Hello, I am quite a noobie, and after picking up a cheap Noritake VFD from ebay for a project I have in mind, I am now completely clueless on how to hook it up. My pins are not labeled like in any Noritake/Arduino tutorial/project I could find.
Here is the screen data sheet.
I am at this point unsure if I can or can not power it using the arduino's 5v and gnd on pins 2 and 1, and what the other 3 pins mentioned on here (if that tutorial applies to my screen as well) would be on mine. I am guessing RS is reset, and R/W is read write (so maybe SIN in the tutorial?), but am lost with sbusy.
I grabbed the CU-U library on Code Library - Noritake Co., Inc. Electronics Division, and it appears to be working in the Arduino IDE, but the example does not, and I was hoping I could bend the instructables one for my use.
Thanks in advance.
More research brought me more results.
I think I should not be using the 14 pin connector that was already soldered on, and instead cut it off (it protudes too much in the front and I need to panel mount this eventually) and solder on a 6 pin header to "CN3".
This because, if I understand correctly, I should use the "Synchronous Serial" and not the parallel port.
A more correct version of the datasheet here that shows pins easier to related to the tutorial I linked to in the first post. (Except reset is inverted perhaps, IF SCK is reset, by exclusion).
Here is a photo of what I'm talking about.
Can anyone confirm?
Ok, I managed to retrieve the official noritake instructions and library using waybackmachine here.
That will be useful to anyone else that gets a noritake by the way, since the page you find on google points to their homepage now. To get the library zip just copy paste the link without the waybackmachine part in the link.
I soldered the 6pin header, connected it, uploaded an example sketch with the correct setting uncommented and... nothing happens.
Anyone have a suggestion? I'm hurting here.
Anyone? Do I need to power it externally maybe?
If that cut sheet is the correct one for your VFD, it looks like it will only do serial interface and you will have to use the 14 pin connector.
As to if you can power it from the micro-controller, check the specs on the output current available on your 5V pin, and see if it is more than the max current draw on the VFD.(Sheet shows 400mA)
I am powering mine externally for testing, and have only been able to get the odd character when I load, but I just started. Noritake has been known to send out free samples if you ask. The GU140X32 units are pretty interesting.
