LCD Manager is designed to display on SoundGraph devices (LCD and VFD models) information about music played by
AlbumPlayer. It's a fully independent background application. You just have to start and forget it for example at Windows starting (manually or via autorun or other ...).
When Album will be launched, LCDM will wake up and each event occurring in AlbumPlayer will be catched and displayed on display device.
LCD Manager is able to display a lot of different track related information :
Album artist
Track artist
Album name
Track name
Track number
Track length
Elapsed time
Genre
Comment
BitRate
Filename
Audio codec
Other fields can be added on request if needed.
After years without progress, SoundGraph finally published a public API allowing to directly manage SoundGraph devices. It stills a beta
version so we can expect improvements in future versions. Only a small subset of functionalities is proposed. Through proprietary
interface, it's possible to change a lot of things. I hope API will be enriched to give access to all this funny stuff.
In particular, I'd like to have access to :
Possibility to display or hide progress bars (2 bars are not useful)
. . .
LCD Manager has been tested with LCD and VFD model.
SoudGraph LCD product is fully shown on this page. Here is briefly device layout :
SoudGraph VFD product is a text only device with a 2 lines of 16 characters enriched by a volume control. Full specifications can be seen on this page.
LCD Manager should now be able to control these two kinds of devices. All commands relative to LCD icons are simply ignored in case of VFD models.
Furthermore, since VFD models don't manage automatic text scrolling, the first 16 characters are displayed on first line and the rest is on the secoond line. Extra charaters are lost.
I'm very interested by your feed back. You can send me remarks, bug reports and suggestions
at eric026[at]sfr.fr or via
AlbumPlayer forum. For bugs, please join log files generated on exit (*.trc).
I am in particular interested to know : your precise OS, device used (VFD/LCD)...
Following items are managed by LCD Manager:
Disk symbol is animated depending on AlbumPlayer state (rotating when playing, fixed on pause and cleared on stop)
Progress bars above and bellow text zone follow elapsed time in track
Text zone is filled with music information depending on mask set by user. Text is automatically scrolled if it's larger than screen capacity
Volume icon is briefly lit when volume change
Non managed icons (video related items, speakers ...) can be set now via a fully graphical configuration screen
Disk symbol can be fully customized to choose witch segment are ON and OFF, if a thickness is lit or not
Codec symbol is lit depending on the file currently played : MP3, WAV, OGG or WMA (but based on file extension only)
LCD can be shared with another program since LCDM can be set to release it at the end of first text scroll. Other software can then display it's own datas. LCDM will take it again briefly at next track change.
LCD Manager needs you to have the very last version of SoundGraph dynamic library installed. It's a beta version named '7.91.0929'
(please see this post). If LCD Manager does
not found this version or newer, a warning message will be displayed and software will probably not work properly.
To use LCD Manager, you just have to download :
LCD Manager (Binary file + INI file)
iMONDisplay.dll (provided by SoundGraph)
These 3 files have to be together anywhere on your hard disk. INI file will be created if it doesn't exist but it's far better to start
with the one proposed. This one contains a lot of comments to help you to setup by yourself your preferences if you prefer to do so. Some
settings can be chosen via main windows or via configuration screen. All settings are saved in a INI file with a lot of comments in it to
make analisys / modification easily.
You should take care if you manually edit INI file. A lot of tests are done to protect LCD Manager against bad settings but
some errors can occurs anyway.
Developed and tested with LCD model on Windows XP system. According user feedback, it works also under Windows 7 (32 bits and 64 bits). So it should work on all win32/win64 platforms but need to be confirmed. Thanks to all beta testers for your tests and your ideas UPDATED : Feedback from Vista and Seven users seems to confirm that it's ok
Equalized display random data since I don't know how to extract audio profile. If some of you have skills in this matter, I'm interested to know how to do that.
Sometimes screen is empty until first track change UPDATED : Should be solved since v0.40, to be confirmed
It still a beta, robustness is quite low and ergonomy need to be worked (to avoid direct INI file manipulation) UPDATED : Product is now mature, ergonomy and stability impoved
Text is not really unicode so some languages as French or German can have problems. I use a workaround for French. UPDATED : It was a bug in my tool, Unicode languages should be correctly displayed now
When iMon take hand on display, LCD Manager can have a problem to get it back UPDATED : should be solved since v0.40
Still to do :
Find a better name since LCD Manager is not clear (and furthermore already used by other products I think). Any ideas are welcome.
Propose a more user friendly look (or no look at all if it becomes an AlbumPlayer addon or a Windows service.
UPDATED : Since v0.52, a "hidden mode" exists to remove any visible part of LCD Manager. It's like a Windows service but more handy for user
Be able to display a real graphical equalizer if there is a way to get audio spectrum information
Improve global stability even if it seems to be ok now. SoundGraph API seems to be very reliable (despite its beta status) and LCD Manager also..
UPDATED : Stability is now very good. Just need to be confirmed with other Windows platforms
Add more graphical effects to use efficiently dot matrix but API improvements is needed to do so
Enrich LCD Manager to be compatible with all SoundGraph family but since I just have one model, I can't work on others UPDATED : VFD compatibility is now confirmed
Enhance settings window to propose all settings in graphic mode. It's not a good method for users to do direct INI file manipulation.
UPDATED : Done since v0.50
SoundGraph API exists both as a dynamic and static lib. I'm currently using dynamic (DLL) version but perhaps linking with a static library (LIB) would be better (no compatibility problems, real stand alone app ...)
=== CHANGELOG ===========
= [*] Bug fixes
= [+] New function
= [-] Update
=========================
******* v0.64 - 2011-09-28
+ Add a partial support for SoundGraph VFD models (2 x 16 caracters display)
******* v0.63 - 2010-12-24
+ Workaround to fix "&" problem ("&" displayed instead of "&")
* In INI file, "Thickness" value was sometimes 128. Fixed. Now should be only equal to 1 or 0
+ Hotkey is now available to make LCDM main window visible (when hidden mode is active)
Reference list for hotkeys can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd375731%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
+ Hotkey and Modifier can now be chosen in settings windows
+ Update traces
* Key change are now immediately active
******* v0.62 - 2010-12-17
* Bugfix : radio button behaviour was not correct
* When hidden mode is asked, effect is now immediatly active
******* v0.61 - 2010-12-12 ** REMOVED *** (regression)
+ Add a full blinking mode for CD symbol when paused
+ Add a subdivisor to have a slower rate refresh during pause
+ Add a "HiddenWhenPlay" mode : window will be visible again when AP wil be paused or stopped
* Typo errors fixed
- Player status line is enriched
******* v0.60 - 2010-12-07
+ Add parameter /VISIBLE and /HIDDEN to possibly force corresponding mode at startup (can be shortened with /H and /V)
+ Also add a button to swap to hidden mode
* Fix a bug in DLL version report
- Main window attributes modified
+ New application icon
- Reduce number of calls to function "BuildDisplayedString"
+ Add a tab in config window to have a quick INI edit
- Change status bar to let more room for 3rd panel (displayed string)
- Code reorganization (OnShow moved to OnActivate ...)
+ Add a "BlinkOnPause" feature. Can be chosen between blink off / blink to full / blink to empty
+ String to be displayed can also be viewed as hint on status bar (usefull if text zone is not big enougth)
+ When a tracelog is full (MaxLines reached), both log files are saved as .BKP and as .TRC on exit
* Display mask were not correctly saved in INI file when changed in settings windows. Fixed.
+ Add a backup trace file to be sure to have a no empty trace on exit
******* v0.53 - 2010-11-30
* Change "RegisterWindowMessage" usage: Take now a message number on LCDM start instead of after each AP detection (seems to have pb with Seven)
+ Log mechanism much improved to remove old useless information and to add timestamp
******* v0.52 - 2010-11-29
+ Add a HiddenMode feature to suppress all visible window. LCDM will work silently in background. To reuse visible mode
you will have to set 'HiddenMode' to 0 in INI file. Since this key is read regulary, you do not have to exit/restart.
******* v0.51 - 2010-11-26
* Fix a bug for UNICODE strings : Patch to remove special characters is useless now and is removed.
Should work with any extended alphabets. Successfully tested with French and German strings. LCD seems to accept all these chars too.
+ CD symbol can now have a thick lit or not, selectable via config screen
+ Added a DEBUG tab in setting window when clic on 'MASK' yellow panel. For testing purpose only, no usefull in case of normal use.
* Minor bug fixes and improvments
- Small interface changes
- Code washed and cleaned
******* v0.50 - 2010-11-18
+ Add a graphical configuration screen to set up program (popup if LSHIFT + LCTRL + LBUTTON on status bar)
+ Activate VOL led when a volume change is change in Album Player
- Code wash - Reorganisation - Minor gug fixes
- Visual update
******* v0.40 - 2010-11-14
* Fix track number bug (+1 since it's a 0 based transmitted value)
+ Take back display control after a remote key pressed (volume change or other ...)
+ Change WM message selection mechanism
+ Add new special characters filters for non-english alphabets
+ Fix device detection bug. LCD and VFD should now be correctly distinguished
+ Display mask string analysis results to have a warning in case of bad syntax
+ Little IHM washing. Access to detailed information are now accessible via CTRL+SHIFT+CLICK in status bar
- Better way to obtain file codec
+ Solve empty screen problem (too early writing)
+ Release LCD should now work : Device is released after a scoll to display other information as user request
* Just for fun : it's possible to decide which pieces of CD symbol are used to show rotation (opposite or contigous segment, back or white ...)
* So unused INI key called "InvertedVideo" is removed. Reverse video can be choosed now with 00010001 or 11101110 as mask
******* v0.31 - 2010-11-12
+ Distinguish AlbumArtist and TrackArtist and propose to display each of them (%AA ou %TA)
+ Quicker disk animation (refrash rate is set by default but can be altered in INI file)
* Equalizer refresh rate is also changed. Set by default to 100ms. Can be set with [Equalizer/RefreshDelay] key
+ Disk symbol is now freezed on Pause, turning on play and off on stop
+ Equalizer is now started after first event : (1) End of scroll (2) NN seconds or track read. (because before if no scoll->no equalizer !)
+ CD symbol can be displayed in inverse video
******* v0.30 - 2010-11-10
+ Progress bar added upper and bellow text zone (time elapsed in track)
+ Special caracters are filtered before to be displayed
+ Add tag displayable ( %EQ=Fake equalizer %T#=Track number, %ET=Time elapsed)
+ Fix display model detection (partially)
* Check DLL version to ensure compatibility
+ In case of non existing icon fir audio codec (APE, FLC ..) set WAV icon by default
+ Initialize non managed icons (video, hp ..) via INI settings
+ Remember last window position and use it on next start
+ Add a combobox with a preset of masks
+ Save user mask
+ Simulate equalizer with random values. When %AR / %TN %EQ for example is asked
equalizer appears after first scoll and until next track change
+ Application renamed to LCD Manager since it doesn't address VDF models
+ Improve log trace
+ Remove useless EXIT button to gain place and keep window as small as possible
******* v0.20 - 2010-11-07
+ More tag displayable
+ Auto purge of trace datas
+ A new mask for display is immediately taken in account
+ Big code wash
+ ... forgotten ...
******* v0.10 - 2010-11-04
+ Display artist / album / track on LCD with non stop scrolling
+ Set icon to OGG/WMA/WAV ... depending of encoder
+ Animate CD symbol to make it turn when playing and stop when paused
