Frequently Asked Questions

There is no formal “if/else” construct. However, you can approximate it with the macro label feature. For example, let’s say you can present the user with four different menus depending on some state variable. You could implement this with a couple of macros and an integer variable, and the variable i0 would hold the state, 0-3.

Your code would set i0 to the desired value, then call macro select_menu. Macro select_menu turns i0 into a label with an ‘m’ pre-pended, which is used in the call to display_menu.

#define select_menu
m display_menu:m`i0`
#end

#define display_menu
:m0
// display items suitable for menu 0
t "Menu 0" 100 100
:m1
// display items suitable for menu 1
t "Menu 1" 100 100
:m2
// display items suitable for menu 2
t "Menu 2" 100 100
:m3
// display items suitable for menu 3
t "Menu 3" 100 100
:default
// display or report parameter error t "!! Invalid parameter !!" 100 100
#end

You could also set up select_menu to accept a parameter that is the desired menu, and it would look like the following (barely different than above). Note that `0` is used instead of `i0`.

#define select_menu2 
m display_menu:m`0`
 #end

We suggest converters that have the FTDI chip inside from Digikey.

In general, users will not see any difference when switching from a PC serial port to a USB Virtual Com Port (VCP). However, there are significant differences in the configuration of a serial port and a USB port. A serial port can send data on a byte-per-byte basis whereas the USB sends data in packets. If the application is sending one byte at a time, it is very inefficient for USB as it waits for the buffer to fill up and complete a full packet or waits for a timeout to send a short packet.

The USB-serial chip on our board (FTDI) allows for the configuration of these timeouts so the speed should be at least the equivalent of the legacy serial port if not better.

To reduce the time to receive (chip to PC) smaller chunks of data the latency timer can be reduced to 2ms (default 16ms) and the InTransferSize can be reduced to 64 bytes (default 4096) by modifying the FTDIPORT.INF file is found in the driver folder. A similar mechanism exists for writing (PC to chip) data called buffered writes. Find more information in the AN_107 Advanced Driver Options application note.

If you use older versions than SCLD5 BMPload Version 2.1.4 or SLCDx BMPload Version 1.8.2, you may experience Vista OS-related problems (error messages, corrupt device downloads, etc.). Download a newer version at BMPload.

We don’t have a GUI builder tool for SLCD products. Still, we recommend using standard bit-mapped image development and manipulation tools to create images and then our Screen Layout Utilities for graphic placement. The standard tools include programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop or the free program called GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program).

Once you have your bitmap images defined, you can use our free Screen Layout Utilities (a plug-in for GIMP) to design your screen layout and generate a macro that will display on your LCD. We have tutorials for using GIMP to create bitmaps and using the Screen Layout Utilities within GIMP, and both tutorials are online in our video library.

Display modules controlled with Reach Technology G2/G3 controller boards do have a drag-and-drop tool for GUI development.

Our SLCD display modules do not support any wireless interface directly. “Bridge” chips are available that operate as Serial RS-232 to (Bluetooth, WiFi, IR, etc.) adapters. If you are willing to design your own adapter board, our display modules may meet your needs, and it’s a matter of your intended application and the size/cost/performance constraints you are facing. Alternatively, our newer G2 modules do support WiFi interfaces.

SLCD43 does not support WinCE 5.0 running on this display controller. Our SLCD43 does support RS-485 via an external RS-232 to RS-485 converter. This type of adapter automatically enables the RS-485 transmitter when the RS-232 transmit data is active. It supports either half-duplex or full-duplex RS-485. Our SLCD43 can be controlled by a PC or a microprocessor using a physical serial connection to support CMOS/TTL logic levels. We also can load macros so applications can reside on the device with minimal external control (via commands). Find your unit under the “Touchscreen Display Modules” and then look in the “Documents” tab to download our software and hardware manuals for further information.

The “text flash” command is implemented via the animation engine. See the “ani” commands. These allow you to create animations like a flashing LED or animation like a fluttering butterfly. Example:

// bitmap 10 and 11 are "indicator off" and "indicator on" respectively 
// this sets up the animation script, script # is 0 
ani 0 xi 10 0 0 // display indicator on 
ani 0 y 1000 // yield for 1000ms (1 second) 
ani 0 xi 11 0 0 // display indicator off 
ani 0 y 1000 // yield for 1000ms (1 second) 


// enable script 0 
anie 0

The Windows Vista OS is known to have compatibility issues when running serial communications programs on multicore processors. This issue is because it allows multiple cores to work on the same program, which can cause synchronization issues. To solve this, use the “Set Affinity” to 1 core. There are various ways to do this (Google “Windows Vista Affinity”). When the program is running, one way to change that setting is to right-click the application from within the Task Manager and then set the affinity.

You don’t need a special loader. Just copy the .ELF file to your SD card (root) and reset or power cycle the board. The card needs to be 2 GB or less in size, and it has to be FAT16 formatted. Hook a terminal emulator to Main/COM0 at 115200, and you will see the update progress.

The SLCD5  (7″, 8.4″, and 10.4″) firmware loads bitmaps and macros from serial data on Flash into RAM before it displays anything on the screen. This way, the screen does not come up blank. However, this loading can take time, especially if there are a lot of bitmaps. There are two ways to speed things up:

1. If the splash screen is set to bitmap 1 (e.g., command “*SPL 1”), this bitmap is loaded and displayed first before all the others are loaded. This setting can reduce the on-time delay.
2. A special inverter cable, P/N 23-0121-12, can be used with ERG 8MAD series inverters. This cable enables the inverter as soon as power is turned on, so the screen goes white right away. Then once the controller is initialized and there are bitmaps loaded, the screen will display normally. The downside of this solution is that the inverter always runs at full brightness.

We do not support VFDs.

SLCD+/SLCD6/SLCD43 Modules

Start BMPload. You will see a box called “Screen Snapshot” with a button called “GetScreen.” Make sure your Port Settings are correct, then click GetScreen. Browse to the desired file location, name the file, then click Save.

SLCD5/SLCD5+/SLCD5+N Modules

Use a terminal emulator, insert an SD card into the display module, then send the command “*getScreenAsBMPFile”. This step will copy the current screen to a file on the SD card.

Here are some simple macros you can install and test; they use bitmaps 1 and 2 from the standard demos.

#define init_test 
s 0 1 
z 
f 13B 
// std round button from demo 
bdc 29 200 100 1 "Test" 1 2 
xmq 29 button_down release_after_short_press 
#end

#define button_down 
w 1000 
xmq 29 button_down release_after_long_press 
#end

#define release_after_short_press 
out "down < 1 sec (short press)\r" 
// reset release macro so we can test again: 
xmq 29 button_down release_after_short_press 
#end

#define release_after_long_press 
out "down > 1 sec (longer press)\r" 
// reset release macro so we can test again: 
xmq 29 button_down release_after_short_press 
#end

There are several ways to do this – all touch can be disabled, but it would be easier for the host to blank the screen, make the entire screen a hotspot (touch-sensitive region) and display a countdown number that gets reset when the unit is touched. When cleaning is finished, the screen will no longer be touched, and the host can resume regular operation.

Yes. The “tc” command starts a calibration cycle, with on-screen prompts.

Connector J7 pin 10 may need a pull-up resistor to your host 3.3V supply and avoid a problem of the SLCD5’s 3.3V supply and your host 3.3V supply being different.

The “SET TEXT ALIGNMENT” command can control how the “TEXT DISPLAY” command places text on the screen. The following commands draw a rectangle, set the text alignment to centered horizontally and vertically, and draw a string centered in the box:

r 100 100 300 150

ta CC

t “Centered!” 200 125

Note: The horizontal alignment setting reverts to “L” after the text is written.

You can use the Measure Tool in GIMP to get this information. Open your meter image with GIMP. Select the Measure Tool (it looks like a drawing compass) or select Tools->Measure. Click-and-hold the left mouse button on the pivot point and make a measurement straight down by the length of the needle. Release the click and get the needle’s zero point (angle). Now go back to the pivot point, hold the Shift key, click the left mouse button again, and move the pointer to the desired needle location. The Measure Tool will display the measured angle. Note: It will tend to keep the angle measurements less than 180 degrees, so you will need to do the math for larger angles.

GIMP documentation for the Measure Tool

See our video tutorial called “Design a Needle for the Meter Define Command.”

There are no provisions for storing application files on the SD card, except for saving screenshots and using the screenshot command for customer product documentation. The SD card is used for system updates since this is much faster than using the RS-232 port. Otherwise, our modules are intended to be human interface devices only.

We recommend using the approach described in our In-System-Programming Application Note.

See the “xset” command in the Software Manual (find the manual for your module from the Touchscreen Display Modules menu, in the Documents tab) for information on adding touch characteristics to a button or hotspot.

When drawing a full-screen bitmap (.BMP) and using hotspots within it for control, the hotspots invoke macros. The macros redraw the screen. The colors being wrong is a side effect of how typical hotspots work. A standard hotspot defined by the “x” command specifies a touch-active area. When the area is touched, the screen is reverse imaged (foreground becomes background and vice versa) to provide visual feedback of the touch. When the button invokes a macro that redraws the screen, the screen is drawn while the button is pushed and the foreground/background colors are reversed. Then when the button is released, the hotspot is reversed even though the underlying image has changed. The solution is to use the “xs” command that does not change the screen when the defined hotspot is touched. The new screen will provide visual feedback, or the macro can do its reverse imaging.

The macros in the “macros_radio_button_ex.txt” file define a set of six buttons that act like radio buttons. Each button press calls an associated macro that sets the proper state for the button that was pressed and clears the state of the other buttons. The user would add application-specific commands to these macros.

Button text is limited to 19 characters for button numbers less than 118 and 49 characters for button numbers 118 and up (SLCD+ is always limited to 19 characters).

The SLCD board has an 80KB frame buffer which povides for 8-bit per-pixel color at 320 x 240 resolution. A constant color palette is used to support a consistent color image with multiple on-screen bitmaps. The palette maps the 8-bit pixel index to the 12-bit color value sent to the panel.

The palette provides 16 grayscales (including black and white) and six color values for red, green, and blue, or 6*6*6*16 = 231 colors (actually only 230 because of black redundancy).

In 24-bit RGB terms, the colors supported are as follows:

R, G, B = independently either 0x00, 0x33, 0x66, 0x99, 0xCC or 0xFF (six colors)

R=G=B = 0x00, 0x11, 0x22, …0xEE, 0xFF (16 grays).

A file ps8666.act is provided that contains the Adobe Photoshop palette corresponding to this color mapping.

Video

See 29 touch screen control panel interface designs using Reach modules in this 1:34 minute video.

Screen Shot Examples

Here are some still screenshots of touch screen control panel customer examples.

Chetco Digital uses 5.7″ QVGA touch screen control panels to create the display below. See several other screenshots. Chetco Digital makes an analog to digital instrumentation hub, enabling a touch screen gauge interface, remote switching, engine data logging, and SeaSmart.NET NMEA 2000 compatible wireless networking for marine, automotive, and industrial applications.

Industrial Ventialcaiton, Inc. makes Centurion, a stand-alone control unit that easily and precisely manages storage climates by controlling fans, evaporative coolers, heaters, refrigeration, humidification, Co2, and fresh air. It uses a Reach Technology 5.7″ display module.

Sciton uses an 8.4″ display module in JOULE, which offers an unprecedented array of laser and light wavelengths through its three distinct delivery modes: arm, fiber, and broadband light. As a result, JOULE allows practitioners the maximum versatility to provide the broadest range of aesthetic and surgical procedures available from a single platform.

Bitmaps are RLE compressed for storage. To see the effect of compression on a particular image, download the BMPload program and run it. Ignore the initial error (no SLCD attached) and add a bitmap. Then click on the bitmap name, and the information on the right-hand side will show the compressed size.

Note: If the bitmap is palletized using the SLCD palette, the 768 bytes of palette data does not need to be stored in the flash memory.

To display a changing number, use a monospace font and always write the same number of characters. So, if it is a 4-digit number, and the value is 1, send ”  1″ (three spaces and a 1) and if it is 123, send one space and the three numbers. The monospace font ensures that each number takes the same horizontal space, so they don’t shift left and right as they change. Finally, you may want to add a “wvr” command (find the manual for your display module in the Documents tab for your specific product) to ensure that the number changes while the display is not being refreshed on that part of the screen. Note that wvr does not work in portrait mode due to the way the LCD is built. See also our video tutorial called “Simple Output Formatting to Manage Fixed-Width Fields.”

Here are some suggestions to improve performance:

1. Only send changed data: The host computer on boot can send all data. Afterward, the host computer should only send that data that has changed (compared with the last data sent).
2. Reduce host computer data transmitting frequency: Reduce the rate of the data sent from the host computer to the SLCDx display controller to reduce the flicker that occurs when writing data.
3. Avoid refreshing the entire screen: If you have a large bitmap, try to avoid re-displaying the bitmap since re-writing the bitmap can be relatively slow.
4. Move Reach commands to macros: Commands executed within a macro are stored in the device memory, and these commands run faster than commands sent serially.
5. Uncompressed images display quickest: If you are compressing images, remember that uncompressed versions are displayed faster. If the default is to compress all images, include the “.unc.” in the filename of large images that display more slowly.

Bitmaps can be compressed in our SLCD based products to save Flash memory space. The disadvantage is that compressed bitmaps display more slowly. To balance performance and Flash display storage, it is best to use the “Enable Bitmap Compression” checkbox in the BMPload application. For bitmaps that are large (for example cover the entire screen), or are re-drawn often, compression can be disabled by using inserting the string “.unc” into the file name, e.g. “01_MyBitmap.unc.bmp”. This tells the BMPload program not to compress this file’s image. Background bitmaps for slider objects and meter objects and sliding graphics (“xio” command) need to be uncompressed as well.

The SLCDx controllers can run either 8-bit color or high-color firmware (the original SLCD is 8-bit only, for high-color, use the SLCD+). In 8-bit color firmware, when a 24-bit “exact” palletized image is displayed, the bitmap routine maps the 24-bit color to the closest available in the fixed SLCD palette. In high-color firmware, the BMPload program converts 24-bit color bitmaps to 16-bit color (RGB565 format) before storing them on the controller board.

With Reach Technology products, you do not need to redesign your PCB, assuming it will be the “Host Computer,” provided it has a serial bus (USB, RS-232 UART, CMOS/TTL UART depending upon product).

Use a transparent bitmap. This feature is only available with high-color firmware versions; the “vers” command will show the version you are using.

To use transparency, create a 24-bit color bitmap with a fixed color for the transparent (non-displayed) pixels. Let’s say you used pure red. In 24-bit terms, this color is hex FF0000 (RRGGBB format). The high color firmware uses RGB565, that is, 5 bits of red, 6 of green, and 5 of blue. So it would be best if you converted the 24-bit color value to 16-bit. In this example, it would be hex F800. Then add the string “.trf800” to the name of the bitmap, and it becomes a transparent bitmap. (The transparency value has to be put in the filename because the .BMP format cannot specify a transparent color value). To get the 565RGB value corresponding to a 24-bit RRGGBB color, use the ‘S’ command to set the fg/bg color in RRGGBB format; the command will respond and show the RRGGBB values and their corresponding RGB565 values.

See the manual section “Working With Bitmaps” for more detail. You can download the manual by locating your module in the Touchscreen Display Module menu and then the Documents tab.

The BMPload program displays the full path and file name to load files in different directories. It makes the display hard to read, but it positively identifies the location of each bitmap file.

This is a feature of Windows, it tries to keep USB ports unique, so when you plug in a particular device, it holds the same COM port number it was first assigned. There is a way around this. Our board uses an FT232R chip, and the chip manufacturer has an application note to tell Windows to use the same COM port. See Application Note, Section 7.1, Ignore Hardware Serial Number.

In a nutshell, you have to edit the registry and add a key with a value of “01”:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\UsbFlags\IgnoreHWSerNum04036001

Please heed the application note warning about editing the Windows Registry.

There are two or three LEDs on the controller board, depending on the model. One LED is a “controller good indicator” that comes on when the controller firmware has powered up and is running. This LED shows the unit has power. The second is a “controller busy indicator” that lights up during command processing or upgrades/downloads. Some boards have a third LED, which indicates activity on the USB port.

To clear a power-on macro, use the BMPload program, check the “Set Power On Macro,” and set the Power On Macro to 0. This will turn the power-on macro feature off. It can also be done via the serial port using the command:

*PONMAC 0

The command:

*PONMAC 0 0

will also restore the copyright message usually suppressed when a power-on macro is assigned.

Similarly, check the “Set Splash Screen” and set Bitmap Number to 0, which will disable the splash screen. The splash screen and power-on macro are typically not set together.

The free Open Source program GIMP is helpful. See video tutorials for more information.

Although we do not have a canned graphics library, you can get bitmaps of buttons and other controls to use in your interface from iStockphoto. There you will find good quality graphics, for a low cost. Do a search on “buttons” to see a sample. Some other options: Free SVG or find other image galleries.  You can use Inkscape to convert a .SVG to a .BMP. You might also consider using a tool like GIMP. See Reach Technology video tutorials for making graphic elements. You might also consider working with an interface design firm like GUIFX.

Currently, SLCD products only support BMP file formats. However, many image applications (Microsoft Paint, Adobe Photoshop, etc.) allow conversion from non-BMP to BMP file formats. Watch tutorial videos for more details.

Thanks to one of our customers, there is a way to edit your SLCD macro files and have syntax highlighting. The TextPad shareware editor can do the custom highlighting. Download this ReachMacros.syn file and follow these instructions.  You should now see macro highlighting in TextPad. Please note that Reach Technology is not responsible for supporting this file.