VNX system pull LCD

[Phire]

Ok Im a total n00b to all of this. So at my work they were throwing away an old vnx peer to peer systm and I noticed it had an lcd and keypad in the front. I pulled both and now am wondering....It has a 29? pin ribbon cable attached to it, conplete with this interface board with 6 keys and 7 LEDs. My question is this: I know it is a 20x4, Samsung UC-20401, but how do I go about powering/configuring this bad boy?

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[CF Mark]

Youll have to get the pinout for the main LCD driver chip on the board. With a bit of searching around the web you should be abke to find that.

When you have it, youll have to trace back the tracks on the PCB to the corresponding ribbon cable wires.
From what i understand, that LCD is HD44780 compatible, so using the normal HD44780 connections to the parallel port should work fine.

As for the keypad... youll have to work that one out.

 

[Phire]

Found a wiring diagram! Hm there's no backlight any suggestions for adding one? I.E. a white led?

 

[CF Tech]

Take a high-resolution digital pic of both sides (or lay it on a scanner) and post them here. We might be able to figure something out.

 

[Phire]

Ok will do. I wonder how bright a white led is in the dark?

 

[CF Tech]

They are all bright in the dark, the trouble is getting a backlight bright enough to make a difference in a well lit room .

 

[Phire]

No I really meant mouting a white led on the top of my lcd pcb, so when I'm in the car at night, I can change songs and see the titles

 

[CF Tech]

Phire: Since that display is non-Crystalfontz, we needed to move the thread to this "open" forum.

The white LED would probably work. I think IBM did something like that with a little LED on the lid of a laptop that lit the keyboard.