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Tehbb's avatar
Tehbb
Aspirant
Oct 04, 2020

RNP 6 front display interface?

I have been playing around with my RNP6 and I am wondering if there is a way to interface with the front display panel and make it display custom mesages. I have bee looking around in htop for a process/command to interface with it but I have had no luck.

is this possible?

 

Thanks

5 Replies

  • I appologise for leaving this stale for so long

    after some digging I have found that between RAIDiator firmwares and the readynasos firmwares they seem to have moved the lcd device files somewhere or just interfacing to it through a serial port instead or something?

    the link from StephenB seems to be for the RAIDiator versions. when i run the 

    echo E > /dev/ttyS1

    command or similar commands the console just hangs

    at the current time the lcd on my unit seems to not be working not sure

    but I thought I would post an update on my findings

    found this german site that shows how to interface through "rnutil" (kina handy)

    https://lug-vs.org/lugvswiki/index.php/ReadyNAS

    not exact model but same general os version

    the only other thing I have found is in "/sys/class/graphics" where there are some files that may be of intrest

    also there is an emty "/sys/class/lcd" directory

    sadly I cant check if any of these work yet, but when I can I will post an update (if I remember)

    • Sandshark's avatar
      Sandshark
      Sensei

      Interesting article.  When you get around to trying it, my best guess for -p and -k would be for the font point size and kerning (p & k).  I know the display is capable of more than one font size, but it may only allow specific values for those.  I'm not currently running a NAS on which I can test it.

  • can confirm that my lcd controller board is DEAD the micro gets abnormally hot when the board is plugged in

    im considering using a similar display board or making one

    I found this site

    http://git.natisbad.org/NAS5/index.html

    the site mentions that a parralell lcd display similar to this

    https://www.winstar.com.tw/products/character-lcd-display-module/lcd-display-16x2.html

    netger probererably used a custom version though

    upon following the traces on my lcd module two of the connections connect straight to a ground plane and short together

    so there are 8 connections 

    there is an led and ir sensor also on the board which would require more pins and also a 4 pin connector that isnt connected to the mainboard 3 of those pins are connected to traces

    the minimum amount of pins required to make a parralell lcd function is 8 (which is in 4 bit mode)

    I have one of these display modules and I am going to try to find the pinout for the connector

    this is the pin layout of the connectors:

    2    4   n/a  8    10  n/a    14    16

    1    3    5    7    9    n/a    13    n/a

    image attached with better pin diagram

     

    below are voltages from the cable from the mainboard

    WARNING these connections may be flipped im not sure

     

    13.85 V between GND pin:8 VCC pin10 the pins also make continuity

    using ground probe on pin 8 this is what voltage reading I got from the other pins

    10.68 V pin 6 (the one that isnt populated)

    13.82 V pin 4

    10.30 V pin 2

    15.57 V pin 9

    22.73 V pin 7

    00.00 V pin 5 this is when i got real suspicious of the connector being flipped

    10.48 V pin 3

    10.48 V pin 1

     

    diddent check continuity between other pins

    I flipped the cable connection from the mainboard and the display still wont work

    the strange thing about this is that the display was working fine a week ago when I last checked

    paranormal activity?

    also im not sure if im being dumb but im pretty sure that the display doesent take sutch high voltages as measured

    mainboard issue?

    also attached is a partial reconstruction of the board

     

    What I think the pins are

    1. maybe vcc?
    2. Unsure connected through smaller smd
    3. Unknown
    4. Unsure connected vcc smd
    5. Unknown
    6. Not populated
    7. Unknown
    8. most likely GND
    9. Unknown
    10. gnd loop connection or something?
    11. Not populated
    12. Not populated
    13. Unknown
    14. Unknown
    15. Not connected to anything
    16. Unknown

    havent looked into it yet but this looks to be similar to the board from the earlier link

    https://www.pololu.com/product/772

    but the voltages would still be way off

    maybe I have mainboard issue

    if anyone else could check the voltages to the board it would be mutch apreciated

    thats all I've got so far

    • Sandshark's avatar
      Sandshark
      Sensei

      I believe something is very wrong with either your NAS or the measurements you made.  AFAIK, the display panel runs exclusively on 5V.  I know it will come on and display "ReadyNAS" if there is nothing but 5V present in the NAS, but I have not taken any measurements of the voltages. I am not aware of any voltage above +12V anywhere in the NAS.  There are certsainly no logic signals that should be above 5V.  Have you, perhaps, mistaken the -12V bus for ground in your measurements?  I'm not sure how you'd get the 10V measurements that way, though.

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