LCD Smartie
iMon
Driver Guide
Introduction
LCD Smartie
is a great utility for displaying information on a VFD display. Soundgraph
supply the
iMon
VFD display which is included in several Home Theatre PC cases and this driver
allows the Smartie to use that display via the API provided by
Soundgraph. This
is designed to work with the USB connected
iMon
display.
Installation
First install LCD
Smartie. Download the Smartie
iMon
package from Axcis Pty Ltd, expand the
zip file into a temporary directory copy the files into the Smartie directory. Go
into the Smartie setup screen and set the LCD to Matrix Orbital and select USB
Palm as the COM port. Load V3.80 or
later of the
iMon
driver from
Soundgraph. Copy the
"SG_VFD.dll" (the
iMon
VFD API) from the "\Program Files\Soundgraph\iMon" to the Smartie directory to
overwrite the version provided. Go
into the
iMon
VFD settings and select
plugin
mode (this is the VFD manager with the square icon and not the iMon manager
with a round icon).
Technical Details
The driver works by emulating the driver for the USB
connected Palm and passing the commands to the
iMon
API via SG_VFD.dll. When Smartie
closes the connection to the display, the string contained in the file
“USBPortExit.txt” is sent to the display.
Limitations
This driver is limited by the capabilities of the
iMon
API. It is not possible to define
custom characters for this display. The
bargraph
shows short bars rather than narrow bars for intermediate steps because there
are no suitable characters available in
iMon.
License
This software is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License. Smartie
iMon
is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details. You
should receive a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Smartie
iMon; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc.,
51 Franklin St
, Fifth Floor,
Boston, MA 02110-1301
USA.
Release History
1 June
2005 :
V1.0.
LCD Smartie iMon Driver Guide V1.0
