CrystalControl2 Hangs

[Ringo Kid]

I'm having one odd problem.

CrystalControl hangs when I attempt to drag from the "Custom Character" plugin to the screen editor surface. I have to kill it in the Task Manager.

Crystalfontz LCD Blog

Looking for additional LCD resources? Check out our LCD blog for the latest developments in LCD technology.

 

[jc634]

I assume you are using the 20070812 version? I just tried and it worked fine for me. I'm using Vista, tho.

If you let me know which OS you are using, I can verify if it works or not for me.

 

[Ringo Kid]

Ya! I've told many a user "it works on my machine." I've been doing this since 1974 and I'm always amazed at how many times a user will find a new way to break something. It's the old joke, "Doctor, my arm hurts when I do this." Doctor, "then, don't do that."

I'm on XP SP2 with all critical updates installed, Belarc Advisor verified. System is not overclocked and is 100% rock stable. My livelihood depends on this machine, so I make sure that it is it stays stable.

CC2 (20070812) works like a champ for me except for the dragging of custom characters. I licensed a copy of Everest today after I found some of the stuff you did with it. I didn't have any trouble dragging from the WMI information node.

My impression is that when I drag from the custom character node, CC2 is trying to aquire some resource and can't so it appears hung. The mouse pointer changes to the pointer with the little plus sign and eventually changes to an hour glass. It seems to be hung has soon as I release the button.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled.

It's so hung I can't even get a screen shot. For now, I've been editing cc2_config.ini and adding the degree symbols by hand.

 

[jc634]

Use: string="\128"

This will give you the ° symbol w/o using Custom Characters. Or "\128C" for °C. Please note that you still have to do this in the ini file, tho.

 

[Ringo Kid]

Now it's time for the old dog to show a trick or two...

Actually, you can directly enter any of the character ROM extended characters (>= 128) into the CC2 edit string dialog directly. This is an old MS-DOS trick that has survived since the Stone Age. The trick is to type the decimal value of the character ROM character on the numeric keypad while holding down the alt. key (do not use the top row numeric keys), prefixing a zero first. For example, to select the up pointing arrow from the character ROM, you type alt-0222 on the numeric keypad:

View attachment edit string.bmp

The character you end up with in the dialog is goofy, but when you click OK, the result is exactly what you want:

View attachment design surface.bmp

This is much easier than editing the INI directly.

Note: if you don't have a numeric key pad on your keyboard, you need to use the embedded keys that are usually activated by a keyboard function (Fn) key. Again, the top row of numeric keys do not work in this manner.

 

[jc634]

Very nice! Useful for the GUI editor, but very specific to each display (ROM-wise).

Since I try to write actual screen files, compatibility is my concern. \128 works in all the displays (text-file-wise). Hard-wired by CCadmin, who does the translation inside the program. It just does not integrate into the GUI very well.

FWIW, for new stuff, I tend to use the GUI then "translate" it into a screen file.

 

[Ringo Kid]

I'm not 100% sure I understand what you mean. The GUI does translate the special character as per this example I lifted out of the INI:

[m00-s06-r00]
options=0
scroll_speed=250

[m00-s06-r00-i00]
string="Up Arrow \222"
options=0
length=0
scroll_speed=0

But I can see a problem if a different model of display outputs a different character than what is expected. The problem with Windows GUI is sometimes we are dealing with ASCII, sometime with UNICODE. Quite frankly, it's a pain.

I still would like to resolve the hanging issue. It doesn't have to be resolved tomorrow but none the less, we should try to resolve it.

I should point out that much of this isn't new to me. Some years back I wrote Windows based software that interfaced to livestock ventilation system controllers. The controllers would monitor temperature, humidity, and air currents and they would raise and lower curtains, activate misters and fans that were slightly larger than our case fans by about five feet and 200 volts. My software had to connect to any number of these controllers either by direct connection or dial up and download environmental factors or upload new set points. It was a facinating project.

 

[CF Mark]

Very nice! Useful for the GUI editor, but very specific to each display (ROM-wise).

Commonly used chars like ° are already mapped in the plugins so they appear correctly on the LCDs.
You didnt know about the alt+0176 thing Jim? Sorry, i should have mentioned it a long time ago

 

[jc634]

You may have. Like many things, if one does not use it, one does not remember.