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aargee
Senior Member

Joined: 21/08/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 255

Posted: 01:24pm 19 Jan 2015

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Hi all,

Firstly thanks Matherp for all the coding and brain work you have been doing with the Micromite, it is brilliant. Also thanks to Tassyjim for the Julian date and day code you posted a while back. Hopefully I will be using both in the following project.

I'm thinking of making a day clock for my aging mother. Mum tends to lose track of what day it is and this can cause problems with medication, etc.

What I'm wanting to do is have a screen, permanently on, showing something like "Tuesday Morning" followed by time and date in a smaller font.

A small tabletop unit powered by batteries would be ideal but impractical for a whole host of battery related issues, so I'm going for a wall mounted unit powered by a plugpack, something like those picture frames that show your photos.

Now, what I'm looking for is a screen around the 7-10" size that can use Matherp's code to use on the Micromite, does anyone have any links to something bigger than the 3.2" displays about on eBay?

The other option is to use one of my Maximites and feed a small VGA screen, this solution might be a bit more bulky and not (easily) wall hang-able.

Any comments would be appreciated. Or even commercial solutions that would seem to make this project nonviable (not that that would stop me).

Thanks,

Rob.

For crying out loud, all I wanted to do was flash this blasted LED.

TassyJim

Guru

Joined: 07/08/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 6266

Posted: 02:59pm 19 Jan 2015

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One option is a 7 inch android tablet.

The software could be done in RFO BASIC!
http://www.laughton.com/basic/index.html

Or
To keep with micromites, the tablet can run a web browser and a micromite with the WiFi module can do the hard work.

I have been considering the second approach for a readout for my data acquisition system. The BOSS wants something she can read without having to reach for the glasses.

Jim

VK7JH
MMedit

matherp
Guru

Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 10195

Posted: 11:07pm 19 Jan 2015

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This 7" display

would need the drivers modifying to work but isn't too expensive. The only issue is finding working initialisation code to start from.

WhiteWizzard
Guru

Joined: 05/04/2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2932

Posted: 04:12am 20 Jan 2015

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How about using multiple cheap 8x8 LED matrix modules. I have used these on a GPS clock and visibility across a room is brilliant.

You can have two rows of five modules which would give two lines of text/numbers to meet your requirements.

Not quite a TFT screen you requested but is something to think about as an alternative.

Another option is a TFT MicroMite which gives a 4.3" screen. I have one of these running in a bedroom which again gives great visibility (and colour!).

If you want 7-10" then how about an old redundant VGA monitor being driven by Geoff's VT100 Ascii Terminal unit. This would give plenty of flexibility in terms of display output (albeit in monochrome).

Food for thought . . . . . .

WhiteWizzard
Guru

Joined: 05/04/2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2932

Posted: 04:34am 20 Jan 2015

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For anyone interested, here is one of my LED Matrix clocks part built:

To give an idea of size, the frame is 24cm x 18cm. The electronics currently make it 5cm deep BUT I haven't made them SMD yet (a future intention).

This unit currently only has one line of text but another is going to be added to show date and/or Temperature.

The unit is controlled via an Apple Remote (to set alarm; and to set display options such as 12/24hr).

I haven't produced a PCB for this yet but if there is interest here then I may get a batch designed and made with SMDs to minimise thickness (for wall hanging) . . . .

WW

viscomjim
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Joined: 08/01/2014
Location: United States
Posts: 925

Posted: 04:55pm 21 Jan 2015

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Hey WW, this is very cool. I remember you mentioning this project back when you posted the apple remote code, which by the way is awesome!!!! I would love to see how you controlled the 8x8 matrix using the uMite. Did you use any Cfunction stuff or pure MMbasic?

WhiteWizzard
Guru

Joined: 05/04/2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2932

Posted: 12:23am 23 Jan 2015

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Hi Jim,

Sorry for the delayed reply.

The clock still uses pure MMBasic (as I still haven't got my head round CFunctions).

Each 8x8 matrix has its chip select connected to a MicroMite output, and I drive the data in using SPI at 3MHz.
After doing all the calculations for the display content, a routine basically draws 40 columns of data bytes (5 matrix displays x 8 LEDs = 40 pixels wide) looking up the required byte value from a font array.

It is rather 'messy' code which is why I haven't released it yet on this forum!! BUT it works very well!!

Bottom line is the display is bright, flicker-free and overall cost is reasonable. Note however, that it can't run from batteries

When I get a spare bit of time I will do a SMD PCB and offer it as a 'kit' on MicroMite.org.

Any more details then please do get in touch . . .

WW

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