Hello and welcome to the LCD Smartie site. LCD Smartie is software for Windows that you can use to show lots of different types of information on your LCD/VFD. It supports LCD/VFD's with a Hitachi HD44780 Controller, a Matrix Orbital Serial/USB LCD, Crystalfontz Serial/USB LCD, Seetron Serial LCD/VFD, IRTrans driven VFDs, SoundGraph iMON VFDs, Futaba VFDs, Pertelian LCDs, VL System L.I.S VFDs, IEE Inc. VFDs, and PalmOS devices (when used with PalmOrb).
It can display: Everest stats, Speedfan stats, MBM stats (your CPU temp, fan/cooler speed, etc), BBC World News (or any other RSS feed!), WinAmp stats (currently playing tracks title, length, position, etc), Network stats (speed, total bytes, etc), CPU Speed, Disk available/free, memory usage, Email details, game stats, and many more..
This great program is absolutely free to download right here.
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- The free Open Hardware Monitor software runs on 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 and any x86 based Linux operating systems without installation. Download Open Hardware Monitor 0.9.5.
- SysGauge is a free system and performance monitoring utility allowing one to monitor the CPU usage, memory usage, disk space usage, disk activities and network activities on the local computer or a number of remote computers via the network.
LCD Smartie forums gives you access to instant support please register today!
News:
25-6-2013 - LCD Smartie Hardware
LCD Smartie goes HARDWARE. A new interface board with advanced fucntions is available. Go to http://lcdsmartie.org/ to get more info and order your board today.
A new service release is available!. This new release contains the driver for our new hardware and lot of fucntion plugins. Download it.
08-6-2011 - LCD Smartie v5.4.2.92 BetaA new beta version is available for download. Feel free to download our new release and test it.
05-1-2011 - New Things To Come
LCD Smartie is under development again for a new release.. Hopefully a new version will be released soon. I cant say more about it right now. Stay tuned.
07-12-2010 - HOTFIX
A hotfix for problem occured when program is trying to load plugins in systems running .NET framework version 4 or with latest updates installed. Usually user gets a 'No bridge function' message an the program kicks off plugin requests (for .NET based plugins). LCD Smartie team released a configuration file to fix issue. The file is available for download from program forums and should be placed in LCD Smartie directory.
04-02-2007 - LCD Smartie v5.4.1 Beta
LCD Smartie v5.4.1 Beta released. Fixes COM port restart coming out of suspend and the 'fail to initialize' error when changing COM parameters in setup. Download v5.4.1 here.
03-27-2007 - L.I.S VFD Driver
Support for the VL System L.I.S VFD (and possibly other products from this manufacturer) has been added. Download the display driver to use this display with LCD Smartie.
03-18-2007 - v5.4 Release
After a successful beta, and release candidate, the LCD Smartie team is proud to announce the latest official release! 5.4 is available for download.
03-17-2007 - WMPBlog Plugin
WMPBlog plugin to display Windows Media Player information is available for download.
01-03-2007 - v5.4 RC2 and Theatertek Plugin
New official release coming soon! 5.4 RC2 is available for download.
Plugin for Theatertek DVD is available for download.
06-10-2006 - Official Tests On Windows Vista
Some tests with Windows Vista (32 bit) and LCD Smartie was successfully completed more here: http://lcdsmartie.org/phpBB3/
25-Jul-2006 - New forums host
The program support pages are moved to our new host! Please bookmark our new address: http://lcdsmartie.org/phpBB3/
21-Apr-2006 - v5.4 B3 BetaDLL display driver model - see readme for details. 5.4 B3 is available for download.
20-Apr-2006 - v5.3.2Some bugs have been fixed, IRTrans support added - see readme for details. 5.3.2 is available for download.
04-Apr-2006 - Plugins listGathering information about every known plugin of LCD Smartie. Now we have a new up-to-date download section with links for all plugins available!
01-Mar-2006 - Things to comeDevelopment on LCD Smartie has resumed! A new team of developers has come together and will be releasing updated versions in the days to come. We can hardly contain our excitement, so check back often for bug fixes and added features.
07-May-2005 - 5.3.2 (beta)Some bugs have been fixed - see readme for details. 5.3.2 (beta) is available for download.
12-Feb-2005 - Speedfan and ATITool pluginsPlugins for Speedfan and ATITool are available for download.
29-Jan-2005 - 5.3 Final5.3 final is available for download.
27-Jan-2005 - 5.3 Release Candidate 25.3 Release Candidate 2 is available for download. There are only a few days left to find/report/fix any remaining bugs!! Then 5.3 Final will be released. There will then be a long period with no further releases (as work for 6.0 is carried out).
23-Jan-2005 - 5.3 Release Candidate 1 (aka beta 4)5.3 Release Candidate 1 (aka beta 4) is available for download. There are only a few days left to find/report/fix any remaining bugs!! Then 5.3 Final will be released. There will then be a long period with no further releases (as work for 6.0 is carried out).
18-Jan-2005 - More plugins availableA WinAmp spectrum analyzer plugin is now available for download. The bignum, perf and menu plugins have been re-released as betas; this was due to the low (or zero) bug counts. An iTunes plugin has been written by Gareth Price. A Sage TV plugin has been written by Anders Nolberger. A Meedio Plugin by Harald Wagner. A WinAmp title splitting plugin by Limbo. And there are many more plugins currently in progress!
13-Jan-2005 - Beta 3 availableBeta 3 available for download.
02-Jan-2005 - Beta 2 + menu plugin availableBeta 2 and menu plugin (alpha1) available for download.
29-12-2004 - Big Num plugin availableBig Num plugin (alpha 1) available for download.
22-12-2004 - 5.3 Beta 1 and perf plugin available5.3 Beta 1 and perf plugin available for download.
16-12-2004 - 5.3 Alpha 7 Available5.3 Alpha 7 is available for download.
13-12-2004 - 5.3 Alpha 6 Available5.3 Alpha 6 is available for download.
5-12-2004 - 5.3 Alpha 5 Available5.3 Alpha 5 is available for download.
30-11-2004 - 5.3 Alpha 4 Available5.3 Alpha 4 is available for download.
25-11-2004 - 5.3 Alpha 3 Available5.3 Alpha 3 is available for download.
22-11-2004 - 5.3 Alpha 2 Available5.3 Alpha 2 is available for download.
20-11-2004 - 5.3 Alpha 1 AvailableThe first public alpha release of version 5.3 is available for download.
11-11-2004 - Testers Wanted29-10-2004 - Welcome to LCD Smarties new home on SourceForge.net! LCD Smartie is now open-source! Now all we need are some Delphi programmers to create the next release of this great program!
Three cheers for BasieP! hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray!
After very long time not updating this site, finally there is something to say. As many of you might allready know, I stopped coding LCD Smartie.
This is not only because i just don't have time for it anymore, but also because the code is really a mess. Smartie was my first program i wrote and therefor isn't quite the best kind of code.
In example, when i first started coding I didn't use functions, and kept reading files. Later on i added some functions, and read files into an array. I changed content of the data files every update of smartie, so even that's a mess.
Now i was mailed some time ago by a guy named 'Chris Lansley' who lives in the UK. He told me what many people did before: 'make smartie opensource!'.
Because I didn't have any plans for the code and was accually hopeless that i could find a programmer who accually WANTS to program new versions of smartie, i decided to make smartie opensource.
A new sourceforge project has been started, and i have to say that i won't be helping you with it, but perhaps some really smart programmer(s) can understand how the crappy smartie code works, and can blow some new live in it.
url:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lcdsmartie/
I wish you all a very fun farewell
new featues/changes
first of all the hardest to understand. This is the new 'time' feature.
it replaces the $Date and $Time functions. it now works by using: $Time(a lot of text here)
all the text between the () will be parsed. below there is a list of what will be replaced:
| c | Displays the date using the format given by the ShortDateFormat global variable, followed by the time using the format given by the LongTimeFormat global variable. The time is not displayed if the date-time value indicates midnight precisely. |
| d | Displays the day as a number without a leading zero (1-31). |
| dd | Displays the day as a number with a leading zero (01-31). |
| ddd | Displays the day as an abbreviation (Sun-Sat) using the strings given by the ShortDayNames global variable. |
| dddd | Displays the day as a full name (Sunday-Saturday) using the strings given by the LongDayNames global variable. |
| ddddd | Displays the date using the format given by the ShortDateFormat global variable. |
| dddddd | Displays the date using the format given by the LongDateFormat global variable. |
| e | Displays the year in the current period/era as a number without a leading zero (Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese locales only). |
| ee | Displays the year in the current period/era as a number with a leading zero (Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese locales only). |
| g | Displays the period/era as an abbreviation (Japanese and Taiwanese locales only). |
| gg | Displays the period/era as a full name. (Japanese and Taiwanese locales only). |
| m | Displays the month as a number without a leading zero (1-12). If the m specifier immediately follows an h or hh specifier, the minute rather than the month is displayed. |
| mm | Displays the month as a number with a leading zero (01-12). If the mm specifier immediately follows an h or hh specifier, the minute rather than the month is displayed. |
| mmm | Displays the month as an abbreviation (Jan-Dec) using the strings given by the ShortMonthNames global variable. |
| mmmm | Displays the month as a full name (January-December) using the strings given by the LongMonthNames global variable. |
| yy | Displays the year as a two-digit number (00-99). |
| yyyy | Displays the year as a four-digit number (0000-9999). |
| h | Displays the hour without a leading zero (0-23). |
| hh | Displays the hour with a leading zero (00-23). |
| n | Displays the minute without a leading zero (0-59). |
| nn | Displays the minute with a leading zero (00-59). |
| s | Displays the second without a leading zero (0-59). |
| ss | Displays the second with a leading zero (00-59). |
| z | Displays the millisecond without a leading zero (0-999). |
| zzz | Displays the millisecond with a leading zero (000-999). |
| t | Displays the time using the format given by the ShortTimeFormat global variable. |
| tt | Displays the time using the format given by the LongTimeFormat global variable. |
| am/pm | Uses the 12-hour clock for the preceding h or hh specifier, and displays 'am' for any hour before noon, and 'pm' for any hour after noon. The am/pm specifier can use lower, upper, or mixed case, and the result is displayed accordingly. |
| a/p | Uses the 12-hour clock for the preceding h or hh specifier, and displays 'a' for any hour before noon, and 'p' for any hour after noon. The a/p specifier can use lower, upper, or mixed case, and the result is displayed accordingly. |
| ampm | Uses the 12-hour clock for the preceding h or hh specifier, and displays the contents of the TimeAMString global variable for any hour before noon, and the contents of the TimePMString global variable for any hour after noon. |
| / | Displays the date separator character given by the DateSeparator global variable. |
| : | Displays the time separator character given by the TimeSeparator global variable. |
| 'xx'/'xx' | Characters enclosed in single or double quotes are displayed as-is, and do not affect formatting. |
Further I made it posible to change the custom characters. this works by using $CustomChar(1,31,31,31,31,31,31,31,31)
in this example we change customchar 1 (first number). there are 8 custom chars, so you can use 1 to 8.
the following 8 numbers are the rows of a character. This is how you can look at your character:
| 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
Here you get: $CustomChar(1,0,15,16,16,14,1,1,30)
I made a logfile function that strips off the last xx lines of a textfile, and shows them, changed all the bars into one function ($Bar()
Macbook Pro Temperature Gauge
) and did a lot bugfixes I did some more stuff, but that's up to you to find out. 27-1-2003 - Site move Well first off all a very good new year (yes i'm late).
I had to move the site. This means that also the 'auto-update' function doesn't work anymore.
Therefor I had planned a new release of smartie with just a few updates and fixes somewhere around now, but a german guy (thanx René) wrote a driver for the HD66712 and i have to inplant that also
A New version will come out as soon as i have that code inplented (promise)
I added a link to the site of Julian AKA [-JMH-]. He hopes to make a lot of plugins for LCD Smartie. You can download beta versions there and talk about the plugins.
Also added a new pic.
I recieved a plugin today from Julian AKA [-JMH-]. It is made for winamp 3 users to get the winamp info into LCD smartie.
11-9-2002 - LCD Smartie 5.1.0.3 bugfixed And again I released a bug fixed version LCD Smartie 5.1.
I also made a very nice (if i may say that) skin function that accually works :P
the standard demo.dll file is has a celcius to farhenheit converter included now, it't in the last function and can be called like this: $dll(demo.dll,0,$Temp1,x)
Ok, I released a bug fixed version LCD Smartie 5.1 today. There were some troubles with $HDxxx and weather.com didn't work alright.
I also made a GotoTheme(x) and GotoScreen(x) function for your events. This was requested ;) And I fixed the skin function
Ok, here it is. Version 5.1
I have lots of new things i'm going to introduce below. First i want to say a few things that have changed. First of all my E-mail adres. That is now XXXXX@XXXXX.XXXXXX.XX. It has changed because in the last version of LCD Smartie (5.0) i used a default setting for the pop3 email server. and checking for email was set 'enabled' by default.
so i got a call from my isp a few weeks ago (about 15-7) if could explain why they got so many tries to connect to there mail server. I didn't know nothing (offcourse ) and asked howmuch.
So they told me it was over 150 connections a minute...
well this time i left the field blank
further changes:
- I have made a checkbox for all you guys with a dial up connection. If you turn it off you don't check for a new version @ startup. This does also mean that you don't get a popup if you want to make a connection (dialup)
- Fixed Gamestats (which didn't work in 5.0)
- 20 screens instead of 10
- 10 pop3 email adresses instead of 1
- Upgraded Motherboard Monitor support (new version also works now)
- Randomize screens feature
new things:
- Winamp Status
- Network statistics (speeds, totals, errors and more)
- Weather.com support (for people in America)
- Folding@home statistics
- I made a very simple skin function so you can skin for yourself. (check the 'images' directory)
- Theme feature (which allowes you to make several 'theme's' which you can 'play' separatedly
- Resume on next line (will cut of the text that is to long for the screen, and pastes it on the next line)
- Center Text (will center the text on that line)
- Events screen where you can make your own events (i.e. skip all winamp tracks with a low bitrate, or flash your backlight 5 times when you have email
- Full support for Matrix Orbital buttons and keypads. (Also the LK404-55)
- $Counter (counts back to a specific day or time)
- $dll() (support for plugins)
- $Count() (Counts several, not limited, decimal values together)
- $Right() (alligns a small peace of text to the right)
- $Flash() (let't the text between the brackets flash)
- Lots of small and big bug fixes (i.e. the shutdown bug; Thanx supressor)
And again here is the full list of features
Plugin support (dll):
Ok, as i said above, I now have plugin support.
This means you all can start writing your own plugins now.
Herefor I made an example dll which you can download here. But before you download the file i would like to explain something.
the dll format is very simple. It is build with 10 functions. Those are always the same (same name) the dll can be named whatever you like.
When you call the dll you call it with 2 parameters. You don't have to use both, but you do have to call them with both.
If you want to use more parameters you can simply make some weird method of parsing like:
'$dll(foo.dll,3,param1#param2#param3,param4#param5)'
this DOES mean that you have to substract the parameters 1, 2 and 3 out of the accual parameter: 'param1'. That is something you have to do in the dll itself.
hope you all start programming right away so there will come lots of plugins
If you have made a plugin, please mail it to me and i will put it on the site.
Shortcuts:
ok i also made shortcuts to the basic functions. it's just like winamp, activate the main screen and press the button
Z = Winamp Last Track
X = Winamp Play
C = Winamp Pause
V = Winamp Stop
B = Winamp Next Track
N = Backlight on/off
M = Freeze screen (the screen rotation freezes, and only the active screen will be updated)
, = Last Screen
. = Next Screen
/ = Refresh all data (inet data, mbm, email, hd size, etc.)
K = Last Theme
L = Next Theme
I build a new site, the old one was kinda boring. this one is also, but I hope it's only temporary.
I also am working on verion 5.1. This will not contain much new stuff, but only a few bug fixes and some other requests. Like:
- 20 Screens instead of 10
- 10 Pop3 Email accounts instead of 1
- CF bugfix
- Gamestats fix
- Network Stats
- Weather.com support
- 'Resume on next line'
and some small things more
Arturia plugins pack. Today Smartie 5.0 has been officialy released, it has a whole lot of new features, inluding the wanted serial support.
Here i will show a list of features and how to use them:
- Setup screen is compleetly renewed:
- Serial support for Matrix-Orbital LCD's
1: tab's which you can use to cycle trough your features
2: the list with features on the current tab
show here are the most uncommen, so i will explain how you use them:E-mail: This text will be replaced by the number of mail you have currently on the server (you must fill in your username + passw)3: When you press this button the command you selected in the box above (2) will be inserted in the active line (the green one)
Distributed.net Client: The Distributed.net client's logfiles will be shown here (just make sure you select the logfile first)
Degree symbol: the degree symbol will be shown on your LCD (also if it's not a normal character)
Block: Same as degree, but then a full size (usually black) block
Mail sign: Same as degree, but then a little mail picture
Euro sign: Same as degree, but then the Euro sign (not a valid char in the ascii set, and so neither on your LCD)
$File('x:xxxxxx.xx',xx) this will show the xx line of the specified file in your LCD, note that you don't place spaces in the command. You can use all the program variables in the file as well
$Fill(xx): the 'xx' here has to be replaced with a number. The text on the LCD is going to be filled till the number you fill in there. So if you fill in: 'Hello, this is:$Fill(20)ME!' your LCD will show: 'Hello, this is: ME!' where the 'M' of 'ME!' starts at position 21
4: The 4 lines of your LCD, if you have a 2 lines LCD you can just use the first 2
5: The LCD settings, and port speed (for serial)
This image is a shot of the special Matrix Orbital functions, and will give a nice extra tint to the whole LCD thingy:
The first 6 lines are for the GPO's (General Purpose Output)
1: the expression note that 'None' has the value '-1'
2: the operator ('>' = bigger, '<' = smaller, '=' = same as etc)
3: the value
4: the output channel
5: the input channelNote that for the hardware wireing of those GPO's you should know that on the LCD is only one row of pins. These consists of two kinds: 'rows' and 'columns'. Here is an example of the LK404-55:6: the funtion bind to the input channel
'
When any of these pin combinations are shorted electrically, as in a keypress. Pin 1 is indicated on the connector layout diagram above. Pins 1 through 5 are columns and pins 6 through 16 are rows.
The keypad is scanned whenever a key is pressed. There is no continuous key scan. This means that the keypresses are dealt with immediately without any appreciable latency. This also prevents electrical noise which is caused by continuous key scans.
7: the contrast of the LCD
- Serial support for Crystalfontz LCD's
- 4x40 Support for the Parallel HD44780 LCD
- Full support of MotherBoard Monitor 5.1 and all it's variables.
- Seti@home stats included
- Some custom charactar support (little icons)
- Winamp Position bar, current time and total time (last 2 in both seconds and minutes/seconds)
- Bars for CPU usage, Memory usage, Pagefile usage and hardisk C to H usage
Full list of features is available here
NOTES:
Exit bug:
I know there is a problem when you close the program. This is only so if you are using a parallel LCD, or you use the headlines, and close while you are retreiving them.
In the first case, your program will propperly hang, and has to be killed. ;( In the second one, you just have to click the 'x' only one time!! and then wait for a while. If you clicked the 'x' more times you will most likely have to kill the program again.
gamestats (Qstat.exe)
You will soon find out that when you are going to retreive 4 gamestats (4 lines) at once, that Smartie could lag a little (depending on your connection). Also you must know that if you are playing Return To Casle Wolfensteijn you have to set the gamestats to Quake3 because this is the same engine (Q3 engine). This with al the games like that; so 'Counter-Strike' is 'Half-life', and 'Wheel of Time' is 'Unreal Tournament'.
And also: if you are unsure of the port the server uses, you can try the default port. That will automaticly done if you don't fill in any port.
Plugins
I told you that there would be plugins in version 5. Well sadly i had to remove them. This was because they were very slow (you have to send and receive data very often).
Instead i made those nice 'a-lot-of-text-files' thing.
Winamp Title bug
well this is NOT a bug, but a setting. You have to go to the propperties of winamp (Ctrl-P), go to Options-Display, and make sure that you have set 'Scroll song title in the Windows taskbar' turned OFF!
CPU Usage
There were a few complains on the CPU load of the program. I personaly don't have any problems with it. What means that the average load is less then 3% on my AMD Athlon 800Mhz. This is with Matrix Orbital LCD. With a HD44780 controlled LCD, it is below 4%.
When you still have a high CPU usage (above 7%) you can turn off the bars (CPU usage bar, memory usage bar, Pagefile usage bar, and all the harddisk bars)
Language packs
Yes, I know I removed them, because nobody realy used them, and they were not used for all buttons etc. (and i thought that anyone should know english)
3-12-2001 - Linux Smartie died
Okay, a few day's ago i told you that Servowire was working on gSmartie (Linux version of Smartie), but today he told me he already quited.29-11-2001 - Working on version 5.0
Of course i was deeply shocked of this tragedy..
But anyway: He said that there were allready very good programs for linux, so he didn't need to make a new one.
And he's absolutly right if you ask me. :)
I have added Plugin support allready, and i will add serial support to!1-11-2001 - Version 4.0 is out!
I got help from an employee from Matrix Orbital who is going to help me with this.
Algeroth and I are working on adding external buttons for the parallel driver. These can be used to scroll ur LCD, or skip a track in winamp.
Also Servowire continued making gSmartie (gnome) for linux. It is written in C++, and uses a C driver.
added:16-10-2001 - Version 3.1 is out!
- qstat game stats for Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament, Quake2, Quake3
- CPU type (like AMD Athlon, AMD Duron, Intel Pentium III)
- Screen resolution
Temperature Gauge Pro 2 16 Download Free Download
- added proxy settings, and did some bug fixes24-8-2001 - Version 3.0 is out!
- CNN World News
- Tom's Hardware Headlines
- Stocks indexes (AEX, etc)
- A new driver (no more popups)
- A '-register' commandline function (writes the smartie lines in ur register under: 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARELCDSmartie')
- Redid the Tweakers.net headlines (no more dll)
- Redid the Distributed.net client stats (auto detects RC5/OGR)
- Made a snap funtion so that smartie snaps to the edges of your screen.
we also did a HUGE bugfix; the longer you had smartie working the more it started to shake
and again we did also something about the to high CPU usage and memory usage.
??-?-2001 - We already did have this stuff from 1.0b and 2.0:
- Winamp display (track, lengte, bitrate)Special thanks:
- Distributed.net client (OGR, RC5)
- Time (time,date,uptime)
- the weather (in Holland)
- Motherboard Monitor 5 (temps, fanspeeds)
- Sysinfo (CPUspeed, free memory, free HD space en CPU usage)
- Tweakers.net headlines (in Dutch; thanks to Jelmervos)
- Extra file (inc. variables like: $fan1, $temp1, $temp2, $time, $uptime, $rc5done, $OGRspeed, $memfree, $totalmem, $winamptitle, $cpuusage1,$cpuusage2 etc.)
- the '-LCD' function in the commandline (Smartie skips the LCD test and send his data to your LCD. (Could lagif u don't have a LCD)
- the '-NoLCD' function in the commandline (Smartie will NOT send data to ur LCD)
- the '-hide' function in the commandline (minimize's LCD Smartie direct to the system tray)
- Screen's funtion (more screens which will scroll through ur LCD)
Lots of thanks for Teabeats for the 4x40 driver for the HD44780 controlled LCD's
Henry from Matrix Orbital for his support for the serial support
MnM(tm) for the help and the LCD component (we didn't use)
Nicap, Diamon, MURDOCK, Stoffie, Dennis Nijhuis and others for the beta-testing
And further everybody of Gathering of Tweakers for their help and suggestions
