Ice tube as serial Display

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cupofnestor
 
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Ice tube as serial Display

Post by cupofnestor »

Hi all,
I am a hardware/software designer in the museum interactives industry. I'm currently designing a rather nifty project that is dressed to look like a time machine. I've been looking for a solution to serially control a nixie-ish display to display the current year, month, day to visitors as they rotate a wheel and slip back-and-forwards through time. I love the way these VFD tubes look and I think they would be a great solution.

What I need to know is: how easy would it be to modify/replace the firmware on the device? Is serial control p[ossible with the current firmware?
Is burning an arduino bootloader an option? If I did this, I could use two free pins to interface a max MAX3323 for serial control from my master PC, and translate ascii serial commands to SPI in a custom firmware. I'm not concerned with the low-voltage feature of the current atmega. If necessary, I suppose I could learn to code and burn the atmega directly, if there is a good reason to do so.

adafruit
 
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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by adafruit »

RX and TX are not used, but there is no bootloader on there right now. theres already code for displaying text, it would not be a hard mod if you are C proficient :)

cupofnestor
 
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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by cupofnestor »

Okay, well I guess what I am wondering is what is keeping me from sticking in a chip with a bootloader? Is the support hardware different? I am more comfortable with hardware mods than C, that is for sure.

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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by adafruit »

you could put a bootloader on there but not really sure why you would do that - theres a reprogramming header. just use that!

cupofnestor
 
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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by cupofnestor »

Well, I guess because I'm not comfortable with C, and I could rapidly develop using Arduino. Maybe I'm missing something? I wasn't aware one could burn sketches without a bootloader.

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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by adafruit »

the code is already written in C, if you wanted to use Arduinoese youd have to do a lot of work to port it.

cupofnestor
 
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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by cupofnestor »

I should be clear that I do not want to utilize the timekeeping function of the clock. I'm mostly interested in the kit because it provides all of the support hardware and PCBs for the VFD. Could I completely replace the firmware with one written in Arduinoese? All I need to do is remotely control the display via serial connection. I could hire a developer to modify the code to suit my needs, but I'd like to do it myself if possible.

adafruit
 
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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by adafruit »

>shrug< you can do whatever you want. we're trying to suggest the easiest way to do it but it sounds like you're set on this path :)

cupofnestor
 
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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by cupofnestor »

No, I'm not set at all, I'm asking for advice, and a little clarification. Would you suggest that learning C and modifying your firmware is the "easiest way"? The fact is, contracting a developer to do such minor work may prohibit us from using the device.... and myself and the designer REALLY like the device. Perhaps the best Idea is for me to build a kit and start hacking. I simply want to know what I'm getting myself in to before I start spending somebody else's money. ;-)

adafruit
 
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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by adafruit »

this is really up to you, we made the original hardware and this forum is for supporting customers so they get the kit working, but we cant offer product development advice. all the source code, documentation and hardware is up on the site for your hackin' pleasure :)

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len17
 
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Re: Ice tube as serial Display

Post by len17 »

nestor wrote:I should be clear that I do not want to utilize the timekeeping function of the clock. I'm mostly interested in the kit because it provides all of the support hardware and PCBs for the VFD. Could I completely replace the firmware with one written in Arduinoese? All I need to do is remotely control the display via serial connection. I could hire a developer to modify the code to suit my needs, but I'd like to do it myself if possible.
There's a lot more to the Ice Tube firmware than the timekeeping. The code driving the VFD uses timer interrupts & PWM. I'm not sure if it's feasible to port it to "Arduinoese" - probably it is, but you'd still have to deal with some hardware nitty-gritty. The languages are similar anyway, so I would advise working from the C firmware and ripping out the parts you don't need.

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