PTP2 almost ready!
Rayman
Posts: 14,876
Hardware side is done:
Software almost finished...
Spent a lot of time figuring out the ins and outs of the VGA driver so that
the PTP2 driver is more of an adaptation and less of a hack...
Anyway, I put back in the ability to scale the tiles in x and y. In this photo, I've scaled both x and y 7X so that there are only 4 tiles shown:
As you can see, this makes for a very small package as the screen is just about the same size as the
GadgetGangster.com Propeller Platform board underneath.
I've just added the abilty to show embedded Windows Bitmap files.
I'm using 19kB to embed a 160x120 (256 color) Bitmap file into the program.
The code then stretches in x and y two times to fill the screen in these photos:
Software almost finished...
Spent a lot of time figuring out the ins and outs of the VGA driver so that
the PTP2 driver is more of an adaptation and less of a hack...
Anyway, I put back in the ability to scale the tiles in x and y. In this photo, I've scaled both x and y 7X so that there are only 4 tiles shown:
As you can see, this makes for a very small package as the screen is just about the same size as the
GadgetGangster.com Propeller Platform board underneath.
I've just added the abilty to show embedded Windows Bitmap files.
I'm using 19kB to embed a 160x120 (256 color) Bitmap file into the program.
The code then stretches in x and y two times to fill the screen in these photos:
1024 x 768 - 88K
1024 x 768 - 140K
1024 x 768 - 95K
1024 x 768 - 90K
1024 x 768 - 86K
1024 x 768 - 101K
Comments
By chance, is there a 4.3" screen that is compatible with this?
Bill
Is there a MicroSD card holder on the PTP2?
But, I'm only using 6-bit color there. Those screens don't have the DE mode option like these ones, so I can't go 8-bit color.
Thanks Cluso.
William, It's really all available now. Cost will be $40 for shield and screen (plus shipping). I just want to finish up the bitmap driver and make it presentable... Then, I'll work on a product web page...
BTW: The bitmaps are actually pixelated, but still look OK. This is really only 160x120 resolution (stretched to 320x240). And it's with a fixed 8-bit palette. It's actually very close to what you can do with the TV driver, but a little bit better since all 256 color values are valid. I'll attach here the source bitmaps. I've used Photoshop to index them with this palette and do some error difffusion to give the best result.
What I meant was if someone wants to embed the PTP2 into another finished product, how many years will it continue to be available in the future?
Is the uSD card reader on the underside of the PCB?
The time this will be available will depend mostly on demand and supply of LCD screens. I have several hundred screens. When they are gone, I think I can get a few hundred more. After that, these screens are available elsewhere, but I'd probably look at what options would provide the lowest cost...
If all goes well, I'll be sold out by the end of the year
3.5" LCDs like this one are used in many, many products. So, I expect that similar displays will be around for a long, long time.
BTW: A uSD card reader was not used in these examples. But, the Propeller Platform USB does have a uSD reader.
It's done just with the Prop. The image quality isn't all that great (160x120 resolution, 8-bit color), but it's a lot better than PTP1 because the # of pins used for color has increased from 6 to 8.
KMyers,
Yes, this board was designed for the GG Prop Platform USB. It just plugs right in (after you solder on header pins).
Thanks. Earthquakes, Tornados and Hurricanes don't help much either...