Disclaimer: I am in no way a hardware geek. All opinions expressed here are the result of a little knowledge and even less intelligence.

I am still waiting for my Rio Receiver to be delivered (to Saudi Arabia). The only reason I waited so long to buy one is everything I read complained about how unreadable the display was. Originally I intended to buy a Slimdevices MP3 player, but I do not have CAT 5 cable running through my house and will have to rely on the HPNA interface of the Rio Receiver.

Is it not possible to replace the LCD with a similar sized VFD display so that it could be read at a distance? I see that Noritake sells a VFD of the same pixel dimensions (128x64). I have also found this site which claims to sell drop in replacment VFDs which require no reprogramming.

http://www.futaba.com/display.modules/index.html

I know that this is somehow a stupid question, can a hardware geek explain to this network geek why?

Hmmm I've been considering the same thing lately... Especially since the display is about the only annoyance I have.

The biggest issue I see would probably be finding a display with a compatible controller chip (I'm assuming the LCD has a controller chip on board, but since I haven't disassembled my Rio Receiver I can't be certain on that), Sounds like it's time to do some investigating when I get home tonight

One other issue might be differeing voltage requirements between the LCD and VFD, but even that can be worked around... Honestly even a different controller could probably be worked around with some help from the Linux guys out there...

By the way, is it the NAGP1091AA part that you were looking t?

It may or may not need reprogramming. Itron also do a similar drop-in replacement.

There are 4 issues:

- Power supply. There is no 5v on the receiver. There is a 3.3v rail, which is probably not man enough to drive a big display; you will need to make your own 5v from the 12v rail (the main board gets 12v from the psu board).

- Signals. As the display board is likely to be 5v only, you need to wire it permanently in write mode so that it won't ever try and drive 5v down the 3.3v buffers...

- Wiring. The VF won't have the right plug. You will need to sort this out - it may be easier to pull the signals off the main board connector.

- Code to drive it. This is not going to be hard, but it does need doing, it's unlikely it will be an exact drop in replacement. The code that refreshes the display is in the kernel though, so you can change it - but without reflashing the unit, you won't be able to mess with the initial "booting" screens.

I've got one of the itron screens here and have been meaning to get round to trying it for the last year at least....!

Hugo

There's always the CCD-camera-hooked-up-to-the-TV trick...

Hugo, I know you are an extremely busy man so I know that it will be very difficult for you to get to this. As I do not have my unit here yet I can't see what the LCD connectors and such are. Can you please let me know the LCD display manufacturer and model so that I can dig up the specs and see how they mesh with the "drop-in" VFD replacements? Futaba promises it is no harder than changing a lighbulb. (I think one of their marketers must have worked in Redmond at one time.)

The LCD is a custom one, so there is no standard as such.

The main issue is that the LCD has a flat cable connector. Yes, the futaba modules will probably drop straight in as replacements for standard PCB-based LCD modules, but the receiver LCD isn't PCB-based.

Sorry! The PSU is also a big issue, as LCDs take almost no power but VFDs take a lot more.

Hugo

Go to bed Hugo. Its late (even later here in Saudi Arabia). Custom LCD!! In the words of Billy Connelly::: Ya Bastard :-) LOL. Crap this looks too complicated for a software twat like me. I shall bow out for now.

Yep thats the unit. As Hugo has explained in the earlier post, this won't be simple as the LCD used in the RIO Receiver is a custom unit. Way beyond my abilities at this point.

Been thinking about this and I always wanted to be a real hardware geek. This just might be the project for me to learn on. Is there somewhere I can get the tech specs for the custom LCD you used?