Setting up an HD44780 display with piCorePlayer

[Frank]

1. install nano, autoconf, automake, libtool, compiletc, squashfs-tools

2. Code: Select all

   export CFLAGS="-Os -pipe"
   export CXXFLAGS="-Os -pipe"
   export LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
   

3. install libugpio-dev. Maybe needs to be built from sources from here: https://github.com/mhei/libugpio/. Do all of the following steps for libugpio-dev before building lcdproc.
4. Current lcdproc sources here: https://github.com/lcdproc/lcdproc
5. move sources to /tmp, e.g. /tmp/lcdproc/
6. cd /tmp/lcdproc
7. sh autogen.sh (may be omitted if using a release instead of current dev)

8. Code: Select all

   ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --disable-libusb  --disable-libusb-1-0 --disable-libhid  --disable-libpng --disable-ethlcd --disable-libftdi --disable-freetype --enable-drivers=hd44780
   

9. make server
10. mkdir /tmp/lcdproc-server
11. sudo make DESTDIR=/tmp/lcdproc-server install-server
12. on executables, run: sudo strip --strip-all *
13. on libraries (*.so), run: sudo strip --strip-unneeded *
14. create LCDd.conf in /tmp/lcdproc-server/usr/local/etc
    (LCDd.conf needs to be adapted - see attached example)
15. mksquashfs /tmp/lcdproc-server /tmp/lcdproc-server.tcz
16. md5sum /tmp/lcdproc-server.tcz >/tmp/lcdproc-server.tcz.md5.txt, remove absolute path from within the file afterwards
17. Create /tmp/lcdproc-server.tcz.dep with only libugpio.tcz within
18. cp /tmp/lcdproc-server.tcz* /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/optional/, make sure ownerships and permissions are correct
19. install extension with tce-load -i, may require manual addition to onboot.lst
20. add /usr/local/sbin/LCDd to /opt/bootlocal.sh

[Frank]

EDIT: Ported to Python3
Just use the script from here

Now, I want to use the lcd_lms.pl script from https://github.com/jscrane/lcd_lms
Therefore, we need to install a few Perl modules, using the cpan command (configure cpan to use sudo if asked to):
[list]
[*]cpan install Date::Parse
[*]In my case, cpan failed to install the modules after building. A sudo make install in the module's build directory did the trick
[*]Further modules: Switch, URI::Escape, Log::Message::Simple
[*]Repeat the steps of the first post to create extensions (and remove the home .cpan directory )
[*]Finally, add /home/tc//lcd_lms.pl to the piCorePlayer User Commands (in the Tweaks section)
[/list]

[Frank]

EDIT: This version caused glitches on my VFD. I would recommend to go the harder way (posted above) if using a VFD.

Update: Easier Way

• Install python3 and rpi-gpio extensions
• Install script from Github
• Update hd44780.py with my updated version from here
• Adapt the config file according to your needs