CFAH* WinTest: LCD Test & Demonstration Software

Disclaimer: We do not recommend connecting CFAH* series displays to a PC's parallel port as an "end product". The CFAH* series displays are not "user friendly" and connecting them to a PC's parallel port is often difficult, frustrating, and can result in a "dead" display due to mishandling. The CFAH* series displays are intended to be designed into a finished product by an engineer--they are not designed to be a PC accessory.

That being said, there will still be plenty of hardware hackers that will do it because it can be done, and connecting the display to a parallel port can be a handy way to test or evaluate the displays. While we do not offer support for connecting the CFAH* series displays to a PC's parallel port, we do think that this utility will make the task of debugging your circuit much easier. Use at your own risk--this is entirely unsupported software.

Features:

• This is an unsupported product, but you may download the full source code below.
• Each control and data bit of the cable can be individually set high or low. This feature is helpful in debugging cables connected to a PC's parallel port.
• Initilaizes a CFAH* series display using either "8-bit" or "4-bit" mode.
• Allows you to change the initialization the message shown on the LCD.
• Supports port addresses of: 0x378, 0x278, 0x3BC.
• 32-bit Windows 9x/NT/2K/XP compatible program.
• Easy: Copy the contents of the "executable" zip file to a directory double-click on "CFAH_WinTest.exe" to run it. No changes are made to your registry, to "uninstall" just delete the files. NT/2K/XP users must install "port95nt" first.

Download:

Zipped Executable: CFAH_WinTest.zip, 123K
Zipped VC++ 6.0 Source: CFAH_WinTest_Source.zip, 168K
Port I/O Driver from Scientific Software Tools is required for NT/2K/XP--must be installed before running CFAH_WinTest:
http://www.driverlinx.com/ftp/unsupported/port95nt.exe, 1.6M