Old AT case with Digital LEDs: How to connect?

[mgpaulus]

I have an older AT server tower that has Digital LEDs (shows letters/numbers). But the case came from Eb*y, and had no documentations. Now I would like to know how to wire up/connect this small circuit board, if possible. Does anyone have any insights on where/how I need to wire this up?

From what I can remember, there is a 5 pin plug, labeled +5, G, L, C, H which I assume equate to +5, Ground, Low, Common, High, and connect to some power source, ground, and then there seems to be a cable to connect to the turbo switch to indicate Hi/Lo.
What's the best way to get the 5V to this board?

Also, there is a large block of pins with jumpers, that I think (If I remember correctly from way back) control what gets displayed in hi/lo mode. But it seems to be statically pre-jumpered, and there is no docs on what/how the jumpers react. Any ideas where to get some docs on this?

Also, how hard would it be to maybe wire this thing up to indicate the BIOS POST codes??

I apologize if this is confusing, but I'm not even sure where to start with the questions, so I thought I would just throw them out and let the chips fall where they may

 

[mee987]

<< What's the best way to get the 5V to this board >>

I usually rig up a plug that will fit the floppy power connector (you can just attach wires to a 1x2 jumper block and plug it in) and make sure you plug into a black and a red wire, not yellow.


<< Also, there is a large block of pins with jumpers, that I think (If I remember correctly from way back) control what gets displayed in hi/lo mode. But it seems to be statically pre-jumpered, and there is no docs on what/how the jumpers react. Any ideas where to get some docs on this? >>

if you have never used one of these before, the best way is to guess and test. there are 2 different common configurations, I will post right after this explaining further.


<< Also, how hard would it be to maybe wire this thing up to indicate the BIOS POST codes?? >>

basically impossible, dont even try.

 

[mee987]

on both types of led's, you usually have a place to connect an on/off type switch (3-pin). this allows you to set 2 different display modes on the led (for example, you can make it say "FU" when switch is off, and "On" when the switch is off.

there are 2 different setups, the first allows you to use the jumpers to individually control each of the 7 lines that form the normal LED "8". in the second type, you use the jumpers to input a binary code that is translated into numbers. the first kind is the most flexible but a bit more complicated.

if you want to get into how to set it up, plug the thing in and move some jumpers around while it is on (yes, its safe) and try to find out which type you have. also tell the layout of the LED itself: "88", "188", or "888"

if you think it is going to be more trouble than its worth, then that is ok too

 

[mgpaulus]

mee987: Thanks for the info. I had sort of come to that conclusion, and I am going to try the "poke & quiver" method of deduction in the next couple of days. I did find out that the Display Circuit board has an VE-61 designator on it, but doing a web search on that revealed nothing. So, I do believe it's the old try & graph method. Slightly tedious, but shouldn't be too bad. Especially since I do not think the board I'm using supports turbo mode, so I only need to figure out one setting.