iMon LCD and LCDProc solution, How to use an iMon LCD display with a Mac Options

[BigBadOwl]

Hi all

I though I would share a solution to using an iMon USB LCD display on a Mac. This particular one was compiled on Leopard, but it might work on Tiger. The source is included. Attached is everything you need. The iMon usb driver was modified (by another individual - not me) to work on OS X and does not need the kernel driver as it is built into the iMon Driver. If it doesn't work for your iMon USB device, try changing the device id's in the server/drivers/imon.c file. I know this works on an Antec Fusion Case.

FYI. I am using Growl 0.7.6 (there is problems with the latest one under Leopard, and 0.7.6 works) and a program called GrowLCDproc to send Growl notifications to the LCD display. This is a really good solution.

The code attached is all open source and contains no proprietary or illegal code.

 imon_LCDProc_OS_X.zip ( 1.94MB ) Number of downloads: 582

[hinhale]

Really awesome! Might save me some trouble. Even though I'm guessing I'll need to recompile since my "iMon" is a MediaLab branded one (probably another devID). Found a patch on the lcdproc mailing list by phil taylor that I was going to try out, but this might save me the hassle!Cheers,hinhale.Yup. As expected, I'll need to edit the dev- and vendorID. I'm heading of for work now, but if I'll sort it out later on I'll be sure to post an update as there might be other MediaLAB users here (Mozart sx HTPC case with the MediaLAB vfd addon).

[osxgus]

@bigbadowl:

is there any chance of fixing the knob; to control volume on the antec fusion and the IR sensor next to the VFD; to work with apple remote?

[Alex7575]

How do you use the driver with a .so extension in OSX?

[BigBadOwl]

@bigbadowl:is there any chance of fixing the knob; to control volume on the antec fusion and the IR sensor next to the VFD; to work with apple remote?

The knob is actually not part of the LCD driver set, it gets powered by LIRC in Linux. As far as I know, the Antec Fusion does not have the IR port. Mine certainly doesn't have it.

How do you use the driver with a .so extension in OSX?

OS X is Unix.... Also it has been modified so that it's no longer a kernel driver, it taps into the OSX USB libraries instead. Unzip the package, and run it

CODE

./LCDd -c ./LCDd.conf

[Alex7575]

BigBadOwl,

I will try that, and let you know... Either way many thanks in advance


Alex

[hinhale]

No luck with the Thermaltake iMon-vfd. Haven't been able to find out the device-id, either through sysctl dumps or from within linux/freebsd. Not even sure mine's still working though, since it's been over a year since i last ran vista on this computer, and i've done some messing around hardware-wise since then. But if anyone happens to know the device-id, be sure to drop a line!

[osxgus]

@BigBadOWl.

My Fusion is a V2 and has a limited IR reciever.. unlike the first version.. thanks for the tip on how to get the VFD running..

Gus

[Ichijoe]

HAHA LULz it works, well that's Three for Three then, (Windows XP, Mythbuntu (DVB-C), and now Leopard!!!)

..Now if I only know how to tie this into iTunes and some RSS Feed's I'd be set!!

Here's Picture of it ruuning on my EASC HTPC-DE02 Case W/the Soundgraph iMON VFD & Pad IR.




P.s. BTW before I forget THANKS!!

[hinhale]

HAHA LULz it works, well that's Three for Three then, (Windows XP, Mythbuntu (DVB-C), and now Leopard!!!)

..Now if I only know how to tie this into iTunes and some RSS Feed's I'd be set!!

Here's Picture of it ruuning on my EASC HTPC-DE02 Case W/the Soundgraph iMON VFD & Pad IR.




P.s. BTW before I forget THANKS!!

No editing of device-id required? If so, what dev-id did you use?

[Ichijoe]

TBH I don't know, allthogh I clearly have an OEM System (i.e. no iMON branding on the Remote), The Case (above), came with the Soundgraph Driver CD/DVD *Windows ONLY*
As I've stated I have the same Program running under Mythbuntu (MythTV HTPC Client running DVB-C), to display Channel and EPG Events under Linux, which it does a decent job of doing.
Sadly I'm a novice with it though,
Heck it took me like Four Months just to work that much out... Sad I know!
So I really wouldn't know how to pull the DeviceID from it under Linux nor OSX at this point, having unsuccessfully attempting to update to 10.5.2 I killed my Install (i.e. Kernel Panic).
Under XP it wouldn't be a problem to get that Info, sadly I don't really use it anymore and the last time I had to install it was so I could do a quick & dirty BIOS Update, since the Manufacturer *cough* Gigabyte *Cough* doesn't support Linux nor OSX the Board in qustion was a GA P35-DS3.

If you could drop a hint on how to pull that info off from a Linux Command Line I'd gladly share it with you...

[hinhale]

TBH I don't know, allthogh I clearly have an OEM System (i.e. no iMON branding on the Remote), The Case (above), came with the Soundgraph Driver CD/DVD *Windows ONLY*
As I've stated I have the same Program running under Mythbuntu (MythTV HTPC Client running DVB-C), to display Channel and EPG Events under Linux, which it does a decent job of doing.
Sadly I'm a novice with it though,
Heck it took me like Four Months just to work that much out... Sad I know!
So I really wouldn't know how to pull the DeviceID from it under Linux nor OSX at this point, having unsuccessfully attempting to update to 10.5.2 I killed my Install (i.e. Kernel Panic).
Under XP it wouldn't be a problem to get that Info, sadly I don't really use it anymore and the last time I had to install it was so I could do a quick & dirty BIOS Update, since the Manufacturer *cough* Gigabyte *Cough* doesn't support Linux nor OSX the Board in qustion was a GA P35-DS3.

If you could drop a hint on how to pull that info off from a Linux Command Line I'd gladly share it with you...

Aah, in that case, I think it's safe to assume it's whatever DeviceID that was hardcoded into the files posted (deleted the src, so I couldn't check to see what it was) since it wouldn't have worked otherwise. Just thought I'd ask, since I got the same Soundgraph driver cd.

Anyway, ioreg and whatever appropriate switches should be able to provide you with the ID, but no reason to bother if it's working as is.

10.5.2 was an easy update if following the instructions posted on netkas.org. Otherwise I'd imagine there are some hacked combo update-files floating around out there by now.

[cosmicrey]

I get "Bus error" while trying to execute LCDd as normal user as well as root. Tried it on 10.4.8 SSE2

[zeba]

Okey! Now I would really appreciate some hints or helpful steps with LCDd.
I am using Growl 0.7.6 and GrowLCDproc to send Growl notifications to the LCD display.
When I start LCDd I get the initial screen showing up with the "LCDd server" text scrolling and the heartbeat etc.
When Growl notifications are sent to the VFD I'm not really sure what happens..
I get some random strings from the song id-tag showing up, and then all the sudden the initial screen again is show, then again some track info.. :/
This is what the console prints:
3/10/08 11:56:08 AM GrowlHelperApp[225] 2008-03-10 11:56:08 +0100 GrowlTunes: (null). If Only (2:25 — · · · · ·
Goldfinger (Composed by )
The Best of Goldfinger
Punk) - Priority 0

Now I've been searching the whole night on how to modify what is printed to the screen, how is this done..
For starters Time & Date would just look better than the initial screen..

Thank you all so much!

[BigBadOwl]

I have the same problem, although the date and time do show (it always did by default from day 1), it keeps jumping to the default LCDproc message every couple of seconds. I haven't had time to fiddle yet. The default message can be changed in the conf file. Growl seems to work on some of the time too.

[zeba]

Sent a growl notification and got this:


Strange.. if i start the client with just 'lcdproc -f T' it still shows the CPU MEM etc...

If you send a growl notification and you uncomment 'ServerScreen=no' there won't be any jumping anymore.

Now I just would like to know how I could clear the whole upper line..
There's 3 cells from left and right in use, tried to look in the source but couldn't find anything yet.

Thanks for your help..and the image quality is all the iphones fault..

[zeba]

Well, have to be the ugliest hack in the universe, but it works, and im totally satisfied =)


Will try to modify some more, and get the growl notifications to show up correctly..

[hinhale]

No luck with the Thermaltake iMon-vfd. Haven't been able to find out the device-id, either through sysctl dumps or from within linux/freebsd. Not even sure mine's still working though, since it's been over a year since i last ran vista on this computer, and i've done some messing around hardware-wise since then. But if anyone happens to know the device-id, be sure to drop a line!

Silly me. Seems the IMON power cable had jerked out for some reason. Now it works, and it's the same hardcoded dev id (0x15c2) so no need to recompile the source. Pretty sweet! Now I just need to find a good use for it.

[silicon-surfer]

Hi all

I though I would share a solution to using an iMon USB LCD display on a Mac. This particular one was compiled on Leopard, but it might work on Tiger. The source is included. Attached is everything you need. The iMon usb driver was modified (by another individual - not me) to work on OS X and does not need the kernel driver as it is built into the iMon Driver. If it doesn't work for your iMon USB device, try changing the device id's in the server/drivers/imon.c file. I know this works on an Antec Fusion Case.

FYI. I am using Growl 0.7.6 (there is problems with the latest one under Leopard, and 0.7.6 works) and a program called GrowLCDproc to send Growl notifications to the LCD display. This is a really good solution.

The code attached is all open source and contains no proprietary or illegal code.

 imon_LCDProc_OS_X.zip ( 1.94MB ) Number of downloads: 582

I'm trying to get this running on my Antec Fusion with Leopard and although it seems to run OK (GrowlLCDproc can connect) I get no output on the screen. My LCD has the same device IDs as the code. Does it need the /dev/lcd0 node to communicate with the LCD as this isn't present on my system?

[Doosje]

I could use some help with this aswell ...

Received my chiefec case today and been fiddling around to get the vfd working but no luck so far. The product id differs from the one already supplied.

Vendor ID: 0x15c2
Product ID: 0x0036

However i run into a bunch of trouble trying to recompile the driver through xcode ... tried to hexedit the original file aswell but was unable to find the string 65500

Anyone who could help me with this?