EVE display GUI development

[Comco]

Hi All,

We've been using Crystalfontz character displays for 15+ years with great success. I'm now trying to transition us into the graphical age and have acquired a selection of Crystalfontz EVE accelerated displays. We're looking to use the 2.4" 240x320 portrait display for one application, and the 7" 1024x600 landscape display for another. The smaller display uses the Bridgetek/FTDI FT811 EVE, and the larger uses the BT817 EVE.

By reading the datasheet and development guide, we have been able to get the FT811 screen up and running. It's a lot of coding to generate any meaningful graphics -- much less a multi-page GUI -- so I'm excited about using Bridgetek's "EVE Screen Designer (ESD)" software. Prior to this we've been using Amulet displays and their UI builder software, which works great. I'm hopeful the ESD software can ultimately do the same, but...

How do I output anything out of ESD? Sure, I can build a delicious GUI with the software, but how to I actually export C to build into my microcontroller project? Right now we're aiming at a PIC24 series microcontroller, but I'm hoping to generate generic SPI C code with ESD. Has anyone done this?

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[Trevin]

Hello,

I'm glad to hear that our products have been able to support you for such an extended time.

EVE Screen Designer does have porting options available. When you set up the project, you have to create a new target. This is done in the "New Project" window:

The next thing is to create the target (for the 7" EVE):

Bridgetek recommends to use MM900EV1A as the host platform if you need to port it to a different processor like your PIC.

Now that the project is set up, you can follow their porting guide to get useable code: https://brtchip.com/wp-content/uplo...-for-STM32L4-Discovery-Board-and-FreeRTOS.pdf

Hopefully that gets you up and running! Let us know if there are any issues.

 

[Trevin]

One of our contacts at Bridgetek also reached out with this option:

One other option which sits between ESD and an all-coding solution is to use our EVE screen Editor. This does not have export functions for other MCUs but one technique is to lay out each individual screen and then copy the commands from the Coprocessor window. This may need some syntax to be edited (either manually or if the customer writes a script) as the example code may use slightly different syntax to what you copy from the Coprocessor window. This will help with the layout but the logic to go between the screens would still need coded.

 

[Comco]

I came to the same conclusion: I'm going to use the cut-n-paste from the EVE Screen Editor Coprocessor list. The EVE Screen Editor so far gives me everything I need without all the C bloat associated with exporting.