Help us make a great product

[anikolic]

What features would you expect from a touch-screen device with a microcontroller?
What display size, connectivity, integration features, on-board modules?
What would you use it for?

Anyone who is interested to participate is more than welcome to post an opinion.
We have some cool ideas, but we want to hear you as well.
Help us make the product that will suit most of your project needs.
Make sure to describe where will you be using such a product,
so we can plan product integration features as well.

Thanks everyone!

Yours sincerely,
mikroElektronika

[Teo1]

Hi, something like " Rack designer " from http://www.easyvitools.com/rdesign/index.html
Thanks in advance,
Teo

[anikolic]

Thanks for posting.

We already have Visual TFT software, and we are actively working on
adding more and more components for development. Have you tried the software already?

[Teo1]

Not yet but I'll try. If you implement and virtual instruments will be great. Thank you again.
Teo

[p.erasmus]

Not yet but I'll try. If you implement and virtual instruments will be great. Thank you again.

This is moveing away form the topic however this was ask for at the very first release of VTFT and I still hope that we would see this in VTFT

[bartt]

I'd like to see a couple of hardware versions with various screen sizes (3, 4, 6, 7, 10 inch) and high resolution (720p).
Perhaps the screen is a separate unit with common interface and connectors.
A ruggedized (shock and vibration; -20..85C temp or better) version would be very useful for my line of business as well.
Integrated (optional) EMI filters would be another nice feature.
Capacitive touch or more sensitive resistive touch.

Hope it helps..

[MicroMark]

Hello,

I think it would nice to have custom molded project boxes for the multimedia
displays. With display window cut out and openings for Usb/audio connectors.
Maybe a couple of styles ie, slim like a cell phone and a deeper box for industrial type applications.

Consider using spi touch pad controllers. I get conflicts when I want to do high
speed ad sampling using fractional results and then have to re-initialize the ad
convertor for the touch pad. Any Hints? The spi controllers have a interupt output pin which lets you do "on interupt" vs. "polling" the tp.


I just received my Multimedia Workstation v7 from Mouser. It's really great and will speed up new designs!

Thanks

[Sy]

I don't know much about this product, but could the graphics support SVG ?

I have done quite a lot of work on SVG and using it to build interactive displays, here's my demo page:

http://svggui.com/demo/virDesktop.php

[hexreader]

Not sure if I know exactly what I am asking for - but I'll try....

I find that I have to manually put a prototype and function "user_init();" into every Visual TFT project that I start.

It would be nice if Visual TFT had a user_init() (or similar function name) as standard, and a section before "user code goes here" comment with something like "user initialisation code goes here" then an empty user_init() function.

Does that make sense?

Otherwise, Visual TFT is a fantastic and indispensable product. I would hate to try and start any TFT project without it.

Many thanks

[Fakir]

Hi,
I quite like the idea of your Mikromedia series, but (there's always a but, isn't it? ) for me, it is too multimedia oriented. It's unlikely that I'd ever need to develop a pocket/handheld MP3 player or gaming console, but there are plenty of devices that I may develop and those need a great user interface.

I'd love to have a touchscreen module, more suitable to be used as an embedded control interface for a more complex devices. I don't need an MP3 codec, accelerometer, nor the battery charger logic. I need a slightly bigger LCD to make the UI of a comfortable size for finger control (who uses a stylus these days), which would also need a capacitive touch layer. The on-board MCU should have enough power and capacity to fully handle the display/input operations and enough communication port options (I2C, SPI, TTL serial) to interface with the main "CPU" of the device. I would treat the display board as just an I/O device and wouldn't bother letting it control anything more than a few LEDs and use a separate MCU for the rest (but this would of course depend on the project).

So, to make it short: I'd love to have a slightly bigger cap-touch Mikromedia with no/minimal on-board accessories, and a bit cheaper, of course.

Would something like that be possible, or it is a crazy idea?

Best regards,
Tom

[RomanT]

1. Adjusting the brightness of the display and battery level indicator and clock and the effect of scroll Screens (function for VisualTFT)
2. correct use of ports microcontroller (ATMega1280), occupied by the port to be used on another (for example, why take the ports, PG3-PG4, for horal the quartz resonator for internal RTC)
3. more usage examples for AVR - PWM, ADC, INT, external devices ADC, RTC - Click Boards
4. Development Boards mikromedia Workstation v7 for AVR

[labman]

one of the annoyances of visualtft is adding user code.

The generated code only scans the touchpanel. What if other things need to be done besides servicing the toucscreen adn lcd. Like reading an a/d every 1 millisecond or checking digital inputs and update the display depending on the state of certain inputs. There should be a default function call 'processor' that runs concurrently with the touchpanel.

other idea's : larger touch lcd sizes that have a 'universal' interface connector and cases for them
basically i wuld pick the display i want and it would be able to 'mate' with any cpu board i want through this univrsal connector. The carrier pcb would have level translation , backlight control ( 2 input pins : on/off and pwm or analog voltage to dim it ) and apin to power / shutdown the display the connector would be a 2mm or 1.127mm picth ( nobodoy uses the 100 mil pitch anymore. waaaay too bulky ) dual row pinheader. carrying : d0..d15 , rd , wr, 3v3 , on/off , backlight , backlight dim , xl,xr,yt,yb ( touch signals ). this carrier pcb needs to be thin !

the carrier pcb would have 4 'wings' with holes so you can screw them on to a case.
every of these lcd panels should have a case for them. essentially a nice plastic case with the correct cutout so only the touch area protrudes. border should be covered with case.

The case should have 2 parts :
- the frontshell: a shell holding the display. This needs to be as thin as possible ( essentially the plastic + lcd thickness + carrier thickness )
- a backshell : this mates with the frontshell and is avaialble in 2 or 3 thicknesses , with and without battery compartment

Code: Select all

  
 / ________                                  ____________
/    S  =====================================       S  \  < lcd : borders and non-active areas covered by plastic
|------------------------------------------------------|  < carrier pcb screwed into front shell (S = screw)
  ||                                                      < dual row connector
  
|                                                      | backshell style 0
 \___S______________________________________________S_/  < S = screw 'stud' to mount pcb on inside
 
 
|                                                      | backshell style 1
|                                                      |
 \___S______________________________________________S_/  
 
|                                                      | 
|                                                      | backshell style 2
|                                                      |
 \____________________________________________________/  

|                                                      | 
|                                         -------------|  backshell style 4
|                                        | battery     |
 \_______________________________________|____________/  

[Hazelden]

Hi Hexreader.

I just thought I would mention that most people don't realize they can modify the main function in the VisualTFT generated code. The main.c file isn't overwritten every time you click the "generate code" button so you can init anything you want, setup interrupts, and call your own functions before / after the "Check_TP()" line.

Here is a simple example:

Code: Select all

void main() {

  Start_TP();
  
  //PIC32 Mikromedia Piezo Buzzer = RF4 / Group 4.2
  Sound_Init(&PORTF, 4);
  
  while (1) {
    Check_TP();
    
    Do_Something_Else();
    
  }

}

Edit: Also the function Check_TP() exits after checking for user input so your own code will be executed regularly if placed inside the same while(1) while loop.

Regards,
Andrew

[hexreader]

Hi Hexreader.
I just thought I would mention that most people don't realize they can modify the main function in the VisualTFT generated code.

I am one of those people that did not realise

Fantastic tip! Thank you so much for replying with it. This will make my life so much easier.

..... and I love the code you posted on libstock.

Please never leave this forum

Edit: Just saw your Workstation7 joystick mod on your blog. I think I might steal this idea too, assuming that you don't mind. The supplied joystick is not very nice as it is.

[Hazelden]

Edit: Just saw your Workstation7 joystick mod on your blog. I think I might steal this idea too, assuming that you don't mind. The supplied joystick is not very nice as it is.

I would love to see a slightly higher grade joystick included by default on the Mikromedia Workstation board.

You need to be careful if you try my workstation joystick mod. I found hot glue works fine but CA glue didn't adhere properly. Also, if you play to exciting of a game the hotglue lets go and the ball pops off the end of the joystick.





Regards,
Andrew