Which HMI display is full compatible, stable and easy to work for particle photon/electron?
I have several of the Nextion 2.4” 320x240 displays. I don’t really use the touchscreen part; I mostly use them for displaying information that won’t fit on SSD1306 0.96” OLEDs (which I also have many of). But they work well with the Photon or Electron.
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Thanks. Any fast track and easy to learn tutorial for hmi+photon? Or any code example or used library?
Yup, judging by the PM you sent me, you already know about
https://build.particle.io/libs/ITEADLIB_Nextion/0.0.16/tab/ITEADLIB_Nextion.cpp
And it also features several usage examples.
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I have used the 4DSystems displays and they are also easy to use and have a wealth of application notes with example code. The Particle library has a driver for these displays.
There are several methods for generating the code that executes on the display. I have found the VisiGenie WYSWIG editor capable of everything I have needed to date including output of text and numbers, input from radio buttons and a numeric keyboard as well as a scope of parameter vs time.
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If you want super easy LCD screen layout abilities then go with the 4DSystems displays. I have both and prefer 4DSystems even though they are more expensive. The software makes up for it in my opinion.
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The 4D systems displays are really easy to use. The Visi-Genie with Serial control worksvery well. The one thing that has made me move away from using the screens is they cannot be simply updated over the air. I am sure there is a complex way, but not very reasonable.
I have switched to using Riverdi screens that use the FT80X or FT81X ICs. These screens are AMAZING to use with the photon. All the drawing happens with the Photon over SPI, and can be updated 30fps instead of ~5-10 of the 4D systems module. The screens are much nicer as well - 24bit colour instead of 16bit. They are also cheaper.
Because all the drawing is done on the photon, it can be updated over the air.
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Is there any tutorial for working with photon?
I haven’t found anything. I took the library developed with the Gameduino effort (Gameduino3 - GD3 - works with the FT81X screens).
Here is a link to the library (or a version of it) https://github.com/RndMnkIII/GD3_SDIO
I had to make some modifications to the library to work on the Photon, “application.h” includes and some modifications to make the SPI library work. The GD examples and the “Ft813 programming guide” really help get you going.
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Would you be able to share your code updates?
I was keen to use 4dsystems, but they’re unreliable in terms of business contact. It’s like their staff are only available once every 4 months and thats why they chose the name 4d systems. Seriously, left countless voicemails and email requests for contact (it’s been going since october), and only heard from them twice. Anyways, I’m emotionally moving on and actively trying to find another supplier!
Cheers!
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I never tried to buy direct but it’s Good to know what to expect if I did.
I assume they want you to buy from their distribution channels like Mouser or Digikey.
Ya 4D Systems is not great for support. The forums are awesome, and there is one or two of their employees who is extremely active on it. My issue scaring me away from them recently is we are going through an end of life with one of their products and they have provided extremely little information about exact information. They ended one product with no notice (the 7" screen) and wouldn’t give an estimate on the timing for the rest of that generation.
Let me see what I can do about getting the code, because I have worked on the changes for work, I am not sure about what I can share - there are some specific changes to the library that are very specific to our needs. I can probably modify a fresh copy pretty quickly and send it your way
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