/me was going through some old schematics today and was supprised to see this post, here's how to get 127 colors off a serial port:
1. You need to demux the serial stream, I'm not sure how to do this, look for the right chip...
2. If your serial port doesn't buffer, you're going to need a register/latch/bunch of flipflops... You are interested in the first 7 bits... or just configure it to use a 7N1/1200 bps protocol.
There are two options for decoding the signal,
put resistors on it like this:
bit 0 > some small resistor > RED bit 0 > some larger resistor > red.
Make the larger resistor twice the size of the smaller one and then make them both so that when the code 11 is given, the voltage is at the proper input for the diode... (use the correct formula!)
Do the same for the other two colors and now the thing will display any of 127 colors by outputting the color setting as a byte to a port.
If that doesn't work try this:
Another circuit would be to use two 2:4 decoders and select the appropriate resistors for your intended brightnesses...
Making this a USB device shouldn't be much harder than making it a serial device, just watch the voltages...
On the software side, for DOS (my favorite OS), you simply write a TSR to poll whatever you want to monitor using one of the timers (will slow your system. =( ) and output the new setting appropriately...
The basic idea is the same for any other OS...
In Linux you could write a daemon to read some network socket or something and write to the serial port..
I don't program 'doze so you're on your own there...
This really is a trivial device... I wish someone would hire me to build them. ( alangrimes@starpower.net )
They chose bland old Disney Speilburg and iky Clive Barker over Farscape.
and now they have chosen the worst $#!+ ever to come from an animator's pen over stuff that is nothing short of inspired.
If I were boss, I would do nothing but anime and Samurai Jack. Everything else is brain-damaging...
Maybe, I suppose, I might get a decient night's sleep more often... But still, this is suckey to the extreme. I feel my quality of life sinking dramaticly. =(/me makes an appointment to see his witch doctor and request 3x his current antidepressant dosage.
PS: wtf is up with the transformers remake??? Its pissing all over the orrigional... Not even voltron was that bad...
>>>> "...It took 3 grueling days to get the linux machine to the same state..."
Yeah, well, deal with it. You might actually have to read a little, and, again, think a little. >> If that's too hard for you, by all means, stay with Window$ -- you're both meant for each other.
This is exactly the point of this whole discussion! Linux will never succede as long as you posture as one of its advocates. -- and that may or may not be a good thing.
I have had so much frustration with linux that even thinking about it makes me scream. I am at the point where I want to rip the lungs out of the nearest linux advocate. I am writing this to you with a genuine 1992 vintage 486 running windows 3.11 that is connected, through a 10_T lan to a linux machine which has been kludged into being a masqurading gateway to a dialup connection.
It took 1 minute to get the lan card working on the 486.
It took 3 grueling days to get the linux machine to the same state.
Am I moderated as a troll yet? GOOD!! I'm proud of it. I don't think it is appropriate for me to say "Even though I am really a devout open-source advocate I still have these problems..." Instead I think the best way to communicate what I have to say is to say it streight up and with no ego-cushoning. This software does not meet my needs. My experience with the linux installation on my Athlon is that when I manage to fix one thing, ten other things break and there is no way to fix it...
I start playing "penguins" a lemmings clone... And I discover that certain actions in the game reliably cause the program to crash. -- And _ALL_ linux software is like this to one extent or another.
There is a package on my system called 'AAA' I have no idea what it does other tahn claiming to be critically important and requiring me to install vim!!!! I find that intolerable as I absolutly and loudly refuse to operate a linux machine that has vim on it. -- yet this required package requires that I have vim on the machine!!!!! Hundreds of thousands of things like this are driving me crazy!!! I think I am going to have to install win XP Pro on the box just to protect my sanity. =(
Vim is the ultimate example of the hypocracy of linux. People tell me that it is a text editor. I have never been able to make it prerform this function, at least without first driving me to the most profound feeling of frustration I've ever experienced. The lesson from this is that the biggest bug in linux is that it is so poorly designed that the user is unable to use it -- making the software just as useless as if it had some other bug in it.. It doesn't matter that netscape on windows 3.11 crashes ten times a day >>>I can use it to browse the web!
I could go on for days but I'll stop here... I beg that you take my horrible experiences into account.
ps: If you think that I should quit complaining about vi an use pico know this: PICO IS ONE OF THE THINGS BROKEN ON MY ATHLON -- IT DOES NOT LOAD!!!!
Slashdot Mirror
/me was going through some old schematics today and was supprised to see this post, here's how to get 127 colors off a serial port:
1. You need to demux the serial stream, I'm not sure how to do this, look for the right chip...
2. If your serial port doesn't buffer, you're going to need a register/latch/bunch of flipflops... You are interested in the first 7 bits... or just configure it to use a 7N1/1200 bps protocol.
There are two options for decoding the signal,
put resistors on it like this:
bit 0 > some small resistor > RED
bit 0 > some larger resistor > red.
Make the larger resistor twice the size of the smaller one and then make them both so that when the code 11 is given, the voltage is at the proper input for the diode... (use the correct formula!)
Do the same for the other two colors and now the thing will display any of 127 colors by outputting the color setting as a byte to a port.
If that doesn't work try this:
Another circuit would be to use two 2:4 decoders and select the appropriate resistors for your intended brightnesses...
Making this a USB device shouldn't be much harder than making it a serial device, just watch the voltages...
On the software side, for DOS (my favorite OS), you simply write a TSR to poll whatever you want to monitor using one of the timers (will slow your system. =( ) and output the new setting appropriately...
The basic idea is the same for any other OS...
In Linux you could write a daemon to read some network socket or something and write to the serial port..
I don't program 'doze so you're on your own there...
This really is a trivial device...
I wish someone would hire me to build them. ( alangrimes@starpower.net )
Obviously not...
/me makes an appointment to see his witch doctor and request 3x his current antidepressant dosage.
They chose bland old Disney Speilburg and iky Clive Barker over Farscape.
and now they have chosen the worst $#!+ ever to come from an animator's pen over stuff that is nothing short of inspired.
If I were boss, I would do nothing but anime and Samurai Jack. Everything else is brain-damaging...
Maybe, I suppose, I might get a decient night's sleep more often... But still, this is suckey to the extreme. I feel my quality of life sinking dramaticly. =(
PS: wtf is up with the transformers remake??? Its pissing all over the orrigional... Not even voltron was that bad...
>>> This is utter bullshit.
This is the truth, get used to it.
>>>> "...It took 3 grueling days to get the linux machine to the same
state..."
Yeah, well, deal with it. You might actually have to read a
little, and, again, think a little.
>> If that's too hard for you, by all means, stay with Window$ --
you're both meant for each other.
This is exactly the point of this whole discussion! Linux will never succede as long as you posture as one of its advocates. -- and that may or may not be a good thing.
I have had so much frustration with linux that even thinking about it makes me scream. I am at the point where I want to rip the lungs out of the nearest linux advocate. I am writing this to you with a genuine 1992 vintage 486 running windows 3.11 that is connected, through a 10_T lan to a linux machine which has been kludged into being a masqurading gateway to a dialup connection.
It took 1 minute to get the lan card working on the 486.
It took 3 grueling days to get the linux machine to the same state.
Am I moderated as a troll yet? GOOD!! I'm proud of it. I don't think it is appropriate for me to say "Even though I am really a devout open-source advocate I still have these problems..." Instead I think the best way to communicate what I have to say is to say it streight up and with no ego-cushoning. This software does not meet my needs. My experience with the linux installation on my Athlon is that when I manage to fix one thing, ten other things break and there is no way to fix it...
I start playing "penguins" a lemmings clone... And I discover that certain actions in the game reliably cause the program to crash. -- And _ALL_ linux software is like this to one extent or another.
There is a package on my system called 'AAA' I have no idea what it does other tahn claiming to be critically important and requiring me to install vim!!!! I find that intolerable as I absolutly and loudly refuse to operate a linux machine that has vim on it. -- yet this required package requires that I have vim on the machine!!!!! Hundreds of thousands of things like this are driving me crazy!!! I think I am going to have to install win XP Pro on the box just to protect my sanity. =(
Vim is the ultimate example of the hypocracy of linux. People tell me that it is a text editor. I have never been able to make it prerform this function, at least without first driving me to the most profound feeling of frustration I've ever experienced. The lesson from this is that the biggest bug in linux is that it is so poorly designed that the user is unable to use it -- making the software just as useless as if it had some other bug in it.. It doesn't matter that netscape on windows 3.11 crashes ten times a day >>>I can use it to browse the web!
I could go on for days but I'll stop here... I beg that you take my horrible experiences into account.
ps: If you think that I should quit complaining about vi an use pico know this: PICO IS ONE OF THE THINGS BROKEN ON MY ATHLON -- IT DOES NOT LOAD!!!!