RADDS Board with Full Graphic Reprap Clone

daniel

Hi,

I'm trying to get this Display: Sintron LCD 12864 Graphic Smart Display Controller
running with my RADDS/Arduino Due Board.

If I've read the RADDS schematics right, the LCD Expansion Port on the Radds uses the following Arduino Pins:

LCD_RS - D42
LCD_E - D43
LCD_4 - D44
LCD_5 - D45
LCD_6 - D46
LCD_7 - D47

I've edited the uiconfig.h:
Line 101: #define UI_DISPLAY_TYPE 5
Line 193+:
#else // Direct display connections
#define UI_DISPLAY_RS_PIN 42 // PINK.1, 88, D_RS
#define UI_DISPLAY_RW_PIN -1
#define UI_DISPLAY_ENABLE_PIN 43 // PINK.3, 86, D_E
#define UI_DISPLAY_D0_PIN -1 // PINF.5, 92, D_D4
#define UI_DISPLAY_D1_PIN -1 // PINK.2, 87, D_D5
#define UI_DISPLAY_D2_PIN -1 // PINL.5, 40, D_D6
#define UI_DISPLAY_D3_PIN -1 // PINK.4, 85, D_D7
#define UI_DISPLAY_D4_PIN 44 // PINF.5, 92, D_D4
#define UI_DISPLAY_D5_PIN 45 // PINK.2, 87, D_D5
#define UI_DISPLAY_D6_PIN 46 // PINL.5, 40, D_D6
#define UI_DISPLAY_D7_PIN 47 // PINK.4, 85, D_D7
#define UI_DELAYPERCHAR 50

But the Display stays clear....

I've tried the Display with an Arduino Mega 1280 and it worked so the Display itself and the Contrast should be no problem

Greets
Daniel

Repetier

Did you test it on te Mega 1280 with repetier firmware?

It uses u8glib for output and currently does only support ST7920 chip. You see in ui.cpp parts like this

#ifdef U8GLIB_ST7920

#define UI_SPI_SCK UI_DISPLAY_D4_PIN

#define UI_SPI_MOSI UI_DISPLAY_ENABLE_PIN

#define UI_SPI_CS UI_DISPLAY_RS_PIN

#endif

which you have probably not set/changed as expected. for that chipset. Also for other drivers you might need to include the drivers in u8glib_ex.h

daniel

Thanks for your reply

yes, on the Mega 1280 I successfully tested it with repetier. I told the configurator it would be an Mega1280 with Ramps 1.3 and wired it by hand. I was able to navigate through the menus.

I compared the uiconfig.h from the mega with the on from the due and could find no differences beside the pinout.

Repetier

Ok, so we could assume it should work if u8glib works with due. Have no graphic display with matching pinout here, so that combination is completely untested. But since it uses software SPI for communivation the code part must be quite small that handles pin settings. Or it may be a timing issue as the due is much faster.

daniel

u8glib could be the point.
i've found out that i have Version 1.11 installed, but version 1.17 is available...

i will try to update and test again

Repetier

Not sure if you saw what I did. u8glib_ex is all files concatenated which I needed. I think I also changed some pin setting stuff to make it faster, not sure about this point though. But removing it and using the full u8glib should work as well.

daniel

Ok, the content of u8glib_ex goes far beyond my programming skills...

I will try to get the Display running with Marlin oder directly with the u8glib... but only for testing - my goal is it to get repetier running with this display

Repetier

What I wanted to say is remove the u8glib_ex.h include and include the full u8glib which you installed as library before. That should work. I have not changed any function calls, so it is 100% compatible. I only did that so no one needs to install the library for compilation.

daniel

ok thanks, i will try this tomorrow

daniel

Sorry for the late reply.
Due to too much work, I had no time to try any further.
But I have found a possible reason for the LCD not showing anything. I've read a datasheet for a similar LCD and there is 0,7VDD mentioned as minimal H Level for the Signallines. VDD for the Display is 5V, so 0,7VDD would be 3.5V. The DUE runs with 3.3V so I think I will need a levelshifter for the signallines.

When I find some time I will give it a try this weekend.

Repetier

The radds has a levelshifter for the display connector! The connector is only not pin compatible to RAMPS board. You should check the real pinout and which pins have 5v on the homepage of the author of radds.

daniel

The LCD Project had to wait a littlebit, but i used the time to change my K8200 mechanics to CoreXY, replaced the controller with the DUE and the RADDS and changed X+Y stepperdrivers to 1/128 ones. Till now everything works nearly great - only some minor problems. But now i want a LCD+Encoder...

To get back to Basic, i thought it would be simpler to use a normal 20x4 Text LCD, but also here i get no picture on the LCD...
I've loaded my old configuration.h (with the running config w/o LCD) and changed the LCD Part to RADDS LCD...

Is there anything else to change?

I wired the LCD as shown here: http://www.dr-henschke.de/LCD_Enc_SD_11.pdf but Without the SD part.

Another strange behavior: Before I could use the onboard micro SD without Problems... but since I changed the config, i get SD card inserted
SD init fail
and also some restarts in the log...

daniel

Success!!!

it's running!

It was all about the cable length! At least the Text Display. The cables must not be longer than 20 cm to get somthing displayed!
So Due+Radds+20x4 Textdisplay is working

A few minutes ago I tried cabeling the Full Graphic Clone directly to a Due just with to 74HC125 as levelshifters and its also working!

So now I have to find the reason for being limited to such short cables.

Repetier

I know someone had the GLCD working on the expansion port without levelshifter at all. Maybe that works better for longer cables.

googliola

I want to use a similar LCD model Reprap discount 12684. Would you mind sharing your pinout with me? Or are the ones you posted at the beginning the ones that worked for you? Also, is USB power sufficient for the display or is an externa 12Vl source required?

docpayce

Repetier said:

I know someone had the GLCD working on the expansion port without levelshifter at all. Maybe that works better for longer cables.

Hey Repetier!

That was THE remark I needed to get things working well.

I tried both this solution:

https://github.com/luc-github/DUE-RADDS-GLCD </div><div>

And this one:

http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?2,628638 </div><div>

Both without luck. Now I went on to use the expansion port AUX-1 and suddenly everything works hunky-dory without the slightest issues. Will publish a manual and uiconfig.h when I got some time left. But this was THE easiest way to get a GLCD working on RADDS. Thnx!

robbycandra

I just follow daniel way.

Tried 25 cm cable still fail but succeed on 15cm cable.
I do it without levelshifter.

Same question with daniel, why limited to short cable, while other board / controller can use longer cable?

How to make it longer.

Repetier

Would be a question to electronic experts, what the cable length changes.

GLCD should maybe not use the display port which uses level shifters in between. Also this is good for 5V displays it seems sometimes to also cause problems. The expansion port sometimes works better.

kwalters35

I have a sainsmart version of the reprap full graphics running on my corexy with repetier. I connected to the LCD connector using the sparkLCD adapter settings and pinout, but had to add 1kohm resistors to the RS,EN and D4 connection to get anything other than garbage to display. I currently have it connected via a breadboard to hold the resistors. cable length is about 30cm.