cheaper large instrument displays - mast mount

ShaunG said:
Any brief on sizes, meaning and number required...we may have a volunteer or 2 to create them that way...BMP's can be created in just about any photo or picture software and saved as a bitmap
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The ones I'm using for the blue display are too small as the screen is the wrong resolution, but I still have the old ones for the display I did years ago that I posted way back in this thread.

There was a comment that the large characters are too spindly, which I agree with. The easiest way would be for me to zip up all the existing ones and send them to you (or whoever) for a bit of furtling. The button images may need to be made more pretty as well.

The bitmaps are for...

Huge characters 0123456789PS:. (56x100 except .: which are 56x16)
Large characters: A-Z and 0-9 (each character 25x16)
Buttons: up, down, enter, cancel, stop, go, 10, 5, 0. (32x32)

The huge characters and buttons are in individual bitmap files, the large characters and combined in 2 files, one for letters and one for digits.

All bitmaps must be monochrome. I have a tool that converts the .bmp files to .c files that I can send. The header of each .c file needs a minor edit that is simple to do.

If we are going to cope with foreign languages then the large character and the standard 5x7 font needs extenting to add accented characters.
 
nigelmercier said:
Silly question perhaps, but what are the bitmaps for?
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For the fonts and button images. They are converted to a C file automatically and end up looking like this...

#include <stdint.h>
const uint8_t bmp_down_button[]={
0,0,0,0,
127,254,0,0,
64,2,0,0,
64,2,0,0,
65,130,0,0,
64,2,0,0,
67,194,0,0,
64,2,0,0,
71,226,0,0,
64,2,0,0,
79,242,0,0,
64,2,0,0,
95,250,0,0,
64,2,0,0,
127,254,0,0,
0,0,0,0};

/* Bitmap width: 16 */
/* Bitmap height 16 */

...which is built into the binary image.
 
Feel free to send them over, do you still have my email address?..sounds like something I can do fairly easily using photoshop and gimp..unless someone else would like to volunteer so that they can be involved..I am sure we have some photoshop gurus on here
 
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nigelmercier said:
So why go via a bitmap image? Why not use a graphic LCD font creator?
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For the huge characters I need just a small subset: 0-9, dot and colon, P and S. Does the font creator allow that, or does it insist on a full set?

I still need to do the button images somehow, which are not fonts.

Another advantage of having bitmaps is that the conversion to C files can be done on a command line, so can be put in a make file or listed in an IDE , and the C files created as part of the build process...update a bitmap, rebuild, everything updated.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
Does the font creator allow that, or does it insist on a full set?
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It isn't really a font creator, it just converts the drawing of a glyph (or button) on the screen into the data statements. The range is flexible.

I guess it is really a bitmap editor with a built-in converter, but it does have the advantage of a preview of what you are drawing.
 
ShaunG said:
Feel free to send them over, do you still have my email address?..sounds like something I can do fairly easily using photoshop and gimp..unless someone else would like to volunteer so that they can be involved..I am sure we have some photoshop gurus on here
Click to expand...

I'll send them with a new version of the code. There's no hurry for them as I don't have a 240x128 LCD working yet - maybe next weekend. The current bitmaps I have for that resolution are also adequate for now, if not perfect.
 
Just added a second serial port so now you can do your printf(hello, world.\n"), and put in CRC checking of the settings in flash. If a power down happens as the settings are being written they could get corrupted. There is plenty of space for a backup copy though. At the moment if they are found to be bad they just return to defaults.

All dull stuff. No pretty pictures.
 
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Bah!

I had added handling for 10 NMEA data types when I got a bit bored with doing that (as it's repetative now the framework is there) when I decided to do something more interesting instead and started experimenting with contrast control. Unfortunately, in a moment of wiring incompetence I shoved -18 volts up a DAC output line on the processor, and it got grumpy and has refused to do anything at all since.

Bah! So we now have our first casualty - a dead STM32 Discovery board. I can't do anything at all with it.

Should never let software people near more than 5 volts, and then only positive ones. :mad:
 
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ShaunG said:
If you pm me your address I can send you a spare..inneeded to make up an order size so bought another last week
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It had a decent burial.

SDC11519.jpg
 
AngusMcDoon said:
Should never let software people near more than 5 volts, and then only positive ones. :mad:
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My current PIC project runs on 3.3V, and I'm getting increasingly paranoid about all the 12V feeds on the board. I'm using an optocoupler for an AC feed from the alternator (as it has a variable level), but still not happy with using a simple PD for each of the static 12V feeds, especially as they may be subject to spikes.
 
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