Jump to content

iMon LCD and LCDProc solution

BigBadOwl

By BigBadOwl,
in OSx86 10.5 (Leopard)

 Share
40 posts in this topic

Recommended Posts

BigBadOwl
BigBadOwl
Posted
Posted

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hinhale
hinhale
Posted
Posted

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).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BigBadOwl
BigBadOwl
Posted
  • Author
Posted
@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?:D
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 
./LCDd -c ./LCDd.conf

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hinhale
hinhale
Posted
Posted

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ichijoe
Ichijoe
Posted
Posted

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. ;)

 

simg0035ol1.th.jpg

 

 

P.s. BTW before I forget THANKS!! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hinhale
hinhale
Posted
Posted
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. ;)

 

simg0035ol1.th.jpg

 

 

P.s. BTW before I forget THANKS!! :)

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ichijoe
Ichijoe
Posted
Posted

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...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hinhale
hinhale
Posted
Posted
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* :unsure:

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
zeba
zeba
Posted
Posted

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BigBadOwl
BigBadOwl
Posted
  • Author
Posted

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
zeba
zeba
Posted
Posted

Sent a growl notification and got this:

photo.jpg

 

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..

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hinhale
hinhale
Posted
Posted
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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
silicon-surfer
silicon-surfer
Posted
Posted
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

 

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
Doosje
Doosje
Posted
Posted

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
ezilagel
ezilagel
Posted
Posted

I am having problems getting this provided LCDd to work. I have a Antec Fusion Black case and am currently running mac os X 10.5.2 (intel).

 

 

I have downloaded the code and ran the shell script. I checked my device and vendor IDs and they are the same as the one compiled. I also installed the growlLCDproc and it successfully connects to LCDd. However when I try to hit preview in growl I receive the error:

7/20/08 5:41:30 AM GrowlHelperApp[9985] Error from LCDproc Server at 127.0.0.1: huh? Screen already exists

 

I have looked at other forums suggesting how to send text, however nothing appears on my screen. Also, just to check if this is normal... When my computer is shutdown, but still turned on the PSU, my LCD is bright blue. Constantly bright blue. Never shuts off unless I turn off the PSU.

 

Also, I am trying to figure out if LCDd is supposed to be connected to /dev/lcd0 or something like that. Other forums talk about a /dev and I don't see that in /dev.

 

If i could get some help that would be great. I would love to work with someone to maybe get this into a package install, or at least just correctly. Any help would be awesome, I think this is something that we should try to figure out.

 

Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BigBadOwl
BigBadOwl
Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hi ezilagel

 

Just to check your running things in the right order. To get LCDproc up and running this is what I type into the terminal in order...

 

cd /Users/bigbadowl/desktop/LCDd

/Users/bigbadowl/Desktop/LCDd/LCDd -c /Users/bigbadowl/Desktop/LCDd/LCDd.conf

/Users/bigbadowl/Desktop/LCDd/lcdproc N

 

At this point a default LCDProc message should appear on your LCD. If you see nothing at this point then your LCD has not been initalised. Growl will not work until the LCD is running with the default message.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ezilagel
ezilagel
Posted
Posted

Thanks for your help, but I still cannot get it to work. I installed windows the other day and was able to get it to work. I'm not sure what my problem is. I can start LCDd server with no problem. When I run the lcdproc N. Nothing happens. Growl can see the server running, but consoles the error i stated above when trying to send text. Thanks for your help, I will let you know if I get it to work.. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
planlos
planlos
Posted
Posted

I also tried to hex edit this hack...

 

Have a Silverstone GD01-B MXR and also been playing 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: 0x0038

 

How do i recompile or hex edit that driver? Im thinking of the combination with the Darwin port of LIRC.. could this be a possibiliy to get this running?

 

Any help would be appreciated!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...