We have become aware that some customers are running SPLat controllers with backlit LCDs 24/7. That can result in eventual loss of backlight intensity, as the lifetime of small white LEDs is around 3,000 hours (an inherent limitation of current technology). We have therefore put on our thinking caps and engineered some ways of extending the backlight lifetime by dimming or switching off the backlight when it's not being viewed.
For the MS120 a simple firmware upgrade (reFlash) and modification to your SPLat program will provide timed automatic dimming to one of 8 levels, with the brightness restored to full whenever a front panel button is pushed. It has, incidentally, always been possible to turn off the MS120 backlight, so a simple MultiTrack task can manage the backlight without affecting any other part of your SPLat program.
For the MMi202 we have devised a modification to the LCD module that makes it, too, dimmable. Used in conjunction with a firmware upgrade (reFlash) this will provide the same features as described above for the MS120. We are now offering dimmable LCD modules in both 2x16 and 4x20 formats, and will be shipping dimmable ones in the MMi202cDK216 in the future.
This is all documented in the latest, online, version of the SPLat Knowledge Base, including detailed program examples you can simply cut and paste into your own code.
