Displays part I:

    I'll take a step back for the software section, after this section. I just wanted to give you a brief rundown, or some of the simple things, if you will, that you can do with your new VFD from SilverStone. I'll revisit the displays also in a bit.

(11) Processor info	(12) Use/free memory

    As you can start to see, there is a multitude of things you can use your VFD to display. Configuration with LCD Smartie, which is driving these displays is easy to use, and setup.

(13) Free memory graph	(14) Winamp (no need to get full of syrup and get antsy in the pantsy)

    Unfortunately my Fuji camera does not have an adjustable exposure control. Below was scrolling the date and time I believe, so enjoy that one, cough. I know I won't be able to show you a picture of the Spectrum Analyzer from Winamp in picture form, but have no fear, I'll do a movie, with of course some jammin' tune to give you a better feel, and idea about what you can really do with the display.

(15) Uh, yeah...Exposure...

Software:

    As instructed in the two sided, 8 1/2" x 11" instruction printout, you need to download two things off the internet. One, is the parallel port I/O driver called port95nt.exe. With the url typed into IE, bingo, after 1.6 megs of download that is. No configuration is needed after the install, so I won't waste any time with a screenshot. Unless you are a programmer in C, or VB, you'll never need to go into it. The second is called LCD Smartie (smartie52.zip.) That unfortunately was down, or not available. I did find it elsewhere by Googling it, but now, trying the link again, at the time of this writing, there even is a new version, 5.3 Alpha 6 available. That one is dated 12-13-04. The link included in the instructions now actually points you to here, over at SourceForge.

    This is why: "After very long time not updating this site, finally there is something to say. As many of you might already know, I stopped coding LCD Smartie.

    This is not only because I just don't have time for it anymore, but also because the code is really a mess. Smartie was my first program I wrote and therefore isn't quite the best kind of code.

    For example, when I first started coding I didn't use functions, and kept reading files. Later on I added some functions, and read files into an array. I changed content of the data files every update of Smartie, so even that's a mess.

    Now I was mailed some time ago by a guy named 'Chris Lansley' who lives in the UK. He told me what many people did before: 'make smartie open source!'.

    Because I didn't have any plans for the code and was actually hopeless that I could find a programmer who actually WANTS to program new versions of Smartie, I decided to make Smartie open source.

    A new sourceforge project has been started, and I have to say that I won't be helping you with it, but perhaps some really smart programmer(s) can understand how the crappy Smartie code works, and can blow some new life in it."

    Kudos for open source! (Note: I corrected some of the blatant spelling errors for easier reading, and no, I'm not trying to be insulting.) Below are some sample screen shots to give you a slight feel for LCD Smartie. Not only can you set up 20 different screens doing custom scripting, you can have your VFD display the weather, new emails, any text you want, MBM readings, Folding @ Home, but really though, the list does go on and on. Now it really looks like it's going to get better with some fresh programmers updating this, and creating plugins. Half the fun is exploring new things right? Just like playing a new game. So go explore!

(16) Running	(17) Setup	(18) Event triggers

    Briefly below, you can see that Smartie takes up about 4 megs to run. It barely uses any CPU time, so I can't imagine you'll even notice any speed difference on your PC. Unless it is really slow to begin with. How many people want to put an LCD into their Celeron 300a @ 450? Yup, thought so.

(19) Ram and typical CPU use

    The version that I grabbed, the 5.2, didn't put a shortcut in the start up. Easy enough, I created a shortcut, and then put it in the startup folder. Of course it just shows up on your desktop. But, if you choose properties, and force it to start minimized, it'll go right to the tray when run. Neato huh? I'm not sure if the later updated versions of Smartie address this. I had not downloaded any new versions thus far.

(20) Make it go away. I mean to the tray.

Other Software (LCDcenter 2.0):

    Another easily setup software for running your VFD is called LCDcenter 2.0 from a place called Borderfield. Unfortunately, that file is pretty old, and becoming very hard to find on the net. I'm thinking about putting it online, but for now, you can find it over here. Visit their homepage, click on downloads, and look around for other goodies. A bit hard on the eyes though, it is mostly NOT in English.

(21) Configuration	(22) Running/Profiles

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