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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Has anyone experience of the CYD (cheap yellow display)?
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Mixtel90 Guru  Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8433 |
I was considering it as a candidate for running Annex32 RDS. Of course, I'd prefer MMBasic but that's not available for it. :) Aliexpress link Only 3 available GPIO, but that's fine for I2C expansion. It might be expandable via bluetooth or BLE too, and has wi-fi connection. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| dddns Guru Joined: 20/09/2024 Location: GermanyPosts: 726 |
Nice price, having 1 hour of fun and it is payed :)) I doubt that it is suitable. They left out any info about the display. But with VSC and C++ it should be fun. LVGL? edit Edited 2025-11-26 20:49 by dddns |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8433 |
There seem to be two different displays used (there are variations in boards). Earlier ones used the ILI9341, later ones use the ST7789. Both are on SPI. I think the touch controller is the XPT2046 on both. The display seems to be 8 colours by default (probably to save RAM). Yep, LVGL. :) Linky It seems to be very popular in the "maker" community. There's been a lot of projects done on it - because it's so cheap. My favorite is a bluetooth-connected MIDI controller! I might just grab a couple and have a bit of a play. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3549 |
Lots of CYD posts on the Annex forum. It's working, but can't vouch for any specific Aliex vendor: https://www.cicciocb.com/forum/search.php?keywords=cyd PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8433 |
Thanks. :) (Although it tells me that I'm not allowed to use the search system - probably because I'm not a forum member). I'll try a couple anyway. If I can't get it to work I'll have to load python. :) I tried the Arduino IDE again tonight, with an old nano that I dug out of a drawer. Nope, I still don't like the system at all. . Edited 2025-11-27 08:48 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3549 |
For instance: CYD 1 ESP32-P4 6x4 CYD 1024 X 600 display board: CYD 2 Join the forum. Less active than here, but questions always get answered. Especially if you want to try LGVL (I haven't). PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8433 |
I've just joined, awaiting admin approval before they'll let me see anything though. I've ordered a couple of boards now (they were on special offer). I'll find out how bad they are in a couple of weeks. :) They are the 2.8in version with the USB-C as well as the micro USB. I'm especially interested to see if I can make a bluetooth link to, say, a RP2040-Zero via an HC-05. It would open up wireless expansion quite nicely without needing wi-fi. That's a bit of a dream at the moment though! At any rate, they are an interesting device to use as a monitor for wi-fi, BT, i2c or COM connections without needing a second Pico and display. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8433 |
Well, they arrived. Quite a nice little module. There is a simple demo program pre-loaded to give you an idea of what they can do. Not a bad display. It's a resistive touch screen, although it's not the ILI9341 display. <rant> I re-loaded the Arduino IDE to try to see what the fuss is about (there are a lot of these modules around). I got precisely nowhere. I *hate* that IDE. It's a wonderful piece of non-intuitive software with meaningless error messages and plenty of bloat. Most of the "help" around is about teaching you how to write a very simple program to an Arduino UNO. (Apparently nothing else exists. lol) It also doesn't teach you much about the capabilities of the IDE. If it has any. :) I loaded "blink" of course, which ran fine. However I couldn't change the speed. The sketch appeared to compile and download ok but the speed didn't change. Not a lot of point in attempting to use a system like that. I must have done something that a 10-year old kid could sort out in minutes, but we haven't got any of those. </rant> I've not had time to investigate putting Annex32 on it yet. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8433 |
It gets worse. I think its virtual COM port driver has stopped Tera Term from seeing the Windows one so I can't connect to a Pico now. :( ------------------------------------- So, the following *seems* to have worked. No COM ports displayed in device manager. No beep when plugging Pico in. Uninstall Arduino IDE reboot COM ports still not there plug Arduino in look for Arduino COM port driver in Device Manager (that's the only one that appears) Uninstall it Plug Pico in COM port appears as expected. Apparently the Arduino IDE (at least sometimes) doesn't clean up after itself and leaves its COM port driver hogging the system. The uninstaller doesn't delete the driver either. This is just shoddy. Edited 2025-12-04 04:28 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4193 |
If Windows & a USB COM port, Zadig might fix it - worth a try? John |
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| EDNEDN Senior Member  Joined: 18/02/2023 Location: United StatesPosts: 279 |
@Mixtel90 A quick question for you. Are you loading some Chinese driver for the virtual USB Serial Com: port? There has been an on going problem with the chips used to do the USB Serial Com: ports. Maybe 6 or 7 years ago Chinese knock offs of the CH341SER chip started being used on Arduino boards because they were significantly cheaper. The original (USA I think???) maker of the chips responded by putting logic into their Windows driver for the chip that pretty much did not let it work with the knock off chips. It also caused a bunch of problems with Arduino and other things in use in the 3D-Printer community. If your Arduino board uses the cheaper Chinese knock off chips... You must use a driver that works with those chips. You can not use the driver that the original chip maker supports and makes sure is everywhere to be downloaded. I could be wrong, but I believe the driver I'm attaching to this post will work with the knock off chips. You might want to give that a try and see if it helps you. (And to make matters worse... The original company started giving the hostile driver to Microsoft to put into all of their releases and updates. They made sure it was really hard to avoid having that driver on your system. ) CH341SER-for-Chinese-knock-off-serial-ports.zip . Edited 2025-12-04 06:07 by EDNEDN |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8433 |
I only loaded USB drivers that were included with the install package for Arduino IDE, nothing else. I started setting AIDE up for the ESP32 on the CYD. Loaded the ESP32 driver so that AIDE would work with it, and the screen handler for it ok. Then it told me to modify one of the files and I'd no idea how! At that point I gave up on that until I had an idea what was happening. :) I was then able to connect to a Arduino Nano clone and load the Blink sketch. After that I couldn't change what was in the nano. I might have been doing something wrong, I don't know. This stuff is foreign to me. Anyway, all is back to normal now. I'm happy with a Pico on the end of the cable and I'm not sure if the AIDE will ever come back - I'm not sure there is enough time left in the universe to get me to like it! Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| zeitfest Guru Joined: 31/07/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 652 |
I agree, the Arduino IDE v2 irritates me a lot. To get v2 working (W11) I found it best, to clean out a former install and install from scratch. As you say, the deinstall doesn't clean out all the old files well and then the new install sees the old files and doesn't update them.. yada.. V2 has extra directories of user files to clean out . For the Pico programs I generate the uf2 file and then load that, a bit kludgy but works without USB versions problems. The esp32 install in arduino alters the standard setup to suit the esp32, board etc so that can cause problems. In general I think the micro programming pastime seems to becoming gridlocked in versions, safeguards and complexity, and elements of delay, divert and deny as well. The old dream of a garage startup and making money from it is long gone (at least in Australia). Tech is nowhere near as much fun as it used to be.  |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3549 |
As someone who started to build his first "home computer" in 1977, I'd have to disagree. The development environments are vastly better; the microprocessors and microcomputers are incomparably more powerful; the range of sensors and what you can control are ever-expanding. The documentation--in 1977 it was, "What documentation". I very much appreciate having an AI expert to help me with obscure pieces of hardware or confounding Linux commands (awk and sed anyone--now Gemini can tell me exactly what to do, and it's so compact). It may well be that there are fewer young recruits now--perhaps in part because what is available commercially can do so much. PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5604 |
Lizby, Since W11 I get the impression that the PC I bought and payed for isnot my own, it is owned by MS. I do not feel I have control over it when I use it. It is doing things I never ordered it to do, and that I don't want it to do. Peter is euforic over W11. There is nothing like it. And I agree, only Apple could be worse. There is nothing like it. But that takes away the fun a bit. Volhout Edited 2025-12-08 17:41 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 10844 |
Not at all. It just works, day in, day out. No bugs, no resorting to command windows, every program I use is compatible without issues. Turn the computer on in the morning and off in the evening and use it during the day without ever having to think about it. The computer with W11 is just a tool to run the applications I use and it does that perfectly. |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8433 |
I couldn't agree more (with Volhout). I'm not enjoying W11. It might be better on a system with a big CPU and plenty of RAM, but having it running on a Celeron J4125 with 8GB of RAM feels sluggish to me. W10 on even lower powered hardware was much more responsive. This is a low powered PC but it's quite typical of things like point of sale boxes. You don't expect run graphics hungry games on these or edit video, they aren't intended for it. They should be able to run an OS fast enough though. An OS's job - it's only job - is to act as a layer to connect user programs and a user interface to the hardware. It should do these things without getting in the way and, preferably, without making demands on the hardware that would restrict the operating speed and efficiency of user programs. It has to carry out these tasks quietly and dependably under all conditions, getting close to 100% bug-free. I think Microsoft have forgotten this. If LibreCAD or the free version of TurboCAD would load and save DWG files rather than only DXF (which is ASCII and produces huge files) I might manage to move over to Linux completely, but it doesn't and NanoCAD is unstable under Wine (if it will run at all now, I'm not sure). There is a serious shortage of free 2D CAD packages on Linux. There are CAD packages, but not affordable by hobbyists without deep pockets. I've not tried QCAD for a long time - I might give that a go even though I remember it as being a bit weird. . Edited 2025-12-08 19:05 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| SteveA Regular Member  Joined: 10/03/2017 Location: United KingdomPosts: 49 |
Have you tried QCAD |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8433 |
Not for a long time. I got rid of it for some reason or other, but I can't remember why now. It does have the disadvantage that the "Community edition" i.e. free only supports DXF. . Edited 2025-12-08 20:44 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 10844 |
What about onshape? Just been learning it and it works through a browser. Free for personal use. |
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