More colors?

DNAMusic

Is there a way to get at least full screen 16 color tv out of the Propeller? What is my best option here? Are there any similar micros that offer such capabilities? Thanks.

DNAMusic

Rather that should read - what are my options here?

Mike Green

Take a look at some of the TV drivers discussed in the Hydra forum. Several people have been working on drivers that support more colors.

Baggers

Hi DNAMusic,

Yes, the propeller can have 256x192 x 16 colour, or even 320x200 x 16colour, but limit pretty much ANYTHING else, due to their ram requirements, unless like our PropGFX Lite, their only function is graphics output, and doesn't need SD drivers/keyboard/mouse drivers etc. or even any spin code.

So it's more what are you're requirements for this device? ie, what other things do you need the propeller to be doing? like is it the only chip in the circuit (ie is it handling keyboard/mouse etc inputs, driving an SD for retreiving graphics etc. ) ? or is it only doing graphics supplied by another prop, or different device?

Baggers.

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DNAMusic

Hi, thanks for your help. Well its pretty much going to be doing graphics and MIDI input, not much else. How can I get 320x200 x 16 colors? Is that the Hydra drivers? I will check the Hydra forums, thanks Mike. And what exactly is the PropGFX?

Baggers

well, you won't get 320x200 x 16colours and anything else, as it takes 32000 bytes for the screen, so you won't get much ram left for your midi drivers etc, or indeed pretty much anything else, like graphics to put on the screen etc.

as for what exactly is the PropGFX, it's a Dip40 device, which has a Propeller on it, and is a dedicated graphics driver using it's full 32Kb for the display and it's registers etc. check out our forum, there's plenty of info and pics and videos of it in action.

http://www.propgfx.co.uk/forum/Blah.pl?b-PL/


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

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DNAMusic

Very cool, can I buy one?

Baggers

Thanks, almost, we're almost ready to put em up for sale [noparse]:)[/noparse] and don't worry, we'll post when it's ready [noparse];)[/noparse]

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Ale

A hybrid driver that can output 320x200 at 16 colors can be possible using a tiled mode. All depends on the need for bitmapped graphics. For instance with 192 or so characters to redefine you can do some pretty nice graphics with somewhat limited color variability. a-la C64 (it only had 16 k VRAM). To draw a keyboard and things like that, the text mode drivers may be an option

Baggers

Yes, Like Ale says, you can do higher resolutions if you use a character mode, and it doesn't eat up all the ram, you can even use all the available propeller colours that way too. [noparse];)[/noparse]

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DNAMusic

So what is the PropGFX compared to the lite? Are there schematics and source available for something like this if I wanted to build my own? Can you give us a time frame for the PropGFX lites? I am trying to use the Propeller to build a prototype for work so unfortunately I need to figure out if I can get this to work relatively soon or I need to find another chip. I really like the propeller it just seems all the chips I look at only have limited fullscreen color output.

Is there a way to add external memory for a video buffer, or maybe an external graphics circuit alltogether? Does anyone know of any schematics for something like this?

DNAMusic

Oh and thank you all very much for your help! I really appreciate it.

Coley

Hi,

PropGFX is still at the prototype stage but PropGFX Lite will be available in the next couple of weeks, once the web shop is finished.
I should get the first units in the next couple of days and I will post pictures on our site as soon as I have them.

My advice to you would be to go for a two prop solution be it PropGFX Lite or your own solution as that gives you access to 32K of video ram
Buffering data from SD Card is relatively easy, have you seen the video player we have done?

Coley

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PropGFX Forums - The home of the Hybrid Development System and PropGFX Lite

vampyre

hope its ok if i jump into the conversation, i'm sure there's a better thread for this somewhere but you guys already seem to be talking about it. When the lite is available for sale, will be assembled or in kit form? Will the software be open source/hackable?

Coley

Hi vampyre

It will be available for sale in assembled form only and it will not be open source, but, it is entirely hackable as the Prop programming pins are brought out to the DIP40 connector.

Baggers is tweaking the firmware just now, he's got so many 'modes' in there now and he always seems to be coming up with new ones.

Regards,

Coley

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PropGFX Forums - The home of the Hybrid Development System and PropGFX Lite

vampyre

thats cool. I'm sure i'm not the only one drooling over the release, thanks for the reply [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Baggers

Yeah thanks, there seems to be a good few waiting this release [noparse]:)[/noparse] which is nice lol

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