4 ms·

Those displays seem to be the same one sold to gamers years ago. I yearned for one as a youth!

r2_pilot 4y ago
The Pertelian? I still have mine and came across the printed instruction set just the other day. Fun times. I've thought about trying to get it to work in the modern era, but there are small and info-dense screens these days.
- 411111111111111 4y ago
  Displays just like that were on the Logitech G15 iirc. Nobody would take these keyboard seriously anymore but rubberdome was kinda the norm back then
Crosseye_Jack 4y ago
Well they are "just" HD44780 driven LCD displays (which are sold on eBay pretty cheap these days). Back in the day when every machine had a parallel port we used to just drive them directly bit banging out what we wanted. These days you can just slap an Arduino inbetween one and a USB port and jobs pretty much done.
- Slartie 4y ago
  Haha, yeah, I have fond memories of these displays. Got my hands onto one by accident as a kid, but didn't have any software to drive it, so I wrote me some software to drive those on the parallel port for display of CPU and RAM usage, number of mails in inbox, fan speeds and stuff. That program even gained a certain popularity in the case-modding scene, it was a hideous pile of crappy Visual Basic 4.0 code called "just another LCD software" or "jaLCDs".
- eddieroger 4y ago
  That triggered a memory of when I decided to put a mini-tower PC in my trunk to may MP3s, and bought one of these displays off eBay so I could see a very basic menu and some song info. 4x40 characters of greatness propped up in the empty bay of my Camry. Those were the days.
- ckozlowski 4y ago
  Yup! They're very flexible. I remember these units too. Back in 2002-2005, I worked for a small system integrator. We built turn-key appliances for software vendors. Firewalls, security appliances, etc. We'd work with chassis manufacturers to add cutouts for these units on the front of 1U and 2U servers to provide for an interface without needing to hook up a console cart. Same as you might see on a Dell or HP. Really neat seeing these still in use!
ct0 4y ago
I remember these displays too, for fan control and stuff right? There used to be a website of basically show and tell of tower machines with cool upgrades. All pre RGB, but there were plenty of lights fans switches, all of it. It had to be popular around 2000/2001. Anyone remember the site?
- auxym 4y ago
  Overclockers maybe? But I definitely do remember the era of cold cathodes:)
- ChoGGi 4y ago
  HardOCP?
zh3 4y ago
I've used those for many hacks. To this day there is one on my desk, with the arrow keys adjusting audio volume, with 'tick' and 'x' keys for mute/unmute. The display shows date/time/audio volume and email counters, with a 60s blip to the name of the person calling when the phone rings.

The Pertelian? I still have mine and came across the printed instruction set just the other day. Fun times. I've thought about trying to get it to work in the modern era, but there are small and info-dense screens these days.

411111111111111 4y ago
Displays just like that were on the Logitech G15 iirc. Nobody would take these keyboard seriously anymore but rubberdome was kinda the norm back then

Crosseye_Jack 4y ago

Well they are "just" HD44780 driven LCD displays (which are sold on eBay pretty cheap these days). Back in the day when every machine had a parallel port we used to just drive them directly bit banging out what we wanted. These days you can just slap an Arduino inbetween one and a USB port and jobs pretty much done.

Slartie 4y ago
Haha, yeah, I have fond memories of these displays. Got my hands onto one by accident as a kid, but didn't have any software to drive it, so I wrote me some software to drive those on the parallel port for display of CPU and RAM usage, number of mails in inbox, fan speeds and stuff. That program even gained a certain popularity in the case-modding scene, it was a hideous pile of crappy Visual Basic 4.0 code called "just another LCD software" or "jaLCDs".
eddieroger 4y ago
That triggered a memory of when I decided to put a mini-tower PC in my trunk to may MP3s, and bought one of these displays off eBay so I could see a very basic menu and some song info. 4x40 characters of greatness propped up in the empty bay of my Camry. Those were the days.
ckozlowski 4y ago
Yup! They're very flexible. I remember these units too. Back in 2002-2005, I worked for a small system integrator. We built turn-key appliances for software vendors. Firewalls, security appliances, etc. We'd work with chassis manufacturers to add cutouts for these units on the front of 1U and 2U servers to provide for an interface without needing to hook up a console cart. Same as you might see on a Dell or HP. Really neat seeing these still in use!

ct0 4y ago

I remember these displays too, for fan control and stuff right? There used to be a website of basically show and tell of tower machines with cool upgrades. All pre RGB, but there were plenty of lights fans switches, all of it. It had to be popular around 2000/2001. Anyone remember the site?

auxym 4y ago
Overclockers maybe? But I definitely do remember the era of cold cathodes:)
ChoGGi 4y ago
HardOCP?

zh3 4y ago

I've used those for many hacks. To this day there is one on my desk, with the arrow keys adjusting audio volume, with 'tick' and 'x' keys for mute/unmute. The display shows date/time/audio volume and email counters, with a 60s blip to the name of the person calling when the phone rings.