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Parallax Forums > Public Forums > Propeller Chip > Morpheus: 256 color VGA, 0.5-7.5MB **NEW** 256 color per pixel 256x192 VGA mode photos - see p.10

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Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 9/30/2009 7:47 AM (GMT -8)

Thanks, it has been very frustrating...

Today I let some of the frustration out, and they were very helpful, staying on the phone trying stuff for half an hour!

They are sending me a higher end digitizer to try, which should work... I just hope it is not their $1600 device.

Baggers said...

Bill Henning said...

It is pre-programmed with modes it will recognize, and for some reason, they did not pre-program it with Morpheus VGA timings...

Lmao, why doesn't that surprise me :) god they're rubbish aren't they lol

Good luck sorting it out!

Baggers.

Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheus & Mem+dual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, 2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
www.mikronauts.com - my site 6.250MHz custom Crystals for running Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller

Baggers
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2007
Total Posts : 1773

Posted 9/30/2009 9:04 AM (GMT -8)

Cool, well done on getting a higher end digitizer :D

http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/ home of the PropGFX Lite

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/5/2009 7:22 PM (GMT -8)

Finally some progress! - I can actually see the Morpheus output on an Aspire One!

There is a weird problem with the 640x480 capture - after a while the auto gain goes nuts, and the screen goes almost white.

The 800x600 capture does not have that problem, nor does the 1024x768! Weird, eh?

Unfortunately it is too slow to record smooth video, so I have to get it running on a higher spec'ed system. USB2VGA does not like my XP64 box :-(

I should have some nice video's on my YouTube channel this week

Baggers said...
Cool, well done on getting a higher end digitizer :D

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/5/2009 7:26 PM (GMT -8)

In other news, I just finished assembling and testing six Morpheus boards.

Two are already spoken for, but four are available for sale... (pricing at mikronauts.com/price-list-ordering/)

I also assembled five Mem+'s, three with all the extra I/O, two with just the memory - I will be testing those tomorrow.

James Michael Huselton
Registered Member

Date Joined Nov 2007
Total Posts : 613

Posted 10/6/2009 10:45 AM (GMT -8)

Please send: Morpheus and Mem+ and Schoolboard $214.95

Shipping & Handling $$$$$$

Total $$$$$$

JMH

Post Edited (James Michael Huselton) : 10/6/2009 7:08:36 PM GMT

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/6/2009 12:20 PM (GMT -8)

You have email.... $214.95 is for full kits, its $284.90 for assembled and tested... XpressPost 5-6 business day shipping with tracking is $30 to your location. Thanks!

James Michael Huselton said...
Please send: Morpheus and Mem+ and Schoolboard $214.95

Shipping & Handling $$$$$$

Total $$$$$$

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 10/6/2009 8:29:25 PM GMT

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/12/2009 8:31 PM (GMT -8)

1) I will be uploading newer versions of the VGA/SVGA/XGA drivers this week, as testing has shown that I need to modify the timing of "writepixel" slightly when running with 2.5MB of 55ns memory chips.

Currently I am testing to see if Morpheus systems with more than 2.5MB of 55ns memory chips will need to slow down burst transfers to 10MB/sec, or weather terminating the bus will be sufficient. Systems with more than 2.5MB using faster memory chips should not be effected.

2) I have found that I have received some sub-par 74HC139 decoders, and I may have shipped a few parts that are too slow - the symptom of a "bad" 74HC139 is a vertical column of garbage about a third of the way across the screen (horizontally).

If you have ordered a full kit from me and received a part with the following label please contact me and I will ship you a replacement 74HC139 from STMicro.

P9712AH
MM74HC139N
MC74HC139N

I have run several Morpheus boards with those parts without issues, but I had two in a row that exhibited the symptom described above.

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/14/2009 1:20 PM (GMT -8)

New drivers and Life uploaded on my site, fixing a small screen corruption issue on 2.5MB setups :)

I am starting to work on the 256 color per pixel drivers...

Please stand by... the trouble does not originate with your set... do not adjust the horizontal... do not adjust the vertical...

(or something like that)

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/15/2009 5:40 AM (GMT -8)

I thought y'all would like to know what will be coming to Morpheus in the near future - so here is my .plan:

New Demonstrations:
-------------------------------

I finally have a video digitizer that works well with at least the 800x600 mode, and it looks like with a bit of tweaking its settings it will work for the 640x480 and 1024x768 modes. Now I just have to get it running on my main Windows box instead of my Acer netbook, so it will have enough horse power to encode the high bandwidth videos.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good codec for encoding 640x480 / 800x600 / 1024x768? I keep thinking h.264, but I want everyone to be able to view my videos, coming soon to my YouTube channel!

New Drivers:
------------------

256x192 driver with 256 colors per pixel, using XGA timing. Same API as current drivers but Palette methods will be ignored

after this driver works, I will be making 320x240 and 400x300 drivers with 256 colors per pixel (using 640x480 and 800x600 timing)

Upcoming Graphics API additions:
--------------------------------------------------

GetXRes() - returns number of pixels per display line
GetYRes() - returns number of lines per display screen
GetBpp() - returns number of bits per pixel, currently will return '2', 256 color driver will return '8'

GetViewBase() - returns the the 24 bit XMM address of the base of the display buffer to show
GetDrawBase() - returns the 24 bit XMM address of the base of the display buffer to draw into
SetViewBase(long) - set the XMM base address of the display buffer to show
SetDrawBase(long) - set the XMM base address of the display buffer to draw into

Note: View/Draw buffer base addresses must be aligned on a 256 byte boundary

Driver changes to support new API calls:
-----------------------------------------------------------

- Finish support for separate View/Draw pages to allow for page flipping, needed for silky smooth screen updates

New Application:
------------------------

MorphTerm - coming real soon :) - subset ANSII terminal emulation for Prop#2, allowing Prop#1 to use it over a high speed serial link. I will be adding serial control codes for my GPU API so Prop#1 can draw!

It will also allow using Morpheus as a serial terminal. I am considering adding Tek graphics terminal support at a later date.

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 10/15/2009 4:30:15 PM GMT

mctrivia
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2009
Total Posts : 2540

Posted 10/15/2009 6:02 AM (GMT -8)

XVid is very high good quality compression

propmod_us and propmod_1x1 are in stock. Only $30. PCB available for $5

Want to make projects and have Gadget Gangster sell them for you? propmod-us_ps_sd and propmod-1x1 are now available for use in your Gadget Gangster Projects.

Need to upload large images or movies for use in the forum. you can do so at uploader.propmodule.com for free.

JT Cook
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2006
Total Posts : 354

Posted 10/15/2009 1:14 PM (GMT -8)

Will the XGA VGA video mode run on an 8 Mhz Propeller?

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/15/2009 1:18 PM (GMT -8)

Thanks, will try it.

mctrivia said...
XVid is very high good quality compression

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/15/2009 1:23 PM (GMT -8)

The XGA mode needs the Propeller to run at 80MHz (or higher) to work, even then I currently can only get 51Hz refresh rate; but I am reasonably sure I will be able to get that up to 60Hz.

If you meant 8MHz crystal with PLL 16x, that is running the Propeller at 128MHz, it should work if you managed to get a 30ns or faster DIP32 512Kx8 ram chip.

If you mean 8MHz crystal with PLL 8x, there is not enough bandwidth for XGA, but with tweaking, VGA and SVGA should work.

If you meant 8MHz without using the PLL to increase the clock speed... sorry, no chance for XGA or SVGA, two color VGA may barely be possible. NTSC is doable I think.

Hope this helps,

Bill

JT Cook said...
Will the XGA VGA video mode run on an 8 Mhz Propeller?

JT Cook
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2006
Total Posts : 354

Posted 10/16/2009 6:16 AM (GMT -8)

Oops, I meant 80Mhz, not 8Mhz. :)

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/16/2009 6:33 AM (GMT -8)

No problem :)

Yep, XGA works at 80MHz, however currently it is limited to 51Hz... most monitors will sync to that.

When I have a bit more time I will look into WHY it won't run at 60Hz - it's really weird, the display seems to lose synchronization when I use a 65MHz dot clock. Works fine at 55MHz, which is why I get a 51Hz refresh :)

JT Cook said...
Oops, I meant 80Mhz, not 8Mhz. :)

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/20/2009 10:00 AM (GMT -8)

UPDATE:

I've managed to shave 9 instructions from the pasm pixel plotting code - and moved one more outside of the xmm lock region! Granted, I recently added about five of them to allow for increased capacitance due to Mem+, but still, it is now faster than it was before.

This means that pixel plots in the vga/svga/xga drivers will be 180ns faster, and now there are only 17 instructions inside the locked region :)

I will be uploading newer drivers to my site later today.

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/20/2009 11:22 AM (GMT -8)

I've updated all three drivers (VGA, SVGA, XGA) and Life demo with the optimization above.

As usual, you can get them from my downloads page.

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/20/2009 7:52 PM (GMT -8)

Found a small multi-legged creature in the XGA driver sync generation and fixed it. It is still running at 51Hz Vsync, but XGA should be even more compatible now. I uploaded the latest XGA driver to my site.

I believe I have figured out why it won't do 60Hz XGA, and a fix for it, but it will be a couple of weeks before I can have a 60Hz XGA driver as it requires quite a bit of re-writing. I have to merge the xga_sync.spin and xmm_addr.spin cogs into one cog - which is a good thing, as it will free up a cog!

Sheesh, this is a day for bug fixes! I also found and fixed a bug in the XGA palette demo, looks much better now.

www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 10/21/2009 4:25:09 AM GMT

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/22/2009 10:07 AM (GMT -8)

MAJOR MILESTONE!

I've gotten 256x192 with 256 colors per pixel driver working!

Granted, it is a hack-and-slash of my existing XGA driver, currently only supports 51Hz Vsync, and is definitely not optimized for code size, BUT IT WORKS!!!

Even better - it takes 1/4 of the memory bandwidth of the XGA driver, leaving approximately 65us of every 82us available for other cogs to access the XMM on Morpheus!

Now I just have to make an xmm_gpu8 - the current xmm_gpu will now be renamed xmm_gpu2 in future releases (the number indicated the bits per pixel)

I think I can have a subset of the new gpu running tonite, and post some screen shots then.

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/22/2009 12:17 PM (GMT -8)

Hi!

I have just uploaded the preliminary release of the 256 color per pixel 256x192 driver - you can find it on my Downloads page.

The driver uses XGA timing, and your monitor must support a 41Khz Hsync and 51Hz Vsync for you to be able to use the driver.

The following functions are currently supported in the new QXGA 256 driver:

PUB Config(drawscreenaddr,xres,yres,bitsperpix)
PUB WaitMS(n)
PUB PlotC(x,y,cl)
PUB Plot(x,y)
PUB Pen(c)
PUB Cls(c)
PUB Hline(xsrc,ysrc,xtwo)
PUB Line(x0,y0,x1,y1)
PUB DrawRect(x,y,w,h)
PUB FilledRect(x,y,w,h)
PUB DrawCircle(x,y,r)
PUB FilledCircle(x,y,r)

The following functions are present for compatibility with my other drivers, but they don't do anything as this mode does not use palettes!

PUB SetPalette(y,c,r,g,b)
PUB SetPaletteRange(y1,y2,c,r,g,b)
PUB FillPalette(c,r,g,b)

The following functions are not available yet, I need to write a new pasm putchar routine:

PUB PutChar(xsrc,ysrc,ch)
PUB PutStr(xsrc,ysrc,strptr)
PUB PutBytes(xsrc,ysrc,bptr,bsiz)

Enjoy!

Bill

hover1
I have 3 Propellers

Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 374

Posted 10/22/2009 1:48 PM (GMT -8)

Bill, your killing me!! I have to wait wait for DIP40's to become avalable to try these on your boards. jumpin

Jim

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/22/2009 3:07 PM (GMT -8)

I don't want to kill you! Ken said he should have them around Nov.5

hover1 said...
Bill, your killing me!! I have to wait wait for DIP40's to become avalable to try these on your boards.

Jim

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/22/2009 9:28 PM (GMT -8)

UPDATE:

I *almost* have the missing routines working in 256 color mode!

PUB PutChar(xsrc,ysrc,ch)
PUB PutStr(xsrc,ysrc,strptr)
PUB PutBytes(xsrc,ysrc,bptr,bsiz)

Should be completed tomorrow.

I am adding a new API call:

Paper(c)

It will set the background color for character output, as in the 256 color mode it is not safe to assume that color 0 is the background color.

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/23/2009 1:26 PM (GMT -8)

UPDATES:

- I've added the Paper() method to the 256 color graphics library
- I've decided to make a 6x8 font for the 256 color modes

A 6x8 font will allow me to do the following:

- 42 columns by 24 lines at 256x192
- 53 columns by 30 rows at 320x240 (including on the nice 3.5" parallel 18 bit color LCD's I am testing!)
- 66 columns by 37 rows at 400x300
- 80 columns by 29 rows on the 480x234 displays I am getting from Ray with mctrivia's breakout boards
- 85 columns by 48 rows at 512x384

Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 10/23/2009 9:33:48 PM GMT

Bill Henning
Registered Member

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 962

Posted 10/29/2009 2:07 PM (GMT -8)

I've added a 640x480 60Hz (4 colors from 256 color palette) driver - it should be more compatible with older monitors that can't display the 69Hz version of the driver.

It also happens to speed up graphics - which is always a good thing!

In other news:

- the text output for 256 color modes is almost working
- I have 3.5" NTSC LCD monitors in stock, available for $50US+s/h
- I have just received my first shipment of 5" VGA monitors - they look amazing! I am tweaking the Morpheus drivers them.

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