CFA835 LCD Enhancements

[BAG]

So first I want to say, amazing support for CrystalFontz CFA835 LCD. It works great (and I love the greyscale support)! Only a few things (3) I wish AIDA64 did with this LCD and it would be PERFECT for me. I am a software developer, so I THINK this would be easy, but I know it depends on how the code is factored at the moment (ie. cfa635/735/835 all using the same code base such that writing specific code for cfa835 is not that easy). I am also not sure if AIDA64 is calling the API directly or not, so my suggestions might not be possible. And of course, these are all suggestions, I don't actually expect any special development time just for my suggestions (but I wouldn't turn it down).

1) Support for turning off keypad backlight (and/or adjusting it independently from the LCD backlight). Using cfTest, this is packet type 14, and you can send \xxx (where xxx is 000-100 for both backlights) or you can send \xxx\yyy (where xxx is 000-100 for LCD and yyy is 000-100 for keypad backlight). I assume right now, all the slider in AIDA64 does is send the single \xxx which adjusts both backlights. I would LOVE to either have 1) two sliders, one for LCD and one for keypad and if either are adjusted, it sends both (\xxx\yyy) to update the cfa835 OR 2) one slider adjusts the LCD backlight and a checkbox for keypad backlight on/off (which would toggle either just sending \xxx or sending \xxx\000).

Usecase: I don't want the keypad backlight on at all since it makes one of the cases I have it in look bad AND is too bright and it is super easy to find the keys anyway since the lcd screen is lit up!

2) Keypad support (either up/down or left/right) to adjust the brightness (in 10% increments or something) such that it can also go to 0 (off). Right now up/down AND left/right change between the 4 pages, and really only one set is necessary. This would allow turning off the backlight completely and then with a push of the arrow keys, upping the brightness to useful levels in the room.  Alternatively, one of the OK or CANCEL buttons on the keypad could work to toggle LCD (or both) backlights on/off if that was easier.

Usecase: I have one CFA835 next to my monitor and while playing certain dark games, I would like to turn the backlight off, but be able to turn it back on when necessary.

3) Reboot module on exit. When exiting AIDA64, it appears AIDA64 does some cleanup API calls to the CFA835 that 1) turn off the backlights 2) clear the screen 3) turn off all GPIO LEDs. This leaves it in a very strange state. I would really love it to instead call Reset (packet type 5) with Module Reboot (\008\018\099) or even Module Soft Reboot (\008\025\048).

Usecase: the module can be setup with the exact options: brightness, lcd screen text/image, gpio led, etc. to use as boot state, so I have set that up with my preferences for each lcd and it would be perfect if/when AIDA64 exits it would issue the reset command so that it would be in this state without requiring a powercycle of the CFA835 (for external USB one) or issuing the reset module command myself via cfTest (for internal USB one).

I have used AIDA64 for years and it is INCREDIBLE, so thank you for all the development work (especially on the LCDs).

Also, completely off topic for LCD screens: I am crossing my fingers that AIDA64 gains support the evga 1080ti ftw3 to read the 3 temps (gpu, power, memory) and 3 fan speeds; I know this is an AIO board, so it might not be possible or may never happen, but I can dream (right now AIDA64 can only read the standard GPU Temp and one of the three fans). If the evga1080ti-ftw3 temps/fans + 3 LCD items I listed above were accomplished, I would be in complete PC monitoring bliss!

Thank you for your time,

BAG

[Fiery]

Those are quite specific requests.  #3 is the easiest one to implement, but it would have to come as an optional feature that you can toggle with a checkbox (in AIDA64 / main menu / File / Preferences / Hardware Monitoring / LCD / Crystalfontz). Separate sliders for LCD brightness and keypad brightness may come second.  But the rest are deep customizations that may come useless to most users of AIDA64.  We'll have to think about them.

As for EVGA iCX, we'll soon implement those readings

[Fiery]

On 2017. 06. 30. at 5:01 AM, BAG said:

Also, completely off topic for LCD screens: I am crossing my fingers that AIDA64 gains support the evga 1080ti ftw3 to read the 3 temps (gpu, power, memory) and 3 fan speeds; I know this is an AIO board, so it might not be possible or may never happen, but I can dream (right now AIDA64 can only read the standard GPU Temp and one of the three fans). If the evga1080ti-ftw3 temps/fans + 3 LCD items I listed above were accomplished, I would be in complete PC monitoring bliss!

Thank you for your time,

BAG

We've implemented preliminary EVGA iCX sensor support in the latest beta version of AIDA64 Extreme available at:

https://www.aida64.com/downloads/latesta64xebeta

After upgrading to this new version, make sure to restart Windows to finalize the upgrade.

Let me know how it works. Note that the iCX related readings will only appear on the Computer / Sensor page at this time.  As the new sensor module gets more mature, we'll add the readings to the LCD, SensorPanel, OSD Panel (etc) modules as well.

Please note that currently it supports a single video card model: EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 iCX. If it doesn't work on your video card, or in case you have a different video card that features iCX sensor, please right-click on the bottom status bar of AIDA64 main window --> Video Debug --> nVIDIA SMBus Dump. Copy-paste the full results into this topic, or attach the results as a TXT file to your post. You may need to enable status bar in AIDA64 / main menu / View first.

[BAG]

On 7/7/2017 at 5:48 AM, Fiery said:

We've implemented preliminary EVGA iCX sensor support in the latest beta version of AIDA64 Extreme available at:

Let me know how it works. Note that the iCX related readings will only appear on the Computer / Sensor page at this time.  As the new sensor module gets more mature, we'll add the readings to the LCD, SensorPanel, OSD Panel (etc) modules as well.

It looks good. I verified on my EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 and using the EVGA Precision XOC (x64 v 6.1.6) sensor window I was able to verify (via a bit of gaming in a window to get unique temperatures) that all the temperatures (gpu1/2, mem1/2/3, pwr1/2/3/4/5) line up (ie. gpu2 was gpu2 from EVGA Precision and AIDA64 Sensor, etc.). Can't wait to see this appear in the LCD sensors.

[BAG]

On 7/5/2017 at 4:44 AM, Fiery said:

Those are quite specific requests.  #3 is the easiest one to implement, but it would have to come as an optional feature that you can toggle with a checkbox (in AIDA64 / main menu / File / Preferences / Hardware Monitoring / LCD / Crystalfontz). Separate sliders for LCD brightness and keypad brightness may come second.  But the rest are deep customizations that may come useless to most users of AIDA64.  We'll have to think about them.

As for EVGA iCX, we'll soon implement those readings

I completely understand if any of this is considered too specific (although I would think this would benefit almost everyone with a CrystalFontz LCD). You did mention #3 (reboot module on exit option) and #1 (independent brightness for LCD and keypad), so the only one left is #2 (key support to adjust/toggle brightness) to consider as "deep customizations". I would think simply adding the ability to toggle brightness to 0 vs whatever the sliders are set to would be a fairly simple thing -- aida64 is already reading the keys for up/down/left/right to do page switching, so handling CHECK or CANCEL buttons and using them to toggle brightness between 0 vs whatever the slider(s) are set to in aida64 would seem to be rather easy (again, no idea the state of the code, I write as well so I know it is not always that easy).

Thank you for the response and consideration!

[Fiery]

On 7/18/2017 at 7:29 AM, BAG said:

It looks good. I verified on my EVGA GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 and using the EVGA Precision XOC (x64 v 6.1.6) sensor window I was able to verify (via a bit of gaming in a window to get unique temperatures) that all the temperatures (gpu1/2, mem1/2/3, pwr1/2/3/4/5) line up (ie. gpu2 was gpu2 from EVGA Precision and AIDA64 Sensor, etc.). Can't wait to see this appear in the LCD sensors.

Please upgrade to the latest beta version of AIDA64 Extreme available at:

https://www.aida64.com/downloads/latesta64xebeta

After upgrading to this new version, make sure to restart Windows to finalize the upgrade.

Let me know how it works on your video card.  After then we'll get back to the CFA835 related issues/ideas/requests

[BAG]

On 7/22/2017 at 3:01 PM, Fiery said:

Let me know how it works on your video card.  After then we'll get back to the CFA835 related issues/ideas/requests

The GPU sensors work great on the LCD. I put all the GPU sensors on the LCD and verified them against the EVGA Precision sensor window. Everything lines up correctly (temperatures and fan speeds). I attached a screenshot of the LCD setup and EVGA Precision sensor window for reference.

Side note: One thing EVGA Precision software does is use max of GPU1/2 as GPU, max of PWR1/2/3/4/5 as PWR, max of MEM1/2/3 as MEM, to drive the fan curves/onboard leds/etc. I know AIDA64 doesn't allow aggregate functions on sensors (ie, max of sensor1, sensor2, sensor3), HOWEVER what is great in this circumstance is that for this particular videocard GPU1, PWR4, MEM2 are always the max temp 99% of the time (due to location on the card), so I was able to use those for my 3 LARGE numbers.

Thank you!!

[BAG]

Just checking in to see if there are any updates. Was curious if maybe you have dusted off the LCD code to see if any of this is possible to easily add. Thank you, as always.