You all have probably seen my Parallel Graphic LCDs overview article by now, but not many of you may have heard of parallel graphic VFDs. Although, you've probably seen the serial graphic VFDs reviewed over at Bit-Tech, but these are much cheaper, and can update faster than the serial units. These units work in exactly the same way as the parallel graphic LCDs, with the same software being used, currently it is only LiquidMP3 and the Winamp plugin by MarkusZehnder that support these units, but more support is currently being worked on by the authors of other parallel LCD software. Out of the two though, I can recommend LiquidMP3, as it is the best Winamp plugin for graphical displays in my opinion, and the wiring used by LiquidMP3 will be the wiring supported by all the other authors when they are done, the Markus Winamp plugin uses alternate wiring that may not be supported by further software.

In this article, i'll be covering the connection of the display to the parallel port on your PC, and the setting up of LiquidMP3 to work with it.