VK204-24-USB questions before purchase

[Oae]

I'm thinking about purchasing the VK204-24-USB for a mod that I would like to do, but before I drop that kind of money I have some questions.

1. The mod i'm planning to do will be external, and mounted probably 3 feet or more away from my PC. I was planning to do this through a USB hub, however from what I can tell the VFD must recieve its power from a floppy power cable (i'm confused about this a bit as well, i've seen different answers in different places, are these powered with a modified or unmodified cable, and if modified does it come with the cable or do i have to modify it myself?). Is there any other way I can power the display, or any way that I can use the floppy cable at that distance?

2. If I purchased the VK204-24-USB with the blue VFD filter, it sounds to me like the display will have the black background with bright blue text/characters, is this correct? One of the reasons I would prefer the VFD over the LCD (if my understanding is correct) is that I want the background to be black, with only the text being lit.

3. Does the VFD support everything featurewise that the LCD does? can I create custom fonts and do all the neat LCDC stuff?

Thanks,
-Oae

[Henry]

I'm thinking about purchasing the VK204-24-USB for a mod that I would like to do, but before I drop that kind of money I have some questions.

1. The mod i'm planning to do will be external, and mounted probably 3 feet or more away from my PC. I was planning to do this through a USB hub, however from what I can tell the VFD must recieve its power from a floppy power cable (i'm confused about this a bit as well, i've seen different answers in different places, are these powered with a modified or unmodified cable, and if modified does it come with the cable or do i have to modify it myself?). Is there any other way I can power the display, or any way that I can use the floppy cable at that distance?

The VK204-24-USB requires external power as well as the USB power. The VFD draws too much current and the USB port cannot supply it. You would plugin an unmodified 3.5" floppy power cable.

2. If I purchased the VK204-24-USB with the blue VFD filter, it sounds to me like the display will have the black background with bright blue text/characters, is this correct? One of the reasons I would prefer the VFD over the LCD (if my understanding is correct) is that I want the background to be black, with only the text being lit.

It will not be perfect black, it will be more blue.

3. Does the VFD support everything featurewise that the LCD does? can I create custom fonts and do all the neat LCDC stuff?

Yes.

[Oae]

Thank you for your prompt response. Do you have any idea how long the unmodified cable can be? will it be possible for me to mount the VFD 3 to 5 feet from the computer or will i have to keep it pretty close?

[Paradigm]

The power cable can be pretty much any length you want. On the VK204-24-USB models are able to be supplied from a different power source than your computer, eg an external power supply (Other LK/VK20x-24-USB models can do this, but require a simple modification so they don't damage the power supplies!). If you are not running fans you can run the display with any 5V power source wired correctly to the power plug. A modified 5V wall-wart could do that. It just depends on how much modding you want to do.

[Oae]

Thanks again for the response, your help is very much appreciated and you've answered all my questions.