Recomendations for working components – TFT, OLED, ..

The most used LCD screens are the ILI9341 SPI based ones, they come in 2.4 inch and other sizes.
(note there are parallel and SPI versions, but SPI is most well supported and takes far less wires)

We use a modified version of the Adafruit graphics lib, so you should be able to install additional fonts compatible with that library

Frequency Library??? Sounds like you mean frequency analysis in which case its not something I’ve read about anyone using on this forum.
Though you could checkout the threads on the various oscilloscopes people have built as some of them may do some frequency analysis

IR Remote. There are threads about this, but I think it depends on which protocol you need

Thanks for the infos,

my biggest problem with the Adafruit custom fonts is that they can´t be rendered with background color and padding to over-write and erase old text.

That leads to annoying flickering Yes, the internal font can be scaled without the above issues, but that looks horrible. :shock: Basically unusable.

Does the ILI9341 library have the same shortcomings?

Like i said, I have a Nextion on order, I will post my findings

The frequency library that I have successfully used with my Uno is FreqMeasure https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_FreqMeasure.html super easy.

The IR lib I have used is IRremote https://github.com/z3t0/Arduino-IRremote – just a few easy steps to to set up and works with many remotes, even the cheapest china ones.

Greetings

Mike

I doubt the frequency library would work without modifications. It’s a Teensy library which also has AVR support, but would probably not work on other processors like ESP8266 or ESP32 or SRM32 without modification

The modifications may be as simple as adding more #ifdef clauses into the code, but it may be more complicated.

I use the ST7735S 1.8 TFT (128×160) with builtin SD reader together with a Maple Mini clone. I use Ucglib_Arduino as the display driver and it works perfectly for my needs. You’ll need to make a small adjustment to the lib, but it’s no big problem.

The lib has a lot of fonts, some of them are transparent. Text can be written in any color.
From what I can tell the library does not keep a frame buffer in RAM, so everything you write has to go over SPI directly. That’s great for memory footprint, but might cause some flicker.

ST7735S and ILI9163 are apparently 100% compatible, so if you find a display that uses either chip, the drivers should work
I have an ILi9163 driver compatible with the adafruit GFX that I use all the time. It’s based on Sumotoy’s one, but optimized for DMA and 16 bit transfers.
https://github.com/victorpv/TFT_ILI9163C

Nextion is display is very good choice to save project development time. i used this in some projects. have a look on tutorial and demo.

https://youtu.be/GfvJKKUIDrQ

https://youtu.be/6tH-azsptEo0

[68gt500 – Wed Nov 22, 2017 8:03 am] –
<…>
I know that is part of the challenge, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a list of proved & tested HW & corresponding libraries components all in one place?
It sure would save a lot of time and frustration.
<…>

The best place to look for the baseline devices is here: https://github.com/rogerclarkmelbourne/ … /libraries

We have a Projects section where occasionally our members describe the specifics of what they are working on… if custom libraries or code is required, most of the time that is discussed.

I think there is a danger in a forum recommending particular modules such as GPS, GLCD, etc. If the slow-boat from China becomes disrupted then all of the forum members that lack the knowledge to port a library are screaming for a “canned” solution. Here in this non-commercial space we want members to be mostly self-sufficient as there is no formal support structure and no always-available moderators. The more advanced members seem to try and cover the bases as time permits, but it is a best-effort attempt.

I do have an opinion about GPS, however. Buy what you want because the GPS is only going to give you a serial stream of NMEA sentences. The trick is to pick a parsing library or roll-your-own. I’ve done both and have a few examples on my Project page.
Hint: The roll-your-own is in the PSoC 4200 project.

Learning is not advanced significantly by always using the same code and components. The programmer must break new grounds and expand into new territories. I have a liberal play budget, but it is still a budget, so I usually buy what is on sale with free shipping

Ray

SPI OLED SSD1306 screens work out of the box with Maple Mini clone & Black F407VET6 for me, the former on Roger’s core, the later on STM32GENERIC.

This is using the stock Adafruit & SSD1306 libraries.

Repo here with code that works -> https://github.com/BennehBoy/LRDuinoTD5

[BennehBoy – Tue Jan 23, 2018 1:56 pm] –
…
This is using the stock Adafruit & SSD1306 libraries.
…

Lady Ada and her team at Adafruit want to sell hardware. Toward that end, she generally keeps libraries up-to-date and compatible with Teensy products, too. Often, having a library Teensy capable also makes it STM32 capable.

Ray

Without doubt, it’s fortunate that almost everything they sell can be found cloned from China for a tenth of the cost.

actually unfortunately i think, let’s face it who’s going to pay $nn when it can be $nn/x and a delivery time probably less than 5wks
it’s the price that ultimately determines where you shop
srp

[BennehBoy – Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:09 pm] –
Without doubt, it’s fortunate that almost everything they sell can be found cloned from China for a tenth of the cost.

[zmemw16 – Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:37 pm] –
actually unfortunately i think, let’s face it who’s going to pay $nn when it can be $nn/x and a delivery time probably less than 5wks
it’s the price that ultimately determines where you shop
srp

Seriously?

Yes, I buy from Adafruit… usually when I need something very quickly and the unit price + shipping does not completely scare me away. Shipping excluded, Adafruit’s price is 2x to 3X Chinese prices; on some items, more. But one must put this into prospective: items have a warranty, a return period, and endless support on the forum. A great deal of effort goes into the software support development and maintenance. Adafruit is a business that fills a need and provides a necessary service and pays taxes and provides jobs.

Ray

production, i used to have to find 3 suppliers to quote for equipment, likely to be around for 20+ years, including spares and for them to provide support.
at some point the MOD changed their rules. :shock:

if it was for a product to be sold for profit to general public, then it’s a whole different ball game; traceability

hobby
you’ve said yourself about having reference boards of each model and mostly outside of USA for the rest.
if i read it correctly aren’t you about get 20% cost increase in Asian goods, USA First thing.

stephen

[zmemw16 – Wed Jan 24, 2018 4:04 pm] –
<…>
hobby
you’ve said yourself about having reference boards of each model and mostly outside of USA for the rest.
if i read it correctly aren’t you about get 20% cost increase in Asian goods, USA First thing.

stephen

Correct. I have not seen the list of affected items for the tariffs. I have mixed emotions because so many hobbyists order from China, like myself. However, it is pretty obvious to me that selling an entire board for less than the cost of the uC in 1000 Quantity is not sustainable. When a teen, I used to order from those mail-order catalogs … things like a CK722 or surplus military items such as radiosondes for parts! Often, it was far less expensive to just go out and buy a cheap 6 transistor radio and gut it for parts. Remember those days?

For all of the makers out there, I think you need to support you local brick-n-mortar stores but I also think you have to be a world customer, too. Everyone wants a bargain. I can get an item tomorrow from Adafruit or the same item from China in three to six weeks. I want the choice to select for myself.

However, I do not think that pricing a $5 ESP32 module at $6 is going to break my play budget. I used to laugh when I saw a Japanese brand marked “Designed in Japan, Assembled in China” but I am old enough to remember “Designed in the U.S.A. and assembled in Japan” … as Billy Joel sings:
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire…

To give an example Ray, an SSD1306 is $2.50 from China, whereas the Adafruit equivalent is ~ $27 here in the UK

When it comes to purchasing things and supporting local business I’d much rather do that for big ticket luxury items, than commodity parts.

Eg I’m an avid photographer, and I always buy my camera equipment from the local store who I have a long term relationship with and are impeccable for service.

More to what I was thinking…

You are building a custom project based upon the specs of a friend. Nearly finished, you demo the project to your friend who is paying you for the parts … but not your time.

During the demo, your friend decides s/he wants to add a 2-line alphabetic display to the project. OMG
You have spent several weekends doing this project for free and you selected a uC to match the project needs as you understood… there is no extra resources to implement the display… it’s redesign time

So you ask your friend, what is it worth to you to add a display? They say, “I have $50 in this already but I don’t want to spend more than $100 total.”

You select this serial display for $49:
Image

You get the display in a few days, everyone is happy. You’re the big hero

(You order a few 1602 LCDS from China with backlighting for $2.10 each just for your parts box.)

Yes, instant (or near) comes at a price – I totally get that too and have certainly ordered branded parts (Adafruit and Arduino included) because I simply can’t wait for the slow boat.

[BennehBoy – Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:11 am] –
Yes, instant (or near) comes at a price – I totally get that too and have certainly ordered branded parts (Adafruit and Arduino included) because I simply can’t wait for the slow boat.

Exactly!
So, I try and “make” myself order from these overpriced sites because they provide a service I do not wish to lose. When I needed an ESP32 Dev board, I bought my first one from Adafruit for $15. This provided two valuable attributes: a guaranteed board and quick delivery. That was months ago, and I have ordered 4 boards from China since then. Interestingly, while the Chinese modules work perfectly for programming and software development, the board purchased from Adafruit shows a consistent 3db gain in the onboard antenna. I’ve tried this with 4 different clone boards and the antenna signal on the official dev board is better and the 4 clone boards are consistent with their RSSI readings.

And I sure everyone wants me to jump on my soapbox at Speaker’s Corner and sing the praises of spending too much money with Adafruit or Sparkfun, but I will not, just remember that such companies do serve a legitimate function and their ability to remain open requires a higher-than AliExpress price. I steer newbies often to these guys because of the support forums and the replace-if-defective policies.

Ray

For those outside the USA, the shipping and additional admin costs by SparkFun and Adafruit usually often add hugely to the overall cost.

I looked on SparkFun, but could not see price for international shipping , but they charge $2 extra admin fee on all exports

Adafruit shipping charges start at $20 for me

It also put me off buying a Teensy a few years ago, as she shipping cost was more then the cost of the Teensy.

Perhaps when Squonk42 and the guys finish their F4 Blue Pill, I can swap one for a Teensy with Paul