LCD screen for your dockstar (cheap! <$5)

glalonde Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> lsusb:
> Bus 001 Device 022: ID 1403:0001 Sitronix Digital
> Photo Frame
>
> dmesg:
> [ 174.946559] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access
> SITRONIX MULTIMEDIA 0.09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
> [ 174.960145] sd 1:0:0:0: 4096 512-byte logical
> blocks: (2.09 MB/2.00 MiB)
> [ 174.982886] sd 1:0:0:0: Write Protect is off
> [ 174.987765] sd 1:0:0:0: Mode Sense: 0b 00 00
> 08
> [ 174.987776] sd 1:0:0:0: Assuming drive cache:
> write through
> [ 174.997739] sd 1:0:0:0: Assuming drive cache:
> write through
> [ 175.003870] sdb: unknown partition table
> [ 175.029764] sd 1:0:0:0: Assuming drive cache:
> write through
> [ 175.035922] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached SCSI
> removable disk

This all looks good.

> Uploading fw
> Expected response 8 on cmd 1, got 0x10!

This is not good. It comes from the following failsafe check in phack...

    //Allocate buffer and send a command. Check the result as an extra caution 
    //against non-photoframe devices.
    buff=malloc_aligned(0x10000);
    sendcmd(f,1,0,0,0);
    read_data(f,buff,0x200);
    if (buff[0]!=8) {
        printf("Expected response 8 on cmd 1, got 0x%hhx!\n",buff[0]);
        exit(1);
    }

phack will not do anything - even dump firmware - if this check fails.

It looks like its there to prevent people running phack on a non-picframe device (like their hard disk :-)

> Unable to get parm_block
> Open failed!

This happens when setpic tries to write an image to your hacked device. You device has not been modified so the image cannot be sent.

> phack -m /dev/sdb, does work and generates a
> message.

This works on all picframe devices even if they are not hacked. Its just an indication that your device is probably hackable.

> ( also had to remove the 'exit' after the check
> otherwise it just stopped after it generate
> theExpected response 8 on cmd 1, got 0x10!
> message, in main.c)

Ah... I see you tried bypassing the failsafe. I would have probably tried that as well.

Looks like a 0x10 response to CMD1 means you have twice as much memory than rat's shift3. This probably means the key memory addresses are different and would require major changes to phack & libst2205 to hack it (see Technaxx Mango attempts).

If its still functional as a photo frame I would be tempted to load it full of nice pictures and gift to to a friend for Xmas... like my unhackable Coby DP151BW :-)

-PG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2010 11:15PM by petergunn.

petergunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looks like a 0x10 response to CMD1 means you have
> twice as much memory than rat's shift3. This
> probably means the key memory addresses are
> different and would require major changes to phack
> & libst2205 to hack it (see Technaxx Mango
> attempts).

It's strange though, because his dmesg shows 2MB. I'm guessing this is not the issue...

glalonde Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>Uploading fw
>Expected response 8 on cmd 1, got 0x10!
>Firmware update! If unsure, press ctrl-C NOW!

I got that message, expected response, with different offsets from time to time, etc... when I didn't run everything as root. I'm guessing this may be a permissions issue like the one I ran into before I decided to rm -rf lcd/* and start over from scratch. (Start from this post to see where I did that: http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,2435,2625#msg-2625 ) Instead of using sudo, I just 'su'ed and did it all as persistent root. (or sudo -i IIRC)

Make sure your m_shift3 folder is also owned by root when you try to have the scripts access it. Basically, if anything isn't root, you're likely to run into issues.

It's not unique to the Shift3, either. I ran into the same issue when trying to hack the DP151 because I forgot to SU/Sudo.

Not knowing what the hell I was doing, btw, was the other reason why I documented every step, including my screwups and restart, for about 1/2 the pages in this thread. If you can phack the screen to send a message to it, I'd say it's a 95% chance you can hack the unit. I couldn't even send a message to the other LCD I tested which had two partitions (the CDRom partition version).

PLEASE be persistent and try to get your Shift3 working. I'll give you another reason: Despite the annoying battery icon, the Shift3 has a screen with better viewing angles. I like the DP151 for its shape and body, but the Shift3 is far easier to look at/focus on, IMHO.

If anything, it wouldn't hurt to try generating your own hack instead of using mine... since it can be done. Your DMESG is exactly what it should be for a hackable model.

Peter,

Tried the rc.local thing for hotplugging. no workey.

i poked around in the kernel log and system log, but couldn't find anything useful.

i'm not sure how to proceed.

LCD4Linux is proving to be too clunky/buggy/fussy/complex for my needs. I'm thinking of adding some system statistics to st2205term to act like a "screen saver" when the terminal is not in use. I don't want to write yet-another-monitoring-app so I was thinking of just running dstat behind the scenes and reformatting the output using curses on the st2205term terminal. This would support hotplugging.

Try installing dstat to see what sort of stats are available:

apt-get install dstat
dstat

Config would be a single file "template" that would define the layout on the picframe:

TIM: $time---------
NTP: $date/time----
MEM: used $used- cache $cach-
NET: $recv--/$send--
CPU: usr $usr-- sys $sys--
PAG: in  $in- out $out--

Would give output like:

TIM: 20-12 23:04:57
NTP: 20-12 23:04:57
MEM: used 22.4M cache 94.0M
NET: 5797B/677B
CPU: usr 2 sys 0
PAG: in  0 out 0

Then I could add "built-in" non-dstat statistics if I wanted.

Haven't written it yet tho - no time yet.

-PG

Peter:

That would be awesome. I just installed dstat, and i think it will do the job with some proper formatting...

It won't have all of the 'fancy' bars and scrolling info and whatnot, but it will do what i'm looking for.

so - if you can find the time - it'd be awesome if you could make it happen!

petergunn, I was curious as to what can actually get rotation working with the st2205 driver. I have what looks like a shift3 fat *although when i did the firmware hack, it was recognized as a innovix generic iirc, as i don't have the battery icon issue* and i've patched st2205.c as you suggested, but rotation doesn't work as expect, not at all as a matter of fact.. I don't have all that much experience with C so if you could enlighten me or point me in the right direction, it'd be much appreciated, thanks..

ok, my apologies for double posting, i didn't realize i couldn't edit my posts i've sent anonymously... i was editing the wrong st2205.c, and now have the rotation working when i set it, but the display just outputs junk, the text is illegible. the version info displayed when i first start lcd4linux shows up properly, but it looks mirrored *as in NVS-0.11.0 xuniL4DCL, but the letters are backwards as well....* any ideas?

psk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> the letters are backwards as well....* any ideas?

try...

case 16:
            if (getenv("ROTATE")==NULL)
                c = getpixel(h, pixinfo, x, y);
            else
                c = getpixel(h, pixinfo, y, h->width-1-x);

also change...

        if (h->proto == PROTO_PCF8833) {
                if (h->oldpix == NULL) {
                        pcf8833_send_partial(h, pixinfo, 0, 0, h->width - 1, h->height);

to

        if (h->proto == PROTO_PCF8833) {
                if (1) {
                        pcf8833_send_partial(h, pixinfo, 0, 0, h->width - 1, h->height);

Sorry I don't have time to test right now :-/

-PG

It is possible to reverse the mini-b plug so your display will face you!
The plastic body is relatively soft, it can be trimmed with a razor knife. Symmetry is the goal here. the cabling is unprotected as it enters the body so be careful to not nick the wires. The led light guide has to go also to make the fit.

Just ordered a DP152 from Amazon, $8.28 delivered. My goal is to have datalogging and realtime display of inverter output of my solar photovoltaic system.

HTH, Jim

Jim!
Just be careful , Peter told us not to get it from amazon in the beginning of this thread.
If it comes with CD , that would be the one to get, but if it doesn't you can't hack it.

Nice job turning the wire so you could reverse it, does it work ok?

Maybe read the first few pages where we talk about the type of lcd you need , and maybe someone can point you in good direction from someone that has a hackable one, ok?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2010 06:19PM by rgtaa.

rgtaa,

Thanks for the heads up. I had read this thread completely. For less than a tenner I takes my chances, and since the reviews on Amazon referenced the software not working with older OSX releases, it likely has a CD included.

Edit #2: Here's the link to the DP152 from a third party via Amazon if you're a gambler like me (NOT)
I can't endorse it's suitability as I haven't received it yet.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B001EH8KU0?ie=UTF8&seller=A14T8NUQVLTYS2&condition=new

I have nothing on hand to test it with yet, but the led indicator is quite satisfactory without the light guide!

Edit #1: Ok I found a mini to micro patch cord, plugged my old Motorola Krave in.

output from dmesg;

root@dockstar:~# dmesg
<snip>
[ 1956.870777] usb 1-1.1: new full speed USB device using orion-ehci and address 4
[ 1956.982617] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=22b8, idProduct=2cc4
[ 1956.989529] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 1956.996883] usb 1-1.1: Product: Motorola ZN4
[ 1957.001200] usb 1-1.1: Manufacturer: Motorola Inc.
[ 1957.007837] usb 1-1.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

And it's charging also!

Jim



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2010 07:14PM by j10152.

rgtaa Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just be careful , Peter told us not to get it from
> amazon in the beginning of this thread.
> If it comes with CD , that would be the one to
> get, but if it doesn't you can't hack it.

He said not to get the DP151 from Amazon. The DP152 still appears to only have one hardware version. So he should be safe.

psk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have what looks like a shift3 fat *although when i
> did the firmware hack, it was recognized as a
> innovix generic iirc, as i don't have the battery
> icon issue* and i've patched st2205.c as you

You have an "plain 'ol" Innovage. The body is identical. Shift3 models have a slightly different firmware. The reason the Shift3 is called the Shift3 is because that was specifically part of the model name. As far as I'm concerned, it's just another wrench thrown into the works. ;)

j10152 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My goal is to have datalogging and realtime
> display of inverter output of my solar
> photovoltaic system.

How do you plan on acquiring the statistics? Does it have a serial data output?

Earlier this year I was playing with data logging by directly reading LCD output using a webcam. The prototype was based on openCV. It was windows based but might not be too hard to port to Linux.

-PG

petergunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> How do you plan on acquiring the statistics? Does
> it have a serial data output?
>
> Earlier this year I was playing with data logging
> by directly reading LCD output using a webcam. The
> prototype was based on openCV. It was windows
> based but might not be too hard to port to Linux.

I'm presently collecting the data with a guruplug using

fslurp

I question the long term reliability of the guruplug, and look forward to a realtime display on my desk.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2010 11:19AM by j10152.

j10152 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I question the long term reliability of the
> guruplug, and look forward to a realtime display
> on my desk.

I've heard the guru plug has a whiny fan and is prone to heat issues. The dockstar should be more reliable but there are some that have manufacturing issues - but you can fix if you have a soldering iron.

-PG

petergunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've heard the guru plug has a whiny fan and is
> prone to heat issues. The dockstar should be more
> reliable but there are some that have
> manufacturing issues - but you can fix if you have
> a soldering iron.

Ugh. Fantastic. If left alone, is this known to cause any issues? Eventually the corrosion would hit the unexposed mask (green area) of the board... is it sufficient enough to keep the copper from corroding due to air exposure?

petergunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I've heard the guru plug has a whiny fan and is
> prone to heat issues. The dockstar should be more
> reliable but there are some that have
> manufacturing issues - but you can fix if you have
> a soldering iron.

All soldered up (both sides of board) and rebooted.
I imagine the corrosion is a result of galvanic action between incompatible metals, not exposure to air.

petergunn, i wanted to thank you for the quick response and patch, it works flawlessly!

rat, you were right, i knew it was a generic innovix, but with all this talk about a shift3, it kinda threw me off.. it's a shame that it's almost identical, i thought i may have done something to fix the battery issue..

anyways, i've uploaded a pic to show everyone the rotate patch in st2205. now to just figure out a client/server model for lcd4linux so i can monitor my other machines. *i come from using lcdproc from back in the day, (CFontz 634 serial)* :D

psk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> petergunn, i wanted to thank you for the quick
> response and patch, it works flawlessly!

Great. Whats the CPU utilization like? If its increased significantly you might need a tweak (move the getenv() call out the loop).

> anyways, i've uploaded a pic to show everyone
> the rotate patch in st2205. now to just figure out a
> client/server model for lcd4linux so i can monitor my other machines.
> *i come from using lcdproc from back in the day, (CFontz 634 serial)* :D

st2205term can display any curses based application and
LCD4Linux has a curses based display mode (if you compile it in)
so its possible you could display LCD4Linux in st2205term. Then,
you could run multiple LCD4Linux displays (over ssh with pubkey auth)
in something like GNU screen to switch between views.

I'd have to extend st2205term a bit to allow a command to be specified.
This would allow something like...

# start terminal on picframe...
st2205term ... -c "start_lcd4linux.sh"

# start_lcd4linux.sh - script to add windows to GNU screen
screen -S test -X screen lcd4linux ...
screen -S test -X screen ssh box2 lcd4linux ...
screen -S test -X screen ssh box3 lcd4linux ...

The start_lcd4linux.sh script would have to be a little more complex
to test if screen had been previously started etc. But I think it would work.

Then you would need a script to tell screen to rotate though the displays.
I think you can do this using "screen -S test next" in a loop.

-PG

FYI - I have upgraded st2205term to allow a custom command rather than the default 'bash --login' to be specified and bundled a little curses based statistics utility that reformats dstat output. This allows st2205term to display real-time statistics without LCD4Linux.

If you want to give it a try fetch v0.09 and run it with something like the following (cut n' pasted from my /etc/rc.local)...

ST2205TERMDIR=/local/dockstar/lcd/st2205term
$ST2205TERMDIR/st2205term \
    --font=small \
    --keyboard=/dev/input/by-id/usb-060b_USB_Keyboard-event-kbd \
    --picframe=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SITRONIX_MULTIMEDIA-0\:0 \
    --fontdata=$ST2205TERMDIR/fonts.txt \
    --command="$ST2205TERMDIR/stats -t=$ST2205TERMDIR/template.txt" \
    --keymap=$ST2205TERMDIR/us.kmap < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &

You'll need to fix the ST2205TERMDIR path and make sure the picframe device matches yours. The keyboard device doesn't matter in this example as the stats utility ignores keyboard input.

Edit the template.txt file to change the fields & layout.

Its a minimal implementation for now - no color and no way to get to a terminal you can type on. Eventually I might have st2205term keep two terminals - the actual terminal you type on and a second one with stats that will act as a screen saver.

Also, off topic: I enhanced the LCD Webpage.

-PG

Peter
Thanks for the xmas present, I'll check it out.
I love your page where you collected all you cool upgrades for the dockstar.
It will be fun during the next year to see what else you can do with our dockstars. :)
Thanks santa! :)

psk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rat, you were right, i knew it was a generic
> innovix, but with all this talk about a shift3, it
> kinda threw me off.. it's a shame that it's almost
> identical, i thought i may have done something to
> fix the battery issue..

*phew* Glad you got it working.

But as far as the battery icon goes...I wish, but it's not enough of a dealbreaker for me. I can live with it if I have to. Your picture... is exactly why I like my Shift3. Very crisp screen without any major backlight bleed. I don't know if the DP152 looks the same as the DP151, but I prefer the Shift3 screen to the DP151 one... Though I may consider grabbing an Innovage Generic if you got yours from somewhere online that would have more since you confirmed it working.

(And anyone reading this, yes, I still have my DP151 for sale at cost if you're wanting to save yourself the trouble. If you're OCD about having a screen that'll match the Dockstar, this is the way to go.;)

j10152 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All soldered up (both sides of board) and
> rebooted.
> I imagine the corrosion is a result of galvanic
> action between incompatible metals, not exposure
> to air.

Hrm. So covering it with a thin coat of solder is enough or is this something best left alone until you start to see the corrosion form? The situation is that I pretty much only have my one (and checked on ebay as I stopped typing here, found a bunch that just got listed and ordered a second for backup purposes) and don't want to mess it up due to my shaky hands... ;)

New st2205term - v0.10 is available.

New features:
* autodetects keyboard and display devices
* --screensaver option to display second terminal when keyboard is idle

If you only have one keyboard and picframe (or Displaylink) device attached you dont need to specify any command line options at all to get a terminal up...

cd st2205term
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH # to find librote
./st2205term

I have included a program to reformat dstat output that can act as a screen saver:

apt-get install dstat
cd st2205term
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH # to find librote
./st2205term --font=small --screensaver="./stats -t=./template.txt"

Here are some example /etc/rc.local commands to start it up:

ST2205TERMDIR=/local/dockstar/lcd/st2205term
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH # to find librote
$ST2205TERMDIR/st2205term --font=small \
    --screensaver="$ST2205TERMDIR/stats -t=$ST2205TERMDIR/template.txt" < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &

Edit the template.txt file to change the statistics or layout - it uses the dstat column names.

No more need for LCD4Linux :-)

-PG

petergunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> New st2205term - v0.10 is available.
> Edit the template.txt file to change the
> statistics or layout - it uses the dstat column
> names.
>
> No more need for LCD4Linux :-)

Gave it a whirl and worked right off the bat. Didn't bitch without a keyboard plugged in (it did what I hoped it would: Go straight to screensaver when one wasn't found)... Not bad.

Question now is how to pretty it up a bit and throw in some extra info. UPS monitoring? dstat documentation that I've found so far doesn't seem to relate to how it's formatted in template.txt

psk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rat, you were right, i knew it was a generic
> innovix, but with all this talk about a shift3, it
> kinda threw me off.. it's a shame that it's almost
> identical, i thought i may have done something to
> fix the battery issue..

Can you, by chance, provide a picture of the packaging that came with your Innovage LCD? I may have a lead on a cheap one but it's advertised as having "8MB capacity"... But still says 60 Photos on the package, indicates that it comes with a CD and looks like a Shift3 Fat with silver/chrome back half.

petergunn Wrote:

> Great. Whats the CPU utilization like? If its increased
> significantly you might need a tweak (move the getenv() call out the loop).

dunno, i've been busy this past week, give me a couple days to get some stats together and i'll get back to ya on that...
rat Wrote:

> Can you, by chance, provide a picture of the
> packaging that came with your Innovage LCD? I may
> have a lead on a cheap one but it's advertised as
> having "8MB capacity"... But still says 60 Photos
> on the package, indicates that it comes with a CD
> and looks like a Shift3 Fat with silver/chrome
> back half.

unfortunately, no... i got this as a gift a couple yrs ago, and i can't remember for the life of me what it looked like... i have the original cd and i can take all the pics ya want of the lcd itself, if you'd like...

rat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> petergunn Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> > New st2205term - v0.10 is available.

> Question now is how to pretty it up a bit and
> throw in some extra info. UPS monitoring?

I don't have a UPS - where do the stats come from? Is there a /proc file?

> dstat documentation that I've found so far doesn't seem to relate
> to how it's formatted in template.txt

template.txt uses the column names that dstat generates when you run it.
There is a command line option to specify dstat options to specify what
columns you want. Unfortunately I see dstat sometimes generates multi-word
column names - this makes it has for the stats utility to identify which value
relates to each column - I'll add some logic to recognize some of the multi-word
columns when I get time.

-PG

psk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> unfortunately, no... i got this as a gift a couple
> yrs ago, and i can't remember for the life of me
> what it looked like... i have the original cd and
> i can take all the pics ya want of the lcd itself,
> if you'd like...

You lucked out on that one. ;) You, by chance, recognize this packaging, then?

http://i.imgur.com/7vtXf.png



petergunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't have a UPS - where do the stats come from?
> Is there a /proc file?

The stats get pulled from the acpupsd logfile. /var/log/apcupsd.status

LCD4Linux grabs the relating line numbers (I had to modify the defaults as both were off by one) and spits out the value on that line.

From lcd4linux.conf:

expression substr(file::readline('/var/log/apcupsd.status', 12),12,4)

Key for numbers after the path: Line 12, 12 columns over, next 4 characters is the value, so it really is just dumping whatever values it reads where you specify it in a specific file. It works on a text file, too. :)

From apcupsd.status line 12:

LOADPCT : 14.0 Percent Load Capacity


> template.txt uses the column names that dstat
> generates when you run it.
> There is a command line option to specify dstat
> options to specify what
> columns you want. Unfortunately I see dstat
> sometimes generates multi-word
> column names - this makes it has for the stats
> utility to identify which value
> relates to each column - I'll add some logic to
> recognize some of the multi-word
> columns when I get time.

Argh. That complicates it. I assume then that color text support would also need to be coded in. Wish I had a way to help rather than making more work for you. ;)

rat Wrote:
----------------------------------------------------
> You lucked out on that one. ;) You, by chance,
> recognize this packaging, then?
>
> http://i.imgur.com/7vtXf.png

i almost swear that's the right packaging, but i don't remember it being that big... like i said though, it was a gift many years ago.. and yes, i did luck out, i've been holding on to this thing for what seems like forever (in my hacks/projects drawer) thanks to all you guys it finally has a use :D