MODTHEBOX.COM - Canada's Premier Case Modding Source - Reviews - VLSystem L.I.S Blue Platinum Kit Review

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The design of the VLSystem L.I.S Blue Platinum Kit is very compact measuring approximately 74mm x 33mm. The LCD circuit is mounted directly to a silver painted drive bracket which has a transparent acrylic faceplate attached by brass thumbscrews. Towards the right side of the unit are external power and backlight options, which can be toggled by the simple push of a button.

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The centre portion of the drive bracket contains the LCD character display. By default the VLSystem L.I.S Blue Platinum Kit supports 4 character modes (16x2, 16x4, 20x2 and 20x4). The first digit in the character display represents how many characters across the LCD screen while the second digit represents how many viewable rows. Towards to the top left portion of the LCD display is the L.I.S logo and at the bottom right is the VLSystem logo. I did note during my inspection that these logos are not painted on the drive bracket instead they are printed on the acrylic faceplate. This is a nice option for case modders who wish to dissemble the unit in order to repaint the drive bracket to colour match their case. On the left and right hand sides of drive bracket are two sets of 6-32 mounting holes for installing this unit inside a computer case.

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A closer look at the back of the VLSystem L.I.S Blue Platinum Kit reveals that this product is not your typical serial LCD display. The product is a Hitachi HD44780 compatible parallel display, which is connected directly to a PCB controller board. The controller board is a separate circuit with an onboard PIC processor, which converts the character display signals from parallel to serial. The controller board is attached to the main LCD display via 16-pins and is supported by a series of plastic standoffs. Next the PIC processor is a variable resistor, which allows you to manually adjust the contract of the LCD circuit. It would have been nice if this feature was added to the front of the unit or included as an adjustable software option. Next to the variable resistor is a set of 3 x 2-pin jumper options for adjusting the RGB settings. The jumper settings allow you to control the forward voltage for the backlight options. The manual strongly recommends not touching this setting since each backlight option is different and if set up incorrectly damage the display. The black extension wires that lead off the controller board connect directly to the external power and backlight switches that are located on the front drive bracket.