DVD Player Haxoring, VFD display.

I have this old DVD player(date is 2003), someone left for me to look at, and whatever was wrong with it was more effort than this thing was worth, so it ended up in a box of failures.

I was recently looking for a new motor for a dvd player, and went through this device and snatched the motor, only to find out that this motor was just a tad too big to fit in the new spot. so I got to thinking that there are lots of good parts there for microcontroller projects, and started playing with the parts. I took some of the buttons off, but most of the electronics are hooked up.

I have a 5 minute video that shows the parts laying out on a table.

The important details:

VFD display, with nifty icons 7-segment, and dot matrixs
It seems to be controlled by a TOPRO 6312F chip

It has voltage connected to one side of the board, and the other side has a connector that has terminations labeled:
INIR
VCC
Data In
CLK
STB
Data Out

This info taken straight from the datasheet:

General Description:

The TP6312 is a VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display)
controller/driver that is driven on a 1/4 to 1/11-duty
factor. It consists of 11 segment output lines, 6 grid
output lines, 5 segment/grid output drivelines, a
display memory, a control circuit, and a Key scan
circuit. Serial data is input to TP6312 through a
Serial data is input to TP6312 through a
three-line serial interface. This VFD controller/driver
is ideal as a peripheral device of a single-chip
microcomputer.

Features:
Multiple display modes (11-segment & 11-digit to
16-segment & 4-digit)
Key scanning (6 × 4 matrices)
Dimming circuit (eight steps)
High-voltage output (VDD – 35V max)
circuit. LED ports (4 chs, 20 mA max)
General-purpose input port (4 bits)
No external resistor necessary for driver outputs
(P-ch open-drain + pull-down resistor output)
Serial interface (CLK, STB, DIN, DOUT)

It wont work without the controller board, that board has 2 16meg ram chips(Hynix HY57v161610dtc-7), and some fine pitched quad chips MT 1379GE, 1336E, an MX 9v800abtc-cs, and a cmd 5954.

It might be neat to also do things with the video/audio, maybe if I put solder up wires to it, I can control it with the arduino, and make it do something.

Im not sure, but I think the DVD player is a Magnasonic DVD-802 DVD Player DVD Video Dolby Digital MP3, Heres a listing on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Magnasonic-DVD-802-Player-Video-Digital/dp/B0097CKCP0 Based on those photos, I think this is the DVD player.

I just found this, a similar hack

with this video

Im still trying to figure this thing out. I could use some help with connecting this to an arduino, and with the software to control it.

Im guessing this thing has a driver built into it, with shift registers or something to accept serial data, in some form.

This is what I have to connect to:
INIR
VCC
Data In
CLK
STB
Data Out

INIR I think is data from the IR receiver. I can ignore this for now.

VCC is voltage, Im guessing 5v.

Data in, my guess is like DS on a shift register.
CLK Im guessing is the clock pin
STB ???
Data Out, maybe this one is the DS? and I should ignore data in ?

I just dont know what to try, or where to begin.

Hello!

Such a pleasure to find that my personal project being discussed on Arduino forum!

I guess it is already too late and not topical but nevertheless I'll try to address some of your questions:

In order to control VFD display you need only:

  1. VCC - +5V rail,
  2. Data In - serial data input,
  3. CLK - serial data clock.
  4. And Ground of course.

No need to use:

  1. Data Out if there is no requirement to read VFD controller's RAM - it is not vital for displaying characters on VFD display,
  2. STB is already connected to an external oscillator on the same PCB, you don't have to connect it to anything else.

A link to an example of working code for HT16512 is here: Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting.
TORPO 6312 is almost the same as HT16512 so the code should provide you with general understanding. However, the code contains charset for 16-segment display and looks like you have 7-segment and the number of digits is different - some changes still have to be done.

Regards,
Magictaler

Its not too late :smiley: I was looking at it just the other day (its underneath a pile of other failures :frowning:

Thanks for posting. I dont know when, but I hope check out those links, and learn some more before doing anything.

I may want to use the controllers ram, I think it has 2 16megabyte chips for data.

What is your personal project?

Thanks for the links and info. when I get around to cleaning up, I'll set the display stuff aside, so I can work on it in the future.

Hi,

My project is VFD Clock, you provided the links yourself :slight_smile:
Here is the proper link though: http://atmega.magictale.com/projects/vfd-magiclock/
and the final video: VFD MagiClock - A DVD Player Hack - YouTube
Everything is opensource - please use it.

By the wayI've got one more faulty DVD based on TORPO chip and 7 segment VFD display which looks similar to yours yet there are some differences. Slightly modified code from VFD clock project is already talking to the VFD panel - I just need to make changes to the charset. It should be almost identical to what you need for your project so I don't mind to share. If you're interested, of course.

Regards,
Magictaler

Remember to keep the original power supply from the DVD player, as this supplies a low voltage between 2 and 4 volts AC for the filament in the VFD display. This is needed to use the display.

// Per.

I digged one of my my all-kinds-of-things boxes and found a display with SM16312 chip (or SMI6312). It's pretty similar to yours.
Unfortunately I couldn't find any other parts related to this display, so I don't know about the power supply or other things.

The board has total 10 wires, some labeled:
GND - ground
DATA - serial data (?)
D** (can't read, it's worn off)
LCK - serial clock (?)
RMOE - IR remote
+5V - voltage in

and 4 other wires without label, coming from a different place (two of them going straight to the display (the AC power or something?)).

It would be nice to use this display in something... Well, at least the board has a few buttons to use in other projects.

Hi guys
Just found this topic.

Could you please advise if it is required to provide -30V to lit the VFD as the datasheets of those controllers seems to suggest ?