it's going to be Monaco Blue Pearlescent

While we're on the subject of -escent paint jobs, who else has seen the iridescent paint on some new TVRs? I saw one that looked iridescent gold coming towards you but turned to iridescent purple as it went past. Crazy stuff.

Peter

Not planning on selling them (but once I have it finished, I might negotiate with someone else to sell them) but if you want the display with serial input it's part number GW128x32C-K610A from www.itron.com.

I ordered from the UK guys (who actually designed the PCB & micro that the glass sits on) and they take credit cards; the displays are £69.57 each, plus VAT.

I (very carefully) removed the display from the PCB and attached it via a short ribbon cable, as there wasn't room for the PCB inside the revcounter at the preferred location - this will obviously void any warranty on the display if you do it with yours!

Remember the serial is at TTL levels, so you'll need both a 5v PSU and a MAX232 level shifter to hook it to the empeg serial.

Hugo

? http://www.itron.com is a company that makes meters. Did you mean http://www.noritake-itron.com/ ?

- Trevor

Well we can hope that when Patrick has finished the tuner shipments, that maybe he'll take this on :-)

Hugo, do you know off hand if Noritake has a larger VFD display that will work in place of the GW128x32C?

and, in a few sentences or less, what the technical challenges of using a 2BPP grayscale display of any sort in place of that one? I'd pay a good deal (but not ridiculously) more for that i'd think.

They do one the size of the empeg display, I believe with greyscale support too (it's a newer module - greyscaling was built into the drivers a year or so ago). Not sure on the part number, it should be on their site.

As for greyscaling on the small display; the small display is very bright because it's not a multiplexed display - it's a phosphor on silicon display. Instead of scanning, a lit pixel is lit continuously. It'd be possible to do greyscales by driving the glass directly, but it'd probably be non-trivial as a task.

Hugo

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and, in a few sentences or less, what the technical challenges of using a 2BPP grayscale display of any sort in place of that one? I'd pay a good deal (but not ridiculously) more for that i'd think

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IMHO, since Hugo has modified some sofware to pipe the display over the serial to the display, *ANY* display that can accept serial input can be used. Now, the protocol would have to be changed - that is, how to represent on/off bits over the serial port (or On/Dim2/Dim1/Off; etc) would just have to be changed..

Me.

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Remember the serial is at TTL levels, so you'll need both a 5v PSU and a MAX232 level shifter to hook it to the empeg serial.

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Could you help on this? I'm extremely interested in getting something like this up and running (hell, I just bought a display. Heh.). I can do the software (All *I* need/want is song info, visuals can stay down on the player.), just not too good with making new circuits. I figure I can get the 5v from the car's mains (using a VR and some resistors to keep it down), but not sure what else is required for the MAX232.. I have a Mini (pics below), and I have a perfect place to mount it - right in FRONT of the Tach, behind the steering wheel. As close to a HUD as a Mini can get.

max232

Does figure 4 help at all?

Oooh... yes...
Mmmm... Technical data.. That is just about all I need, actually. I do have a question, maybe Hugo can help..
What's the Vs- and Vs+ (-8.5/+8.5)v used for? If it only required the 5v, easy as pie, since I'd only be dealing with one V source. But.. how the hell do I get a -8.5 supply from a 12V DC source? Ermf. (OR are those outputs, generated FROM the 5V?)

Me.

Use a MAX332. It's the same as a MAX232 but it doesn't need any external components so it's simpler to use. RS Components and Maplin both stock it. It's a bit more expensive than a MAX232 though.

The MAX232 and MAX233 both only need a 5V DC supply. The MAX232 needs 4 external capacitors to work whilst the MAX233 doesn't.

- Trevor

As I've been taught by the people on this BBS: you can run 12V from you're car thru a 5V regulator to either the MAX232 or Max233. The difference between the 2 as I understand it is the Max233 doesn't require external capacitors however it definitely is larger in size.

IMHO, since Hugo has modified some sofware to pipe the display over the serial to the display, *ANY* display that can accept serial input can be used. Now, the protocol would have to be changed - that is, how to represent on/off bits over the serial port (or On/Dim2/Dim1/Off; etc) would just have to be changed.

Would the software have to be modified if the only thing that changes is the size of the display. If it has to be modified, is that something that is trivial (because I know it isn't trivial to me)

Yeah. It's a 20 pin DIL instead of the 16 pin DIL that the MAX232 comes in.

- Trevor

The protocol that you need to drive the display isn't very complicated. The datasheet on the Noritake-Itron site tells you exectly what you need to do. Somebody could easily write a user app that uses grabs the display ever so often and outputs it to the serial display.

- Trevor

Unless you want the visuals, you can get the most of it from /proc/empeg_notify

The visuals and Hijack menus are all "displayed" in /proc/empeg_screen.raw, which is simply a bitmap copy of the display. Also, /proc/empeg_screen.png is a halfsize (approx) .png (1124 bytes) compression of the .raw display.

-ml

Using this approach it should be reasonably easy to also make a TV out board, using a fast PIC (with enough RAM) and a small DAC. Only need to know the format the data is sent in...

Stig

Hokay..
Now, I'm not that great at programming.. what little I know I've taught myself. (C, mostly.)
I love logic problems, tho. Muahaha.
Looking at the spec-sheet for the VFD, it's wouldn't be that hard at all to send the display to the VFD (heck, Hugo said he already did it.)
The only problem with a 'live' screen would be the fact that we're sending data over a serial port. Un-optimized, each screen of data would require:
6bytes x 4 (setting up each 8px line of graphics), then
128bytes x 4 (each of the four lines)..
That's 536bytes for a screen. Then you have to wait for the displays PSU (which, according to spec is 50usec + (5msec * # data bits)..

So, a realtime display prolly won't be easy to do. But, you could probably get close.
The kicker is to:
1. Send data to the screen and not overload the screen's buffer/PSU.
2. Use smart encoding in the program to skip all blank screenbits and just position the cursor at the next screen bit with a pixel on.
3. Somehow convert the raw PNG data into mapped 1x8 squares. (I'm not too good with the low-level operations of graphics. This one challenges me the most.)

(Of course, with what I wanted the display for was simple track info - The usual - name, artist, year, album, etc etc. I don't need hypnotizing visuals right in front of my face in Atlanta traffic. Heh.) I like the fact that I can program in sprites (user icons) and use them like standard characters. So maybe I can have the playlist or something listed as a title, or such.) I am really impressed with the display, tho. This company seems to have their stuff together..

Me.

Hmm.. that will make it much easier. I'm not really worrying about size (I can fit the small converter board behind the radio..)
Looking at the 233 now. Looks pretty simple to hookup. Since I don't need any of the fancy stuff, I'm guessing that I'll only need pins:
4, 19: RS232 input from the Empeg
3, 20: TTL output to display.
6, 9: GND
7: +5V.

The PCB board will also have to have the VR (I'll need to refresh my memory on the regulators..) and a connector to take the data lines and the +5 to the VFD, and a RS232 connector to go over to the Empeg...
Ooh, I'm likin' this.

Thanks, Hugo, for finding this. :>
Me.

Coolio, thanks for the info Altman... I must talk to an engineering friend of mine to piece together one of these meters.

Please keep us informed if you do ever get someone else to sell them, I know a couple of people that would be very keen on getting their hands one one

it does look pretty straightforward to put together your own "track info" mode to display on one of these. the trick, though, would be how you handling the menuing system. if you don't replicate the existing display as-is, then you won't have an easy way to access menus and get visual feedback.

if you could find a way to display menus and track data, then i think you'd be all set.

--dan.

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While we're on the subject of -escent paint jobs, who else has seen the iridescent paint on some new TVRs? I saw one that looked iridescent gold coming towards you but turned to iridescent purple as it went past. Crazy stuff.

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These are also known as 'flip' paint jobs, because they flip colour depending on what angle you look at them. Not a big fan myself, mainly because I've never seen a nice combination - they always seem to dirty colours to me, and make TVRs look even more like turds than they do already (IMO!)

They becoming more popular with the (richer) boyracer crowd too - seen a Lexus and a Ford Probe with a similar effect. Personally I think it could look really good with something like a Silver going to Midnight Blue, but I've never seen anything so nice - maybe it's not feasible.

This seems a little overpriced. The display is the same size as a sideon view of a matchbox, and it costs 70 quid. Yet the full empeg display only costs 100 quid to replace.

Not really - big electronics are cheaper than small electronics.

Probably like most other items, there is a set cost for the packaging - the electronics, glass, processing, etc. It doesn't matter as much how big it is, as long as it still uses the same manufacturing process.

I had an old audi that was almost a flip paint job only worked when clean went from metallic silver to a light blue

I don't think my mods to the software will necessarily end up in future versions. Really, the best place for a display hack like this is in the kernel as then it'd work with all apps (inc GPS, etc).

Hugo