The dot matrix display has a 20 character one-line display that can display any user message. The setup menu can only be accessed through the serial port connected to a standard terminal program such as telix, terminal or hyper terminal.  The communication parameters are 19200, 8 databits, one stopbit and no flow control.

When the Enter key is pressed the main menu will be displayed as shown below:
DOT MATRIX V1.00
*** Main Menu ***
A. Mode                Paged messages
B. Real-time clock 10:09:16  12-MAR-01
C. Display           
D. Scroll message  The scrolling message display ...
E. Scroll timer 3.00 seconds
F. Page message1 time
G. Page message2 off
H. Page message3 page3             
I. Page message4 time
J. Page message5 off
K. Page message6 page5             
L. Page message7 page6
M. Page message8 page7
N. Page message9 page8
O. Page message10 page9

Pressing the relevant letter A-O on the keyboard may access each function.  Note that these letters are not case-sensitive so 'a' and 'A' will both access the mode function.

The display may operate in one of four modes:

Time & Date
Single Line
Scrolling message
Paged display

1. TIME & DATE MODE
The time and date are continuously updated and displayed.  The time and date will be displayed as hh:mm:ss dd-mmm-yyyy where

Hh is the hour in 24 hour time mode
Mm is the minutes
Ss is he seconds
Dd is the day of month
Mmm is the month displayed as Jan, Feb, Mar …
Yyyy is the year displayed as 2001

2. SINGLE LINE

20 characters may be entered using the C. Display function.  These characters will be displayed after 20 characters have been entered or when the Enter key is pressed.  Note the Escape key may be pressed at any time to cancel. If time is entered, the current time and date will be displayed.

3. SCROLLING MESSAGE

Up to 1000 characters may be entered, and the message will scroll across the display.  When the end of the message is reached, a space is displayed and then the beginning of the message will be redisplayed.

4. PAGED DISPLAY

Up to 10 pages of 20characters may be displayed in turn.  The ten pages are individually accessible in the main menu as functions 'F' to 'O'. If a page is set to 'time' the time and date will be displayed.  If a page is set to 'off' the page will be skipped, unless it is the first page that is always displayed.

5. TIME CLOCK

Select this function to set the real-time clock.  Enter the time first as hh (24hour time). The computer will then display a ':' and the minutes may be entered as mm - the computer will write a ':' and the seconds may be entered as ss.