Fabien Royer's Content

#26151 PIX-6T4 Game Console

Posted by Fabien Royer on 30 March 2012 - 04:18 PM in Project Showcase

The PIX-6T4 book is not quite finished yet (Bertrand and I have been insanely busy these past few months). We'll likely release what we have written so far as an open source book as soon as we can breathe a bit. Cheers, -Fabien.

#26479 Redacted 00101100

Posted by Fabien Royer on 04 April 2012 - 10:07 PM in General Discussion

Hi Cuno,

I'm going to expand on what Bertrand wrote a bit and take your questions one by one

If I understand correctly, your touch display has its own microcontroller, between the display and the Netduino Go. Is the "SPI up to 40 MHz" between display and your microcontroller?

That's correct: the display has its own STM32F2, servicing commands from the application running on the GO! mainboard received / sent over SPI. In turn, the display module drives the actual LCD screen and handles the interactions with the touchscreen.

What exactly is the higher-level protocol on top of go!bus, between Netduino Go and your display module? Are the drawing primitives related to common .NET abstractions?

I wrote a generic lightweight message serialization / deserialization system for passing messages / objects (in network byte order) between a C# app and the C code (and vice-versa) interpreting the commands. The buffer containing the serialized messages is used by SPI directly.

Could your display be used from a Gadgeteer mainboard as well, let's say through an SUX socket?

Yes, it should work just fine.

Thanks and looking forward to seeing the display in natura!

Thanks,

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#26667 [nwazet GO! Modules Source Code and Eagle Schematics on BitBucket

Posted by Fabien Royer on 07 April 2012 - 06:47 AM in Netduino Go

Hi,

I just opened the [nwazet repository on BitBucket.

There, you will find the C# libraries, the C drivers and the Eagle designs for the [nwazet Netduino GO! modules.

Enjoy!

-Fabien.

#26741 Netduino GO! Hacking – Breaking out sockets

Posted by Fabien Royer on 08 April 2012 - 07:22 PM in Netduino Go

Hi,

I just wrote a quick post on prototyping with the Netduino GO! starting with a simple method of breaking out the IDC 10-pin sockets: http://fabienroyer.w...ng-out-sockets/

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#26796 What date will the downloads be available?

Posted by Fabien Royer on 09 April 2012 - 05:58 PM in Netduino Go

Hi

I did read somewhere on netduino website that GO! firmware and SDK sources will be available on 8th April
today is 9th April but I am failing to see the download information, same goes was nWazet website, they
also promised 8th April but are also not providing any links or further information.

Maybe I just can not find where the downloads are, or is the deadline moved?
If so on what DATE can we expect the downloads to be available?

Antti

Hi there,

All the [nwazet source code and designs have been published on BitBucket on 04/07/2012: https://bitbucket.or...r/nwazet.go/src
We published this fact in this Netduino GO! forum and announced it on Twitter. For what it's worth, [nwazet has nothing to do with the creation of the Netduino GO! SDK.

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#26799 Netduino GO! Touchscreen and Relay modules

Posted by Fabien Royer on 09 April 2012 - 06:22 PM in Netduino Go

Hi all,

It appears that many folks in the Netduino community aren't aware that [nwazet is producing GO! modules

First, we have created a cool touchscreen module, making it super easy to build user interfaces and display images with your Netduino GO!

Posted Image

Them we also built a Relay module, capable of switching big loads up to 16 Amps:

Posted Image

Even though we are just starting out in the Open Source / Open Hardware business, we're super-excited about the potential of the Netduino GO! and we are fully committed to the Netduino community (just ask Chris Walker and Stefan ;-)). We'll continue contributing modules, tutorials, source code and designs as we have been doing it for over a year now.

Cheers,
-Fabien & Bertrand.

#26809 Netduino GO! Touchscreen and Relay modules

Posted by Fabien Royer on 09 April 2012 - 09:38 PM in Netduino Go

Awesome!

#26814 Netduino GO! Touchscreen and Relay modules

Posted by Fabien Royer on 09 April 2012 - 11:29 PM in Netduino Go

Yup! I'm working on a simple 3-step tutorial right now

#26825 [nwazet Touch Display Module - 3-Step Assembly Procedure

Posted by Fabien Royer on 10 April 2012 - 02:15 AM in Netduino Go

Hi,

Here's a simple tutorial describing the 3-steps involved with assembling the [nwazet Touch Display Module.

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#26826 Netduino GO! Touchscreen and Relay modules

Posted by Fabien Royer on 10 April 2012 - 02:20 AM in Netduino Go

Please following this simple procedure to assemble your display.

You should try out the test application coming with the display, otherwise it won't do much by itself ;-)
This application will not change even after Secret Labs releases the Netduino GO! SDK.

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#26835 What date will the downloads be available?

Posted by Fabien Royer on 10 April 2012 - 06:03 AM in Netduino Go

But the fact remains: nwazet is selling OPEN SOURCE hardware labelled modules without providing the information how to rebuild them, at least some vital parts of the needed information is missing, not yet available.

Please be specific about what you believe is missing.

Did you actually take the time to explore the repository?

ALL MANUFACTURING INFO must be be available and public.

We are sharing our schematics, BOMs, source code. What else would you need?

For your button module, where is C source? I have not found it.

The Netduino Go! button is made by Secret Labs. Not us. In addition, there's no C code used for that module: it's managed through the Go!Bus GPIO pin using an InterruptPort.

as of SDK, yes, your website only says IT WILL BE AVAILABLE on 8th, but as today is not 8th but 10th it is wise to update the "8th april" to SOMEDAY in the future

Chris Walker of Secret Labs owns the Netduino SDK and drives the schedule for its release. We, my partner and I @ [nwazet, have no control over it.

I really do not like to WAIT

Neither do I Posted Image

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#26872 Netduino GO! Touchscreen and Relay modules

Posted by Fabien Royer on 10 April 2012 - 03:50 PM in Netduino Go

Hi Russell,

Hey Fabien, quick question, are the touch screens supposed to come with a stylus?

We're not bundling a stylus with the touchscreen to keep cost down as much as possible: we figured that most people would already have a left-over Nintendo DS stylus or similar solution ;-) But we could carry styli as an option on the site.

Thanks for bringing this up!

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#26893 [nwazet Touch Display Module - 3-Step Assembly Procedure

Posted by Fabien Royer on 10 April 2012 - 08:23 PM in Netduino Go

Hi Mike,

I'm glad that you're up and running Posted Image

This is very cool though.

Wait until you see what we have in store specifically for the touch display module... Stay tuned! Posted Image

I just went and ordered more stuff from Nwazet!

...and I just shipped your new order.

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#26900 [nwazet Touch Display Module - 3-Step Assembly Procedure

Posted by Fabien Royer on 11 April 2012 - 12:14 AM in Netduino Go

Hi emg,

can the touchscreen be used without a stylus

Sure. All you need to do is to display widgets large enough so that you can touch them with a finger

what font support does the screen provide?

The screen has the following built-in proportional fonts:

dejavusans9
dejavusansbold9
dejavusanscondensed9
dejavusansmono8
dejavusansmonobold8
verdana14
verdana9
verdanabold14

With a firmware update, new fonts can be added too...

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#26902 [nwazet Touch Display Module - 3-Step Assembly Procedure

Posted by Fabien Royer on 11 April 2012 - 12:40 AM in Netduino Go

Hi Mike,

So.. you have to tell me - Has anyone at Nwazet ever connected 8 LCD touch panels to one Netduino Go?

LOL!

I'm afraid that the power supply on the netduino Go! would not let you draw that much unfortunately: the display draws ~85mA at rest (mostly the backlight) and ~126 mA @ peak. The resettable fuse on the Netduino Go! board will only let you draw up to 500 mA (limit imposed by the USB spec) before shutting down the board's power supply. Now, there's a way around it, but that's a discussion for another time ;-)

I can't wait to see what kind of fun things you're going to build with your display module...

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#27026 Information on Nwazet Display Go! module

Posted by Fabien Royer on 12 April 2012 - 06:19 AM in Netduino Go

Yup

I indicated that in the source code. This is a fact of life with touchscreens but only needs to be done (correctly) once. Cheers. -Fabien. PS: please note that calibration is only needed when using the touchscreen. It's not required if you only want to write to the display.

#27030 Information on Nwazet Display Go! module

Posted by Fabien Royer on 12 April 2012 - 06:26 AM in Netduino Go

Are pictures other than bitmaps supported?

Yes: raw 16-bit / pixel bitmaps.

3. Is it possible to display serial video, say mJpeg or H.264 at a relatively low frame rate?

If you can convert mpeg frames or H.264 frame to raw 16-bit bit streams, you can, even though the frame rate will be limited by the bandwidth provided by SPI as well as the size of the (8KB) buffer currently used. Nothing prevents you from tuning the firmware for your application (Ah! The beauty of OSS Posted Image

!)

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#27036 Would this be possible with the Netduino Go

Posted by Fabien Royer on 12 April 2012 - 06:48 AM in Netduino Go

The display only accepts .bmp and raw 16-bit bitmaps at the moment as I had no time to support anything else unfortunately. Having said that, nothing prevents jpeg support from being added to the display's firmware (hopefully, we'll start seeing community contributions soon Posted Image

).
As far as frame rate goes: SPI is not well suited for high FPS / large image transfers. One possible mitigation would be increasing the size of the communication buffer that the display firmware uses today (set @ 8KB, which is a good size for most GUI applications, but sub-optimal for achieving any kind of high FPS with large bitmaps).

Finally, please keep in mind that the size of a full screen .bmp is about 153KB (240 x 320 x 16bit/pixel, or can even be larger @ 240 x 320 x 18bit/pixel) which is more than you can fit in the memory of the Netduino Go! So, you'll have to read images from a stream somewhere... SD cards come to mind, but that's SPI too and not always super fast....

The final point is that the STM32F2xx in the 64-pin package used by the display module today doesn't support the FSMC feature which allows driving devices such as displays in hardware. That in itself is a major factor in limiting frame rate.

I hope this helps with understanding what is achievable.

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#27073 Would this be possible with the Netduino Go

Posted by Fabien Royer on 12 April 2012 - 03:48 PM in Netduino Go

You say that SPI isnt well suited for high FPS - is that in general?

Yes, in general: SPI is a serial bus architecture (clocking 1 bit at a time)
High FPS applications require a parallel bus architecture (clocking 8/16/32/64/128/...bits at a time).

A UART interface is also a form of serial bus, similar to SPI in many regards and is also slower than SPI.

If you're interested in learning more about interfacing with a serial camera module, I wrote an article on the subject last year: http://fabienroyer.w...ith-a-netduino/

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
-Fabien.

#27129 Shield Base Availability

Posted by Fabien Royer on 13 April 2012 - 02:04 AM in Netduino Go

We have a few left in stock @ [nwazet

#27196 What is the GPIO (pin 3) Line used for on GO modules?

Posted by Fabien Royer on 14 April 2012 - 12:01 AM in Netduino Go

the GPIO line on the Gobus! can be used as a signaling method from the module to the main board. For instance, I use it as a synchronization mechanism in the Touch Display firmware to let the main board know that the display has completed processing a command set and that it's ready for a new batch. There's no reason why you couldn't use it for signaling something from the main board to the module, with one caveat: on the STM32Fx, it's also used to kick a module into bootloader mode for reflashing purposes( when the GPIO line is held high on module boot). If you keep that restriction in mind, you can use the GPIO line which ever way you please

Hope this helps. -Fabien.

#27202 Information on Nwazet Display Go! module

Posted by Fabien Royer on 14 April 2012 - 12:55 AM in Netduino Go

Carb, So you know, I'm not using anything that has to do with Micorsoft.SPOT.Font. The font definitions in the C# code are only used to track the variables sizes of the characters in each font. The actual fonts are in the display's firmware. This makes things very efficient for display as the C# code only passes a font ID to reference a given font when needed. Hope it helps. -Fabien.

#27322 Information on Nwazet Display Go! module

Posted by Fabien Royer on 16 April 2012 - 12:36 AM in Netduino Go

Hi Charles,

Is there a way to Initialize the display without specifing the socket to be used?

Nope: to initialize a module you must have a socket associated with it.

I want to be able to plug in the display module and let the Netduino Go main board find the display module.

That's a different thing: you could send an SPI query identical to the one used in canvas.Initialize() to retrieve the module's ID and take it from there if it corresponds to the display.

What is the scenario for doing this?

#27336 Information on Nwazet Display Go! module

Posted by Fabien Royer on 16 April 2012 - 03:25 AM in Netduino Go

Hi Chuck, Sorry that I wasn't clear. Nothing is hard-coded. you can plug the display into any socket you like. You just need to specify which one it is in the initialization call. -Fabien.

#27829 Netduino Starter Kit - What's in the box?

Posted by Fabien Royer on 21 April 2012 - 05:19 PM in Netduino Go

Nice!