set custom lcd panel text on poweredge r720 in stock

I recently bought a pair of these servers to take over VMware duties from a pair of HP ProLiant DL380 G5 servers. Having had a few bad Dell experiences years ago I had stopped buying PowerEdge machines as I considered their design to be inferior (think PE1850) but I’m pleasantly surprised by these R710 machines.

In the server’s own BIOS options there is a Custom LCD field but entering text here and restarting doesn’t change the panel – it still just shows the Service Tag. Strangely, the iDRAC BIOS doesn’t offer you any control here at all, it just lists what the custom string currently is.

To make matters worse, I had accidentally got the desired result on one of the servers, but couldn’t get the second one configured. The answer lies with the buttons next to the LCD. Though you can view IP settings, temperature, power usage, etc., there is also a Setup option. With 48GB of RAM, each POST of the machine takes about 5 minutes so I had been too cautious to mess about with these options in case I undid some of my initial iDRAC config. I assumed that they would only provide a subset of the BIOS options. Wrong! You needto use the panel – even the iDRAC WebUI doesn’t seem to configure the LCD screen.

I haven"t found a complete reference of Dell"s proprietary IPMI commands, but according to the documentation I found here, the first invocation of ipmitool puts the supplied string into one of the display"s registers, and the second one flips the display buffer to actually show this.

You can change it in BIOS Setup F2 by going to Embedded Server Management and setting Front-Panel LCD Options to User-Defined String, then goin gto User-Defined LCD String to set the string.

You can also change it from the OS using OMSA (OpenManage Server Administrator by going to System, Main System Chassis, Front Panel (sub tab), and set LCD Line to Custom.

I am an embedded SW engineer, and one of the things I do a lot of is compiling OpenEmbedded/Yocto Linux images. These take many hours depending on the image configuration and the available computing power.

I used to use my workstation (a 4C/8T i7-4770, 32GB) for these builds which worked fine. But as I found myself needing to do more of them, and preserve the build artifacts for longer, and the fact that my current workstation is starting to show some age, I went looking for a new build machine.

So I stumbled across this machine. I went with ConfigureSystems as they had a nearly 100% rating. And considering Amazons 90 day money back "renewed" guarantee if things were not right, as well as the low ~720 price, I figured I had nothing to lose by trying it out.

So, some 3 weeks or so later I am extremely happy with the performance of the machine. It came as advertised - all the memory, disks, and cores were present. While on the outside the machine had obviously been used (but not abused), the inside looked brand new.

So, as that is dangerous (you lose the whole array if a disk dies), I reconfigured it to use the first 2 drives in a raid1 (mirrored config) for the OS and the remaining 6 drives in a raid5 config for /data.

I loaded Ubuntu 18.04 Server onto it without too much problem -- you must configure the BIOS for UEFI booting - not the default MSDOS, and setup your virtual drive(s) first in the controller firmware.

Then I started build tests. After the first one, I was sold. It was glorious seeing 32 cores at full tilt compiling a custom Linux OS. What took about 6.5 hours on my WS completed in 2.5 hours on this machine. Nice. :)

With 6x the memory of my WS, twice the memory bandwidth, hardware raid controller, and 4 times the number of cores, the performance was quite amazing for the price. I have no regrets at all, and it is now my primary build machine, where it continues to vastly outperform my previous setup.

The Dell PowerEdge R720 12th Generation is a 2-socket, 2U server that features the Intel Xeon E5-2600 processor family and supports up to 768GB of DDR3 memory. Dell offers the R720 in various backplane configurations with up to 16 2.5-inch internal hard drives or 8 3.5-inch drives. A new optional feature though, designed to take the performance compute server market by storm, are 4 hot-plug front-access 2.5-inch Express Flash PCIe SSDs geared for high throughput and incredibly low latency. The PowerEdge R720’s Express Flash connectivity makes it unique among servers of its class, and is one of the reasons we have added two R720 units to the lab.

It’s not just storage technology itself that is a moving target – other critical components of enterprise storage infrastructure like interconnects and compute platforms are also continually evolving. Compute servers are not our primary focus, but performance and scalability differences between similarly-spec’d servers from different manufacturers or different generations from the same manufacturer can have important consequences for storage performance. It is also important to understand how factors like chassis construction and layout will affect long-term routine maintenance of a server.

StorageReview’s two new PowerEdge R720 servers feature Xeon E5-2640 2.50GHz processors with 15M cache and 7 PCIe slots to power real-world enterprise testing environments as well as see how storage devices perform when used in conjunction with compute servers from various manufacturers. One of our R720 servers is configured with 8 2.5-inch SFF internal drive bays and 4 front-accessible Express Flash bays. The other R720 features 16 2.5-inch SFF internal drive bays. Our review will focus on the PowerEdge R720 with Express Flash, noting key differences between the two when appropriate. The PowerEdge R720 is also available with a chassis configured for 8 3.5-inch LFF drives.

Availability: High-efficiency, hot-plug, redundant power supplies; hot-plug drive bays; TPM; dual internal SD support; hot-plug redundant fan; optional bezel; luggage-tag; ECC memory, interactive LCD screen; extended thermal support; ENERGY STAR® compliant, extended power range; switch agnostic partitioning (SWAP)

The most notable option offered by the PowerEdge R720 is a chassis that supports up to four front-access 2.5-inch PCIe Express Flash drives. The PowerEdge R720 uses a x16 PCIe breakout board for Express Flash connectivity, each drive requiring four lanes. Express Flash storage can be configured as cache or as a primary storage, offering lower latency and much greater performance than an SSD connected via SAS or SATA. Express Flash drives supplied in our R720 are 2.5-inch Micron P320h models, which use 34nm SLC NAND and are engineered for write-heavy applications. Dell warrants the lifetime of Express Flash drives in terms of bytes written; current 175GB and 350GB models offer 12.5 and 25 petabytes of drive writes, respectively. Dell software management applications can be configured to notify the server administrator when these wear limits are nearing. Our Express Flash R720 shipped with four 350GB drives.

Express Flash PCIe SSDs support orderly insertion, when a drive is added to a running system in a bay where an Express Flash drive has not been previously inserted since booting. Express Flash also supports orderly removal, where the system is notified prior to drive removal, and orderly swap, when a drive can be replaced with prior system notification. PowerEdge R720 servers also support Dell’s CacheCade technology, which provides automated storage tiering on SSDs when using PERC H810 and H710P controllers. The R720 can employ redundant failsafe hypervisors, and can be used as part of Dell’s Virtual Integrated System (VIS) solution.

The PowerEdge R720 supports Dell’s Select Network Adapters daughter cards to house the server’s LOM subsystem without requiring a PCIe slot. Network connectivity options for the R720 include 1000 Base-T, 10Gb Base-T, and 10Gb SFP+ interfaces from Intel and Broadcom. It can be configured to operate with a single 495W, 750W, or 1100W AC power supply module, or can be equipped with a redundant power supply. As a top-tier option, Dell offers an 1100W DC power supply for the PowerEdge R720. In the default redundant configuration, power is supplied equally from both supplies, but may be reconfigured via iDRAC to enable a hot spare feature which switches one power supply to sleep unless needed.

The R720 can support up to four passively-cooled graphics processing units (GPU) to accelerate virtual desktop infrastructure and high performance computing applications. Breaking it down by power capabilities, the R720 can support two 300W, full-length, double-wide internal GPUs or up to four 150W, full-length, single-wide GPUs. Each GPU can support up to 6GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory. Actively-cooled GPU cards are not supported as they interfere with and are not designed for forced-air cooling inside a server. The R720 can also connect to PowerEdge C410x external GPUs through a host interface card (HIC) with an iPass cable. Both the NVIDIA and Dell x16 HICs require the R720s single x16 PCIe slot to support up to four external GPUs.

As with StorageReview’s Gen8 HP ProLiant DL380p, the R720 supports up to 768GB of memory across 24 DIMMs when equipped with dual-processors. Each processor has 4 memory channels, each channel supporting up to 3 DIMMs. In addition to supporting unbuffered DIMMs (UDIMMs) and registered DIMMs (RDIMMs), the R720 supports load reduced DIMMs (LRDIMMs). In our configurations Dell supplied 24 8GB RDIMMs to populate all memory channels inside the R720 providing 192GB of system memory.

12th generation PowerEdge servers are part of Dell’s OpenManage platform, built around the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 7 (iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller, which provides agent-based and agent-free management. To integrate with agent-based solutions, Dell provides the OpenManage Server Administration (OMSA) which provides one-to-one systems management with a CLI interface or Web-based GUI. iDRAC7 can also provide remote access to the system whether or not there is an operating system installed. Through the iDRAC7 interface, users can quickly learn vital system information in many categories including storage, thermals, power and others. When first logged in to, iDRAC7 presents the user with health stats in all categories, as well as a preview of the iKVM.

Drilling down into the storage category, users can view information on the current disk configuration, as well as individual drive stats. Shown below is the RAID10 disk array we configured utilizing eight 300GB Seagate Cheetah 15K.3 enterprise hard drives connected through the Dell PERC H710p on-board RAID controller. Through this screen users would be able to quickly find out information about a drive failure remotely as well as narrow it down to which slot has the defective drive.

For remote system access where Remote Desktop or SSH might not be feasible, iDRAC7 includes a virtual console that gives users access to the system through a standard web browser with JAVA. This window also has useful features for remotely triggering power controls to restart a frozen system or even turn on a system without local access. Users can also mount local media to be accessible by the remote system, or map ISOs to quickly provision systems over the network.

The PowerEdge R720 debuts a new PowerEdge chassis design intended to support greater scalability compared to 11th generation PowerEdge servers, with an increased number of DIMMs, PCIe slots, and hard drives. Also unique to the 12th generation R720 are the four ExpressFlash slots, which currently support 175GB and 350GB Micron RealSSD P320h PCIe SSDs. When we reviewed the HHHL Micron P320h last year, we found it to offer class-leading performance.

The front of the server features a power button and indicator, recessed non-maskable interrupt (NMI) button to troubleshoot software and device driver errors, two USB connectors, Dell’s vFlash SD media reader (activated with iDRAC7), video connector, and a simple LCD control panel interface for local management. The vFlash media SD card reader is used for configuration, scripts, imaging, and other local management tasks. Dell’s 12th generation PowerEdge servers feature a model-specific QR code that links to video overviews of system internals and externals, task-oriented videos and installation wizards, reference materials, LCD diagnostics, and an electrical overview. This code appears several places on the chassis.

The rear of the unit offers access to up to two hot-plug power supplies and associated indicators, network connectivity via Dell’s Select Network Adapter family, two USB ports, iDRAC7 Enterprise port, video connector, and serial connector. Also visible are the available PCIe slots, rear carrying handle, as well as the two redundant 1,100 watt power supplies.

The R720 supports ReadyRails II sliding rails for tool-less mounting in 4-post racks with square or unthreaded round holes, or tooled mounting in 4-post threaded hole racks. The R720 is also compatible with ReadyRails static rails for tool-less mounting in 4-post racks with square or unthreaded round holes or tooled mounting in 4-post threaded as well as 2-post Telco racks.

For improved cable management, Dell offers a toolless cable management arm compatible with the PowerEdge R720. In our lab evaluation, the sliding ReadyRails II were quick to clip into position in our Eaton S-Series Rack, and offered a secure fit with minimal slack.

To install the R720 in the rails, users hold the server by the front and the rear carrying handle and carefully lower it into the extended rails while aligning the mounting pins with their appropriate slots. We found this process to be very intuitive and easy to nail on the first try, which quickly sped up the time required to get the server into production status.

The PowerEdge R720 supports hot-swappable cooling fans in an N+1 configuration, allowing a technician to replace any one fan at a time. Supporting newer environmental conditions, the R720 also incorporates Dell’s Fresh Air cooling design, allowing the server to operate above 35°C/95°F to reduce power consumption and related cooling expenses. This is also beneficial should a user want to deploy the R720 outside of traditional datacenter environments, where temperatures may be more variable.

When it comes to servicing components, the R720 can be operated temporarily without one of its cooling fans, allowing hot-swap replacement. The design of the cooling fan assembly makes it straightforward to remove and replace individual fans or the entire assembly. When replacing an individual fan, you grip the fan’s release button and lift the fan out of position, which also releases the power connection in one easy step. For more expansive repairs requiring the removal of the entire cooling assembly, users can lift latches on both sides of the server and lift out the entire unit in one piece.

When it comes to managing airflow, Dell allows the user to select the appropriate cooling mode for that specific environment. These user-selectable modes are invaluable to servers with additional equipment, such as PCIe Application Accelerators, which can overheat when certain automatic cooling modes. This happens because the server incorrectly throttles fan speeds based on chassis temperatures while local temps of the AA are still high. In these cases, being able to modify the cooling parameters to run faster than normal can allow better performance and increase reliability.

Utilizing our high-I/O FIO synthetic benchmarks we stressed the four Express Flash PCIe SSDs with a chassis inlet temperature of 27C. We found PCIe SSD temperatures dropped from 62C to 49C by switching the cooling profile from Auto to Maximum performance, and enabling the High Fan Speed Offset. To put it another way, without having that adjustment the PCIe SSDs would have been operating 26.5% hotter, which might affect long-term reliability. The downside is this changes the R720’s acoustic profile (increased fan noise) but given their production environments, datacenter noise levels for high-performance servers aren’t greatly impacted. In the tier-one server market right now, HP allows users to customize the fan speeds through the BIOS in the ProLiant DL380p Gen8 although Lenovo with their ThinkServer RD630 does not.

Dell goes to great lengths to optimize the new 12th generation PowerEdge R720 for power efficiency. For the R720, Dell offers four AC 100-240v PSUs, ranging from 495W up to 1,100W. By gearing the known load to a given power supply, users can achieve up to 96% efficiency with some models, which helps to lower overall power and thermal demands inside a datacenter. In this same category, HP offers power supplies ranging from 460 to 1,200 watts with their most efficient models rated at 94% for the DL380p Gen8, while Lenovo offers just one 800W 80Plus Gold option for their RD630.

Another way the Dell PowerEdge R720 can reduce power consumption inside a datacenter is by capping the system at a user-defined limit. When this limit is reached, the processors are throttled to lower system power usage until the target is reached. This can be useful when introducing new servers into an environment that is designed around strict power or thermal limits.

After the R720 has been customized for a specific environment by choosing the best PSU to fit the requirements and adjusting the power cap policy to fit the datacenter needs, Dell offers excellent monitoring tools for tracking power usage through iDRAC7.

When it comes to describing the performance advantage of front-mounted hot-swappable PCIe storage, the paradigm shift of transitioning from rotating media to 2.5″ SATA or SAS SSDs comes to mind. Random I/O and sequential bandwidth is on a much higher level, which would require many of the industry’s fastest SAS SSDs in RAID to match the performance of one Express Flash PCIe SSD… let alone four of them.

We’ve included a quick performance comparison of four Express Flash PCIe SSDs up against eight 15k SAS HDDs and one Smart Optimus Enterprise SAS SSD in our 8k 70/30 synthetic benchmark. We chose the SMART Optimus for this comparison, since at the time of this review it offered the highest 8k 70/30 performance in the SAS/SATA category. And note, this is a small tease of what’s to come, a detailed storage performance breakdown will take place in a second review highlighting the Express Flash technology.

Breaking it down by the numbers, at peak performance with a load of 16T/16Q per drive/array, the Dell Express Flash solution offered 467,644 IOPS, the SMART Optimus measured 41,586 IOPS, and the eight-drive 15K SAS RAID10 array came in with 4,617 IOPS. To match the performance of four Express Flash SSDs, you’d need 12 of the industry’s fastest SAS SSDs, or more than 800 15K SAS HDDs in RAID. In either of those situations, even if you were able to match the performance by scaling out, you’d lose the benefits of reliability, power consumption, and footprint, since you’d be dramatically increasing the components inside (or outside) the system.

With Dell’s Express Flash layout on the PowerEdge R720, you can still have your cake and eat it too. You don’t have to trade capacity for performance, since you still keep eight SFF bays on the front of the chassis to populate with your favorite SAS or SATA drives. You also gain an edge over other compute server platforms, since four x4 PCIe devices only consume one x16 slot. To exceed the performance of four Express Flash SSDs, you’d need to install three x8 HHHL Micron P320h cards, taking up three out of the seven available slots. That performance-density gives Dell a distinct advantage over the HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 (6 PCIe 3.0 slots) or Lenovo ThinkServer RD630 (5 PCIe 3.0 slots), which would have to scale out Application Accelerators to match a four-drive Express Flash configuration, taking up valuable PCI-Express slots where Dell needs just one x16 slot.

The Dell PowerEdge R720 12th Generation marks more than just a progressive step in mainstream 2U server technology. Dell has been the first to embrace front-mounted, hot-swappable PCIe storage technology in the new R720. For enterprise users who want maximum performance with all the serviceability benefits of traditional SFF drives, the new Express Flash design is a savior for so many reasons. As we’ve seen in our cursory performance look, the Micron Express Flash drives simply dominate the best in class 15K and SAS SSD options in the market today, while still providing a total capacity of up to 1.4TB in the four bays. Should additional storage be needed, users can deploy SFF hard drives in capacities up to 1.2TB now that provide a great backstop to the flash drives in caching use cases and anywhere else where a platter tier makes sense. And because the Express Flash drives in aggregate only take up a single PCIe slot, there’s still plenty of expandability in the 6 available risers for additional PCIe storage if needed. As noted, we’ll dive more into storage performance within the R720 specifically in subsequent content.

While we certainly appreciate the storage aspects of the R720, there are a ton of other reasons to be excited about the platform as well including management, hardware design and thermal controls. The R720 provides an intuitive package dubbed iDRAC7 for remotely monitoring and managing the server, while providing a landing page with every health stat readily available. Turning to hardware design, the R720 packs plenty of mounting and serviceability options, where almost all frequently accessed components are easy to swap out if servicing is required. For cooling and power needs, Dell offers a wide range of PSU options to tailor the system for the best efficiency. Dell then takes things a step further by allowing users to adjust the cooling profiles for high-end devices like PCIe storage that require higher airflow requirements than the automatic mode can provide. Overall buyers can effectively use the Dell PowerEdge R720 as a blank slate, customizing it exactly for their needs, versus trying to shoehorn in an option-fixed model that might not be best in all situations.

As we compare the Dell PowerEdge R720 to other 2U servers on the market that we have reviewed previously from HP and Lenovo, one point is very clear; the R720 currently offers the fastest storage platform on the market in a 2U form factor. While you could try to match it by scaling out with multiple Application Accelerators in other server platforms, you’d lose potentially valuable PCIe real-estate. Dell’s thoughtful design is evident throughout, and the Express Flash components are even upgradable as newer iterations of that technology come out, like NVM Express.

The Dell PowerEdge R720 12th Generation server is not only well-designed with loads of great management features, it’s also the best performing server on the market in this class. Sure, it’s great as a garden variety standard compute server, but with Express Flash technology the R720 really shines, easily lapping all others. Dell has put the definitive stake in the ground by adopting new technology, giving their users a best of breed solution.

On Dell hardware, you have the option of configuring the Forge Appliance LCD, a small readout on the computer’s front panel. Use these steps to configure the LCD display for Forge:

Press Esc > Esc > Esc to exit the iDRAC Settings page and the System Setup Main Menu, then continue with instructions in Section 6.0, Installing Other Components Required by Forge.

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The various LCD Panel blocks are a great way to add a human touch to a ship or base by displaying useful images or text. For LCD configuration and usage, see LCD Surface Options.

Note: Some functional blocks, such as Cockpits, Programmable Blocks, Custom Turret Controllers, and Button Panels, have customizable LCD surfaces built in that work the same way as LCD Panel blocks, which are also discussed in detail under LCD Surface Options.

LCD Panels need to be built on a powered grid to work. Without power, they display an "Offline" text. While powered without having a text, image, or script set up, they display "Online".

LCD Panel blocks come in a variety of sizes from tiny to huge (see list below) and are available for large and small grid sizes. Note that LCD Panel blocks all have connections on their backs, and very few also on a second side.

All LCD Panels and LCD surfaces work with the same principle: They are capable of displaying dynamic scripts, or few inbuilt static images accompanied by editable text. Access the ship"s Control Panel Screen to configure LCD Panels or LCD surfaces; or face the LCD Panel block and press "K".

A Text Panel, despite its name, can also display images. On large grid, it is rectangular and does not fully cover the side of a 1x1x1 block. On small grid it is 1x1x1, the smallest possible LCD block in game.

On large grid, you choose the Text Panel when you need something that has rectangular dimensions that make it look like a wall-mounted TV or computer screen. If you want to display images, this one works best with the built-in posters whose names end in "H" or "V" (for horizontal or vertical rotation). On Small grid, you place these tiny display surfaces so you can see them well while seated in a cockpit or control seat, to create a custom display array of flight and status information around you.

Corner LCDs are much smaller display panels that typically hold a few lines of text. They don"t cover the block you place them on and are best suited as signage for doors, passages, or containers. They are less suitable for displaying images, even though it"s possible. If you enable the "Keep aspect ratio" option, the image will take up less than a third of the available space.

These huge Sci-Fi LCD Panels come in sizes of 5x5, 5x3, and 3x3 blocks, and can be built on large grids only. These panels are only available to build if you purchase the "Sparks of the Future" pack DLC.

They work the same as all other LCD Panels, the only difference is that they are very large. In the scenario that comes with the free "Sparks of the Future" update, they are used prominently as advertisement boards on an asteroid station.

This LCD panel can be built on large and small grids. The transparent LCD is basically a 1x1x1 framed window that displays images and text. It is part of the paid "Decorative Blocks Pack #2" DLC.

What is special about them is that if you set the background color to black, this panel becomes a transparent window with a built-in display. In contrast to other LCD Panels it has no solid backside, which makes it ideal to construct transparent cockpit HUDs, or simply as cosmetic decoration.

While configuring an LCD Panel, the GUI covers up the display in-world and you can"t see how the text or images comes out. In the UI Options, you can lower the UI Background opacity to be translucent, so you can watch what you are doing more easily.

When it comes to the dell servers, there are 2 ways to clear the event log. One of them does NOT require a restart, which is nice if your server is up and running. If your server is not booting into the OS, or if the iDRAC web interface is not working, there is a 2nd way involving the hardware that requires a restart. Let"s go through each method one at a time.

This method is great if you don"t want to restart your server, your iDRAC is configured with a known IP address, and you"re machine is up and running. You can do this method without internet access, as long as you can access your server via an IP address.To do this, the first step is to log into the IP address using your web browser. Mine is set to the default setting, which is 192.168.0.120.

Now you"ll be prompted with your user ID and password for your iDRAC. You should know this information, but if this is your first time accessing your iDRAC this way, the defaults are “root” for the username, and “calvin”, all lowercase, for the password. Make sure the dropdown box says “this iDRAC” and then click submit.

Click “clear log”. At this point, your event log should be cleared. You can log out of the iDRAC if you have nothing else to do here. Wait a few minutes, and the LCD screen on the front of your machine should go from Amber to the standard blue, indicating that there are no persistent errors at the moment. If after a few minutes, the screen is still amber, make sure to go through the errors using the buttons on the screen. If you are still getting an error, it could be that the problem is persistent and something in your machine is not ideal and needs to be fixed before clearing the event log, which will bring the screen back to standard blue. An example of this would be if your raid cables were missing or plugged into the wrong ports. In that instance, the LCD Amber error light will not go away until the machine has detected new Raid cables in the machine and then the machine is rebooted again.

One last thing to note here is that if you open the lid on your server, but have no other errors when your machine boots up, you will get an Amber LCD screen for only a minute while the machine boots, and the error will say “intrusion”, but this will go away after about a minute and the LCD screen will go back to blue.

2nd Method: Hardware way, using Ctrl + E on bootupFor this method, the first thing we need to do is restart the server. Make sure you have your company’s permission before you continue.

Then you will get to the next POST screen, which displays all the information of your machine and starts listing options. The option you are looking for will say “Press Ctrl + E to enter remote access setup within 5 seconds...” at the bottom of your screen. Press Ctrl + E immediately when you see that.

After 10 seconds, you will be given two options, to either view or clear the event log. You can clear it if you want, but this is a GREAT opportunity to see what is in the event log. If you are having issues with your server hardware, this is a great place to start looking, but if you simply need to clear it, just use the clear option and hit enter. Clearing the log should be instantaneous.

Once it"s cleared, hit escape until you exit the Remote Access screen. At this point, your machine will continue to boot up as normal. Your LCD screen should go back to the standard blue soon, if there are no persistent errors. If it remains Amber after a minute, use the arrows on the LCD screen to see what errors are still coming up.

2nd Method: Hardware way, using F2 on bootup( 12th and 13 Gen)For this method, the first thing we need to do is restart the server. Make sure you have your company’s permission before you continue.

Then you will get to the next POST screen, which displays all the information of your machine and starts listing options. You are going to want to Press F2 at the end of POST.

If it worked, you will enter this screen. Simply use the down arrow key to navigate all the way to the bottom of the list where it says to the IDRAC setting. Hit enter.

After 10 seconds, you will be given two options, to either view or clear the event log. You can clear it if you want, but this is a GREAT opportunity to see what is in the event log. (If you do not see the system event logs option you may need to update your idrac and system bios as this was a feature that was added later )

Once it"s cleared, hit escape until you exit the Remote Access screen. At this point, your machine will continue to boot up as normal. Your LCD screen should go back to the standard blue soon, if there are no persistent errors. If it remains Amber after a minute, use the arrows on the LCD screen to see what errors are still coming up.

This finalizes the steps you should take to clear the event log on the Dell PowerEdge 12th and 13th Generation.(Models: R720, R720xd, R730, R730xd, R820, R830, R920, R930)

Do you want your Arduino projects to display status messages or sensor readings? Then these LCD displays can be a perfect fit. They are extremely common and fast way to add a readable interface to your project.

This tutorial will help you get up and running with not only 16×2 Character LCD, but any Character LCD (16×4, 16×1, 20×4 etc.) that is based on Hitachi’s LCD Controller Chip – HD44780.

When current is applied to these crystals, they become opaque, blocking the backlight that resides behind the screen. As a result that particular area will be dark compared to the others. And this is how the characters are displayed on the screen.

True to their name, these LCDs are ideal for displaying only text/characters. A 16×2 character LCD, for example, has an LED backlight and can display 32 ASCII characters in two rows of 16 characters each.

If you look closely you can see tiny rectangles for each character on the display and the pixels that make up a character. Each of these rectangles is a grid of 5×8 pixels.

The good news is that all of these displays are ‘swappable’, which means if you build your project with one you can just unplug it and use another size/color LCD of your choice. Your code will have to change a bit but at least the wiring remains the same!

Vo (LCD Contrast) controls the contrast and brightness of the LCD. Using a simple voltage divider with a potentiometer, we can make fine adjustments to the contrast.

RS (Register Select) pin is set to LOW when sending commands to the LCD (such as setting the cursor to a specific location, clearing the display, etc.) and HIGH when sending data to the LCD. Basically this pin is used to separate the command from the data.

R/W (Read/Write) pin allows you to read data from the LCD or write data to the LCD. Since we are only using this LCD as an output device, we are going to set this pin LOW. This forces it into WRITE mode.

E (Enable) pin is used to enable the display. When this pin is set to LOW, the LCD does not care what is happening on the R/W, RS, and data bus lines. When this pin is set to HIGH, the LCD processes the incoming data.

D0-D7 (Data Bus) pins carry the 8 bit data we send to the display. For example, if we want to see an uppercase ‘A’ character on the display, we set these pins to 0100 0001 (as per the ASCII table).

Now we will power the LCD. The LCD has two separate power connections; One for the LCD (pin 1 and pin 2) and the other for the LCD backlight (pin 15 and pin 16). Connect pins 1 and 16 of the LCD to GND and 2 and 15 to 5V.

Most LCDs have a built-in series resistor for the LED backlight. You’ll find this near pin 15 on the back of the LCD. If your LCD does not include such a resistor or you are not sure if your LCD has one, you will need to add one between 5V and pin 15. It is safe to use a 220 ohm resistor, although a value this high may make the backlight a bit dim. For better results you can check the datasheet for maximum backlight current and select a suitable resistor value.

Next we will make the connection for pin 3 on the LCD which controls the contrast and brightness of the display. To adjust the contrast we will connect a 10K potentiometer between 5V and GND and connect the potentiometer’s center pin (wiper) to pin 3 on the LCD.

That’s it. Now turn on the Arduino. You will see the backlight lit up. Now as you turn the knob on the potentiometer, you will start to see the first row of rectangles. If that happens, Congratulations! Your LCD is working fine.

Let’s finish connecting the LCD to the Arduino. We have already made the connections to power the LCD, now all we have to do is make the necessary connections for communication.

We know that there are 8 data pins that carry data to the display. However, HD44780 based LCDs are designed in such a way that we can communicate with the LCD using only 4 data pins (4-bit mode) instead of 8 (8-bit mode). This saves us 4 pins!

8-bit mode is much faster than 4-bit mode because it takes half the time. In 8-bit mode you write the data in one go. Whereas in 4-bit mode you have to split a byte into 2 nibbles and perform two write operations.

4-bit mode is often used to save I/O pins. However, 8-bit mode is best used when speed is required in an application and there are at least 10 I/O pins available.

The sketch begins by including the LiquidCrystal library. The Arduino community has a library called LiquidCrystal which makes programming of LCD modules less difficult. You can find more information about the library on Arduino’s official website.

First we create a LiquidCrystal object. This object uses 6 parameters and specifies which Arduino pins are connected to the LCD’s RS, EN, and four data pins.

In the ‘setup’ we call two functions. The first function is begin(). It is used to specify the dimensions (number of columns and rows) of the display. If you are using a 16×2 character LCD, pass the 16 and 2; If you’re using a 20×4 LCD, pass 20 and 4. You got the point!

After that we set the cursor position to the second row by calling the function setCursor(). The cursor position specifies the location where you want the new text to be displayed on the LCD. The upper left corner is assumed to be col=0, row=0.

There are some useful functions you can use with LiquidCrystal objects. Some of them are listed below:lcd.home() function is used to position the cursor in the upper-left of the LCD without clearing the display.

lcd.scrollDisplayRight() function scrolls the contents of the display one space to the right. If you want the text to scroll continuously, you have to use this function inside a for loop.

lcd.scrollDisplayLeft() function scrolls the contents of the display one space to the left. Similar to above function, use this inside a for loop for continuous scrolling.

If you find the characters on the display dull and boring, you can create your own custom characters (glyphs) and symbols for your LCD. They are extremely useful when you want to display a character that is not part of the standard ASCII character set.

As discussed earlier in this tutorial a character is made up of a 5×8 pixel matrix, so you need to define your custom character within that matrix. You can use the createChar() function to define a character.

To use createChar() you first set up an array of 8 bytes. Each byte in the array represents a row of characters in a 5×8 matrix. Whereas, 0 and 1 in a byte indicate which pixel in the row should be ON and which should be OFF.

CGROM is used to store all permanent fonts that are displayed using their ASCII codes. For example, if we send 0x41 to the LCD, the letter ‘A’ will be printed on the display.

CGRAM is another memory used to store user defined characters. This RAM is limited to 64 bytes. For a 5×8 pixel based LCD, only 8 user-defined characters can be stored in CGRAM. And for 5×10 pixel based LCD only 4 user-defined characters can be stored.

Creating custom characters has never been easier! We have created a small application called Custom Character Generator. Can you see the blue grid below? You can click on any 5×8 pixel to set/clear that particular pixel. And as you click, the code for the character is generated next to the grid. This code can be used directly in your Arduino sketch.

Your imagination is limitless. The only limitation is that the LiquidCrystal library only supports eight custom characters. But don’t be discouraged, look at the bright side, at least we have eight characters.

In setup we need to create custom character using createChar() function. This function takes two parameters. The first parameter is a number between 0 and 7 to reserve one of the 8 supported custom characters. The second is the name of the array.

It"s easy to take a video on a Mac By Jordan Baranowski Jordan Baranowski Writer University of Kansas Avila University Jordan Baranowski is a former Lifewire writer and educator with experience writing for SVG, The Nerd Stash, and Feast Magazine. lifewire"s editorial guidelines Updated on May 6, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email

In This Article Expand Jump to a Section Using QuickTime Player Recording Without an App Using Photo Booth Using iMovie Recording video on your Mac is easy once you get the hang of it. Although there are plenty of commercial video editing applications out there, you don"t have to start by buying one of them. Several apps that are capable of recording video ship with the Mac. Here are the different ways to record video through the various apps already on your Mac.

Record Video on Mac With QuickTime Player QuickTime Player is a free bare-bones version of the QuickTime video recording application. It comes installed on your Mac. Open the Applications folder, which you can reach by clicking the Applications folder in the Mac Dock or a Finder window. Then, click QuickTime Player to open it. Once QuickTime is open, click File in the menu bar. In the drop-down menu are two movie options: New Movie Recording or New Screen Recording. Select New Movie Recording to open your Mac"s video camera and

record what it sees. Select New Screen Recording for options to record what occurs on the entire Mac screen or in only one section of it. After you chose an option, the QuickTime control panel appears. To start recording video, click the button with the red dot. To stop recording, click the same button. How to Record Audio on Mac: Learn More

How to Record on Mac Without Using an App If all you want to do is record your screen activity, there"s a way to cut out some of the steps of going through QuickTime Player. If you downloaded the Mojave update for macOS, press Command+Shift+5. This should sound familiar if you"ve used the similar keyboard shortcut (Command+Shift+4) to take a screenshot. When you use this keyboard shortcut, a toolbar opens with two options in the middle: The first looks like a solid box with a record symbol in the lower-right corner. Select it to record the entire screen.The other looks like a dotted box with the same record symbol. Use it to select a portion of the screen to record. For either option, stop recording by either clicking Stop in the toolbar or by pressing Command+Control+Esc. Use the thumbnail that appears to trim, save, or share your new video.

Use Photo Booth to Take a Video Photo Booth is another app you can use to take a video. Open Photo Booth by selecting its icon in the Mac Dock or by opening the Applications folder. Once the app is open, look in the lower-left corner of the window for three icons. Starting from the left, your options are: Take

four quick pictures.Take a still picture.Record a movie clip. Select the third option and then click the red camera in the center to begin recording. Click the red camera again to stop recording.

Use iMovie to Import Directly Into the App Your final option for easily recording video on a Mac is by using iMovie. This app is more involved than the others covered here, but it gives you more freedom in editing your videos. Open the iMovie app. Click the Import button, represented by a down arrow. Select the camera you want to use, which will usually be the built-in camera. Select the Event you want the video to be added to in the Import to menu. You can either open an existing one or create a new one. To begin recording your video, click the Record button at the bottom of the screen and click it again to stop recording. Close the video window when you"re done recording. The clips you recorded are added to the selected event. Edit the clips with the standard suite of iMovie tools. You don"t need to go through this entire process each time you record a new clip. Every time you start and stop recording, a new clip is made. You can create several in a row. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

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