Graphical Displays with PBP3

[rocket_troy]

I've just tried that but I'm confused: I can pick a standard font and make something up from that using the tool, but what do I do then? Do I "export" it? Exporting, produces the matrix of hex codes for the font graphics but that's all it produces. The largenum and bigchar files you included have many lines of headers? footers? whatever... above and below the font dot matrix codes and the export button that I'm clicking doesn't appear to generate any of that and it's not really clear what those lines are?

Regards,

Troy

[richard]

have a look here
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=24171

[rocket_troy]

Thanks. That link eventually lead to the TFT export option needing to be visible to click on. Alas, that appears not useful without some kind of description of what those headers represent. Intuitively I would've thought they'd be some kind of memory addressing but they can't be. The 1st column looks like the font width but no idea what the second byte represents?

Regards,

Troy

[richard]

you need to be more explicit, i cannot see the problem

here is the raw " C " code as exported for chrs 48 to 60 as 11 x 16 sized font

you simply need to make it comply with pbp limitations , thats it you don't have to understand it
its pretty simple anyway

0x00, unused
0x00, unused
0x30,0x00, first chr
0x3C,0x00, last chr
0x10, height
0x00,

0x0B,0x3C,0x00,0x00, width of chr1. offset to font data for chr 1
0x0A,0x5C,0x00,0x00, width of chr2. offset to font data for chr2
0x0B,0x7C,0x00,0x00, width of chr3. offset to font data for chr 3
...

//Font Generated by MikroElektronika GLCD Font Creator 1.2.0.0
//MikroElektrnika 2011 
//http://www.mikroe.com 


//GLCD FontName : Terminal11x16
//GLCD FontSize : 11 x 16


const unsigned short Terminal11x16[] = {
   0x00,
   0x00,
   0x30,0x00,
   0x3C,0x00,
   0x10,
   0x00,
   0x0B,0x3C,0x00,0x00,
   0x0A,0x5C,0x00,0x00,
   0x0B,0x7C,0x00,0x00,
   0x0B,0x9C,0x00,0x00,
   0x0B,0xBC,0x00,0x00,
   0x0B,0xDC,0x00,0x00,
   0x0B,0xFC,0x00,0x00,
   0x0B,0x1C,0x01,0x00,
   0x0B,0x3C,0x01,0x00,
   0x0B,0x5C,0x01,0x00,
   0x06,0x7C,0x01,0x00,
   0x06,0x8C,0x01,0x00,
   0x09,0x9C,0x01,0x00,
   0xF8,0x00,0xFE,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x03,0x07,0x83,0x07,0xC3,0x06,0x63,0x06,0x33,0x06,0x1B,0x06,0x0F,0x06,0x07,0x06,0x06,0x03,0xFE,0x03,0xF8,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 48
   0x60,0x00,0x70,0x00,0x7C,0x00,0x7C,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0xFC,0x03,0xFC,0x03,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 49
   0xFC,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x07,0x80,0x03,0xC0,0x01,0xE0,0x00,0x70,0x00,0x38,0x00,0x1C,0x00,0x0E,0x00,0xFF,0x07,0xFF,0x07,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 50
   0xFC,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x00,0x06,0x00,0x07,0xF8,0x03,0xF8,0x01,0x00,0x03,0x00,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 51
   0xC0,0x01,0xE0,0x01,0xF0,0x01,0xB8,0x01,0x9C,0x01,0x8E,0x01,0x87,0x01,0x83,0x01,0xFF,0x07,0xFF,0x07,0x80,0x01,0x80,0x01,0x80,0x01,0x80,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 52
   0xFF,0x07,0xFF,0x07,0x03,0x00,0x03,0x00,0x03,0x00,0xFF,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x00,0x07,0x00,0x06,0x00,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 53
   0xE0,0x01,0xF0,0x01,0x38,0x00,0x1C,0x00,0x0E,0x00,0x06,0x00,0xFF,0x01,0xFF,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 54
   0xFF,0x07,0xFF,0x07,0x00,0x03,0x00,0x03,0x80,0x01,0x80,0x01,0xC0,0x00,0xC0,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x30,0x00,0x30,0x00,0x18,0x00,0x18,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 55
   0xF8,0x00,0xFC,0x01,0x8E,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x8E,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 56
   0xFC,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x07,0xFC,0x07,0x00,0x03,0x80,0x03,0xC0,0x01,0xE0,0x00,0x7C,0x00,0x3C,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 57
   0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x38,0x38,0x38,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x38,0x38,0x38,0x00,0x00,0x00, // Code for char num 58
   0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x38,0x38,0x38,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x38,0x38,0x38,0x30,0x30,0x18, // Code for char num 59
   0x80,0x01,0xC0,0x01,0xE0,0x00,0x70,0x00,0x38,0x00,0x1C,0x00,0x0E,0x00,0x0E,0x00,0x1C,0x00,0x38,0x00,0x70,0x00,0xE0,0x00,0xC0,0x01,0x80,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 // Code for char num 60
        };

becomes

;//Font Generated by MikroElektronika GLCD Font Creator 1.2.0.0
;//MikroElektrnika 2011 
;//http://www.mikroe.com 
;
;//GLCD FontName : Terminal11x16
;//GLCD FontSize : 11 x 16
;
;const unsigned short Terminal11x16[] = {
   0x00,0x00
   
   0x30,0x00
   0x3C,0x00
   0x10,0x00
   
   0x0B,0x3C,0x00,0x00
   0x0A,0x5C,0x00,0x00
   0x0B,0x7C,0x00,0x00
   0x0B,0x9C,0x00,0x00
   0x0B,0xBC,0x00,0x00
   0x0B,0xDC,0x00,0x00
   0x0B,0xFC,0x00,0x00
   0x0B,0x1C,0x01,0x00
   0x0B,0x3C,0x01,0x00
   0x0B,0x5C,0x01,0x00
   0x06,0x7C,0x01,0x00
   0x06,0x8C,0x01,0x00
   0x09,0x9C,0x01,0x00
   0xF8,0x00,0xFE,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x03,0x07,0x83,0x07,0xC3,0x06,0x63,0x06,0x33,0x06,0x1B,0x06,0x0F,0x06,0x07,0x06,0x06,0x03,0xFE,0x03,0xF8,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 48
   0x60,0x00,0x70,0x00,0x7C,0x00,0x7C,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0xFC,0x03,0xFC,0x03,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 49
   0xFC,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x07,0x80,0x03,0xC0,0x01,0xE0,0x00,0x70,0x00,0x38,0x00,0x1C,0x00,0x0E,0x00,0xFF,0x07,0xFF,0x07,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 50
   0xFC,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x00,0x06,0x00,0x07,0xF8,0x03,0xF8,0x01,0x00,0x03,0x00,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 51
   0xC0,0x01,0xE0,0x01,0xF0,0x01,0xB8,0x01,0x9C,0x01,0x8E,0x01,0x87,0x01,0x83,0x01,0xFF,0x07,0xFF,0x07,0x80,0x01,0x80,0x01,0x80,0x01,0x80,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 52
   0xFF,0x07,0xFF,0x07,0x03,0x00,0x03,0x00,0x03,0x00,0xFF,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x00,0x07,0x00,0x06,0x00,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 53
   0xE0,0x01,0xF0,0x01,0x38,0x00,0x1C,0x00,0x0E,0x00,0x06,0x00,0xFF,0x01,0xFF,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 54
   0xFF,0x07,0xFF,0x07,0x00,0x03,0x00,0x03,0x80,0x01,0x80,0x01,0xC0,0x00,0xC0,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x60,0x00,0x30,0x00,0x30,0x00,0x18,0x00,0x18,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 55
   0xF8,0x00,0xFC,0x01,0x8E,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x8E,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x03,0xFC,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 56
   0xFC,0x01,0xFE,0x03,0x07,0x07,0x03,0x06,0x03,0x06,0x07,0x07,0xFE,0x07,0xFC,0x07,0x00,0x03,0x80,0x03,0xC0,0x01,0xE0,0x00,0x7C,0x00,0x3C,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 57
   0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x38,0x38,0x38,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x38,0x38,0x38,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 58
   0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x38,0x38,0x38,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x38,0x38,0x38,0x30,0x30,0x18 ; Code for char num 59
   0x80,0x01,0xC0,0x01,0xE0,0x00,0x70,0x00,0x38,0x00,0x1C,0x00,0x0E,0x00,0x0E,0x00,0x1C,0x00,0x38,0x00,0x70,0x00,0xE0,0x00,0xC0,0x01,0x80,0x01,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00 ; Code for char num 60
;        };

[rocket_troy]

Thanks Richard. DUH [slapping forehead again]. I didn't read them properly, nevertheless, you told me everything and more with that description and I'm once again eternally grateful.

Cheers,

Troy

[richard]

one more thing
both pbp and mpasm have limitations on line length , exceed them at your peril

and always have an even number of bytes ie not odd on every line line other wise pbp will pad the odd byte with an extra 00 the offset indexing will fail.
do not add or delete any byte to the file or else the offset indexing will fail.

[rocket_troy]

Got it and working perfectly

Thanks again,

[Ioannis]

and always have an even number of bytes ie not odd on every line line other wise pbp will pad the odd byte with an extra 00 the offset indexing will fail.
do not add or delete any byte to the file or else the offset indexing will fail.

Good info! Thanks.
Is this referred to somewhere?

Ioannis

[rocket_troy]

Richard,
I'm just starting to experiment with displaying a simple number count ie. clearing the screen, incrementing a number and displaying that number using the larger numerical font and looping that process. So, everything's good until I'm getting to either 6 or 7 loops (doesn't matter what number I start with) and then something happens. The count stops where it should be displayed and appears to continue... like... 20 or so pixels above the nominated location and the font is now only 1 pixel high.
Any ideas what's happening or what I'm doing wrong?

    DEFINE OSC 64


   
    #DEFINE colours 1   ;1 mono 2 rg or 3 rgb
    width  con 128      ;
    height con 64      ;
    'use serial i/f
    #define  stserial 1
    include "grx.pbpMOD" 
    include "st7920b.pbpmod" 
    include "font.bas"
    include "bignum.bas"       
    include "bigchr.bas"
    BUFF       VAR BYTE[4]
    ani_h var word  bank0
    ani_r var byte
    ani_c var byte
    OSCCON=$70
    OSCTUNE.6=1
    while ! osccon2.7 :WEND    ;wait for pll
    ANSELB=0
    ANSELC=0
    ANSELA=0 
    
    'trisc = %11010101 ;cs,sck,sdo are output
    trisc = %11010101 ;cs,sck,sdo are output
    TRISB = %11111111
    TRISA = %11111111

              
n var word

    gosub st7920_init    'graphic mode

    OSCCON=$70
    OSCTUNE.6=1
    while ! osccon2.7 :WEND    ;wait for pll
    
    ANSELB=0
    ANSELC=0
    ANSELA=0 
    
    Pause  500      ' LCD initialize time
    lcdout $FE,1
    gosub st7920_init    'graphic mode

    n=0
    
 main
 
    gosub grf_clr
    n= n+1
    SETFONT bignum
    ARRAYWRITE BUFF,[dec4 n]
    DMDSTR 40,30, Buff,1
    gosub show 
    pause 1000
    
 goto main

[richard]

BUFF VAR BYTE[4] is too small to hold a 4 digit null terminated string it must be digits + 1

ARRAYWRITE BUFF,[dec4 n] is not a null terminated string ARRAYWRITE BUFF,[dec4 n,0] is


SETFONT bignum should not be in the loop , you only need to set the font once unless you want to change to another font

rather than clearing the whole screen you can "FILLRECT" with the background colour for a restricted area to clr

     DEFINE OSC 64
    #DEFINE colours 1   ;1 mono 2 rg or 3 rgb
    width  con 128      ;
    height con 64      ;
    'use serial i/f
    #define  stserial 1
    include "grx.pbpMOD" 
    include "st7920b.pbpmod" 
    include "font.bas"
    include "bignum.bas"       
    include "bigchr.bas"
    BUFF       VAR BYTE[32]
    OSCCON=$70
    OSCTUNE.6=1
    while ! osccon2.7 :WEND    ;wait for pll
    ANSELB=0
    ANSELC=0
    ANSELA=0 
    
    'trisc = %11010101 ;cs,sck,sdo are output
    trisc = %11010101 ;cs,sck,sdo are output
    TRISB = %11111111
    TRISA = %11111111


              
    n var word


    gosub st7920_init    'graphic mode


    OSCCON=$70
    OSCTUNE.6=1
    while ! osccon2.7 :WEND    ;wait for pll
    
    ANSELB=0
    ANSELC=0
    ANSELA=0 
    
    Pause  500      ' LCD initialize time
    lcdout $FE,1
    gosub st7920_init    'graphic mode
    gosub grf_clr
    n=0
    SETFONT bignum
 
 
 main:   
    n= n+1
    colour=bgcolour
    fillrect 39,29,70,20 ; this is a guess about your font size
    ARRAYWRITE BUFF,[dec4 n,0]
    DMDSTR 40,30, Buff,1
    gosub show 
    pause 1000
    
 goto main

[rocket_troy]

Good suggestions thanks again. Yeah ARRAYWRITE BUFF,[dec4 n,0] was producing the same results so I changed it to see what happened and didn't get around to changing it back - will do though.

Troy

[rocket_troy]

One more thing - it's a monochrome LCD display, so the colour of the clearing rectangle would be 0 ?

Thanks,

Troy

[richard]

One more thing - it's a monochrome LCD display, so the colour of the clearing rectangle would be 0 ?

COLOUR [COLOUR] = 1 OR 0
BACKGROUND COLOUR [BGCOLOUR] = 1 OR 0

take your pick provided COLOUR <> BGCOLOUR for writing stuff that you can see

[rocket_troy]

Ah, got it. Glad I asked coz I never would've realized you can simply invert the display that simply

[rocket_troy]

Richard,
Unfortunately none of those suggestions fixed the issue In fact maybe the RECTFILL made it worse. If I remove all calls for screen clearing within the loop so there's only really the allocating the characters and the "show" call, the output (result) is the same so the issue appears to be with either the DMDSTR or gosub show calls I imagine?

Troy

[rocket_troy]

I've isolated the problem is somewhere within the "show" call. Not sure what it is, but that's definitely the issue. Also, I'm not totally convinced FILLRECT works properly either. DRAWRECT definitely works better for me.

Troy

[richard]

post your code and i will have a look
it works ok for me

https://youtu.be/Jxd4a4XmuDo

'****************************************************************
'*  Name    : UNTITLED.BAS                                      *
'*  Author  : richard                                           *
'*  Notice  : Copyright (c) 2022 caveat emptor                  *
'*          : All Rights Reserved                               *
'*  Date    : 11/10/2022                                        *
'*  Version : 1.0                                               *
'*  Notes   :                                                   *
'*          :                                                   *
'****************************************************************
#CONFIG
  CONFIG  FOSC = INTIO67
  CONFIG  PLLCFG = ON
  CONFIG  PRICLKEN = ON
  CONFIG  FCMEN = OFF
  CONFIG  IESO = OFF
  CONFIG  PWRTEN = ON
  CONFIG  BOREN = SBORDIS
  CONFIG  BORV = 190
  CONFIG  WDTEN = OFF
  CONFIG  WDTPS = 32768
  CONFIG  CCP2MX = PORTC1
  CONFIG  PBADEN = OFF
  CONFIG  CCP3MX = PORTB5
  CONFIG  T3CMX = PORTC0
  CONFIG  HFOFST = ON
  CONFIG  P2BMX = PORTB5
  CONFIG  MCLRE = EXTMCLR
  CONFIG  STVREN = ON
  CONFIG  LVP = OFF
  CONFIG  XINST = OFF
  CONFIG  DEBUG = OFF
  CONFIG  CP0 = OFF
  CONFIG  CP1 = OFF
  CONFIG  CP2 = OFF
  CONFIG  CP3 = OFF
  CONFIG  CPB = OFF
  CONFIG  CPD = OFF
  CONFIG  WRT0 = OFF
  CONFIG  WRT1 = OFF
  CONFIG  WRT2 = OFF
  CONFIG  WRT3 = OFF
  CONFIG  WRTC = OFF
  CONFIG  WRTB = OFF
  CONFIG  WRTD = OFF
  CONFIG  EBTR0 = OFF
  CONFIG  EBTR1 = OFF
  CONFIG  EBTR2 = OFF
  CONFIG  EBTR3 = OFF
  CONFIG  EBTRB = OFF
#ENDCONFIG
    




     DEFINE OSC 64
    DEFINE DEBUG_REG PORTB
    DEFINE DEBUG_BIT 7
    DEFINE DEBUG_BAUD 9600
    DEFINE DEBUG_MODE 0
    LATB.7=1


   
    #DEFINE colours 1   ;1 mono 2 rg or 3 rgb
    width  con 128      ;
    height con 64      ;
    'use serial i/f
    #define  stserial 1
    include "grx.pbpMOD" 
    include "st7920.pbpmod" 
    include "font.bas"
    include "bignum.bas"       
    include "bigchr.bas"
    BUFF       VAR BYTE[32]
    OSCCON=$70
    OSCTUNE.6=1
    while ! osccon2.7 :WEND    ;wait for pll
    ANSELB=0
    ANSELC=0
    ANSELA=0 
'      serial   spi pins used
'      e is sck        latc.3
'      rw is sdo       latc.5
'      rs is cs         latc.1
    'trisc = %11010101 ;cs,sck,sdo are output
    trisc = %11010101 ;cs,sck,sdo are output
    TRISB = %11111111
    TRISA = %11111111


              
    n var word


    gosub st7920_init    'graphic mode


    OSCCON=$70
    OSCTUNE.6=1
    while ! osccon2.7 :WEND    ;wait for pll
    
    ANSELB=0
    ANSELC=0
    ANSELA=0 
    
    Pause  500      ' LCD initialize time
    lcdout $FE,1
    gosub st7920_init    'graphic mode
    gosub grf_clr
    n=0
    SETFONT bignum
    bgcolour=0
    
 main:   
    n= n+1
    colour=1
    fillrect 39,29,46,16 ; this is a guess about your font size
    ARRAYWRITE BUFF,[dec4 n,0]
    DMDSTR 40,30, Buff,0
    colour=0
    fillrect 39,9,46,16 ; this is a guess about your font size    
    DMDSTR 40,10, Buff,1
    gosub show 
    pause 1000
    
 goto main

[rocket_troy]

Damn, maybe its my display modules. Your latest code doesn't appear to work properly either on mine.

So close... everything appears to display correctly* but craps itself after a few screen redraws

Troy

*with the exception of FILLRECT

[richard]

i fiddle with the files to suit other projects maybe what you have is out of date

[rocket_troy]

No luck. There is something I should've mentioned though: in post #31 you list the pin connections:

for a 26k22 i used
'spi pins used
'st7920_rst var latc.0
st7920_cs var latc.1
'st7920_sck is latc.3
'st7920_sdi is latc.4
'st7920_sdo is latc.5

Now, I don't have "st7920_sdi is latc.4" connected because I have no idea what to connect it to. Could that be the killer?

Troy

[richard]

no it has no connection , but its best not to try and use that pin for other purposes the mssp module owns it
the only other conn i have is psb is grounded
are you using my exact code ?

[rocket_troy]

Yeah, started out with the exact code, those latest graphics and LCD controller files and then (after running that) started tweaking the demo code in an attempt to get something working. Can post a video of the output if that helps or happy to send you a module if you're interested in trying one. I've ordered another flavour of st7920 controlled displays from China, so fingers crossed it's better behaved.

Troy

[rocket_troy]

There's one other thing I haven't done which might be required. I haven't pulled up the I2C clock or data lines with weak pull up resistors. Because the static display code appeared to be working well, I assumed it was done within the display module.

Troy

[richard]

its not i2c its spi , there is no need for pullups.
one thing i notice is my display cannot be reset with a pic pin it just won't pull the pin low enough . shit design.
so i have included no reset function. to test i always power the display off/on as it can go to gaga land easily.

in general a shit display if you don't have need for the usual "LCD commands" it can support along with graphics in parallel i/f mode
or the reduced pin count of the serial i/f.
the 20pin h64128 is better imo

[rocket_troy]

I have a few 18F26K83s that I've used for various projects. Worth trying one of these? They can source/sink twice the current on each pin apparently.

Scrub that... Different architecture

Troy

[richard]

how good is your power supply and your connections ?
reset wont help here if it starts up ok
if you want you can pm me to get my address to send a display to be evaluated

[rocket_troy]

Power supply going into the PIC was a PicKit2 and that doesn't appear to be the issue. I was doing all these tests on a 18F26K22 SOIC package. After you mentioned the power requirements issues, I tried it on the larger DIP package and that appears to have fixed the show-stopping issue of screen regeneration. FILLRECT still doesn't work correctly, but that's a peripheral issue for me. I can at least now use these displays for the apps I had in mind.

Thanks again for all the assistance Richard.

Troy

[richard]

on q43 chips i have to set the high slew rate settings on for really highspeed spi
the k22 has slew rate control SLRCON.2 for portc , can't hurt to try

[rocket_troy]

Worked! I can now run things on the smaller package.

Legend!

Troy

[rocket_troy]

Richard,
Curious Question:
I was feeding a 10bit rotary encoder into the PIC (RB0-RB5 & RA0-RA3) with the display connected and I was stumped to figure out why I wasn't getting any input signal into the PortA pins and also 1 of the PortB pins. After a while I realised they were acting as outputs not inputs even though I declared them as inputs before the display initialisation. After some head scratching, I tried setting their TRIS status *after* the display initialisation and that appeared to fix that. So, I think I can maybe see where the PortB pin may have been set (behind the scenes), but can't see where the PortA pins where set as outputs? Does that have anything to do with the LCDOUT command call in the initialisation instructions?

Troy

[rocket_troy]

Another Question:
In your graphics file for the FillRect code you have:

frect:

s_ystart=y0
s_yend=y0
while y1

s_xstart=x0
s_xend=x0+s_xend-1
gosub dLine
s_ystart=s_ystart+1
s_yend=s_ystart
y1=y1-1

wend

return

Shouldn't that line be s_xend=x1+s_xend-1 ?

Troy

[richard]

Does that have anything to do with the LCDOUT command call in the initialisation instructions?

if you mean the highlighted text below , then yes that an error and should be removed for serial i/f usage
and may impact portb

    ANSELB=0
    ANSELC=0
    ANSELA=0 
    Pause  500      ' LCD initialize time
    lcdout $FE,1
    gosub st7920_init    'graphic mode
    gosub grf_clr
    n=0
    setfont FONT5x7
    ARRAYWRITE BUFF,["- scroll test -"]
    DMDSTR 18,0, Buff,1
    ARRAYWRITE BUFF,["- some  text to    test -"]
    DMDSTR 6,8, Buff,1
    SETFONT bignum
    bgcolour=0
    direction=0
     gosub show
 main:   
    n= n+1

Shouldn't that line be s_xend=x1+s_xend-1 ?

my ver is , you are using an old version , the ver of grx.pbpmod in post 10 has vertical line fixed but fillrect got mangled
post 59 ver has both of those fixed , yet to discover what else may be broken

frect:
    s_ystart=y0
    s_yend=y0
    while y1
        s_xstart=x0
        s_xend=x0+x1-1
        gosub dLine
        s_ystart=s_ystart+1
        s_yend=s_ystart
        y1=y1-1
    wend
return

[rocket_troy]

Cool, so assuming that fixes the FillRect (I'll find out this evening) everything should be dandy.

Troy

[rocket_troy]

Hi Richard,
Finished up giving up on the serial connection as it was just a bit flaky ie. characters and graphics didn't always display cleanly etc. That might've been a wiring issue - not sure. Anyhow, with your advice on the parallel interface (using the higher 4 bits & grounding the lower 4) I got that working and it appears to be much cleaner.
Question on fonts: I was trying to make some 28pt fonts but there appeared to be some overrun. Scaled back to 24 and that appeared to work fine. So, there's a size limit on fonts around that 24pt size?

Thanks,

Troy

[richard]

post#1

i wrote this graphics lib to handle led dmd's [1/4 scan dot matrix displays] in mono, red/green or rgb in varing sizes up to 128x32 pixels.
it occured to me that with a little more effort it would make a general purpose graphic lib for nearly any display. so here it is.
it uses mikroe fonts that you can easily generate. the variable width fonts can be up to 23 bits wide if you like.

no guarantee 24 bit wide will be reliable either

[rocket_troy]

Okay, so fixed widths can have a wider limitation?

Troy

[richard]

no there are no fixed width fonts not that that would alter anything.
the mask is 32bits wide that is used to insert the font row data into the graphics frame memory, 23 bits font + 8 bits to allow insertion at any bit point offset + 1 clr column between chars = 32 bits. to get to 24 bits the mask would need to be 48 bits wide [needs 16 bits to allow insertion at any bit point offset], the code size would double the speed halve. any font over 23 bits wide will intrude on its neighboring chars space at some bit offsets

[rocket_troy]

Thanks Richard, that clears that up. No biggy anyway.

edit: actually the one working fine was 18x24 (I was mixing up the width & height)

Troy

[richard]

a driver for the sharp memory lcd's to add to the list

[Ioannis]

Hi Richard.

Which LCD is this?

Your lib file looks more like an example file. Is it correct?

Ioannis