build a homemade diy tft lcd driver breakout board pcb brands

If you’ve been hanging around microcontrollers and electronics for a while, you’re surely familiar with the concept of the breakout board. Instead of straining to connect wires and components to ever-shrinking ICs and MCUs, a breakout board makes it easier to interface with the device by essentially making it bigger. The Arduino itself, arguably, is a breakout board of sorts. It takes the ATmega chip, adds the hardware necessary to get it talking to a computer over USB, and brings all the GPIO pins out with easy to manage header pins.

But what if you wanted an even bigger breakout board for the ATmega? Something that really had some leg room. Well, say no more, as [Nick Poole] has you covered with his insane RedBoard Pro Micro-ATX. Combining an ATmega32u4 microcontroller with standard desktop PC hardware is just as ridiculous as you’d hope, but surprisingly does offer a couple tangible benefits.

The RedBoard is a fully compliant micro-ATX board, and will fit in pretty much any PC case you may have laying around in the junk pile. Everything from the stand-off placement to the alignment of the expansion card slots have been designed so it can drop right into the case of your choice.

That’s right, expansion slots. It’s not using PCI, but it does have a variation of the standard Arduino “shield” concept using 28 pin edge connectors. There’s a rear I/O panel with a USB port and ISP header, and you can even add water cooling if you really want (the board supports standard LGA 1151 socket cooling accessories).

While blowing an Arduino up to ATX size isn’t exactly practical, the RedBoard is not without legitimate advantages. Specifically, the vast amount of free space on the PCB allowed [Nick] to add 2Mbits of storage. There was even some consideration to making removable banks of “RAM” with EEPROM chips, but you’ve got to draw the line somewhere. The RedBoard also supports standard ATX power supplies, which will give you plenty of juice for add-on hardware that may be populating the expansion slots.

The TFT module is the heart of this product -- it contains all the subsystems that are required to make an image show up. Starting with one of the most obvious features; the LCD screen is a glass panel with small little cells of liquid crystal (LC) material that can be shifted from opaque to clear with an electronic signal (more on how LCDs work). For each of the 128x160 pixels in the screen there are three LC cells and each cell has either a red, green, or blue filter in it to color the light. A pixel gets colored when white light from the LED backlight passes through the filtered cells in varying amounts.

The amount of light passed through is controlled by the signal applied to the liquid crystal cells, but the sheer number of pins and complexity of those signals is totally impractical to control directly with a microcontroller. Fortunately some really smart cookies created a dedicated driver Integrated Circuit (IC) that stores pixel data and puts it on the screen for us. Connections to the driver, as well as the backlight, are broken out along a flexible flat printed circuit (FPC) cable - and that"s where we take over.

The FPC connector is convenient for two reasons. First, it"s extremely simple to (re)connect the display to the breakout board. Second, production of this product is made easier because all soldering can be done in our normal surface mount process.

To disconnect the TFT module just flip up the black locking bar with a finger or pair of tweezers and then gently pull the cable straight out from the connector. To put the cable back in, first make sure that the polarity indicators on the cable (1, 40) match up with those on the board and that the black locking bar is flipped up. Next push the cable in evenly for about 2mm.

⚡PLEASE NOTE: Pay attention to the direction of the connector cable. Reconnecting the cable upside down could cause shorts since the FPC connector has contacts on both the top and bottom.

The microSD card holder is there to relieve your microcontroller"s poor memory due to having to store hundreds of images of cats, or really whatever you want to keep there. The SD card is connected to the same SPI bus as the display, which in turn keeps the required pin count low.

Out of the box, the TFT will come with a large backing PCB that makes it easy to securely mount the display in a project. If you need a more flexible solution you can remove the display module, snap off half the backing board, and then re-insert the display module. When this is done you"ll be left with the bare minimum frame around the display to more seamlessly integrate with your project.

The pinout of this breakout includes the standard SPI interfaces for both the TFT and the microSD card as well as a few specialty pins. You can power the breakout with either 5V or 3.3V thanks to the onboard voltage regulator and level shifter.

D/C : This is a special signal found in many display controllers. When it is high the incoming data is interpreted as data as opposed to commands when it is low.

TE : Tearing Effect is an optional output from the display to synchronize data writes - to avoid the "Tearing Effect" that is seen when data is changed halfway through a screen refresh

The SparkFun TFT LCD Breakout is a versatile, colorful, and easy way to experiment with graphics or create a user interface for your project. With a 4-wire SPI interface and microSD card holder, you can use this breakout to easily add visual display/interface capabilities to a project as well as providing all the storage you might need for multimedia files.

To get started with this breakout, you will need an Arduino compatible microcontroller of your choice - we recommend something with extra RAM like the SparkFun Thing Plus. The breakout can be powered with either 5V or 3.3V. The microSD card holder is connected to the same SPI bus as the display which keeps the required pin count low and exists to relieve the burden from your microcontroller"s poor memory due to having to store hundreds of images of cats, or really whatever you want to keep there. We have also gone ahead and tricked out the SparkFun HyperDisplay library with a driver made especially for this breakout!

Out of the box, the SparkFun TFT LCD Breakout will come with a large backing PCB that makes it easy to securely mount the display in a project. If you need a more flexible solution you can remove the display module, snap off half the backing board, and then re-insert the display module. When this is done you"ll be left with the bare minimum frame around the display to more seamlessly integrate with your project.

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The 1.8″ display has 128×160 color pixels. Unlike the low cost “Nokia 6110″ and similar LCD displays, which are CSTN type and thus have poor color and slow refresh, this display is a true TFT! The TFT driver (ST7735R) can display full 18-bit color (262,144 shades!). And the LCD will always come with the same driver chip so there’s no worries that your code will not work from one to the other.

The breakout has the TFT display soldered on (it uses a delicate flex-circuit connector) as well as a ultra-low-dropout 3.3V regulator and a 3/5V level shifter so you can use it with 3.3V or 5V power and logic. There is a microSD card holder on the back so you can easily load full color bitmaps from a FAT16/FAT32 formatted microSD card.

The Adafruit 1.8” TFT LCD Breakout Board also features an EYESPI connector for a simpler connection to the LCD. EYESPI is a single 18-pin FPC used as a quick way to connect displays.

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I have created an electronics project named Remote Lamp two years ago, as my new room lighting system with adjustable RGB, LEDs, and some joyful features controlled by a TV remote control. However, I decided to improve the mentioned project since it has irritating redundant wiring due to the LCD screen connections and deficiencies in the user interface due to the TV remote control. So, I took my nascent idea of remote control of my room lighting system and turned it into a mobile remote lighting system controlled by an Android application developed by me. And, to get rid of the redundant wiring and add more features with limited pins on Arduino Nano, I designed a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) named Mobile Remote Lamp with Weather Station V2.0, which includes all built-in component connections.Inspect my previous project.Step 1: Designing the Mobile Remote Lamp PCBI designed a PCB for this project on KiCad, named Mobile Remote Lamp and Weather Station V2.0. All components and products I used in this project have built-in connections and pin outputs on the board. I used Arduino Nano as the center of the board due to its efficiency as compared to other alternatives. Check out the pin output instructions to see all supported components by the board.You can inspect the board schematic on Schematics.Pin Output:Pins are representing Arduino Nano pin output for supported components on the board.PCB Connector Components

Warning: Under the Relay_2 connector on the board, I connected A6 and A7 pins as the output pins; but they cannot be used as outputs due to the chip settings. So, I used the spare pins - 12 and 13 - on the J1 connector as the output pins for the 2-Way Relay Module, and therefore A6 and A7 pins on the Relay_2 connector became spare pins.Soldering:After the fabrication process and delivery of my PCB design, I soldered male and female connectors, 220 ohm resistors, LEDs, and an RGB on the board to attach all components properly.Step 2: Developing an Android Application (Remote Lamp)I wanted to control my lighting system and its joyful features using my mobile phone :) Hence, I developed an Android application named Remote Lamp with a user-friendly interface on MIT App Inventor 2. It transmits specific characters to the HC-06 Bluetooth Module for each command as explained in Commands. You can inspect the building blocks of the application by zooming in to the blocks figure.You can download the application (Remote Lamp) on Google Play :)For those who want to download directly on their phone, I leave the application.apk file in Downloads.Commands:Clicking the Weather button, activate the Weather Screen - transmits "t".Clicking Lamp (1) buttons, turn on or off Lamp (1) - transmits "5", "7".Clicking Lamp (2) buttons, turn on or off Lamp (2) - transmits "6", "8".Choosing options in the LEDs slider, turn on or off yellow, blue, green, red LEDs - transmits "0", "1", "2", "3", "4".Choosing options in the RGB slider, change the RGB color as red, green, blue, yellow, purple, cyan, white, or off - transmits "r", "g", "b", "y", "p", "w", "o".Clicking Wheels buttons, turn right and left wheels or stop them - transmits "a", "s", "d".Open the notification bar by clicking the Exit button:Clicking the Home Screen button, activate the Home Screen - transmits "h".Clicking the OK button, close the application and disconnect Bluetooth.Step 3: Programming Arduino NanoDownload the required libraries:LiquidCrystal_I2C | DownloadDHT | DownloadInclude the SoftwareSerial library to communicate with the HC-06 Bluetooth Module.Initiate the bluetooth module. Connect the defined RX pin (4) to the TX pin on the bluetooth module.Include DHT.h library.Define the dht object.Include LiquidCrystal_I2C and Wire libraries to run I2C module.Set the LCD address to 0x27 for a 16 chars and 2 line display.Define custom characters for the LCD.Activate the bluetooth module and initiate the DHT11 module.You do not need to take any further action to define SDA and SCL pins in Wire library due to embedded SDA and SCL settings on Arduino Nano.Define the home screen settings.Adjust the RGB color to white at the home screen initializing.In getDataFromDHT11() function, get weather information - temperature (celsius / fahrenheit) and humidity - using built-in functions.Wait until the DHT11 module is ready.If the Weather Screen is requested by a command ("t"), print the weather information generated by the DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor.If the Bluetooth module is available and receiving characters from the Android application, execute the requested command depending on the received character.In the changeColor() function, adjust the color of the RGB LED using the analogWrite() function.Bonus: By uncommenting the changeBluetoothSettings() function, change the Bluetooth module defaults settings using AT Commands - Name: Remote Lamp, Password: 1234, Baud Rate: 9600.FeaturesBefore trying the following features, pair the HC-06 Bluetooth Module with your phone to connect to the board (Mobile Remote Lamp with Weather Station V2.0) with the application (Remote Lamp).1) Connect to the HC-06 Bluetooth Module.2) Adjust the color of the RGB LED on the board.3) Turn on or off yellow, blue, green, red LEDs on the board.4) Turn on or off the Lamp (1).5) Turn on or off the Lamp (2).6) Activate the turning wheels attached to the L298N Motor Driver - right and left.7) Activate the Weather Screen to display the weather information generated by the DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor - temperature (in celcius and fahrenheit) and humidity.8) Open the notification bar to close the application or return to the home screen.ConnectionsConnect all supported components to the corresponding connector on the board (Mobile Remote Lamp with Weather Station V2.0).Now, you can create your lamp design using the finished apparatus :)I used a dilapidated flower pot from my previous project and affixed the board on it with the turning wheels by using a hot glue gun.I connected bulb plugs to a 3-Way socket adapter and used my old phone battery charger to supply Arduino Nano on the same adapter.To supply the turning wheels (attached to DC motors), I used a 9V battery.ConclusionAfter completing each step, I fastened the contraption to the ceiling and connected the power cable :)VideosSchematicsCode Files and Downloadshttps://www.theamplituhedron.com/projects/Remote-Lamp

Along 3 years I have been trying several leg mechanism, at first I decided to do a simple desing with tibial motor where placed on femur joint.This design had several problems, like it wasn"t very robust and the most importat is that having the motor (with big mass) that far from the rotating axis, caused that in some movements it generate unwanted dynamics to the robot body, making controlability worse.New version have both motors of femur/tibial limb at coxa frame, this ends with a very simple setup and at the same time, the heaviest masses of the mechanism are centered to the rotating axis of coxa limb, so even though the leg do fast movements, inertias won"t be strong enough to affect the hole robot mass, achieving more agility.Inverse Kinematics of the mechanismAfter building it I notice that this mechanism was very special for another reason, at the domain the leg normally moves, it acts as a diferential mecanism, this means that torque is almost all the time shared between both motor of the longer limbs. That was an improvent since with the old mechanism tibial motor had to hold most of the weight and it was more forced than the one for femur.To visualize this, for the same movement, we can see how tibial motor must travel more arc of angel that the one on the new version.In order to solve this mechanism, just some trigonometry is needed. Combining both cosine and sine laws, we can obtain desired angle (the one between femur and tibia) with respect to the angle the motor must achieve.Observing these equations, with can notice that this angle (the one between femur and tibia) depends on both servos angles, which means both motors are contributing to the movement of the tibia.Calibration of servosAnother useful thing to do if we want to control servo precisely is to print a calibration tool for our set up. As shown in the image below, in order to know where real angles are located, angle protactor is placer just in the origin of the rotating joint, and choosing 2 know angles we can match PWM signal to the real angles we want to manipulate simply doing a lineal relation between angles and PWM pulse length.Then a simple program in the serial console can be wrtten to let the user move the motor to the desired angle. This way the calibration process is only about placing motor at certain position and everything is done and we won"t need to manually introduce random values that can be a very tedious task.With this I have achieved very good calibrations on motors, which cause the robot to be very simetrial making the hole system more predictable. Also the calibration procedure now is very easy to do, as all calculations are done automatically. Check Section 1 for the example code for calibration.More about this can be seen in the video below, where all the building process is shown as well as the new leg in action.SECTION 1:In the example code below, you can see how calibration protocol works, it is just a function called calibrationSecuence() which do all the work until calibration is finished. So you only need to call it one time to enter calibration loop, for example by sending a "c" character thought the serial console.Also some useful function are used, like moving motor directly with analogWrite functions which all the calculations involved, this is a good point since no interrupts are used.This code also have the feature to calibrate the potentiometer coming from each motor.#define MAX_PULSE 2500 #define MIN_PULSE 560 /*---------------SERVO PIN DEFINITION------------------------*/ int m1 = 6;//FR int m2 = 5; int m3 = 4; int m4 = 28;//FL int m5 = 29; int m6 = 36; int m7 = 3;//BR int m8 = 2; int m9 = 1; int m10 = 7;//BL int m11 = 24; int m12 = 25; int m13 = 0;//BODY /*----------------- CALIBRATION PARAMETERS OF EACH SERVO -----------------*/ double lowLim[13] = {50, 30, 30, 50, 30, 30, 50, 30, 30, 50, 30, 30, 70}; double highLim[13] = {130, 150, 150, 130, 150, 150, 130, 150, 150, 130, 150, 150, 110}; double a[13] = { -1.08333, -1.06667, -1.07778, //FR -1.03333, 0.97778, 1.01111, //FL 1.03333, 1.05556, 1.07778, //BR 1.07500, -1.07778, -1.00000, //BL 1.06250 }; double b[13] = {179.0, 192.0, 194.5, //FR 193.0, 5.5, -7.5, //FL 7.0, -17.0, -16.0, //BR -13.5, 191.5, 157.0, //BL -0.875 }; double ae[13] = {0.20292, 0.20317, 0.19904 , 0.21256, -0.22492, -0.21321, -0.21047, -0.20355, -0.20095, -0.20265, 0.19904, 0.20337, -0.20226 }; double be[13] = { -18.59717, -5.70512, -2.51697, -5.75856, 197.29411, 202.72169, 185.96931, 204.11902, 199.38663, 197.89534, -5.33768, -32.23424, 187.48058 }; /*--------Corresponding angles you want to meassure at in your system-----------*/ double x1[13] = {120, 135, 90, 60, 135 , 90, 120, 135, 90, 60, 135, 90, 110}; //this will be the first angle you will meassure double x2[13] = {60, 90, 135, 120, 90, 135, 60, 90, 135, 120, 90, 135, 70};//this will be the second angle you will meassure for calibration /*--------You can define a motor tag for each servo--------*/ String motorTag[13] = {"FR coxa", "FR femur", "FR tibia", "FL coxa", "FL femur", "FL tibia", "BR coxa", "BR femur", "BR tibia", "BL coxa", "BL femur", "BL tibia", "Body angle" }; double ang1[13] = {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}; double ang2[13] = {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}; float xi[500]; float yi[500]; float fineAngle; float fineL; float fineH; int motorPin; int motor = 0; float calibrationAngle; float res = 1.0; float ares = 0.5; float bres = 1.0; float cres = 4.0; float rawAngle; float orawAngle; char cm; char answer; bool interp = false; bool question = true; bool swing = false; int i; double eang; int freq = 100; // PWM frecuency can be choosen here. void connectServos() { analogWriteFrequency(m1, freq); //FR coxa digitalWrite(m1, LOW); pinMode(m1, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m2, freq); //femur digitalWrite(m2, LOW); pinMode(m2, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m3, freq); //tibia digitalWrite(m3, LOW); pinMode(m3, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m4, freq); //FL coxa digitalWrite(m4, LOW); pinMode(m4, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m5, freq); //femur digitalWrite(m5, LOW); pinMode(m5, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m6, freq); //tibia digitalWrite(m6, LOW); pinMode(m6, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m7, freq); //FR coxa digitalWrite(m7, LOW); pinMode(m7, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m8, freq); //femur digitalWrite(m8, LOW); pinMode(m8, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m9, freq); //tibia digitalWrite(m9, LOW); pinMode(m9, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m10, freq); //FR coxa digitalWrite(m10, LOW); pinMode(m10, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m11, freq); //femur digitalWrite(m11, LOW); pinMode(m11, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m12, freq); //tibia digitalWrite(m12, LOW); pinMode(m12, OUTPUT); analogWriteFrequency(m13, freq); //body digitalWrite(m13, LOW); pinMode(m13, OUTPUT); } void servoWrite(int pin , double angle) { float T = 1000000.0f / freq; float usec = float(MAX_PULSE - MIN_PULSE) * (angle / 180.0) + (float)MIN_PULSE; uint32_t duty = int(usec / T * 4096.0f); analogWrite(pin , duty); } double checkLimits(double angle , double lowLim , double highLim) { if ( angle >= highLim ) { angle = highLim; } if ( angle <= lowLim ) { angle = lowLim; } return angle; } int motorInfo(int i) { enc1 , enc2 , enc3 , enc4 , enc5 , enc6 , enc7 , enc8 , enc9 , enc10 , enc11 , enc12 , enc13 = readEncoders(); if (i == 0) { rawAngle = enc1; motorPin = m1; } else if (i == 1) { rawAngle = enc2; motorPin = m2; } else if (i == 2) { rawAngle = enc3; motorPin = m3; } else if (i == 3) { rawAngle = enc4; motorPin = m4; } else if (i == 4) { rawAngle = enc5; motorPin = m5; } else if (i == 5) { rawAngle = enc6; motorPin = m6; } else if (i == 6) { rawAngle = enc7; motorPin = m7; } else if (i == 7) { rawAngle = enc8; motorPin = m8; } else if (i == 8) { rawAngle = enc9; motorPin = m9; } else if (i == 9) { rawAngle = enc10; motorPin = m10; } else if (i == 10) { rawAngle = enc11; motorPin = m11; } else if (i == 11) { rawAngle = enc12; motorPin = m12; } else if (i == 12) { rawAngle = enc13; motorPin = m13; } return rawAngle , motorPin; } void moveServos(double angleBody , struct vector anglesServoFR , struct vector anglesServoFL , struct vector anglesServoBR , struct vector anglesServoBL) { //FR anglesServoFR.tetta = checkLimits(anglesServoFR.tetta , lowLim[0] , highLim[0]); fineAngle = a[0] * anglesServoFR.tetta + b[0]; servoWrite(m1 , fineAngle); anglesServoFR.alpha = checkLimits(anglesServoFR.alpha , lowLim[1] , highLim[1]); fineAngle = a[1] * anglesServoFR.alpha + b[1]; servoWrite(m2 , fineAngle); anglesServoFR.gamma = checkLimits(anglesServoFR.gamma , lowLim[2] , highLim[2]); fineAngle = a[2] * anglesServoFR.gamma + b[2]; servoWrite(m3 , fineAngle); //FL anglesServoFL.tetta = checkLimits(anglesServoFL.tetta , lowLim[3] , highLim[3]); fineAngle = a[3] * anglesServoFL.tetta + b[3]; servoWrite(m4 , fineAngle); anglesServoFL.alpha = checkLimits(anglesServoFL.alpha , lowLim[4] , highLim[4]); fineAngle = a[4] * anglesServoFL.alpha + b[4]; servoWrite(m5 , fineAngle); anglesServoFL.gamma = checkLimits(anglesServoFL.gamma , lowLim[5] , highLim[5]); fineAngle = a[5] * anglesServoFL.gamma + b[5]; servoWrite(m6 , fineAngle); //BR anglesServoBR.tetta = checkLimits(anglesServoBR.tetta , lowLim[6] , highLim[6]); fineAngle = a[6] * anglesServoBR.tetta + b[6]; servoWrite(m7 , fineAngle); anglesServoBR.alpha = checkLimits(anglesServoBR.alpha , lowLim[7] , highLim[7]); fineAngle = a[7] * anglesServoBR.alpha + b[7]; servoWrite(m8 , fineAngle); anglesServoBR.gamma = checkLimits(anglesServoBR.gamma , lowLim[8] , highLim[8]); fineAngle = a[8] * anglesServoBR.gamma + b[8]; servoWrite(m9 , fineAngle); //BL anglesServoBL.tetta = checkLimits(anglesServoBL.tetta , lowLim[9] , highLim[9]); fineAngle = a[9] * anglesServoBL.tetta + b[9]; servoWrite(m10 , fineAngle); anglesServoBL.alpha = checkLimits(anglesServoBL.alpha , lowLim[10] , highLim[10]); fineAngle = a[10] * anglesServoBL.alpha + b[10]; servoWrite(m11 , fineAngle); anglesServoBL.gamma = checkLimits(anglesServoBL.gamma , lowLim[11] , highLim[11]); fineAngle = a[11] * anglesServoBL.gamma + b[11]; servoWrite(m12 , fineAngle); //BODY angleBody = checkLimits(angleBody , lowLim[12] , highLim[12]); fineAngle = a[12] * angleBody + b[12]; servoWrite(m13 , fineAngle); } double readEncoderAngles() { enc1 , enc2 , enc3 , enc4 , enc5 , enc6 , enc7 , enc8 , enc9 , enc10 , enc11 , enc12 , enc13 = readEncoders(); eang1 = ae[0] * enc1 + be[0]; eang2 = ae[1] * enc2 + be[1]; eang3 = ae[2] * enc3 + be[2]; eang4 = ae[3] * enc4 + be[3]; eang5 = ae[4] * enc5 + be[4]; eang6 = ae[5] * enc6 + be[5]; eang7 = ae[6] * enc7 + be[6]; eang8 = ae[7] * enc8 + be[7]; eang9 = ae[8] * enc9 + be[8]; eang10 = ae[9] * enc10 + be[9]; eang11 = ae[10] * enc11 + be[10]; eang12 = ae[11] * enc12 + be[11]; eang13 = ae[12] * enc13 + be[12]; return eang1 , eang2 , eang3 , eang4 , eang5 , eang6 , eang7 , eang8 , eang9 , eang10 , eang11 , eang12 , eang13; } void calibrationSecuence( ) { //set servos at their middle position at firstt for (int i = 0; i <= 12; i++) { rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(i); servoWrite(motorPin , 90); } // sensorOffset0 = calibrateContacts(); Serial.println(" "); Serial.println("_________________________________SERVO CALIBRATION ROUTINE_________________________________"); Serial.println("___________________________________________________________________________________________"); Serial.println("(*) Don"t send several caracter at the same time."); delay(500); Serial.println(" "); Serial.println("Keyboard: "x"-> EXIT CALIBRATION. "c"-> ENTER CALIBRATION."); Serial.println(" "i"-> PRINT INFORMATION. "); Serial.println(" "); Serial.println(" "n"-> CHANGE MOTOR (+). "b" -> CHANGE MOTOR (-)."); Serial.println(" "m"-> START CALIBRATION."); Serial.println(" "q"-> STOP CALIBRATION."); Serial.println(" "); Serial.println(" "r"-> CHANGE RESOLUTION."); Serial.println(" "p"-> ADD ANGLE. "o"-> SUBTRACT ANGLE. "); Serial.println(" "s"-> SAVE ANGLE."); delay(500); Serial.println(" "); Serial.println("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"); Serial.print("SELECTED MOTOR: "); Serial.print(motorTag[motor]); Serial.print(". SELECTED RESOLUTION: "); Serial.println(res); while (CAL == true) { if (Serial.available() > 0) { cm = Serial.read(); if (cm == "x") { Serial.println("Closing CALIBRATION program..."); CAL = false; secuence = false; startDisplay(PAGE); angleBody = 90; anglesIKFR.tetta = 0.0; anglesIKFR.alpha = -45.0; anglesIKFR.gamma = 90.0; anglesIKFL.tetta = 0.0; anglesIKFL.alpha = -45.0; anglesIKFL.gamma = 90.0; anglesIKBR.tetta = 0.0; anglesIKBR.alpha = 45.0; anglesIKBR.gamma = -90.0; anglesIKBL.tetta = 0.0; anglesIKBL.alpha = 45.0; anglesIKBL.gamma = -90.0; } else if (cm == "i") { // + Serial.println(" "); Serial.println("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"); Serial.println("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"); Serial.println("(*) Don"t send several caracter at the same time."); delay(500); Serial.println(" "); Serial.println("Keyboard: "x"-> EXIT CALIBRATION. "c"-> ENTER CALIBRATION."); Serial.println(" "i"-> PRINT INFORMATION. "); Serial.println(" "); Serial.println(" "n"-> CHANGE MOTOR (+). "b" -> CHANGE MOTOR (-)."); Serial.println(" "m"-> START CALIBRATION."); Serial.println(" "q"-> STOP CALIBRATION."); Serial.println(" "); Serial.println(" "r"-> CHANGE RESOLUTION."); Serial.println(" "p"-> ADD ANGLE. "o"-> SUBTRACT ANGLE. "s"-> SAVE ANGLE."); Serial.println(" "); delay(500); Serial.println(" "); Serial.println("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"); Serial.println(" "); Serial.print("SELECTED MOTOR: "); Serial.print(motorTag[motor]); Serial.print(". SELECTED RESOLUTION: "); Serial.println(res); Serial.println("Actual parameters of the motor: "); Serial.print("High limit: "); Serial.print(highLim[motor]); Serial.print(" Low limit: "); Serial.print(lowLim[motor]); Serial.print(" Angle 1: "); Serial.print(ang1[motor]); Serial.print(" Angle 2: "); Serial.println(ang2[motor]); Serial.println("---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"); } else if (cm == "m") { // + secuence = true; } else if (cm == "s") { // + } else if (cm == "n") { // + motor++; if (motor >= 13) { motor = 0; } Serial.print("SELECTED MOTOR: "); Serial.println(motorTag[motor]); } else if (cm == "b") { // + motor--; if (motor < 0) { motor = 13 - 1; } Serial.print("SELECTED MOTOR: "); Serial.println(motorTag[motor]); } else if (cm == "r") { // + if (res == ares) { res = bres; } else if (res == bres) { res = cres; } else if (res == cres) { res = ares; } Serial.print("SELECTED RESOLUTION: "); Serial.println(res); } } if (secuence == true) { Serial.print("Starting secuence for motor: "); Serial.println(motorTag[motor]); for (int i = 0; i <= 30; i++) { delay(20); Serial.print("."); } Serial.println("."); while (question == true) { unsigned long currentMicros = micros(); if (currentMicros - previousMicros >= 100000) { previousMicros = currentMicros; if (Serial.available() > 0) { answer = Serial.read(); if (answer == "y") { question = false; interp = true; secuence = true; } else if (answer == "n") { question = false; interp = false; secuence = true; } else { Serial.println("Please, select Yes(y) or No(n)."); } } } } answer = "t"; question = true; if (interp == false) { Serial.println("___"); Serial.println(" | Place motor at 1ts position and save angle"); Serial.println(" | This position can be the higher one"); rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); calibrationAngle = 90; //start calibration at aproximate middle position of the servo. while (secuence == true) { /* find first calibration angle */ if (Serial.available() > 0) { cm = Serial.read(); if (cm == "p") { // + Serial.print(" | +"); Serial.print(res); Serial.print(" : "); calibrationAngle = calibrationAngle + res; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); Serial.println(calibrationAngle); } else if (cm == "o") { // - Serial.print(" | -"); Serial.print(res); Serial.print(" : "); calibrationAngle = calibrationAngle - res; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); Serial.println(calibrationAngle); } else if (cm == "r") { // + if (res == ares) { res = bres; } else if (res == bres) { res = cres; } else if (res == cres) { res = ares; } Serial.print("SELECTED RESOLUTION: "); Serial.println(res); } else if (cm == "q") { // quit secuence secuence = false; Serial.println(" | Calibration interrupted!!"); } else if (cm == "s") { // save angle ang1[motor] = calibrationAngle; secuence = false; Serial.print(" | Angle saved at "); Serial.println(calibrationAngle); } } } if (cm == "q") { Serial.println(" |"); } else { secuence = true; Serial.println("___"); Serial.println(" | Place motor at 2nd position and save angle"); Serial.println(" | This position can be the lower one"); } while (secuence == true) { /* find second calibration angle */ if (Serial.available() > 0) { cm = Serial.read(); if (cm == "p") { // + Serial.print(" | +"); Serial.print(res); Serial.print(" : "); calibrationAngle = calibrationAngle + res; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); Serial.println(calibrationAngle); } else if (cm == "o") { // - Serial.print(" | -"); Serial.print(res); Serial.print(" : "); calibrationAngle = calibrationAngle - res; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); Serial.println(calibrationAngle); } else if (cm == "r") { // + if (res == ares) { res = bres; } else if (res == bres) { res = cres; } else if (res == cres) { res = ares; } Serial.print("SELECTED RESOLUTION: "); Serial.println(res); } else if (cm == "q") { // quit secuence secuence = false; Serial.println(" | Calibration interrupted!!"); } else if (cm == "s") { // save angle ang2[motor] = calibrationAngle; secuence = false; Serial.print(" | Angle saved at "); Serial.println(calibrationAngle); } } } /*--------------------start calibration calculations------------------*/ if (cm == "q") { Serial.println("___|"); Serial.println("Calibration finished unespected."); Serial.println(" Select another motor."); Serial.print("SELECTED MOTOR: "); Serial.print(motorTag[motor]); Serial.print(". SELECTED RESOLUTION: "); Serial.println(res); } else { Serial.println("___"); Serial.println(" |___"); Serial.print( " | | Interpolating for motor: "); Serial.println(motorTag[motor]); secuence = true; //real angle is calculated interpolating both angles to a linear relation. a[motor] = (ang2[motor] - ang1[motor]) / (x2[motor] - x1[motor]); b[motor] = ang1[motor] - x1[motor] * (ang2[motor] - ang1[motor]) / (x2[motor] - x1[motor]); Serial.println(" | |"); } interp = true; } /*---------------------------make swing movement to interpolate motor encoder-----*/ if (interp == true and secuence == true) { delay(200); double x; int k = 0; int stp = 180; swing = true; i = 0; orawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); previousMicros = 0; while (swing == true) { // FIRST unsigned long currentMicros = micros(); if (currentMicros - previousMicros >= 10000) { // save the last time you blinked the LED previousMicros = currentMicros; x = x2[motor]; calibrationAngle = a[motor] * x + b[motor]; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); if ((i % 3) == 0) { yi[k+1] = x; xi[k] = rawAngle; Serial.print(" | | Real ang: "); Serial.print(x); Serial.print(" -> Servo ang: "); Serial.print(calibrationAngle); Serial.print(" Enc: "); Serial.println(rawAngle); k++; } if (i >= stp) { swing = false; } i++; } } swing = true; i = 0; while (swing == true) { // moving unsigned long currentMicros = micros(); if (currentMicros - previousMicros >= 10000) { // save the last time you blinked the LED previousMicros = currentMicros; x = x2[motor] + float(i) * (x1[motor] - x2[motor]) / stp; calibrationAngle = a[motor] * x + b[motor]; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); if ((i % 6) == 0) { yi[k+1] = x; xi[k] = rawAngle; Serial.print(" | | Real ang: "); Serial.print(x); Serial.print(" -> Servo ang: "); Serial.print(calibrationAngle); Serial.print(" Enc: "); Serial.println(rawAngle); k++; } if (i >= stp) { swing = false; } i++; } } swing = true; i = 0; while (swing == true) { // SECOND unsigned long currentMicros = micros(); if (currentMicros - previousMicros >= 10000) { // save the last time you blinked the LED previousMicros = currentMicros; x = x1[motor]; calibrationAngle = a[motor] * x + b[motor]; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); if ((i % 3) == 0) { yi[k+1] = x; xi[k] = rawAngle; Serial.print(" | | Real ang: "); Serial.print(x); Serial.print(" -> Servo ang: "); Serial.print(calibrationAngle); Serial.print(" Enc: "); Serial.println(rawAngle); k++; } if (i >= stp) { swing = false; } i++; } } swing = true; i = 0; while (swing == true) { // moving unsigned long currentMicros = micros(); if (currentMicros - previousMicros >= 10000) { // save the last time you blinked the LED previousMicros = currentMicros; x = x1[motor] + float(i) * (x2[motor] - x1[motor]) / stp; calibrationAngle = a[motor] * x + b[motor]; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); if ((i % 6) == 0) { yi[k+1] = x; xi[k] = rawAngle; Serial.print(" | | Real ang: "); Serial.print(x); Serial.print(" -> Servo ang: "); Serial.print(calibrationAngle); Serial.print(" Enc: "); Serial.println(rawAngle); k++; } if (i >= stp) { swing = false; } i++; } } swing = true; i = 0; while (swing == true) { // FIRST unsigned long currentMicros = micros(); if (currentMicros - previousMicros >= 10000) { // save the last time you blinked the LED previousMicros = currentMicros; x = x2[motor]; calibrationAngle = a[motor] * x + b[motor]; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); if ((i % 3) == 0) { yi[k+1] = x; xi[k] = rawAngle; Serial.print(" | | Real ang: "); Serial.print(x); Serial.print(" -> Servo ang: "); Serial.print(calibrationAngle); Serial.print(" Enc: "); Serial.println(rawAngle); k++; } if (i >= stp) { swing = false; } i++; } } swing = true; i = 0; while (swing == true) { // moving unsigned long currentMicros = micros(); if (currentMicros - previousMicros >= 10000) { // save the last time you blinked the LED previousMicros = currentMicros; x = x2[motor] + float(i) * (x1[motor] - x2[motor]) / stp; calibrationAngle = a[motor] * x + b[motor]; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); if ((i % 6) == 0) { yi[k+1] = x; xi[k] = rawAngle; Serial.print(" | | Real ang: "); Serial.print(x); Serial.print(" -> Servo ang: "); Serial.print(calibrationAngle); Serial.print(" Enc: "); Serial.println(rawAngle); k++; } if (i >= stp) { swing = false; } i++; } } swing = true; i = 0; while (swing == true) { // SECOND unsigned long currentMicros = micros(); if (currentMicros - previousMicros >= 10000) { // save the last time you blinked the LED previousMicros = currentMicros; x = x1[motor]; calibrationAngle = a[motor] * x + b[motor]; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); if ((i % 3) == 0) { yi[k+1] = x; xi[k] = rawAngle; Serial.print(" | | Real ang: "); Serial.print(x); Serial.print(" -> Servo ang: "); Serial.print(calibrationAngle); Serial.print(" Enc: "); Serial.println(rawAngle); k++; } if (i >= stp) { swing = false; } i++; } } Serial.println(" | | Interpolation finished!"); /*-------Calculate linear interpolation of the encoder from 60 meassures done in swing------*/ double sx = 0; double sy = 0; double sx2 = 0; double sy2 = 0; double sxy = 0; double xmean = 0; double ymean = 0; int n = 300; for (int i = 0 ; i < n ; i++) { sx += xi[i+10]; sy += yi[i+10]; sx2 += xi[i+10] * xi[i+10]; sy2 += yi[i+10] * yi[i+10]; sxy += xi[i+10] * yi[i+10]; } ae[motor] = (n * sxy - sx * sy) / (n * sx2 - sx * sx); //sxy / sx2; // be[motor] = (sy - ae[motor] * sx) / n; //ymean - ae[motor] * xmean; Serial.println(" | | Moving back to ZERO position."); // turn the motor back to middle position swing = true; i = 0; while (swing == true) { unsigned long currentMicros = micros(); if (currentMicros - previousMicros >= 10000) { // save the last time you blinked the LED previousMicros = currentMicros; x = x1[motor] + float(i) * (90 - x1[motor]) / 60; calibrationAngle = a[motor] * x + b[motor]; servoWrite(motorPin , calibrationAngle); rawAngle , motorPin = motorInfo(motor); eang = ae[motor] * rawAngle + be[motor]; if ((i % 4) == 0) { Serial.print(" | | Servo ang: "); Serial.print(calibrationAngle); Serial.print(" -> Real ang: "); Serial.print(x); Serial.print(" -> Encoder ang: "); Serial.println(eang); } if (i >= 60) { swing = false; } i++; } } Serial.println("___|___|"); Serial.println(" | "); Serial.println("___"); Serial.println(" | Calibration finished satisfactory. Results data:"); Serial.print(" | HIGH lim: "); Serial.print(highLim[motor]); Serial.print(" LOW lim: "); Serial.println(lowLim[motor]); Serial.print(" | angle 1: "); Serial.print(ang1[motor]); Serial.print(" angle 2 "); Serial.println(ang2[motor]); Serial.print(" | Regression Motor a: "); Serial.print(a[motor], 5); Serial.print(" b: "); Serial.println(b[motor], 5); Serial.print(" | Regression Encoder a: "); Serial.print(ae[motor], 5); Serial.print(" b: "); Serial.println(be[motor], 5); Serial.println(" |"); Serial.println(" | ______________________________________________________________"); Serial.println(" | | |"); Serial.println(" | | This code won"t be able to save the updated parameters |"); Serial.println(" | | once the robot is shutted down. |"); Serial.println(" | | |"); Serial.println(" | | Please, write down the results |"); Serial.println(" | | and save them in the definition of each variable. |"); Serial.println(" | |_____________________________________________________________|"); Serial.println(" |"); Serial.println("___|"); Serial.println(" Select another motor."); Serial.print("SELECTED MOTOR: "); Serial.print(motorTag[motor]); Serial.print(". SELECTED RESOLUTION: "); Serial.println(res); } interp = false; secuence = false; } } SAFE = false; Serial.println("Calibration killed"); } // END OF CALIBRATION

When we say “display” we are speaking generally about all LCD, TFT, OLED, and ePaper displays. Sometimes displays are included in a module that adds features and these modules are still called “displays” so that can certainly be confusing.

In general, a display includes a panel where images and/or characters are displayed in the active area, a display controller which handles sending voltages as needed within the display, and some number of pins broken out in such a way that they can be connected to a system.

There are three main ways our displays can be connected (excluding our line of USB LCDs, which include many features not offered by a plain old display).

Most displays that we carry use a ZIF tail. This tail mates with a ZIF connector so it can easily be connected to a PCB or breakout board. Simply insert the tail into the connector and close the connector. Displays with a ZIF tail can easily be swapped out, simplifying trouble shooting.

Many COB LCDs come with a header connection. This allows a header to be soldered in and connected to or wires can be directly soldered through the through holes.

Makers and hobbyists are often also familiar with displays that come attached to a breakout board. A display mounted to a breakout board simplifies connections by reducing the tail to a smaller number of pins.

At Crystalfontz, we have a wide offering of breakout boards and development boards. Some of these boards are designed to be useable in a final design (such as the board on this 1.3″ TFT). While others are meant to be used during development of a project and then replaced by a custom PCB or other solution (like our generic Breakout Board).

We recommend only using solder down tails in products produced using a hot bar soldering machine. The fine pitch soldering required to a hand a solder down tail to a PCB makes solder bridges a very real possibility. However, these tails are great for high volume products.

Unless you are manufacturing your own displays, you most likely do not need to buy an LCD controller. (And we don’t sell them, but we do have many Controller datasheets available).

An LCD controller controls the voltages that go to individual pixels (or subpixels) in order to display characters and images. An LCD (or TFT/ePaper/OLED) Controller is embedded in the display during manufacture.

In this method, the chip is attached to the flexible circuit (or tail) that goes between the glass of the display (or in this case, capacitive touch screen) to the microcontroller.

For chip on board displays, the board is an integral part of the display and the LCD controller is attached to the board. Segment controllers and other parts of the display are also visible on the board.

Displays need to be connected to a microcontroller (etc.) that will send the LCD controller instructions. Basic displays do not have memory to be able to store data, so a microcontroller is used to send the data to the display when it needs to be displayed. We often use the Seeeduinobecause it can be switched to a 3.3v logic level and it uses the easy and well supported Arduinoframework.

We’re not going to get into how sending data to displays works here, but we have lots of demo code that makes it easy to get started with our displays!

We can’t get too into detail here because there is simply too much. OLEDs, LCDs, TFTs, and ePapers all display images differently and are made of different materials.

If you have any questions, we can be reached at support@crystalfontz.com, we also provide chat and telephone support Monday through Friday during our open hours.

We love to hear about your projects! Find us around the web (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Forum) and let us know what you’re working on.

I found the TFT screen and Uno on Banggood.com about a month ago and over the weekend I was messing with the pair and found the tftbmp draw code in the demo.. I extended it with the ability to read any bmp file on the SD card.. so all you do is put your bitmaps on the SD and plug it in.. Having to add/edit/recompile/reload the Uno everytime is BS... Here is my code:

A controller board is a piece in an electrical circuit that interfaces with a peripheral object by connecting the computer to it. The connection may be with other computer parts, such as the memory controller, or with an external device, like a mouse, that acts as a peripheral controller for an operation of the original device.

The LCD controller board is often called the Analog/Digital (A/D) board. As a type of hardware processor, it allows for various video source inputs to be connected, selected, and displayed on the LCD screen. It does this by converting the different video input signals into a format manageable by the LCD panel.

In conjunction with the LCD controller, the LCD driver is a form of software that is the interface of and dependent on the controller piece. Combined, the two form an LCD controller driver board. As the controller connects the computer to the operating system (OS), the driver facilitates that communication. Though there is typically just one display controller per LCD, there can be added drivers to extend the reach of the drive to further segments of the LCD.

To generalize the process, the LCD controller/driver adjusts the input signal, scaling resolution if needed, and then outputs the signal for the LCD monitor to use. Some of these output interfaces are low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS), SPI, I2C, and Parallel.

In most LCD controller/driver boards, there are two other input/output systems. Both these systems, however, are two-way pathways. One involves controlling and monitoring options, such as controls for brightness, image, and color using the on-screen display (OSD) control panel. The other is for communication via connections like Ethernet, Bluetooth, or IP.

With modern developments, touch screen devices have become much more prominent, and so the touchscreen controller has as well. There are two types of touchscreens: the resistive one that measures pressure and the capacitive one that reads touch. In both of these, there are sensors that detect the touch signal which then transmit the signal data to the controller. The controller then processes the command for the OS.

To delve deeper into the details, consider the previously mentioned input signals. There are a variety of signals that LCD technology processes, such as VGA, HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort. These computer display standards vary in format and characteristics like aspect ratio, display size, display resolution, color depth, and refresh rate. One of the biggest differences between these standards is their usage of analog signals or digital signals.

In an analog signal, the signal is continuous, but in digital, they are discrete values, typically of 0 and 1. Digital signals have become the most used, as they can more easily carry information and have better quality maintenance; if the analog signal is used and unnecessary information is present, it is impossible to remove it due to the continuous nature of the analog signal. In order to make that switch to digital signals, converters are used to replacethe real numbers of the analog sequence with a set of discrete values.

The VGA, short for video graphic array, standard is one of the most popular analog-based technologies. In recent years, however, the VGA interface has been overshadowed by interfaces like high definition multimedia interfaces, better known as HDMI, which has become a de facto standard for digital signal transmissions.

The HDMI is a combination of digital audio and digital video transmission. There are many HDMI connectors, such as the standard, dual-link, and micro. These connectors are what the input signal travels through to reach the LCD controller and to direct what to display.

The DVI (Digital Visual Interface) offers both analog signals, digital signals, or a combination of the two. Like the HDMI, it has various connector types for different signal types.

When crossing interfaces, we use adapters to bridge the differences between signals. The DVI VGA adapter is relatively inexpensive due to how compatible the two are. The HDMI is also very compatible with the DVI, making the HDMI DVI adapter quite simple.

The VGA to HDMI adapter, however, must overcome greater differences, as they are not naturally as compatible as each were with DVI. Not only are there differences in the analog/digital signals, but also the VGA only uses video interface, whereas the HDMI uses both audio and video. A cable and an adapter are needed to connect the two devices.

And last from the list of examples of input signals is the DisplayPort. It is similar to HDMI in its purpose to replace outdated VGA and DVI as well as its transmission of audio and video through its interface. The DisplayPort does not have as much variation in cables and connectors as the HDMI, with only one cable and two types of connectors. From the DisplayPort, there is a growing technology called the embedded DisplayPort interface, or eDP interface. LCD manufacturers have begun to gravitate towards this interface due to its fewer connections, smaller size, and ability to quickly transmit high quality displays.

Bringing the subject back to LCD controllers, with the various types of computer display standards, the video signal inputs can be a challenge to accommodate and translate for the LCD panel, but with the help of adapters and the growth of these standard types, displays continue to become faster and develop with greater resolutions.