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Old January 30th 06, 03:29 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.homebrew
xpyttl
 
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Default OM3CPH frequency counter doesn't work?

Oh duh!

I just looked again ... Peter and Mag wire the LCD differently. RS and
LCDEN are swapped on the two circuits, so if your circuit works with Mag's
code, of course it won't work with Peter's.

...

"xpyttl" wrote in message
...
While I haven't built that particular one, I have built a similar design
of Peter's with good success.

There are some possibilities ... Peter relies on timing for the LCD. If
your crystal frequency is higher than the frequency of the hex file you
downloaded, or if your LCD is a little off (common if you got the LCD from
a hobbyist source) then a blank display or a display of all black squares
would be a common result. Check to be sure that the version of the hex
file you downloaded matches your crystal frequency.

Mag's site is incredibly slow and I haven't located the source, but he at
least has the wiring to avoid being dependent on the timing. Whether he
did or not I can't tell without seeing the source. Reading the LCD to
tell whether it is ready, instead of waiting "long enough" is fairly
uncommon because different brands of LCD seem to respond a little
differently, but maybe you just got lucky.

I would try slowing down your clock a bit as a test. This will give you
an incorrect frequency readout, but it would let you know whether timing
is the problem. One thing about LCDs -- there is no such thing as too
slow, so if the only other crystal you have lying around is a lot slower,
it will be fine for the experiment. If it turns out this is the problem,
simply increase the LCD delay in Peter's source.

..

"JJ" wrote in message
...
I built the 4 line LCD version and the program LCD4CNTR.hex doesn't
display
anything on my LCD.

http://www.qsl.net/om3cph/counter/summary.html


Funny thing is my circuit works with the program from this site:

http://www.hamradioindia.org/circuits/fcountlcd.php

Anybody know whats wrong with LCD4CNTR.hex?

JJ