# The lis Driver

This section talks about using LCDproc with the VLSystem L.I.S MCE 2005 Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) based on the FTDI USB-to-serial converter, the Microchip PIC-16F716 microcontroller, and the NEC UPD16314 display driver manufactured by VLSystem.

## Features

This device uses a vacuum fluorescent display of 20 characters by 2 lines. Each each character is 5 pixels wide by 8 pixels high. The device is connected by USB. The FTDI chip translates the USB protocol to serial expected by the VFD driver chip, an NEC UPD16314. A programmable interrupt controller (PIC), the PIC16F716 by Microchip, provides the glue between the FTDI and the NEC chips.

## Requirements

The driver depends on `libftdi`, version 0.8 or higher, from http://www.intra2net.com/en/developer/libftdi/.

`libftdi` itself depends on the `libusb` USB library.

When using a `libusb` based driver like `lis`, LCDd needs to be started as root.

## Configuration in LCDd.conf

### [lis]

`Size` = ¶meters.size;

- Set the display size. The default `20x2` should be safe for most if not all users, since the device seems to be made only with this one size. But who knows …

`VendorID` = ``VENDORID``

- The USB Vendor ID of the device to use. If not given, it defaults to `0x0403` for a VLSystems L.I.S. MCE 2005 VFD based on a FT232BL USB-to-RS232 converter by FTDI, which was produced before March 2007.

  It is usually not necessary to specify a `VENDORID`. Please do so only if you want to test a compatible device.

`ProductID` = ``PRODUCTID``

- The USB Product ID of the device to use. If not given, it defaults to `0x6001` for a VLSystems L.I.S. MCE 2005 VFD based on a FT232BL USB-to-RS232 converter by FTDI, which was produced before March 2007.

  It is usually not necessary to specify a `PRODUCTID`. Please do so only if you want to test a compatible device.

`Brightness` = ``BRIGHTNESS``

- Set the initial brightness [default: `1000`; legal: `0` - `1000`. Values between 0 and 250 give 25% brightness, 251 to 500 give 50% brightness, 501 and 750, give 75% brightness, and values higher than 751 give 100% brightness.