Xpantastic!

Hi Randy,

I think you're right, and this is the only long-term 
solution for keeping otherwise-functional Xpanders going 
once their displays start to give out.

I suspect that actually fitting the adapter board and the 
new display into the very narrow space available would be as 
tricky as designing the interface.

An alternative would be to couple a new display with new 
firmware and a new daughterboard that received the ribbon 
cable to the display board and pulled out the (re-purposed) 
display signals; then the new firmware could drive the new 
display directly. This is obviously a lot more work, but 
there really isn't much space to fit anything between the 
case and the existing display board...

Cheers,

John :^P

William Cason wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi,
>  
> If absolutely necessary, I think a new display board could be created 
> for M12/Xpander that would decode the grid/anode signals to the original 
> VFD's and create the new signals to drive newer displays like the ones 
> on ebay the other day.  This could be a simple lookup table and state 
> machine in an FPGA for example (I'm an FPGA designer).  It would give an 
> opportunity for a slightly different display as well (e.g. VFD dot 
> matrix, 15 segment LED)
>  
> Does anyone know the failure rate of the VFD's (like ever?)  Are they 
> one of the first things to go?
>  
> Randy

-- 
John Pallister
john@...