A few years ago I came around a nice POS Vacuum Fluorescent Display.
The model I have is CD7220 and it is designed to show information about a customer purchasing in a nice blue-green colour onto a Vacuum Fluorescent Display with 2 rows and 20 columns.
I put it on my bench and gave it a long look seeing on it's two rows a lot of possible things. From clock to some informations extracted from CI-V from my ICOM radios, various configurations scrolled in my imagination.
I started to search for some documentation and found the datasheet then started to look inside to see how it was interfaced with the POS cashier machine.
The VFD is interfaced via RJ45 connector and from the signal perspective, a HIN232 circuit handle the conversion between RS232 serial COM port to TTL UART. Basically, this circuit is a clone of Maxim's MAX232 RS232<>TTL level convertor.
The backup battery, a rechargable Li cell was dead and I replaced with a 5 V/4F capacitor. This is enough to keep the time for some time when power is off.
Because the circuits in the VFD need 24V, I put inside a DC/DC boost convertor so I can power the board with anything above 5V and below 24V. Yeah, I know, this is too big for this project but this was laying on my junk boxes here... You can use any boost DC/TS that can sustain 5W in a close box for extended periods of time.
After setting the Time and Date as above, use the code provided on the Github, insert the correct UTC offset for your region and then upload the code to Arduino.
The code is commented and it is self explanatory; before you upload it, check the correct offset for UTC.
Very sad news just received from the daughter of John, ON4UN
It is with sadness, but also gratitude and pride, I have to let you know my father John ON4UN, has become silent key.
John’s health has steadily deteriorated throughout the year, but in the last few weeks he was home with us where he peacefully passed away yesterday November 9.
Ham Radio, and especially Low Band DXing, were my father’s lifelong passion and always had a strong presence in our house. Sometimes literally, when many of you paid us a visit or a group of DX’ers came over for a weekend of contesting. At other times in the background, when my dad was working on a project or experimenting with new equipment or antennas.
Though I don’t have a call-sign, I very much feel part of the big radio family and always will. I am very proud of everything my father has accomplished together with you, and I am grateful to the many of you who have given him so much joy over the years. We will miss him dearly, but we take comfort looking back on the beautiful life he lived as a member of the wonderful Ham Radio community.
We are planning a digital farewell ceremony on Saturday November 21st and will keep you updated on practicalities.
If you would like to send us a message please mail to ON4UN.SK@gmail.com – John’s old e-mail account is not in use anymore.
In the meantime, you can pay him a visit at QRZ.com where he always kept his resume up to date.
