Girder controlling an LCD Display

[Darmok]

I've been using a Matrix Orbital VFD display with girder for quite a while doing what you are talking about. I'm doing it the tough way though, and I am using a test program that is availabe for the Matrix Orbital Display which allows you to enter text and or time and date info, and I am having girder change the parameters for the different applications. This works, but it isn't pretty. When I launch winamp I use the winamp plugin for the MatrixOrbital display, so I have to close the Matrix orbital test program when I do this.
I'd love to see a plugin for girder that does this. From my experience the most popular serial displays are the Crystal Font's LCD displays and the Matrix Orbital VFD and LCD displays. Fortunately there is good documentation out there for both so writing a plugin should be relatively easy for an experienced programer,(which I'm not, unfortunately).

[Darmok]

Ha, yeah, always easier said than done. What I meant though is that there are examples and source code available in several programming languages, which makes things a whole lot easier than starting from scratch.

[Darmok]

I just got the LCD plugin working with Girder on my Matrix Orbital VFD, although I had to change a jumper setting on the display to 9600 instead of 19200 because the LCD driver didn't support the faster speed. Also it won't let me set to 100% intensity, but I realize its a limitation of the LCD driver, not the Girder plugin. A couple of questions though. Is there a way to turn off the blinking cursor through a plugin? Also I'd love to see the clock function as a continuing updating clock. Has anyone done this?

[Darmok]

I am using a 20 X 2 Matrix Orbital VFD display, and for some reason the LCD plugin won't display to the second row when changing the setting. Any ideas?

[Mark F]

I have a BETA plugin for serial port access. I don't kinow if this would do what you want. It is discussed here (http://www.stack.nl/~stilgar/windoze/forum/viewtopic.php?TopicID=76).

EDIT: Sorry, meant to add, send me a private message and I'll send you a copy.

[Edited by Mark F on 04-25-2001 at 11:45 AM GMT]

[Mark F]

I don't think so. The serial plugin allows static ASCII or binary strings to be sent via RS-232. The strings support girder registers but not real dynamic stuff.

How would the data be "grabbed" from WinDVD? Is there a documented interface of some sort?

Here are some parts of the readme.txt from the serial plugin. They are ALMOST in English.

Overview:

This plugin allows strings of characters to be sent and received through the
RS-232 ports of the PC using Girder. The only requirement on the data that
is received is that it either be of a known, fixed length or that it have a
known, common character at the end.

Usage:

2) Define a string to send to a serial port.
Under the Plugins tab, choose Serial Commands and press the Settings button.
Type the string you wish to send to the shown serial port (press the device
identifier to choose a different serial device). The values of the Transmit
message definition for a particular device will play an important role in
this decision.

NOTE: You can include [regX] substituion strings in the message and the plugin
will substitute the current value of the referenced Girder register before
sending the string.

[Mark F]

Simon,

First, Girder is Ron's application. I am a user and sometimes write small extensions for it. I'm very sensitive to this type of stuff (people taking credit for other's work) so please bear with me. :)

I think I understand what you want. Something along the lines of the WinAMP plugin available here (http://henrik.husted.net/winamp.htm) but for any soft DVD player. Right?

I believe a Girder plugin could be written for this task. I would only ask "why"? I love Girder and use it every time I have my PCs on at home. But it is an event router. Unless you plan on using the output from the DVD player to cause other things to happen (open a curtain, auto mask a screen, change the lighting, etc.) it would seem more appropriate to use a stand alone application approach. Of course this is only my CURRENT opinion and I'm open to changing it. :)

The biggest problem I see in any approach (stand alone or plugin) is retrieving the information that is needed. Is there a published plugin interface for extending the user interface of these soft DVD players? SOmething that lets a programm retrieve the track, title, audio track, time marker, angle, etc.? Is it common or different for WinDVD, PowerDVD, Cinemaster, etc.?

I don't use a soft DVD player in my dedicated home theater so I have zero experience extending one of these programs.

Thanks

[Edited by Mark F on 04-26-2001 at 07:14 AM GMT]

[Mark F]

EDIT: If at first the post doesn't show up, try again.

Simon,

First, Girder is Ron's application. I am a user and sometimes write small extensions for it. I'm very sensitive to this type of stuff (people taking credit for other's work) so please bear with me. :)

I think I understand what you want. Something along the lines of the WinAMP plugin available here (http://henrik.husted.net/winamp.htm) but for any soft DVD player. Right?

I believe a Girder plugin could be written for this task. I would only ask "why"? I love Girder and use it every time I have my PCs on at home. But it is an event router. Unless you plan on using the output from the DVD player to cause other things to happen (open a curtain, auto mask a screen, change the lighting, etc.) it would seem more appropriate to use a stand alone application approach. Of course this is only my CURRENT opinion and I'm open to changing it. :)

The biggest problem I see in any approach (stand alone or plugin) is retrieving the information that is needed. Is there a published plugin interface for extending the user interface of these soft DVD players? SOmething that lets a programm retrieve the track, title, audio track, time marker, angle, etc.? Is it common or different for WinDVD, PowerDVD, Cinemaster, etc.?

I don't use a soft DVD player in my dedicated home theater so I have zero experience extending one of these programs.

Thanks

EDIT: If at first the post doesn't show up, try again.

[Edited by Mark F on 04-26-2001 at 06:41 AM GMT]

[Mark F]

The plugin I'm trying to finish allows Girder to send and receive strings of data to and from RS-232 attached devices. These strings can be letters, characters, binary, whatever. RIGHT NOW, when an event that is tied to a "send" command occurs, a static string is sent. This string could be a program name, a notice of "Vol+" or the declaration of independance (condensed version).

Looking at the documents for the Orbital VFD (I do prototypes that MAY need this :) it appears there are some control characters that need to be sent to cause strings to be drawn on these displays. This suggests, to me, a specifc plugin would be better than my generic one. However, the generic one could be made to work.

Ah, for a month of free time.

[Mark F]

"Fortunately there is good documentation out there for both so writing a plugin should be relatively easy for an experienced programer,(which I'm not, unfortunately)."

This sounds like my boss. :) Or one of my math professors in college. :) The rest of the proof is left to the reader as an exercise.

[Mark F]

I absolutely agree. For the same reasons (samples in many languages), a serially attached display will be much easier to use (from a software perspective) than a parallel port or I2C attached display.

As you know, the WinAmp LCD plug-in will not allow a different application to talk to the LCD at the same time. This means your "close one application to use the other" problem may not go away. Even with a Girder LCD plugin. After all, Girder is a different application.

From this discussion, I would suggest Girder needs (at least) three new plugins. One for the LCD/VFD display, one for WinAmp and one for a software (SW) DVD player.

The display plugin would accept commands to place text and graphics on the LCD/VFD display. The WinAmp plugin would generate user selectable events in Girder for title, track, elapsed time, etc. These events could be tied to commands in Girder. The WinAmp plugin would also accept commands to control WinAmp (play, FF, rewind, playlist, whatever). The SW DVD plugin would do the same thing as the WinAmp plugin but for the DVD player.

Now the fun part. :) :) What already exists? IE. Can we scam a solution with little or no work? Is there a plugin for WinAmp or one of the SW DVD players that allows the interface to be "remoted"? That is, can you control the application and get feedback across a network? If so, half of the problem MAY be solved. If the "remoting" plugin uses TCP/IP, the other half MAY be solved since Girder already supports a TCP/IP plugin.

The only thing left would be the LCD/VFD plugin and "Fortunately there is good documentation out there for both so writing a plugin should be relatively easy for an experienced programer". :)

[siwilson]

Given all the clever application targeting and messaging stuff in Girder, would it be possable to have girder read window information and application calls, to display on a serial LCD display?

I have a plugin for winamp to do this, but I wanted to extend to all my applications.

Could the OSD popup be hooked into this?

[siwilson]

Mark,

What does your plugin do exactly, do you have some documentation.

The LCD diaplays I have been looking at can be programmed by sending ASCII sequences.

Could we Get Girder to grab window information from WinDVD and then use your plugin to send a formatted ASCII sequence to the display ?

[siwilson]

Mark,

It looks like your program may do some of what we want.

I am not totally familiar with Girder, but I thought that it could grab information about applications such as the window title or process information. I refer to the targeting window. I wondered if you could use this information to send output to a display.

One part of what I want to do is use Girder to respond to IRMAN signals and send an OSD output to an LCD display based on the command. Making things like play, pause, stop etc to appear on the LCD when you press a key. I think you could also output an application name when you launch it.

The bit I am struggling with right now is how to get information that the appplication might display on the PC screen to go to an LCD display as well.

Does this explain what I want to do and what I might need.

I spend most of my time on the Home Theater Computers section of the AVSFORUM. I think the members would kill for something like this.

Can you help.

[siwilson]

Mark,

Don't worry I understand completely about Girder being Ron's baby.

First let me say that I am an ideas man and not a programmer in any way shape or form and to be honest the whole targeting window baffles me. What I thought was that you could get information from that targeting window. It sounds like you could, but that it would take more than a plugin to do it.

Your plugin still interests me.

From what I understand about your plugin, it could be used to send information to an LCD display when an event occurs. So if you launch an application then it could display the application name. It could clear the display when that application was closed. It could send a kind of OSD to an external display when you did something, say volume control or screen resolution change etc..
Could you help me in this area?

I can tell you that there is huge interest in being able to disply disc title and chapter information from software dvd players, like WinDVD and PowerDVD,on an LCD or VFD display. If this is something that, albeit with some modification, Girder could do then a lot of people would be happy. Girder is simply the only way to go when it comes to IR control a PC. Nothing else comes close. I don't know the status of Girder, is Ron the only one that codes it, or does he make source available to others?

If this is something that either can't be done or Ron doesn't have time for then that's cool. We love his program, we would just love it to do more :)

[siwilson]

According to Ryan, the guy that wrote the LCDriver the problem with the matrix orbital display is a problem with the driver and should be fixed soon. Other displays do not have this problem.

[MMcM]

Okay. I've wrapped the LCDriver (http://lcdriver.pointofnoreturn.org/) universal interface into a simple Software plug-in.

I've also packaged up a Hardware plug-in that generates events when the WinDVD status display changes.

Now, if someone wants to do a WinAmp plug-in that generates events for a Girder plug-in, we're well on the way to realizing the goal of this thread.

[MMcM]

The LCD plug-in does indeed try to turn off the cursor when it starts up. It looks okay on the CrystalFontz. Perhaps this is another display specific difference.

[JOHN]

HI ALL

Ok with all these.
How it sounds to you a pluggin that reads and sends to an LCD time, chapter, artist name - for music programms - and other informations?

JOHN

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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JOHN on 2001-05-22 02:56 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JOHN on 2001-05-22 11:38 ]</font>