- Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:26 pm
#9408
Hi folks;
I picked up two of the serial backpacks and have run into some problems....
First one is that it apparently is locked at 9600 bps. This is kind of a problem in a few cases, most particularly with the ZX processor - its serial-defined channels can have their timing subtly disruprted by things that disable interrupts (e.g. sync I/O) and as such lower baud rates are better. Ideal would be 2400.... I can probably get around this, although I might have to do some kinda wild stuff to do so on one of my projects...
Second, and potentially a show-stopper, is that the backlight control doesn't work right. The documentation says that 124 + a byte from 128 - 157 control the PWM control, with 128 being off and 157 being "full". All work fine EXCEPT 128 - that returns "full on" instead of "off". Oops. Since I NEED soft backlight control to get a handle on power consumption this is a big deal.
Any ideas? Other than that it appears to be working..... The lack of soft baud control is a bit disappointing though - that would be awesome if it was/could be supported.
I picked up two of the serial backpacks and have run into some problems....
First one is that it apparently is locked at 9600 bps. This is kind of a problem in a few cases, most particularly with the ZX processor - its serial-defined channels can have their timing subtly disruprted by things that disable interrupts (e.g. sync I/O) and as such lower baud rates are better. Ideal would be 2400.... I can probably get around this, although I might have to do some kinda wild stuff to do so on one of my projects...
Second, and potentially a show-stopper, is that the backlight control doesn't work right. The documentation says that 124 + a byte from 128 - 157 control the PWM control, with 128 being off and 157 being "full". All work fine EXCEPT 128 - that returns "full on" instead of "off". Oops. Since I NEED soft backlight control to get a handle on power consumption this is a big deal.
Any ideas? Other than that it appears to be working..... The lack of soft baud control is a bit disappointing though - that would be awesome if it was/could be supported.
