Ongoing iMon VFD issues (display went blank) (1 Viewer)

[AtomAnt]

Hi folks!

Am not sure if this is the right place to post this but it kinda connects to the "HTPC building" topic, since that's what i am doing, am assembling my HTPC. I already have the basic things running with MediaPortal on it. I recently purchased this nice piece of geeky equipment, iMon's VFD. It has been working nice for a few days, i saw that after turning off the PC the VFD displays date and time which is neat (Sadly i couldn't get it to work with Mediaportal yet, but that's material for another thread for now...). One morning i saw that the display on the VFD went blank. I turned on the PC, it came back again, scrolling the usual Frontview things, Systeminfo, News, such things, i turned it off again, date and time again as it should be. I thought maybe there was a power outage at night. But after a few minutes the display disappeared again and since then it seems dead. The remote works as it should, but the display is gone (not physically gone of course). The same "turn on-off PC" thing didn't help this time, i tried reinstalling its driver, software, i tried switching off the PSU (cutting power to the VFD) and back on again, tried connecting to a different USB port, no change. I looked around on Soundgraph's forums, i saw that some other people got similar happenings but no real help there...).
So i thought i ask here, has anyone encountered similar problems? Do you maybe know if the VFD works just by connecting it to USB or does it necesarily need to get power from the PSU? I ask because i removed it from my HTPC and connected it (only USB, the rest i let unconnected) to my other PC but nothing, it doesn't even trigger the "New Hardware" thing in windows. Any comments?

 

[ep0n]

i had a problem with mine grounding on the case. remove from case and see if still working or not. i had to put electric tape on the solder points that where close/touching the case. also it acts up if you install under usb1, than move it to usb2, have to make sure you keep it in install usb port.

 

[AtomAnt]

Currently it is on the top of the case, not bulilt in, didn't really see the need to be screwed into the case just to test it, but the case itself is metallic on its outside i think (it's painted with some metallic-looking paint) so it might conduct (is that the right word?) electricity. I will try to put it onto some paper sheet so it doesn't touch the casing and leave it like that for a while to see what happens. Thanks for the reply, ep0n. It is kind of strange how it seems to go blank randomly...i see no pattern in it happening, at least not yet...

 

[AtomAnt]

So the papersheet didn't change a thing, it still does the same thing. Any other ideas maybe?

 

[Lotsofjazz]

I have a Imon VFD in the Antec case I bought and never got it work properly as it was interferring with the remote of my Home theater system (Marantz). So I pulled the wires from the USB header and now it is black forever. To get the MS remote working I bought a USB Infrared eye, which now works fine.

Lots

 

[AtomAnt]

iMon uses the USB connection to give commands to the display so it's no wonder that unplugging the USB connection disables the VFD. I had and still have the remote working fine, that part is ok, it's just the display that's causing me trouble. My guess is that the problem isn't -at least not directly- related to USB itself since the display goes blank even when the computer is off and there's no USB communication whatsoever (and the VFD is running autonomously displaying time and date), it must be some error in its elechtronics or firmware. Maybe i should just ask for my money back and forget about having a VFD on my case .
I guess there's no solution to this, it's too bad, the display showing media information or time/date looked very cool on the HTPC.

 

[Lotsofjazz]

I pulled the USB on purpose with the goal to disable it. The VFD is just a piece of crap that doesnt work as it should, it interferres with other USB devices and that is totally unacceptable.

Beside that, the Imon infrared eye reacted to my Marantz remote, it also interferres with the USB receiver (eadio) form my Dinovo wireless Mouse and keyboard. When I pushed whatever button on my marantz remote, the imon responds with jibberisch (russian and jappanese charaters show on the imon display) and then my mouse stops working and also the keyboard stops responding.

It just plays havock with the USB, making my system unworkable.

With the Microsoft USB infrared eye I dont have these problems and everything is working fine now.