MODTHEBOX.COM - Canada's Premier Case Modding Source - Reviews - Matrix Orbital NK204-V 20x4 Serial LCD Review

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Towards the bottom right of the LCD exists a female 9 pin serial connector and 4-pin power connector. Above the 4-pin power connector is the 78M05 chip which is a voltage regulator capable of regulating +7 to +15VDC. The installation of the NK204-V 20x4 Serial LCD can be completed in a few easy steps. The first step is to mount the LCD into two spare 5.25" drive bays and then tigten the 4/40 1/2" bolts to secure the bracket in place. To finish the assembly, attach one end of the DB-9 serial cable to the 9-pin female serial connector on the LCD the other end to a free COM port. Finally, plug in the 4-pin connector to the male 4-pin header on the LCD and the bypass molex plug to a spare plug on the PSU. For the purposes of this review, I will be keeping the unit external during the testing phase.

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One of the very first things that you want to do before installing any application software is to run a series of tests to confirm the proper installation of the NK204-V as well as see if the LCD is responding correctly. Matrix Orbital provides a testing application called Alpha Demo which is available on the CD and is downloable from their website. The Alpha Demo software allows you to fine tune the settings for the NK204-V by selecting the proper baud rate, display dimensions, backlight and contract options. Once the display initializes you should see a "Display Ready" reply from the LCD.

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There are six available menus in which four options allow you to test the NK204-V by sending ordinary text, bar graphs, GPO/Keypad functions, custom characters and a big clock display. The display the NK204-V 20x4 Serial LCD was very crisp and clear and I was able to type in some sample text as well as initialize the big clock display. One issue that I did run into using Alpha Demo is that after exiting the program the display screen would not terminate and refresh. The LCD screen would freeze and prevent running any other applications until it was manually killed using task manager. This might be an issue which my current operating system (XP Professional) but further tests will need to be run. My best recommendation if you experience the same problems is to run the software in O/S specific compatibility mode.