GrowLCDproc for Growl 1.1.1 Available!

GrowLCDproc now works with Growl 1.1.x!

Take a look at the documentation.

Download the latest version now.

Look at some previous posts for more details.

GrowLCDproc Now Available!

After some final feature improvements and bug fixes, GrowLCDproc is now available for public use!

Forward Growl notifications from your favorite Mac OS X applications to any number of LCDproc servers running locally or on remote networks. Then see your Growl notifications appear on any of the displays supported by LCDproc on a Mac OS X, Linux or BSD server.

Check out a screen-shot.

Take a look at the documentation.

Download the latest version now.

Update!

GrowLCDproc 1.3.1 is now a Universal Binary.

GrowLCDproc Pre-Release updated!

New GrowLCDproc available with improved sleep behavior. Fixes a bug where sleep would cause a bad stream to remain open and prevent screens from being sent to LCDproc until a "reconnect".

Download the latest version now.

AEDEX POS on LCDproc

I just submitted some code to get a serial Point of Sale display working with LCDproc. My display uses the AEDEX protocol and seems to work great. I will post the code here shortly.

When used in conjunction with GrowLCDproc, you can show your current iTunes songs or any Growl notifications on the display.

Update!

The LCDproc distribution now contains this driver with the name serialPOS. I have also added a feature to allow input from an RS232 keyboard or terminal through a serial pass-through port.

Old Mac 68k as an LCDproc display

I am easily amused I suppose. Trying to find a use for the old compact Macs I have around (Macintosh 128K, 512k, SE, SE/30), I set up a connection (see below) to my G3 and ran the LCDproc daemon from the old Mac using curses as a display. Using my GrowLCDprocDisplay program, you can even display your currently playing iTunes songs!

Basic steps for a serial connection:

1. Get a USB serial adapter and the appropriate driver for Mac OS X
2. Use a null modem cable to connect the old Mac and your new Mac
3. Run an old terminal emulation (Zterm, MacTerminal, MicroPhone) program on the old Mac
4. Set up the /etc/ttys file to allow you to login over the serial connection. for instance:
   tty.usbserial "/usr/libexec/getty local.9600" vt100 on
5. Restart launchd: sudo killall -HUP launchd
6. Login from the old Mac and run LCDd with curses as the display

TUAW link

Thanks to TUAW, The Unofficial Apple Weblog for the recent link to my blog for information relating to LCDproc.

LCDproc compile update

Since upgrading to Xcode 2.4.1, I have noticed some problems compiling LCDproc. However, they are not difficult to overcome.

cd into the folder of the latest LCDproc source. and run the following commands:

1. ./configure
2. make
   At some point this will return an error about nested functions.
3. make CFLAGS=-fnested-functions
   This will finish compiling past the previous error.

If you just run make CFLAGS=-fnested-functions, without running a standard make first, you will get an error trying to dynamically link bayrad.so. Hopefully there will be a fix for this soon.

In other news, LCDproc included some new source I wrote to get the top processes and the internet interface statistics. This means that all of the lcdproc client features are now supported in Mac OS X!

Update!

There are no longer any nested functions in LCDproc. As a result, you can now just run:

1. ./configure
2. make

to compile LCDproc.

Mac OS X USB LCD Info

Since I haven't had any LCD Kits available for a while, I thought I would clear up some details about the kit for people who want to try it on their own.

The LCD is a HD44780 compatible character LCD. It is connected to the Mac USB port using a Belkin F5U002 USB Parallel adapter. Make sure to get the correct version that uses a separate USB cable.

The pinout I used for the kit and the Mac OS X USB LCD Command Line Tool is available here: Beyond Logic Interfacing Example. With some minor changes to get power from the parallel port, the final pinout is:

Centronics
Parallel    LCD
30             1
13,14          2
30             3
36             4
29             5
1              6
2              7
3              8
4              9
5             10
6             11 
7             12
8             13
9             14

Following this pinout should allow you to use the Mac OS X USB LCD Command Line Tool on your own cable and LCD.

GrowLCDproc Pre-release now available!!

Here is the new Growl Display plugin that will send Growl notifications to an LCDproc server. This will allow you to view Growl notifications on any character LCD supported by LCDproc, or on any UNIX or linux terminal using the curses or text drivers. Because it uses LCDproc's TCP/IP connection protocol, you can send your notifications almost anywhere!

Using this plugin, I was able to forward my notifications to my wireless Zaurus PDA running in another room.

Download the latest version now.

Check out a screenshot.

GrowLCDisplay 1.1 now available!!

Major Update to the GrowLCDisplay plugin just posted. Due to insufficient testing, some bugs had slipped through the previous release. I finally had some time to rewrite parts of the plugin. As a result it is much more stable and reliable with some added new features.

Download the latest version now.

Check out a screenshot.