EEVblog #717 - How To Hack Vacuum Fluorescent Displays

[MLXXXp]

Dave's video prompted me to dig out an old VFD I've had for over 20 years, sealed and unopened in the original packaging. A date stamp on the back reads May 16 1989.

It's made by IEE, part number 03601-82. It's a single line of 20 characters and each character is a 5 x 7 dot matrix. I never had any documentation for it and a web search for that number didn't turn up anything useful.

However, I did find a document for the IEE 03601-86-080R, which is a 2 line by 40 character VFD. Both displays use the same single row 12 pin connector. By doing some signal tracing, similar to what Dave did, I determined that the interface was very likely the same. It requires a single 5V supply. The protocol is write only 8 bit parallel ASCII with a strobe, and there's a busy output.

I wired it to a breadboarded Arduino Pro Mini. Even though the Arduino has enough I/O pins to connect everything directly, I decided to also use a 74HC595 serial to parallel shift register, just for the heck of it. I didn't have the proper female connector so I hacked up a PC floppy cable and wired it to a header strip.

I wrote a quick sketch to send to the display anything received by the Arduino serial port. It worked a treat! 

[richfiles]

I've got one of these that I'm thinking of putting to use some how. All the VFDs are run by OKI shift registers, as are all the push buttons.

A bit of work involved...

I'm DROOLING!!! I know EXACTLY what I'd use that board for! KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM!!!

Orbital Altitude+Radar Altimeter
Apoapsis+Time to Ap, Periapsis+Time to Pe
Orbital Velocity+ Vertical Velocity, Inclination+Eccentricity
...and more!!! That only used the big top display and half the lower ones, if I multiclass! 

I could slap my semi major and minor axis up there, or my coordinates, or my vector heading, or air density+intake air for jet engines...

You're making me drool! Can I ask what the board was from, or if there is a manufacturer or model number on it... Something like that might be worth tracking down! That board's almost ideal for a Kerbal Command Module controller! VERY cool find!

[Gryphonmeh]

I was watching one of your old mailbags, #686, in which you received a Electric Imp Internet of Things. I was thinking what if it could be adapted to be used with the vacuum display. Possibly?

[aargee]

Richfiles,

The board is from an XRay machine control panel originating from a large dutch company  . Pretty hard to get one surplus I imagine. This one is faulty, but not sure what the fault is as I'll have to try and power it up to check it out. Absolutely no detailed info, no info on VFDs, no schematics, etc.

Good luck with your search.

[richfiles]

Richfiles,

The board is from an XRay machine control panel originating from a large dutch company  . Pretty hard to get one surplus I imagine. This one is faulty, but not sure what the fault is as I'll have to try and power it up to check it out. Absolutely no detailed info, no info on VFDs, no schematics, etc.

Good luck with your search.

Hehe! Thanks for getting back to me. Yeah... That's not likely to be easily found... NICE score though! 

I happen to have a pair of the large 2x20s (parallel) that I posted about above, and another pair of 1x16s that are much smaller (parallel with a serial board attached). I've got a pair of POS displays hiding out somewhere in my shop. I forget if they are 1 or 2 line, or if they are 16 or 20 character displays, but I do know those have a serial cable leading to them. The honest truth... I've considered actually using nixies for my altimeter, with a toggle to select orbital or radar altimeters... Just the altimeter though. I only got so many of them, and I despise those lazy Russian ones with the flipped "2" instead of a real "5"... I only get good quality legit "5" nixies that originated from western or asian makers when I build stuff!

I got a drawer full of nice Rodan GR-111a nixies that were left over from the donor machine from when I restored a Sony Sobax ICC-600W calculator. I got about a dozen more (part number not determined yet) from the worlds' most "fragmented" Sobax calculator... I have never seen a case cracked into so many pieces, while still being "fully assembled"!  As a collector, I will only tear it down if I find the need to do so. As... full of character as it is, I don't have another of that particular model in my collection, nor do I have another machine by which to restore using parts from it yet.

Regardless, VFD character display are not uncommon, and can be easily found online... It's just so RARE to see a single board with SO MANY!

Aaaaand it looks like it's a Philips.