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Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 8:16 am
by funkymule
Limited Success!
I soldered across the 3 TTL jumps, then restarted my uC, and I had characters appear on my display! The problem is, they were all garbage characters.
I modified the uC code to just clear the screen ( 254 88 ), and I got 1 character appear on the display. An 'A' with 2 dots over it, then the cursor moved to the next line.
I modified the uC code again to send three characters (a d b or a d c, something like that). What I got was 'OS' then a half triangle.
It's obvious I have no idea what I'm doing. Does this give you any ideas?
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 10:01 am
by Miles
Can you try adjusting the unit and uprocessor to 9600 baud and let me know how you make out...
Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:06 pm
by funkymule
adjusted both to 9600 baud. got same 1 character on vfd per character transmitted, but they are cryptic looking characters.
Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 4:27 pm
by funkymule
any ideas on how i can fix this? right now it's a $100 paper weight.
Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 4:32 pm
by Miles
Can you possibly send me a quick schematic on how you have this system connected. You can email it to me at
myero@matrixorbital.com if you prefer. To be honest I have no further suggestions unless you can send a schematic. We've had this unit working with multiple microcontrollers in the past and I'm very frustrated that we can't seem to get it working. I would like to start from the bottom up and make sure it is connected appropriately...
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 8:09 am
by funkymule
SUCCESS!!!!
After changing from the Atmel 8515 to the Mega16 (and fixing a bent pin) everything works great!!!
Thanks so much for all the support. You guys are awesome! I'm glad the problem was on my end, and nothing wrong with the VFD unit.
THIS THING ROCKS!
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2003 8:22 am
by Miles
Good to hear!!! Enjoy!