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DVI or HDMI shield with true color output: 4.3" plugin works too - Page 4 — Parallax Forums

DVI or HDMI shield with true color output: 4.3" plugin works too

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Comments

  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,140
    edited 2012-05-17 04:44
    Rayman wrote: »
    jmg, Why would you still want 24-bit access to SSD if given both LCD and VGA connectors?

    Actually, the LCD connector provides 24-bit access... Is that good enough? Or, what did you have in mind?

    I was meaning on the host/MCU interface side, - you are right we would likely not need the LCD drive pins, but if those can 'fit' to a std grid as well, that is always a good idea. It would allow users to experiment with alternate VGA DACs, for example.
  • average joeaverage joe Posts: 795
    edited 2012-06-06 03:27
    Hi Ray, great work!

    I'm curious if this could be adapted to "standard" 40-pin LCD interface on the MCU side, and DVI/VGA only for output. See Dr_A and I have been working on several very nice boards and I would like to use one of the Dual-Screen boards for LCD and DVI/VGA. Any advice would be appreciated!
  • Don MDon M Posts: 1,647
    edited 2012-06-06 03:54
    Rayman wrote: »
    should have a tiny PCB for the capacitive touch connector ready in about 2 weeks. It's I2C, so you'll just have to run jumper wires to Vcc, Gnd, SDA and SCL (pins 28 and 29).
    I've actually added an extra header for these 4 pins on the 4.3" plugin for the DVI Graphics shield.
    I think I should be fairly easy to add this to NH4 solutions too, since it has the regular 2-row Propeller Platform

    Ray- any progress on these yet? Available?
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-06-06 15:04
    average joe,
    Yes, I think it should be straightforward to share the same MCU interface with two screens. Just need a seperate CS\ pin for each screen.

    Don,
    I've got the adapters and the 4.3" capacitive touchscreen. Ordered a 5" capacitive screen yesterday. Just haven't had time to try them out yet.
    Hopefully, this weekend I'll finally have a chance to try them out with DVI graphics and NH4 boards...
  • Don MDon M Posts: 1,647
    edited 2012-06-19 14:48
    Ray are you going to bring the new adaptors along with when you come to UPEC this Saturday? I'll take some.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-06-19 17:18
    I will definitely have some. Try to find time to make a basic I2C driver for it too...
    Just finished a batch of the 4.3" and 5" touchscreen plugins too. These have a 4-pin header to hook up to the capacitive touch breakout.
    I'm very hopeful that I'll have a 5" display working to show at UPEC. I think it's going to look very impressive (if it works)...

    BTW: I've heard that some phones now have both resistive and capacitive touchscreens, one on top of the other.
    I think I can do that to for the Newhaven 4.3" and 5" screens, but not sure if it will work right...
  • Jim FouchJim Fouch Posts: 395
    edited 2012-06-24 06:33
    Rayman wrote: »
    I will definitely have some. Try to find time to make a basic I2C driver for it too...
    Just finished a batch of the 4.3" and 5" touchscreen plugins too. These have a 4-pin header to hook up to the capacitive touch breakout.
    I'm very hopeful that I'll have a 5" display working to show at UPEC. I think it's going to look very impressive (if it works)...

    BTW: I've heard that some phones now have both resistive and capacitive touchscreens, one on top of the other.
    I think I can do that to for the Newhaven 4.3" and 5" screens, but not sure if it will work right...

    Ray,

    Do you have the part number for the 5" LCD you were showing in Chicago?
  • Jim FouchJim Fouch Posts: 395
    edited 2012-06-24 13:18
    Don M wrote: »

    Anyone know if the capacitance touch sensor will still work through 1/16" acrylic? I need to enclose this display for outdoor use?

    Ray, could I send you a piece of the acrylic to test the touch screen on yours?
  • Don MDon M Posts: 1,647
    edited 2012-06-24 13:58
    I'm going to guess that it won't or at least be very unresponsive. But it would be interesting to find out.

    You could just try a piece on your cell phone if you have a touch screen on that. Same thing.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-06-24 14:38
    I'll test it out (soon as I get it working). I'm sure I have thin acrylic around here somewhere...
    I've heard that this type of touchscreen can work fine with suff on top.
    I think the sensor is already on the underside of the glass so it reads through a sheet of glass already...

    On the other hand, I've heard of people having trouble with this type of screen when wearing gloves, which would seem to be a similar thing...
  • Jim FouchJim Fouch Posts: 395
    edited 2012-06-24 18:11
    Don M wrote: »
    I'm going to guess that it won't or at least be very unresponsive. But it would be interesting to find out.

    You could just try a piece on your cell phone if you have a touch screen on that. Same thing.

    I confirmed that the touch screen on my phone does NOT work through 1/16" of acrylic.

    Looks like I will have to encase a normal LCD and then attach a touch screen on the front. This needs to work in the rain.
  • Don MDon M Posts: 1,647
    edited 2012-06-24 18:21
    Actually the face of the capacitive touch screen is glass so if you just had a way of sealing it around the outside edges you would be fine.

    Trying to use it while it has any moisture on the screen will be a problem.
  • Jim FouchJim Fouch Posts: 395
    edited 2012-06-24 18:27
    Don M wrote: »
    Actually the face of the capacitive touch screen is glass so if you just had a way of sealing it around the outside edges you would be fine.

    Trying to use it while it has any moisture on the screen will be a problem.

    I've thought about that too. Maybe have the display sit behind a bezel and seal it around the very edges may work. There will not be a lot of interaction with the display. It will be a motorcycle instrument display.
    I’m a bit worried about using it with gloves on. I can also have a secondary input option like a rotary encoder with an button.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-06-24 18:28
    Resistive might be better in rain... Water has a very high dielectric constant... That has got to mess up capacitive screens, although I don't really know for sure...

    As Don says though, sealing on the perimeter of the screen is probably the safer route, especially for resistive.

    Hopefully, I'll have the capacitive screen talking in a couple days...
  • max72max72 Posts: 1,155
    edited 2012-06-25 00:49
    Capacitive have problems with water and do not work with gloves, unless you get a smartphone friendly pair of gloves, which usually come in a nice pastel tint.. :-)
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-06-25 03:37
    Think I've stompted out a bug that was causing the screen to go blank after some random number of minutes...
    Datasheet says I can bring WR low, set the databus, and then bring WR high to latch the data.
    But, it seems to like setting the databus first, then toggling WR much better.
    Anyway, it appears 100% stable now, so I'll post a revised driver later today.

    It could also be that this issue only shows up when you use long jumper wires for ground and power.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-06-27 16:33
    Here's the latest version of the driver (1k). The intermittent errors on the PropBOE are now fixed. It's been running for 2 days straight showing Ken's slides, so I think it's 100% now.

    DVI_Driver1k.spin

    Sold a couple of the 4.3" (and now 5") touchscreen plugins now, so I guess it's time to post that demo:
    4p3_Plugin_Demo1 - Archive [Date 2012.06.27 Time 21.07].zip

    This is just for the 4.3" screens though. The 5" one has different initialization commands.
    It's set for the Samsung interface by default.
    To use it with Newhaven 4.3" screens, just change this line in the driver:
    bUsingNewhaven4p3=false'true
    

    Also sold a couple of the VGA plugins. You don't need a different driver for that though...
    Just change this line in the DVI driver:
    bUsingVgaPlugin=false
    

    Soon as I calculate the regular price for the plugins, I'll put them for sale on the website.
  • Jim FouchJim Fouch Posts: 395
    edited 2012-06-30 21:31
    Ray,

    Do you know the DigiKey part number for the VGA connector for your VGA board? I

    thought I had some lying around, but can't seem to find them.

    I tried your website, but it appears to be down.
  • Jim FouchJim Fouch Posts: 395
    edited 2012-06-30 21:59
    Jim Fouch wrote: »
    Ray,

    Do you know the DigiKey part number for the VGA connector for your VGA board? I

    thought I had some lying around, but can't seem to find them.

    I tried your website, but it appears to be down.

    I wonder if these will match the footprint.... http://dx.com/p/female-15-pin-vga-socket-connector-black-silver-10-piece-pack-120276
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-07-01 06:07
    Jim, I meant to provide them with the board, but that slipped somehow... (was in a big hurry packing for UPEC...)
    I think this is the part I'm using: A35116-ND

    But, if you email me your address, I'll mail you one for free...
  • Jim FouchJim Fouch Posts: 395
    edited 2012-07-05 11:55
    Rayman wrote: »
    Here's the latest version of the driver (1k). The intermittent errors on the PropBOE are now fixed. It's been running for 2 days straight showing Ken's slides, so I think it's 100% now.

    DVI_Driver1k.spin

    Sold a couple of the 4.3" (and now 5") touchscreen plugins now, so I guess it's time to post that demo:
    4p3_Plugin_Demo1 - Archive [Date 2012.06.27 Time 21.07].zip

    This is just for the 4.3" screens though. The 5" one has different initialization commands.
    It's set for the Samsung interface by default.
    To use it with Newhaven 4.3" screens, just change this line in the driver:
    bUsingNewhaven4p3=false'true
    

    Also sold a couple of the VGA plugins. You don't need a different driver for that though...
    Just change this line in the DVI driver:
    bUsingVgaPlugin=false
    

    Soon as I calculate the regular price for the plugins, I'll put them for sale on the website.

    Ray,

    I got my 5" screen from DigiKey today. I saw you said the demo works with the 4.3" display. Is there anything special I need to do to make the 5" screen work. What about the touch screen?

    Thanks,

    Jim
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-07-05 13:11
    You need different code for the 5" screens...

    Here's demo code for the 5" Newhaven screens.
    It is currently set for resistive touchscreen.
    Still need to add in i2c code for capacitive screens...
    There is already an i2c driver included, so it shouldn't be too hard...

    5p0_Plugin_Demo1 - Archive [Date 2012.07.05 Time 16.36].zip

    Here are the example bitmaps for 4.3" touchscreen demo (and this one too, they just occupy the top left corner of 5" screen).

    4p3_bitmaps.zip
  • Jim FouchJim Fouch Posts: 395
    edited 2012-07-05 16:03
    Rayman wrote: »
    You need different code for the 5" screens...

    Here's demo code for the 5" Newhaven screens.
    It is currently set for resistive touchscreen.
    Still need to add in i2c code for capacitive screens...
    There is already an i2c driver included, so it shouldn't be too hard...

    5p0_Plugin_Demo1 - Archive [Date 2012.07.05 Time 16.36].zip

    Here are the example bitmaps for 4.3" touchscreen demo (and this one too, they just occupy the top left corner of 5" screen).

    4p3_bitmaps.zip

    Ray,

    Looks like the NewHaven 5" display had a controller for the touch screen in the cable for the 6 pin connector. It looks like an I2C interface. So, I'm guessing, the TI TSC2003 will not work to interface because that's designed to interface to a resistive touch screen. But, connecting the prop to the I2C interface should not be too hard.

    Looks like this is the connector we need for the Touch Screen...http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/52271-0679/WM7955CT-ND/1960704
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-07-06 03:42
    Jim, I guess you didn't see at UPEC but I have some tiny adapter PCBs with that 6-pin connector on them...

    CT_Adapter.jpg


    Still haven't had a chance to test them, but there's not much to go wrong...
    1024 x 768 - 63K
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-08-08 10:29
    Made some progress showing a custom 8x16 pixel font on a 15" VGA touch panel...
    Used the font editor posted earlier to create a font based on the "Progo" font for Windows, found on the internet.

    Working toward a serial terminal application and then maybe a text editor.

    So far, I'm able to quickly show font characters in any colors.
    Here's what it looks like on this Triview monitor with random colors:
    Progo_Font.JPG

    Clearly some color choices are better than others...

    BTW: I tried this font out on the 5" Newhaven touchpanel and it's way to small... Had to break out a magnifying glass to see the pixels...
    It looks like the ROM font size of 16x32 is a better fit for the 5" screen with 800x480 resolution due to the dpi being so big...
    1024 x 768 - 123K
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,140
    edited 2012-08-08 17:14
    Rayman wrote: »
    Used the font editor posted earlier to create a font based on the "Progo" font for Windows, found on the internet.

    Interesting - google was not much help on Progo, do you have a Zip bundle of the Font editor, and that font, to play with ?
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-08-08 18:00
    Took me a minute to find it again... Think I should have said "Proggy" font:
    http://www.proggyfonts.com/


    BTW: Just "borrowed" the Windows on-screen keyboard for the Newhaven 5" display. I think it looks pretty good like this:
    New5p0_OSK.jpg

    But, this is 4-bit color and I think you can see the gradients, so may have to go to 8-bit color...
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  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,140
    edited 2012-08-08 19:54
    Rayman wrote: »
    Took me a minute to find it again... Think I should have said "Proggy" font:
    http://www.proggyfonts.com/

    Those seem to be single-pixel stroke fonts, and I thought your screen grab showed 2 pixels strokes?
    They also tag BMP, but are .FON files that do not load into your font editor - is there another conversion step needed ?
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 13,805
    edited 2012-08-09 03:35
    Here's the exact settings and bmp file:
    ProggyCleanCo.png
    ProgoCo.bmp


    Right now, it just saves as .bmp file. But, I think that will have to change to include more information...
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    256 x 128 - 96K
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