

Also... The drivers and DLLs that are installed by the iMON software is exactly the same as the ones installed by the Antec software. The Antec VFD software that drives the LCD is v6.0.1.702. The iMON program is v6.0.1.202 and will not drive the Antec LCD (even after patching). What version is shipped by SilverStone??


Regards,
Cybrmage

[iSP]

I have no idea how to use that information, but I can give you this:

the version shipped on my silverstone cd is: 6.01.0202 (actually newer than on the soundgraph site)
and the firmware in my lcd: 0x98

I don't think it's silverstone branded, if anyone is interested I could rar it and upload it somewhere...