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Need big TV font — Parallax Forums

Need big TV font

Beanie2kBeanie2k Posts: 83
edited 2011-05-13 16:54 in Propeller 1
Well after several years just reading this forum I finally got around to doing something with my Prop. My project includes a vehicle dashboard display for which I am using a modified (gutted for legal reasons) DVD player. I am using the Prop to display text messages and numbers (via the RCA output) about certain engine parameters (temp RPM vacuum etc.). I find the standard TV.spin font to be too small for someone my age to read safely. Graphics.spin gives me the right size font but takes up so much RAM that I have none left for data processing. There is a graphics package (MPE XOR Graphics) which omits the double buffering thus freeing RAM but for my display the flicker is too great. Is there a way to use the ROM font as in TV.spin but have it larger?

Comments

  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,877
    edited 2008-08-15 20:25
    I don't know about that...

    But, you can create your own font and display it with my interleaved character app:

    http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/Programming/InterleavedCharacter.htm



    If that's still not big enough, you can create numbers as graphics of any size with this 1-bit bitmap app:

    http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/Programming/1-BitBitmap/1-Bit%20Bitmaps.htm
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2008-08-15 21:48
    AiGeneric can be programmed for 20x24 with just a little modification.
    (and there should be no flicker.)

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=704974

    OBC

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    New to the Propeller?

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    Got an SD card connected? - PropDOS
  • Erik FriesenErik Friesen Posts: 1,071
    edited 2008-08-15 21:52
    Here is something I have used. It may have some oddities I have added and may not wrap around like the regular driver.
    spin
    spin
    TV_Textlarge.spin
    6K
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,877
    edited 2008-08-15 23:25
    That looks like just the regular TV driver with reduced rows and columns.· Is that right?·

    That would definitely be the easy way to go!
  • Erik FriesenErik Friesen Posts: 1,071
    edited 2008-08-16 01:21
    Yes it is. I needed big letters so I just started trying numbers in ignorance and got it to work. I was using the parallax screen and you can hardly read the letters with the regular driver. I don't think it will scroll the letters down when you fill the screen because I never figured that out at the time.
  • Beanie2kBeanie2k Posts: 83
    edited 2008-08-16 03:47
    Thanks for the replies everyone! The TV_Textlarge.spin looks like it is what I need. I am at work now, so I can't try it out, but I will sometime this weekend. Again, thanks.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2008-08-16 04:00
    You might want to take a look at this one too..
    (Just thought of it this evening...)

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=654282

    OBC

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    New to the Propeller?

    Getting started with a Propeller Protoboard?
    Check out: Introduction to the Proboard & Propeller Cookbook 1.4
    Updates to the Cookbook are now posted to: Propeller.warrantyvoid.us
    Got an SD card connected? - PropDOS
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2011-05-09 23:51
    So I have looked at several objects and threads on big fonts, but since I know nothing about tile drivers, I can't figure out which object to start with for a large font display. Basically, I need both a TV and VGA output in which the font size is about 1/3 the screen size.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-05-10 00:12
    TV_text will display expanded fonts, based on the row- and column-count arguments you specify.

    -Phil
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2011-05-11 08:31
    Phil, Thanks for the obvious tip. I use TV_text so much as a default, I never thought to actually look inside the code to see what could be messed with for my needs. I assumed it would be much more difficult since people have made various other objects for changing fonts, etc, for TV output.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2011-05-12 21:22
    Well, maybe I am missing something, but any changes I make to the rows an columns just change the area used by the demo text; it's still the same size font. (using the TV_Text demo in the Propeller tool library). I tried the TV_textLarge from that one link, but that doesn't work either. It is larger, but not large enough. I need digits about 1/3 screen height.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-05-12 21:29
    Andrew,

    Take a look at the terminal firmware for the Propeller Backpack:

    It is able to coax different font sizes from the TV driver. I thought it was just a matter of setting the row and column sizes, but it's been awhile, so there may be someting I've forgotten.

    -Phil
  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-12 21:31
    Then use Graphics.SPIN The one included in the Graphics Demo, it allows you to display text at just about any height/width.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2011-05-12 21:34
    Graphics.spin has a much heftier RAM footprint than the text objects require.

    -Phil
  • davidsaundersdavidsaunders Posts: 1,559
    edited 2011-05-12 21:45
    Phil:
    True: Though this can be reduced quite a bit by striping out unused functions.
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2011-05-13 07:49
    To scale the text in tv_text or vga_text, you have to change rows and columns and also the horizontal and vertical multipliers hx and vx.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2011-05-13 12:04
    Phil/David: Thanks for the tips, I messed around with both and ended up getting good results from graphics.spin by hacking up the graphics demo. My only issue is that it appears that I can only have 4 colors??

    localroger: Thanks, I looked at those when I was digging through the code, but didn't change them in my hacking. I will revisit that, but I think I graphics.spin will be my best bet since I need to do some "drawing".

    FYI: attached is a picture of my target display with the correct colors. I need black, green, red, and blue. More colors would be better.

    TimerDisplay.jpg

    .
    TimerDisplay.jpg
    313 x 252 - 35K
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2011-05-13 16:00
    You should be aware that saturated red against black smears very badly with NTSC video; it's the worst transition in the entire palette with only about half a megahertz bandwidth. Red transitions beautifully to white, but unfortunately blue, which is nice and sharp against black, smears against white almost as badly as red against black. This is why I spent January writing VGA drivers.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2011-05-13 16:54
    Good to know. The red and green are the only colors that are absolute; the blue and black can be changed for best appearance. This project will actually be made in both VGA and NTSC output versions, so I may start looking at the VGA now. I was going to use NTSC first to get the user interface coded because I have a screen that is VERY portable and that makes it easy to do development when it also gets thrown into my backpack frequently. I will have to pull out my small VGA screen as well I guess and find the best way to continue working on the code.
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