Embedded Graphics LCD

[FivePoint03]

In the future I would like to add a graphics LCD to some of my projects.

I could imagine a workflow whereby one could design an interface (panel) in Windows (using bar graphs, dials etc) and then attach variables to drive the bar graphs or send strings to drive the text.

Any suggestions of how / where to get started would be welcome.

[Rasz]

PEE or any other <$10 SOC board solves this, you can design your GUI as a webpage in html, saves tons of dev time . As a bonus you get web interface (phones, tablets) for free.

[Dielectric]

There are at least two, probably more, companies that make LCD modules with embedded processors that accomplish exactly that.  Like this one:
https://www.reachtech.com/

or this one:
http://www.amulettechnologies.com/

You'll pay, though.  It's an extra processor, memory, power section, etc.

[newbrain]

Some (expensive!) products:

• TouchGFX
• Tara Embedded Wizard
• Segger emWin

They do not come cheap.
They seem to work, as far as I could see creating some simple demo in an ST workshop.
Note that, if you are using STM32 MCUs, STemWin is free of charge.

I don't know of any FOSS (or simply free) alternatives, but they might exist...

Added, @Rasz: What are you referring to with  "PEE"? My mind draws a blank, but I'm not going to google for that...

[krho]

TouchGFX Is all graphics. e.g . You prepare all bitmaps buttons, screens and then TGFX loads them and makes transitions between them. So be prepared for adding external memory to hold your images.

[igendel]

ITEAD's been selling their "Nextion" displays for some time now - affordable touch screens with their own MCU and memory, that can handle graphic UI quite nicely using UART communication.

I've had some experience with these; their IDE (where you define the images, elements and interactions) is so far unpolished, and their interface with the MCU is not entirely intuitive. Still, if you study them carefully you can get really nice results.

https://www.itead.cc/display/nextion.html

[Edit: Maybe I misread the original question and you want to develop something like this yourself? If so, the Nextion ecosystem can certainly give you some pointers!]

[Rasz]

Some (expensive!) products:

• TouchGFX
• Tara Embedded Wizard
• Segger emWin

They do not come cheap.

Yes, I think this ship has sailed and is heading straight into shallow coastal waters full of solid sharp rock reefs and dense fog.

You can spend 3-16K on oldshool GUI libraries with ridiculous product per year quotas like its 1985 and implement them in $10 MCUs (F4/F7). Or you can move with times and use modern soc with linux and all the goodies that brings (drivers for everything for free, big boy languages, higher level abstraction etc). Old timers will cling to expensive shrink wrap frameworks while being passed by 'agile' startups banging out products in few weeks.

Added, @Rasz: What are you referring to with  "PEE"? My mind draws a blank, but I'm not going to google for that...

raspberry pee and clones. There are ~5? <$10 SoC boards on the market now, >256MB + full linux dev environment + video, often ethernet/wireless. Moore law.

[obiwanjacobi]

At a somewhat lower level, the FTDI EVE2 (Embedded Video Engine) chip has all the processing on board.
It even comes with a (Windows) Editor to create UI's quickly.

[2c]

[newbrain]

raspberry pee and clones.

Oh, I see, silly me. But, first time I see someone calling it that...it does not sound that good.

On the UI tools point I wholeheartedly agree.
The license price and models that were stated at the workshop where outrageous, considering the quality of the tools...
STemWin tools had an ancient Windows 3.11 feel, and code integration was IIRC, more complicated.

Itead stuff looks interesting, much more affordable (also wrt to Reach and Amulet).

[senso]

There is also the open source uGFX:
https://ugfx.io/

[firehopper]

dont forget 4d systems

[mbno]

ITEAD's been selling their "Nextion" displays for some time now - affordable touch screens with their own MCU and memory, that can handle graphic UI quite nicely using UART communication.

They are also running a new Indiegogo campaign for their next generation of these, with resistance and capacitive touch options, and 4.3" and 7" options now available.  Plus they come with an enclosure now.

Ref: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nextion-design-hmi-for-embedded-system-in-hours--2#/

I haven't given them a try yet - though I did purchase some in the 2015 Indiegogo campaign.

[Luminax]

dont forget 4d systems

damn you beat me to it...
I just bought one of its Gen4, the Gen4-LCD-24PT with resistive touch, and it's a Bobby Dazzler!
I would not trust the inbuilt Picasso processor for any calculation, though, as it's not float capable... maybe fixed point math...

[DirkS]

Excuse me for stepping in here as a newbie: I saw this, and I could not leave it without comment.

On the UI tools point I wholeheartedly agree.
The license price and models that were stated at the workshop where outrageous, considering the quality of the tools...
STemWin tools had an ancient Windows 3.11 feel, and code integration was IIRC, more complicated.

These are running on STM32F7 with emWin:


Is this 3.11? SEGGER samples had a 95 feel in the past, but that is way below the capabilities of said graphics package, as you can see here.

[newbrain]

Is this 3.11?

Nope.

But this what I said:

STemWin tools

I'm quite sure one can get very good final results, but the tools felt like a relic of ancient times (they might have changed, I didn't check recently), especially wrt to the other packages.

[VEGETA]

Nexion 3.2" one is around 27$ which is not bad for someone who has a small product. Like having a lab power supply with these displays retailing at 150$, so 27$ is not much.

I wonder if there are any better choices... I've seen this: http://www.buydisplay.com/default/tft-display

As you see, displays are very cheap but you have to get an IDE to design your GUI then a library to make it work with your MCU which is pain!

[Jeroen3]

Depending on the level of embeddedness, you either use those low level graphics libraries, or Qt and similar high level stuff.

Or the HMI is completely separated from the initial product and you use one of many available modbus HMI plc-ish devices.

[0b01010011]

Old school Toshiba T6963 displays are nice to use - parallel i/f but you can access the memory so don't require a framebuffer if you're limited on space.  Plus you can use any spare RAM in the display to store other stuff. Commonly found on older copiers and older IP phones that had a b/w LCD graphic display.

[VEGETA]

Depending on the level of embeddedness, you either use those low level graphics libraries, or Qt and similar high level stuff.

Or the HMI is completely separated from the initial product and you use one of many available modbus HMI plc-ish devices.

Qt costs a lot if you wanna do commercial work with your design, thus you should search for something else. This was what I though.

My main problem is the design software itself not just the library. I mean something to draw the GUI itself and other stuff. Do you know any?

[janekm]

I needed a graphic display (well... simple one) as well as keyboard interface on a project recently, I ended up using a Raspberry Pi with Electron (node.js bundled with a web-browser intended for client side applications) in kiosk mode. Worked pretty well. As others have mentioned, this is more cost-effective especially if you need a display with resolution > 320x480 as the bigger displays tend to be addressed via MIPI or HDMI which your typical micro-controller doesn't have the peripherals for.

[Kjelt]

or Qt and similar high level stuff.

Subscriptions starting at $295/month

[KE5FX]

Qt is LGPL, so if your platform supports libraries that aren't statically-linked, you don't necessarily have to pay them anything.  Depends on what features you need.

[VEGETA]

Qt is LGPL, so if your platform supports libraries that aren't statically-linked, you don't necessarily have to pay them anything.  Depends on what features you need.

Well, Qt for Device Creation is not. This is so pricey. You maybe talking about regular Qt IDE.

[Jeroen3]

Subscriptions starting at $295/month

Easy things don't happen for free.

[hs3]

Qt is LGPL, so if your platform supports libraries that aren't statically-linked, you don't necessarily have to pay them anything.  Depends on what features you need.

Well, Qt for Device Creation is not. This is so pricey. You maybe talking about regular Qt IDE.

You don't need the commercial Qt for Device Creation for using Qt with embedded devices though. If you download one of those qt-everywhere-opensource-src packages you can see that it contains the Qt source code that you can build for your target like embedded Linux for example. I guess the Qt for Device Creation package includes more premade embedded type application targeted widgets and other helper things.

As Qt these days is a company getting their income from selling Qt only it's no wonder that they market the advantages of the commercial offering against the competing free Qt option. But if LGPL works for you project you should be able to use Qt without paying too.

[VEGETA]

So if my project happens to be good and I wanna sell units made by it, should I pay? assuming it is still open hardware

[Jeroen3]

GPL works on the concept that you have to tell you're using it and share any modification made.
You don't have to pay for using GPL. You can, just to be out of the shadows, or to make your life easier.
For example: the compiler for qml (what you use for embedded gui) is not GPL.

[technix]

There is U8glib and its successor U8g2 but those libraries does not come with a graphical designer tool.

[kisvegabor]

Hi,

I developed a graphics library called LittlevGL. However it hasn't got a GUI designer, graphical elements (e.g. list, chart, button, slider etc. ) can be easily create with it. The library is free and open-source. 
You find it here: https://littlevgl.com/
Or at GitHub: https://github.com/littlevgl/lvgl

[phil from seattle]

How complex is your design - how many pages, buttons and so on? It's not that hard to roll you own for 10-20 pages and a couple of buttons. Then you can use about any display you want.  I'm using those little 2.2" color 320x240 SPI displays - $6 from China via AliX/eBay. They seem to work pretty well.

[edit]  ugh, sorry. saw this was an older thread. should have looked first. [/edit]

[SiliconWizard]

I developed a graphics library called LittlevGL. However it hasn't got a GUI designer, graphical elements (e.g. list, chart, button, slider etc. ) can be easily create with it. The library is free and open-source. 
You find it here: https://littlevgl.com/
Or at GitHub: https://github.com/littlevgl/lvgl

That looks great. Haven't tried it, but if it delivers what's advertised, hats off

[kisvegabor]

That looks great. Haven't tried it, but if it delivers what's advertised, hats off

Thanks! It really does what is advertised.
If you want to try it sometimes don't forget the PC simulator. This way you can try the library on PC without any embedded hardware.

[VEGETA]

That littlevgl library seems about perfect! only downside is that it does not have wysiwyg editor or designer. Do you have a solution for this? I don't imagine how would I design the thing in mid with all images and styles without an editor.

Will it work in say PIC MCUs? Arduino?

thanks!

[Mr. Scram]

PEE or any other <$10 SOC board solves this, you can design your GUI as a webpage in html, saves tons of dev time . As a bonus you get web interface (phones, tablets) for free.

It also sounds like a perfect way of adding a whole lot of unanticipated vulnerabilities, if I'm honest.

[Fire Doger]

That littlevgl library seems about perfect! only downside is that it does not have wysiwyg editor or designer. Do you have a solution for this? I don't imagine how would I design the thing in mid with all images and styles without an editor.

Will it work in say PIC MCUs? Arduino?

thanks!

If you want something fast n easy you can always make use of a picture editors like GIMP. Screenshot each widget from simulator and paste it on different layer, layout your screens and transfer dimensions back to your program.

I always wanted to make a standalone GUI designer which wil accept custom widgets but needs a lot of time.

[VEGETA]

If you want something fast n easy you can always make use of a picture editors like GIMP. Screenshot each widget from simulator and paste it on different layer, layout your screens and transfer dimensions back to your program.

That won't be any good since we want something like visualstudio where you modify everything without the need for that.

If such a software is there, I guarantee you that this library will be extremely famous. No one will buy any expensive software packages and most importantly it will work with any hardware... unlike the Nextion displays for example which are pricey and its software is only for them.

I always wanted to make a standalone GUI designer which wil accept custom widgets but needs a lot of time.

open a project on github and ask for help.

[Fire Doger]

That won't be any good since we want something like visualstudio where you modify everything without the need for that.

Yea this is what I want to do... But!

Is a win exe the best way to do it? Microchip has a GUI designer plugin for NetBeans, before a couple of years android apps were designed in Eclipse which also had an ADK plugin. A plugin for an IDE will be much better but you have to know how to design plugins

If such a software is there, I guarantee you that this library will be extremely famous. No one will buy any expensive software packages and most importantly it will work with any hardware... unlike the Nextion displays for example which are pricey and its software is only for them.

For how long and who will use it?
If a SOC like PI costs 5$ who will play with bare metal? Someone who targets lowest price.
These people (Companies) usually can afford a proper software with proper support etc etc...
So we end up with the engineer who is trying to build something in his basement.
Meh, I don't think that it worth's more than 6 months of effort, someone will do it some day...

MikroE had/s a TFT Designer, now they included it in every compiler for free.

open a project on github and ask for help.

Sounds good, never works
Always on a project there must be a guy (or a team) who is capable to deliver a working result.
I barely know what I am talking about, all I have is the idea, google results and a basic knowledge of C#.
I have found a guy in StackOverflow who wanted to make the same thing, he got 1 answer...

The only reason that I am searching about it its because its an interesting way to learn more about C#, winform, WPF etc on my free time and if it goes well it will be published open. Also I stared the library on github

[VEGETA]

Yea this is what I want to do... But!

Is a win exe the best way to do it? Microchip has a GUI designer plugin for NetBeans, before a couple of years android apps were designed in Eclipse which also had an ADK plugin. A plugin for an IDE will be much better but you have to know how to design plugins

I didn't mean windows exe, I meant a designer software that looks like visualstudio or qt... You can make it as a plugin too if it works, I don't know about this. I haven't used microchip GUI designer and for some reason it is not famous like other PIC stuff like mplab x.

For how long and who will use it?
If a SOC like PI costs 5$ who will play with bare metal? Someone who targets lowest price.

Raspberry Pi costs a lot and will never be like an Arduino pro mini (~2$). Here in Jordan it costs a bit more too! So I don't know where you get it for 5$

MikroE had/s a TFT Designer, now they included it in every compiler for free.

That is news to me, I didn't expect them to make it free. But again, this is mikroE and you will stick with their tools. No one wants that.

[Fire Doger]

Raspberry Pi costs a lot and will never be like an Arduino pro mini (~2$). Here in Jordan it costs a bit more too! So I don't know where you get it for 5$

In the past engineers used to have separate CPU and peripherals, then MCUs came and were expensive AF. Now we have GPU and DDR integrated in TQFP, FPGAs etc.

That is news to me, I didn't expect them to make it free. But again, this is mikroE and you will stick with their tools. No one wants that.

If none wanted that they would bankrupt.

You stick to the lib too. If I wanted to do something serious I would prefer to stick to a library that its developed by a company as a product or for their MCU.
Again, microchip has their own (which is new), NXP gives free EmWin for their products, ST has their own I think.

*Maybe you can download emWin from NXP and design the custom widgets in emWin, that would be very cool...

*Edit, I didn't check QT, its downloading now to give it a try

[VEGETA]

In the past engineers used to have separate CPU and peripherals, then MCUs came and were expensive AF. Now we have GPU and DDR integrated in TQFP, FPGAs etc.

I know but it won't be 5$ worldwide any time soon, unless the Chinese starts making them.

You stick to the lib too. If I wanted to do something serious I would prefer to stick to a library that its developed by a company as a product or for their MCU.

That is quite reasonable but subjective. The better way is to use something that is as free as possible, used by millions of people, supported by tons of tutorials and community projects... which means MPLab X with XC8 compiler is the go-to choice for PICs with PICKit3. No need at all to get third-party tools, I really see no reason.

Edit, I didn't check QT, its downloading now to give it a try

I haven't used it but I know it has that feature, you should download qt for device creation. The problem with qt is the licensing thing.

[Fire Doger]

I know but it won't be 5$ worldwide any time soon, unless the Chinese starts making them.

exactly

That is quite reasonable but subjective. The better way is to use something that is as free as possible, used by millions of people, supported by tons of tutorials and community projects... which means MPLab X with XC8 compiler is the go-to choice for PICs with PICKit3. No need at all to get third-party tools, I really see no reason.

I will disagree on the better way.
Free gives the opportunity to be used by millions but developing needs funding somehow.
Million users means libraries, tutorials, documentation etc which results on faster application developing time.
Do you disagree that with arduino you can be up n running in 5 mins without knowing binary?
Is it efficient? No, is it robust? No etc...
The best depends on what you are looking for.

The library is great, very well source, comments, structure, portability etc...
It can easily be popular with some nice documentation (like nextion's html, I always forget the type name)
Maybe kisvegabor has a plan on making a GUI builder.