Got some P1 code for EVE2 working on P2

Rayman

Wasn't too hard with Fastspin to get P1 code working on P2.
Might be some work to get it working with PNut though...

I did have a lot of trouble at first though because I was using a 7" LCD that apparently loaded down the 5V power supply too much.
Worked right away after switching to a 4.3" eve2 display module.

I'm looking forward to trying out QPI mode with this thing. Should make loading up images much faster...
Might try movie playing again...

Rayman

BTW: Found that the Parallax "SPI_Spin" worked almost as is.
Just had to change the ina to inb, etc. due to this being on Port B.

{{      
************************************************
* Propeller SPI Engine  ... Spin Version  v1.0 *
* Author: Beau Schwabe                         *
* Copyright (c) 2009 Parallax                  *
* See end of file for terms of use.            *
************************************************

Rayman

I think I'm going to attempt to connect EVE2 to VGA output.
If you want to make a P2 game console, I think this is the way to do it...

It's limited to WVGA or SVGA, but has some pretty good capabilities...
Check out Gameduino3, that uses EVE2:
https://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino3/

Wuerfel_21

That EVE2 aka FT815 is quite an interesting chip, I've just skimmed the datasheet and manual and some examples. Seems to be able to draw stupid amounts (depending on resolution...) of lines and 2D sprites with affine transformation... and then fall apart when you try to do anything that isn't that? Filling arbitrary shapes (including triangles) seems to require a workaround with edge lists and the stencil buffer. And there isn't a 32bpp texture format (you can apparently do 8bpp with 32bpp palette, but it's a weird hack). And of course you don't get perspective distortion, but it's not made for 3D, so it's ok. And the built-in audio is basically worthless, but the P2 has good audio itself.

The big problem I see is that programs aren't portable at all between different LCD/output resolutions, since the internal render output can't be scaled in any way.

Am certainly interested to see if you can get it to do VGA.

Rayman

My code works for all sizes of displays... You do have to move things around to fit into the visible area though...

Rayman

I added power to the AUX input and now can do the 7" version too.

Rayman

BTW: I think it can do some simple 3D in a roundabout way... If you 3D object is made up of 2D primatives, you can just rotate them into position and draw them.
I see a gameduino example (cobra) that looks like it does this (but haven't checked).

Rayman

BTW: I may want to get the BT815/6 working. It adds a flash chip interface. This will let it show a splash screen immediately on boot.
That's one issue I have with my P1 setup is that it takes too long to load up a full screen image, even in jpg form.

With P2 I feel like I have enough pins to switch to QPI interface. This may make it acceptable. We'll see...

Wuerfel_21

Rayman wrote: »

BTW: I think it can do some simple 3D in a roundabout way... If you 3D object is made up of 2D primatives, you can just rotate them into position and draw them.
I see a gameduino example (cobra) that looks like it does this (but haven't checked).

I've actually looked at that one. It uses the aforementioned edge list+stencil buffer trick to draw filled polygons (all the transformation and lighting is done in software) I think this could be extended with textures, but they'd be incorrectly mapped, like on the original PlayStation.

Wuerfel_21

Rayman wrote: »

My code works for all sizes of displays... You do have to move things around to fit into the visible area though...

That's what I meant. If you write a program for one screen size, you need to modify it a lot to get it going on a different size screen.

Rayman

The other then the direct flash connection of BT815/6 would be useful for is a place to store the resistive touchscreen calibration data.
My P1 driver stored it in the upper part of EEPROM. Think I'll use the FSRW for flash to do a similar thing for now.

I actually like the capacitive screens better, but I'm thinking that there may be cases were resistive is better. (still on the fence about this).

Rayman

I just found a nice looking 5" 800x480 panel with EVE2 chip on it and capacitive touch for a nice looking price here:
https://www.hotmcu.com/5-graphical-lcd-capacitive-touch-screen-800x480-spi-ft811-p-301.html?cPath=6_16

They also have a 7" version with no EVE chip, but I could connect that to my own board with EVE3 chip I suppose...

I really want to try EVE3 (BT815/6) because I think the direct flash interface will open up some more possibilities.

On the other hand, I'm seeing P2 being able to send data to the EVE2 more quickly than P1 and with eMMC and SQI to EVE2, maybe it's a wash...

jmg

Rayman wrote: »

I just found a nice looking 5" 800x480 panel with EVE2 chip on it and capacitive touch for a nice looking price here:
https://www.hotmcu.com/5-graphical-lcd-capacitive-touch-screen-800x480-spi-ft811-p-301.html?cPath=6_16

They also have a 7" version with no EVE chip...

Nice displays, the 7" one has a large chip mounted, but seems to have no SCH's ?

Rayman

I think you don’t really need it. The 40 pin connectors seem to almost a standard interface.

jmg

Rayman wrote: »

I think you don’t really need it. The 40 pin connectors seem to almost a standard interface.

I was curious what the large chip was. The QFN part is the Cap touch sensor, but the larger gull wing part may be ?
Perhaps it is parallel RGB to LVDS, with the LCD being LVDS directly, based on the PCB routing ?
Maybe a THC63LVDM83D ? - could be a useful companion part for P2, for those wanting less-overclock risk and more predictable operation ?