All SLCD controllers have a reset circuit triggered when the voltage supplied to the board drops below a particular threshold. Sometimes called brown-out protection, this trigger ensures the controller’s processor does not incorrectly execute and possibly change its internal programming when it loses power. This reset happens when the input voltage to the controller sags (dips down below 10% of nominal). The display backlight draws a lot of power, and when it turns on, the controller input voltage can sag and cause the controller to reset and turn off the backlight. This can make it look like the display is flashing since it turns on the backlight and then resets and keeps doing this as long as power is applied. The solution is to shorten the cable between the power source and the controller or use larger cable wires. Long thin power cables have inductance which can cause voltage sags [...]

There is a command to tell the controller to execute a macro when there has been no activity on the serial port to the host. The command “*comwdt” can be used to enable the detection of communication timeout events and execute a macro in response. Please refer to Communications Watchdog Timer Documentation for complete details.

The Progressive format of JPEG files can use a large amount of RAM, which, with large images, can easily exceed the RAM available in the display module. The fix is to not use the Progressive format and to stick with the Baseline format. Find more details at http://kb.tourwriter.com/baseline-jpeg-vs-progressive-jpeg.