Can I use a Bus Pirate to drive this VFD?

Question

So a few months ago I asked the question on how to analyze a display. Since then I have found out much information about this board.

From some trace following it seems that

• Brown - DATA
• Red - CLK
• Orange - CS
• Green - GND
• Gray - 5v

Datasheet

Now the datasheet doesn't really say anything about having a Chip Select, but that little chip right below the input wires is a NOR gate and provides the functionality.

Here is my problem. I cant seem find any consistent way to communicate to the board using a Bus Pirate.

My setup is based on this post from Hack-a-Day. Which admittedly somewhat works, but is not consistent and works more like magic guessing. Could someone give me some insight on how to tackle this? Is the 2-wire mode on the Bus Pirate the best way to test this display?

Answer 1

I would try using SPI Mode (http://dangerousprototypes.com/bus-pirate-manual/bus-pirate-spi-guide/), just do not connect MISO (the return path from the display to the bus pirate).

The BusPirate would be the master, the slave would be your device. Make sure that your signals are actually driven to the appropriate level (and you need not use a pull-up on any of your signals).