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Parallel ports and data rates

A project log for Interface a camera with a VFD

palPaúl 01/21/2015 at 03:120 Comments

In order to interface to the VFD, I need a datasheet for it. I found that datasheet here: http://datasheet.elcodis.com/pdf/11/45/114557/gu140x32f-7000.pdf.

As I need a high refresh rate to display interesting information, and I want to learn how to implement something in Verilog that isn't an RS232 port, I'm using the VFD's parallel port. I have heard that these VFDs can manage 60-70Hz refresh rates so I'll try pushing the limits with animation. As a rough calculation, the data I'll be sending at 60Hz over each of the 8 parallel ports is

\color{White} \large \approx \frac{({144*32})(60)}{8} = 33600 bits/s \approx 33kHz

which is certainly manageable with a 50MHz Spartan6.

Pinouts for the parallel connector:

Pin numberSignal nameFunctionDirection
1GNDGroundI
2VCCPower (6VDC max)I
3NC--
4RSSwitch signalI
5/WRData writeI
6/RDData readI
7D0Data inputIO
8D1Data inputIO
9D2Data inputIO
10D3Data inputIO
11D4Data inputIO
12D5Data inputIO
13D6Data inputIO
14D7Data inputIO

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