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I recently acquired 2 Futaba NA202MD13AA VFD displays. I found a website that explains how to work it, Like this place but it doesnt explain how to physically hook it into the serial port of my computer. I figure if I can get it hooked up i can use it to display my Autopilot settings. Maybe one of you electronic geniuses can let me know what I am missing..:(
thanx in advance
If I am not misstaken you can use FSBus to hook those displays up...
The schematic on the site you refer to (http://wiki.ovccorp.com//uploads/VFD-schematic.pdf) has an RS-232 serial connection port labelled "J2". Presumably this is intended to be able to plug into a PC serial com port.
Hi,
I took a look around to verify what those links indicate... the displays themselves are raw row/column devices with no intelligence. The schematic shown in one of the links takes RS232 serial data and the PIC microcontroller has code on it that generates the signals and related timing that is required to drive the display. The displays themselves must have an interface like this to operate.
I am unsure of interfacing with FSBUS since I don't use it. I have seen some circuits and driver code on other sites to do this function with PICs and AVRs. If you are not inclined to build such things it may be a bit to bite off. My pals over at BG Micro offer a small single-line VFD with the serial convertor already attached, it works very well. There are also several VFDs out there that have Hitachi-type parallel interfaces that will work with FSLCD, and should work with the OpenCockpits LCD board too, although I have not tried it myself.
I have several VFDs that I use both serial and parallel connected. I love the high-visibility they offer. They do draw more power than LCDs and generate a little heat too, but boy are they cool looking.
BuddyM