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# $Id: README.MatrixOrbital,v 1.2 2000/03/22 07:33:50 reinelt Exp $
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This is the README file for the MatrixOrbital display driver for lcd4linux

This driver supports the serial interface alphanumeric display modules by
Matrix Orbital Corporation (http://www.matrixorbital.com).

I could only test it with the LCD2041 model, but I think every other (LCD) model 
should work. These displays are supported:

  LCD0821: 2 lines by  8 characters
  LCD1621: 2 lines by 16 characters
  LCD2021: 2 lines by 20 characters
  LCD2041: 4 lines by 20 characters (tested)
  LCD4021: 2 lines by 40 characters

I could not test the vacuum fluorescent display models, but I think they should work, too.
There are no entries for this models in the driver table (at the bottom of MatrixOrbital.c),
but they could be easily added.

The displays come with an RS-232 and an I2C interface. The driver supports the RS-232 interface
only (because I have no idea how to find the I2C bus on my motherboard). 

Power can be applied either via an external DC power supply, a modified floppy power connector
(be aware that you can destroy your display if you get the pins wrong!) or via the RI (ring) 
signal of the RS-232 port. I choosed the latter, and modified a serial card so that it supplies 
+5V from the ISA bus to this pin (again, be aware that this is dangerous if you connect any other 
serial device to this modified port).

The driver supports vertical, horizontal and split bars (two independent bars in one line),
all bar types can be used simultanously. As the displays only have 8 user-defined characters,
the needed characters to display all the bars must be reduced to 8. This is done by replacing
characters with similar ones. To reduce flicker, a character which is displayed at the moment,
will not be redefined, even if it's not used in this run. Only if the character compaction 
fails, this characters will be redefined, too.

The displays have a GPO (general purpose output), where you can connect a LED or something. 
The driver supports controlling this GPO, but this function is unused by now.


Configuration:

The driver needs/supports the following entries in lcd4linux.conf:

Display: a valid Matrix Orbital Display name (e.g. "LCD2041")
Port: serial device the display is attached to (e.g. /dev/ttyS2)
Speed: the baud rate from the display (configured via jumpers) must match 
       this value. Possible values are 1200, 2400, 9600 and 19200
Contrast: sets the LCD display contrast to a level between 0 (light) 
          and 256 (dark). Default value: 160

cee2d7b22b2cb8d0af5a41d309efab91&amp;showmsg=1&amp;follow=1'>Expand</a>)</th><th class='left'>Author</th><th class='left'>Files</th><th class='left'>Lines</th></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-12-23 14:55:32 +0000'>2008-12-23</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_Crystalfontz.c?id=c881473ad3e54d4f9c149358173b52b3405262c7&amp;follow=1'>keypad bug fixed</a></td><td>michael</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-1</span>/<span class='insertions'>+1</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-12-23 13:37:07 +0000'>2008-12-23</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_generic_parport.c?id=8b185a53fc6c35d570987ab9ff2c194dcaa24cd2&amp;follow=1'>patch from a.nielsen: inverted parport signals, support GPI on HD44780</a></td><td>michael</td><td>2</td><td><span class='deletions'>-24</span>/<span class='insertions'>+89</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-12-23 13:28:14 +0000'>2008-12-23</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_LCDLinux.c?id=87b31372d32f6f0a3d90790392b7024823d1cc1e&amp;follow=1'>indent run</a></td><td>michael</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-4</span>/<span class='insertions'>+4</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-11-25 20:38:34 +0000'>2008-11-25</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_LCDLinux.c?id=6ab08ab6c2eb5db99af7d011a9fd8526af3b0aed&amp;follow=1'>fix lcd4linux driver for multible onboard controllers</a></td><td>michux</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-4</span>/<span class='insertions'>+4</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-11-23 00:20:58 +0000'>2008-11-23</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drivers.m4?id=0c9798c9429cabcded458ba127972ea096e69978&amp;follow=1'>fix automake - check for libftdi</a></td><td>michux</td><td>4</td><td><span class='deletions'>-9</span>/<span class='insertions'>+173</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-11-22 23:46:47 +0000'>2008-11-22</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/plugin_button_exec.c?id=5162ea943ae34684aacdb8fe29da91e6a974979e&amp;follow=1'>update button_exec plugin - fix segfault</a></td><td>michux</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-3</span>/<span class='insertions'>+2</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-11-22 23:34:20 +0000'>2008-11-22</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/plugin_fifo.c?id=98870dbee74445b3d7de7468fccdb3ef4d6d2ff2&amp;follow=1'>update fifo plugin - untested</a></td><td>michux</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-1</span>/<span class='insertions'>+1</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-10-07 19:32:42 +0000'>2008-10-07</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_picoLCDGraphic.c?id=3654ca81e0aa3116c24d849336560cc96ff73f11&amp;follow=1'>Replace write to external variable usb_debug by calling usb_set_debug().</a></td><td>bwalle</td><td>7</td><td><span class='deletions'>-16</span>/<span class='insertions'>+7</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-10-06 04:29:12 +0000'>2008-10-06</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_picoLCD.c?id=a80978985167df7650209888a5a89ea8089c091d&amp;follow=1'>adding GPI to picoLCD for reading button events  by Igor Mammedov &lt;niallain@g...</a></td><td>michael</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-1</span>/<span class='insertions'>+22</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-10-06 04:25:14 +0000'>2008-10-06</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/plugin_time.c?id=c43556a211b45fefe29b73d912c7cc6ff6d8bfdf&amp;follow=1'>properties fixed</a></td><td>michael</td><td>11</td><td><span class='deletions'>-3290</span>/<span class='insertions'>+2675</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-10-05 16:57:13 +0000'>2008-10-05</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/configure?id=5592dc410563ea62d44ff341a7b12bf564a809f4&amp;follow=1'>Rebuild auto-generated autoconf stuff due to last change in drivers.m4.</a></td><td>bwalle</td><td>3</td><td><span class='deletions'>-2657</span>/<span class='insertions'>+3297</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-10-05 16:55:26 +0000'>2008-10-05</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drivers.m4?id=7e4ae629678f086951b4ae213bc3dc17c04b27ee&amp;follow=1'>Add 'ULA200' driver when --with-drivers=all is specified</a></td><td>bwalle</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-0</span>/<span class='insertions'>+1</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-09-14 04:00:49 +0000'>2008-09-14</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/plugin_time.c?id=7695365a0e6ffada25b74e1ac8fa0a54bc5aa32d&amp;follow=1'>strftime_tz patch from Bernhard Walle</a></td><td>michael</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-0</span>/<span class='insertions'>+11</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-09-08 01:52:03 +0000'>2008-09-08</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/plugin_time.c?id=a97c5c7ecd9800e86882af4476e2dc6098b78cfb&amp;follow=1'>strftime_tz() plugin by Bernhard Walle</a></td><td>michael</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-0</span>/<span class='insertions'>+25</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-09-03 03:28:52 +0000'>2008-09-03</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/smoketest.sh?id=e6f31f6b7949440cd735d0184c846aa2a3330f23&amp;follow=1'>ULA200 driver by Bernhard Walle</a></td><td>michael</td><td>7</td><td><span class='deletions'>-2</span>/<span class='insertions'>+825</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-09-03 03:26:29 +0000'>2008-09-03</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_D4D.c?id=1285008c5f75c28d6304ba984c432992c450ba3a&amp;follow=1'>indent</a></td><td>michael</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-4</span>/<span class='insertions'>+4</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-08-31 18:27:53 +0000'>2008-08-31</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_generic_serial.c?id=02b0138a4213eff843990f96531cf31918d6dfe2&amp;follow=1'>Increased the maximum bps to 230400, if defined in &lt;termios.h&gt;.</a></td><td>sonic74</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-2</span>/<span class='insertions'>+7</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-08-27 22:32:47 +0000'>2008-08-27</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_D4D.c?id=9e0932674b6e85098e3902f4c3083e80c9590be5&amp;follow=1'>git-svn-id: https://ssl.bulix.org/svn/lcd4linux/trunk@889 3ae390bd-cb1e-0410-...</a></td><td>sonic74</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-18</span>/<span class='insertions'>+11</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-08-27 03:30:06 +0000'>2008-08-27</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_D4D.c?id=b645e0908429a1ed5c61f2708931bfa026254d52&amp;follow=1'>D4D updates by Sven</a></td><td>michael</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-38</span>/<span class='insertions'>+60</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-08-03 03:10:49 +0000'>2008-08-03</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/smoketest.sh?id=38367abf672c32015cacd8b469c390a048f2c97f&amp;follow=1'>driver for 4D Systems serial displays by Sven Killig</a></td><td>michael</td><td>9</td><td><span class='deletions'>-45</span>/<span class='insertions'>+846</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-08-03 02:44:22 +0000'>2008-08-03</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/drv_IRLCD.c?id=e91cbd072ab678b68095a5e81fc37df6ae44c975&amp;follow=1'>signed/unsigned mismatch</a></td><td>michael</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-3</span>/<span class='insertions'>+3</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-07-26 14:41:51 +0000'>2008-07-26</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/plugin_mpd.c?id=58d42c80d71e628ddf8fc32cae477f17cb3a3f25&amp;follow=1'>added command functions</a></td><td>michux</td><td>1</td><td><span class='deletions'>-2</span>/<span class='insertions'>+130</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-07-15 10:22:19 +0000'>2008-07-15</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/svn_version.h?id=b243fddf0754e8d193febc0598941fd1638ff33b&amp;follow=1'>added IRLCD driver by Jean-Philippe Civade</a></td><td>michael</td><td>10</td><td><span class='deletions'>-5</span>/<span class='insertions'>+467</span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span title='2008-07-15 09:55:18 +0000'>2008-07-15</span></td><td><a href='/lcd4linux.git/commit/mkinstalldirs?id=38a69aee81b48e2df7714310c39b5cdf171b9123&amp;follow=1'>'autoreconf -f -i' run &amp; config.rpath added</a></td><td>michael</td><td>8</td><td><span class='deletions'>-370</span>/<span class='insertions'>+1617</span></td></tr>