LCD Management

Document revision:	2.1 (Tue Apr 06 17:26:47 GMT 2004)
Applies to:	V2.8

General Information

Summary

LCDs are used to display system information.

The MikroTik RouterOS supports the following LCD hardware:

Specifications

Packages required: lcd
License required: Level1
Submenu level: /system lcd
Standards and Technologies: None
Hardware usage: Not significant

Related Documents

Description

How to Connect PowerTip LCD to a Parallel Port

Data signals are connected that way:

DB25m	Signal	LCD Panel
1	Enable (Strobe)	6
2	Data 0	7
3	Data 1	8
4	Data 2	9
5	Data 3	10
6	Data 4	11
7	Data 5	12
8	Data 6	13
9	Data 7	14
14	Register Select	4
18-25, GND	Ground	1, 5, 16

Powering:

As there are only 16 pins for the PC1602 modules, you need not connect power to the 17th pin.

GND and +5V can be taken from computer's internal power supply (use black wire for GND and red wire for +5V)

WARNING! Be very careful connecting power supply. We do not recommend using external power supplies. In no event shall MikroTik liable for any hardware damages.

Note that there are some PowerTip PC2404A modules that have different pin-out. Compare:

Some LCDs may be connected without resistors:

DB25m	Signal	LCD Panel
18-25, GND	Ground	1, 3, 4, 16
+5V	Power	2, 15

Crystalfontz LCD Installation Notes

Before connecting the LCD, please check the availability of ports, their configuration, and free the desired port resource, if required:

[admin@MikroTik] port> print
  # NAME			     USED-BY			      BAUD-RATE
  0 serial0			     Serial Console		      9600
  1 serial1							      9600
[admin@MikroTik] port>

Configuring the LCD's Settings

Submenu level: /system lcd

Property Description

enabled (yes | no; default: no) - turns the LCD on or off

type (powertip | crystalfontz; default: powertip) - sets the type of the LCD

serial-port (name) - name of the port where the LCD is connected (not shown when type type=powertip)

Example

Printout:

[admin@MikroTik] system lcd> print
    enabled: no
       type: powertip
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd>

To enable Powertip parallel port LCD:

[admin@MikroTik] system lcd> print
	enabled: no
	   type: powertip
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd> set enabled=yes
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd> print
	enabled: yes
	   type: powertip
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd>

To enable Crystalfontz serial LCD on serial1:

[admin@MikroTik] system lcd> set type=crystalfontz
ERROR: can't acquire requested port - already used
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd> set type=crystalfontz serial-port=serial1
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd> /port print
  # NAME			     USED-BY			      BAUD-RATE
  0 serial0			     Serial Console		      9600
  1 serial1			     LCD Panel			      9600
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd> print
	enabled: yes
	   type: crystalfontz
    serial-port: serial1
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd>

As You see, the first try to set LCD type failed because it wanted to use serial0 (that is commonly used for Serial Console) by default.

LCD Information Display Configuration

Submenu level: /system lcd page

Description

The submenu is used for configuring LCD information display: what pages and how long will be shown.

Property Description

display-time (time; default: 5s) - how long to display the page

description (text) - page description

Notes

You cannot neither add your own pages (they are created dynamically depending on the configuration) nor change pages' description.

Example

To enable displaying all the pages:

[admin@MikroTik] system lcd page> print
Flags: X - disabled
  #   DISPLAY-TIME	   DESCRIPTION
  0 X 5s		   System date and time
  1 X 5s		   System resources - cpu and memory load
  2 X 5s		   System uptime
  3 X 5s		   Aggregate traffic in packets/sec
  4 X 5s		   Aggregate traffic in bits/sec
  5 X 5s		   Software version and build info
  6 X 5s		   ether1
  7 X 5s		   prism1
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd page> enable [find]
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd page> print
Flags: X - disabled
  #   DISPLAY-TIME	   DESCRIPTION
  0   5s		   System date and time
  1   5s		   System resources - cpu and memory load
  2   5s		   System uptime
  3   5s		   Aggregate traffic in packets/sec
  4   5s		   Aggregate traffic in bits/sec
  5   5s		   Software version and build info
  6   5s		   ether1
  7   5s		   prism1
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd page>

To set "System date and time" page to be displayed for 10 seconds:

[admin@MikroTik] system lcd page> set 0 display-time=10s
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd page> print
Flags: X - disabled
  #   DISPLAY-TIME	   DESCRIPTION
  0   10s		   System date and time
  1   5s		   System resources - cpu and memory load
  2   5s		   System uptime
  3   5s		   Aggregate traffic in packets/sec
  4   5s		   Aggregate traffic in bits/sec
  5   5s		   Software version and build info
  6   5s		   ether1
  7   5s		   prism1
[admin@MikroTik] system lcd page>

LCD Troubleshooting

Description

LCD doesn't work, cannot be enabled by the '/system lcd set enabled=yes' command.

Probably the selected serial port is used by PPP client or server, or by the serial console. Check the availability and use of the ports by examining the output of the /port print command. Alternatively, select another port for connecting the LCD, or free up the desired port by disabling the related resource

LCD doesn't work, does not show any information.

Probably none of the information display items have been enabled. Use the /system lcd page set command to enable the display.