Which Microcontroller to choose for Ethernet and HDMI application?

[samy03]

Hi All,

I am looking for a micro-controller which can receive data from Ethernet through UDP (Multicast) and transmit the data to HDMI output with a HDMI transmitter IC.
As of now after some research I am leaning towards STM32F429ZI, as it has Ethernet capability and built-in LCD controller. On the Ethernet side STM32 does have lwIP library which can come in handy for receiving UDP. On the HDMI side I will use LCD controller pins of STM32, I will take the 24 bit RGB signal and will use an IC like SIl9022 as HDMI Transmitter to get HDMI output.
Is this something that will work or do I need to choose another micro-controller? I would really appreciate your suggestions.

Thank you

[llkiwi2006]

What kind of resolution and refresh rate do you want to be operating at? Micro-controllers are not the best at pushing high data rates.

If you budget and size allows, you could whack a raspberry pi in there (or even a pi zero with a external ethernet adapter).

[Yansi]

Your question is not well defined.  It can work but it also can't. It all depend on what you will be doing there.

The first question that comes in mind: What resolution do you expect at the HDMI and what framerate?  The 429ZI limits you to use only of 16bit SDRAM. That quite limits the available resolution and what can be done with the graphics.

[nctnico]

If the data comes in through the network in a raw format then the framerate is going to be limited anyway because you can't pump that much data over a network. I'm also wondering how you'd handle missing UDP frames.

[Kjelt]

My first question would be: what is the production number of units?
If it is below 1000 use a beaglebone or use the open HW schematics and BOM to design youw own version. It will save you bigtime on NRE costs.

[asmi]

The answer is likely "none". MCUs are not really designed for high bandwidth applications, you will need full-featured MPU or - even better - FPGA.

[cdev]

"Raspberry pi" + VLC ?

There will likely be a few hundred microseconds delay

I agree that the RPI Ethernet is likely to be problematic. Try getting a USB3 capable gigabit LAN adapter this will more than triple the RPI's lan speed but still be rate limited by the internal USB which maxes out at a total of around 480 MBPS for everything added up together.  On a machine with USB3 the same adapter will do full gigabit lan. On an RPI3 you should still get >200 MBPS in USB2 backwards compatibility mode.

[samy03]

From Ethernet I will just receive a text in my Multicast message, the text will then be displayed over HDMI in form of an image. So I am not sure how much bandwidth will be required for this. What do you guys think? I would like to have a good resolution display at least 720 or 1080p.

[mikeselectricstuff]

FPGA plus Wiznet W5500 to handle the Ethernet
or a rasPi/beaglebone/whatever which has pretty much all the hardware ready to go. Unless you're making thousands, that's going to be a lot cheaper

[Yansi]

Well, with a 32bit SDRAM on the STM32F429 it is possible to have 1024x768 output with still decent graphics, 1280x720 therefore it might be possible, but you are right at or slightly above the edge of what is sensible to do here.

For such application, if you insist upon doing a custom design with MCU, I would highly recommend switching for a beefier one, like STM32H7, that would cope with the HD resolution quite well.

[andersm]

From Ethernet I will just receive a text in my Multicast message, the text will then be displayed over HDMI in form of an image. So I am not sure how much bandwidth will be required for this.

Only as much as you have text to send, which I imagine is not very much? A Raspberry Pi sounds almost ideal for the job.

[ebclr]

Amlogic S912, Cortex A53

[Richard Crowley]

Yes, if you are simply receiving a "message" (a few hundred bytes?) and displaying an "image" (still?, animated? video of some framerate?) then a RaspberryPi (or one of the many similar commercial products) would seem ideally suited for both development and deployment.  Even a RasPi Zero would work well depending on the complexity (size) of the displayed images.

As has already been mentioned, the definition of several of your criteria, as well as the nature, economics, deployment details, etc. would influence this kind of decision.

I have a somewhat similar question, about identifying a commercial single-board controller with Ethernet and HDMI that is capable of implementing the NDI protocol (https://www.newtek.com/ndi/sdk/)  But that is actually streaming live, HD video.

[samy03]

I have tried beaglebone but I also had a HDMI switch using (TS3DV642) connected at the output, and due to some back EMF it kept shutting off my beaglebone and all the power leds on beagle would shut off until I disconnect my HDMI switch and then power it back on.

[samy03]

And beaglebone and raspberry pi does not have all the hardware I need. I also need to drive an LED Matrix, add POE, and HDMI switch. I would end up with a custom design anyways.

[mikeselectricstuff]

And beaglebone and raspberry pi does not have all the hardware I need. I also need to drive an LED Matrix, add POE, and HDMI switch. I would end up with a custom design anyways.

RasPi Compute module perhaps ?

[nctnico]

And beaglebone and raspberry pi does not have all the hardware I need. I also need to drive an LED Matrix, add POE, and HDMI switch. I would end up with a custom design anyways.

True but in case of the Beaglebone you can use the schematics to start your own circuit board (probably with chips in more friendly packages). Using seperate boards is asking for problems but it is a good way to put a demonstrator together.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Might be worth looking at the PIC32MZ DA - supports 24 bit up to 1280x1024 with onboard 32Mbyte DDR2, and up to 2M flash, plenty for high-res font storage.

http://www.microchip.com/design-centers/32-bit/architecture/pic32mz-da-family

[andersm]

And beaglebone and raspberry pi does not have all the hardware I need. I also need to drive an LED Matrix, add POE, and HDMI switch. I would end up with a custom design anyways.

You'll save everyone time and get better suggestions if you list all your requirements instead of dripfeeding them.

[samy03]

Okay so I'll be receiving text from Ethernet through UDP, which will be displayed on HDMI output in form of an image, and the HDMI Switch will also be connected at the HDMI output.
I will also receive a sound file through Ethernet which will be output on an Audio Jack connector for speakers.
I also have to drive an LED Matrix and display the data received from Ethernet. Plus the unit should also have POE. That's all!

[SiliconWizard]

The Raspberry Pi (and many similar boards) actually has GPIO's, SPI and I2C that you can control. Not really real-time, but for driving an LED matrix (which I suppose is some kind of display), it may prove more than adequate. Surely it's the fastest way of implementing what you described. The downside is, you may not like having to depend on (and bear the boot times of) a Linux OS. The upside, you'll get access to loads of libraries to implement nice GUIs with HDMI output, you'll get all the required drivers including Ethernet, and a lot of memory (RAM and Flash).

If you really need real-time control and/or more IO's, you could also develop a small MCU-based board that would handle the low-level stuff and communicate with the Pi (or some other SBC) through SPI or USB. Then all the higher-level stuff could be done on SBC's or even PC's, making it versatile.

As you have already been told, you won't find any MCU with an HDMI output. You'll find that on bigger CPU's along with a lot of RAM and an integrated graphics controller. Directly using those on a low-cost, low-volume project is just not doable in my opinion, hence the approach of getting a ready-made module.

You can find a whole range of MCU's with Ethernet controllers though, so there is another option yet, finding an external video module with HDMI output. I remember one from 4D Systems but with VGA output only: http://www.4dsystems.com.au/product/uVGA_III/ . It's not cheap though, and has limited resolution. Not sure if you can find any with HDMI output. Even if you do, it will probably not be cost-effective at all compared to a solution like a Pi Zero + a custom small MCU board.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Okay so I'll be receiving text from Ethernet through UDP, which will be displayed on HDMI output in form of an image, and the HDMI Switch will also be connected at the HDMI output.
I will also receive a sound file through Ethernet which will be output on an Audio Jack connector for speakers.
I also have to drive an LED Matrix and display the data received from Ethernet. Plus the unit should also have POE. That's all!

Build quantity ?

[samy03]

Probably around 200-300 per year.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

Okay so I'll be receiving text from Ethernet through UDP, which will be displayed on HDMI output in form of an image, and the HDMI Switch will also be connected at the HDMI output.
I will also receive a sound file through Ethernet which will be output on an Audio Jack connector for speakers.
I also have to drive an LED Matrix and display the data received from Ethernet. Plus the unit should also have POE. That's all!

An Orange Pi PC ($15 http://www.orangepi.org/orangepipc/ ) + Armbian (free) + node.js (free) can do all that very very well, piece of cake, and it's a one day job or two no more. But you don't mention if boot times of 10..15s are ok for your application.

[Yansi]

I can guarantee you it will not be a two day job.