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[Shchivone]

I've bought the 5" EVE Touchscreen Display developers kit with the Seeduino, breakout board and a sunlight readable display. I made a project in EVE Screen Designer and I have no clue how to port the project into the Arduino IDE. I looked at the document they have on porting and it didn't really help. Is there another GUI type IDE that would be compatible with seeeduino?

[TFTLCDCyg]

Specifically what screen do you have FT811, FT813, BT815, BT817, etc?

Well you could use the gameduino 23x library, with some tweaks regarding screen timings, you could run your hardware in the arduino IDE. Even the EVE Screen Editor app has the python script to export to that library. It is enabled for FT80x screens, but with some adjustments it can be adapted for the FT81x series, I have been able to make a BT817 screen work in the experiments.

[Shchivone]

I have the BT817 screen but the only export options for the b817, are the EVE_Hal 2 and Raspberry pi pico. When I export it using the EVE HAL 2.0 project using Microsoft Visual Studio Code it doesn't compile properly. What IDE did you use/how did you program and get your BT817 screen to work?

[TFTLCDCyg]

Some time ago I saw that it is possible to use the library for gameduino 2 with the EVE screens (FT800 and FT801), in fact the EVE Screen Editor (4.2.0) can export sketches with that library; so together with a friend (lightcalamar) we got to work (rather in the code) to investigate if it was possible to use screens like the EVE2 (FT813), EVE3 (BT815) or the EVE4 (BT817). With permission from its author: James Bowmann, we managed to modify the library for gameduino 23X, so that it could be used in conjunction with the SdFat library, instead of the SD library, all in the Arduino IDE environment.

The library is focused on STM32 boards like F103, F407, F411, F429, F746 and F767 and mainly on teensy 3.6, 4 and 4.1. The AVR and Due boards are very, very limited with the SdFat library, so we've left them out. At the moment the flash memory part has not been explored, however the other functions can be used perfectly.

The most advanced library we have is the GDSTx, however it needs some adjustments to upload it to github. The previous version is GDT4Xv134

Reviewing the way EVE Screen Editor v4.2.0 exports via pyton, I was able to add the option to export to the GDSTx custom library on FT81x boards (10, 11, 12 and 13), but with BT81x boards it hasn't been possible to get it. If the administrators allow it, I could share the modified program.

The screens I'm using are the NHD-FT813 5" on Teensy 4.1


And the Riverdi BT817 5" on Teensy 4.1

[Shchivone]

Could you please share the modified program?

[TFTLCDCyg]

It is relatively easy to add the code to export to a custom library for gameduino 23x. I attach the modified files and the steps that indicate where they should be copied into the Eve Screen Editor (ESE) folder.



The procedure works only for the ft81x family, however it's compatible with bt81x family, except for the instructions regarding flash memory


MCU: teensy 4.1
TFT: NHD FT813 5"
Wiring:
CS         --- 10
MISO     --- 12
MOSI     --- 11
SCK       --- 13
VCC       --- 3v3
GND      --- GND
BL-VCC  --- 5V
BL-GND --- GND


MCU: teensy 4.1
TFT: Riverdi BT817 5"
Wiring:
CS            --- 10
MISO        --- 12
MOSI        --- 11
SCK          --- 13
VCC          --- 3v3
GND         --- GND
PD/Reset   ---  24
BL-VCC     --- 5V
BL-GND    --- GND

In the case of the BT81x series it's necessary to connect the PD pin to a PWM pin (24), in order to create a reset during boot, otherwise the display chip will not initialize.

[Shchivone]

I changed the connection on the breakout board on the controller from pd to d7 (int), to pd to reset and the program wasn't able to compile. I get this error below.

[TFTLCDCyg]

That error has to do with your MCU, maybe the data cable is bad, maybe your MCU doesn't have enough power to run the display you want to connect.

Try another data cable but without connecting the screen.

[Shchivone]

I am able to export the code from ESE using the gameduino library it compiles and I'm able to upload to the board, however it shows a blank screen. All the connections are correct and it's getting sufficient power because it works with the demo code.

[TFTLCDCyg]

As I pointed out previously, the library for gameduino is not adapted to other screens, although it is true that it has the initialization structure that allows several MCU platforms to be used, it is necessary to add the specific parameters of each EVE-x screen. It can handle screens from the FT80x, FT81x and BT81x families (in this last series, the memory section managed by QSPI has not been explored). Compared with the official library for EVE-x in the arduino IDE, the library for gameduino is quite simple to use, and greatly reduces the learning curve.

We must add the timing table of the TFT in particular (Hsync, Vsync, Voffset, Hoffset, etc.), and some aspects related to the frequency of the SPI-1 bus and the frequency of the EVE-x chip.

These data come in the datasheet on the screen.

[Shchivone]

I'm sorry to keep bothering you but how do I add the specific parameters of each EVE-x screen? What's the proper syntax or code needed to get it to work with bt817. Also I am not that familiar with timing tables. How would I add the timing table of the TFT?

[Rudolph]

https://github.com/RudolphRiedel/FT800-FT813

This does not sound like it but the current version of my library actually supports FT810 to BT817.
The file EVE_config.h has timings for most modules with EVE chips on them.
And there is support for quite a number of controllers, Arduino and Bare-Metall, a few with DMA.

What I only barely started though is export support to ESE.

[TFTLCDCyg]

You must specify the exact TFT you have, since those time tables come in your datasheet. Although the graphics chip is an EVEx, the screen used by the manufacturer has its own vertical and horizontal synchronization parameters, for that reason they must be added to the library. As Rudolph points out, he has been able to work with many variants of EVEx displays, but experience dictates that each display has specific parameters to make it work.

As the seeeduino board you have compiles without errors the code exported from ESE to gameduino, it will only be enough to add that time table to the ccp file of the library.

Share the link to the exact variant of your screen, from there you can review the datasheet to obtain the specific time tables.

[TFTLCDCyg]

By the way, the voltage regulator of these AVR boards does not power the backlight of the screen, perhaps in 4.3" and 3.5" if possible, but from 5", the lack of power prevents the screen from working as it should .

It is necessary to power the backlight from a separate source, these screens can tolerate 5V on the TFT backlight.

[TFTLCDCyg]

In relation to the library to control screens of the EVEx families, the version I have worked on for some years is this: GDSTx

I chose to center it on teensy 4 and 4.1 MCU, although it can also work with 3.5 and 3.6. With 3.2 it works to a limited extent, since I haven't found a way to use the SdFat library with a reader on the SPI bus. It also works with STM32 boards, setting the proper pins for each board for correct access to the microSD reader, on a secondary SPI bus, the TFT goes on SPI-1.

The screens with which I have been able to test it are:

- FT813: 3.5, 4.3 and 5" NHD
- BT815: 5" Matrix Orbital
- BT817: 5" Riverdi
- FT800: 4.3" FT843 4DSystems

Regarding STM32, these are the boards that I have been able to test: Black F407VG, Black F411CE, Core7XXI (F746), F767 core, bluePill C103, M4-DEMO (F407ZG), M3-DEMO (F103ZG) and F429-DISCO.


MCU: Teensy 4.1@528MHz
TFT: EVE-50G (BT815, 5", Matrix Orbital)