**********************************************************************
* 			Scrolling led display			     *
* 		     File Readme.txt - may 1998			     *
*		By Mario Prato - Email mprato@iqsnet.it		     *
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Into this file you can find informations about a scrolling led display
that is cnnected to my Z80 board.
visit the page:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/3938/z80_mp.htm

or the Thomas Scherrer Z80 page:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/3938/

Files of the project are:

asm.bat     - BAT file for assembly with TASM.
source.asm  - the assembly source code
source.bin  - the Binary file ready for EPROM programming
disp1.gif   - Sheet of an alternative display module from the RS catalog
disp2.gif   - Picture of one LED module (front)
dispcon.gif - Display connections front view.
drivers.gif - Schematics diagram of drivers circuit
drivers.bom - bill of material 
module.gif  - Sheet of a led module that i use (text in italian)
m5450.pdf   - Data sheet over the M5450 display driver.
newtop.gif  - New and improved PCB layout, handdrawn fixed to add extra space
newbot.gif  - New and improved PCB layout, bottom layer
readme.txt  - This file
snap1.jpg   - Picture of this project
snap2.jpg   - Picture of this project
snap3.jpg   - Picture of this project
snap4.jpg   - Picture of this project


The display is made of 10 pcs. 5 x 7 LED dot matrix displays,
that give a 50 x 7 led matrix. All the anodes are connected to the
rows of the matrix. all Anodes from each display are connedted in parallel,
The 50 cathodes (5 from each display) are connected with two
National's M5450 display driver with serial control, while anodes driver
are seven bjts connected to a 3 to 8 decoder.

Thanks to the firmware on the Z80 board, you can upload or download text
into the backed-up sram with a serial (5V serial) connection, you need to
add a MAX 232 before you connect it to your PC.
The serial port is made in "software" so there is no expencive UART required.


To upload your text into memory simply write it with notepad and add in
the end the string #e. This will cause the Cpu to know that this is EOF.
you can use any serial terminal program, like win95 Hyperterminal and
the settings are 9600 baud, 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no parity,
no hardware handshake.
To enter text, you must connect to ground input pin 1 of Z80 Board
when applying power. press h for a reminder of commands, c to upload text,
s to download, r to test.
In normal use, the input 1 must be open.

Into the text you can add the following effects:

#b - Text blink
#n - Negative text blink
#h - halt the scroll
#e - end of text, start from the top

Playing with assembly code, you can add other effects,
mail me if you make a cool one!
Also Mail me if these informations are not so clear.
As always sorry for my poor English, remember I'm Italian!
mprato@iqsnet.it




For the leds connections, crossing between k1 and a1 is the upper-left
corner (front view).

------------------------------- a1
------------------------------- a2
------------------------------- a3
------------------------------- ..
------------------------------- a7
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |      |
 k1 k2 k3 k4 .. .. ..     k50

See the dispcon.gif