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Event Counter Tutorial manual

1. Reset_Counter in the Projects File User Code peating Task Return from Reset_Counter subroutine Call Out end sub implements User code that is located below the implements statement must be of a sub procedure or sub function routine nature Program execution is not allowed to just follow the TOP to BOTTOM flow like it does in the Main program file All code here is contained within either a sub procedures or a sub functions routine starting and its ending declarations and is called on from either V TFT core code event handler routine or user code in an event handler routine or from user code in the main program file Program execution flow inside the routines DOES flow TOP to BOTTOM but must encounter a end routine statement so execution point goes back to the instruction after the ONE that called the routine If your routines coding logic does not allow program execution flow to exit the routines in a timely manner your application might appear to be hung up or slow to respond to inputs or other HW you are trying to control does not work like it did in a different example that you tested The code a user places in this area is safe from V TFT overwriting as long as nothing is done to the beginning ending User Code comment markers V TFT does rewrite all of the code in the driver and objects files every time you have made any changes to any
2. _ DRIVE MODE oin K UU e Ap auto Low meo Hran E P A All screens and controls and indicators are made from V TFT Objects only No BMP s or direct draw TFT instruction codes used Lots of custom made input controls using different methods and custom indicators for data output using different methods too All designs are my own that I worked out while I was learning how to use V TFT and Bug test it for MikroElectronika My work on these screens has led to many changes and improvements that are now a part of the V TFT you are using and how it now takes less work to make screens like these So I feel they are of some value as tutorial examples and you should consider taking a look at them Sorry but you won t get any program code with them though just the Objects on each screen as I have them organized on the Layers and how they are layered and all of their properties settings I used to make them as they are If you want to examine them download the zip package from this tutorials Libstock page and un zip the download It makes a folder with the screen files scr and a bmp image of same name for each screen to preview it Start a new project in V TFT and then import any screen you want to examine or copy any Objects from to your own project s and use You can change any objects properties as you want the ESC code is still in development and may become a commercial product so I have to keep it secure for now Sin
3. call routine to handle updating counter value displayed MINUS Button event handler subtracts 1 from COUNTER_VALUE variable RESET Button event handler Resets COUNTER_VALUE to zero 0 when clicked twice This object event handler routine does not actually do the tasks of resetting the COUNTER_VALUE to zero or changing the counts displayed on the screen What it does do is handle the state of a FLAG called RESET_FLAG that another user routine Reset_Counter will use to determine what actions to take The way I have coded this routine and the Reset_Counter routine is an example of how to add confirmation safety to a Button in V TFT in your projects too The first press of this Button causes Reset_Counter routine to be called every time the main program loop does another execution pass and while the Flag value is at One 1 the Reset_Counter routine just blinks the colors on the RESET Button between normal and reddish colors Pressing clicking the RESET Button again is required to cause the Reset_Counter routine to actually clear the counters display and count total back to zero The last Object Event Handler Routine this project has Only three 3 Buttons to code for Only tutorial Comments are after here to end of file set flag to first stage of reset handling RESET_FLAG 0 Flag is cleared RESET_FLAG 1 Flag state is RESET button
4. a comment area for user subroutines and functions or in the User Code area in the events module file where indicated for User Code or ina module file of your own making The following code is an example of using this loop in a sharing way with the V TFT core code The code here calls a routine coded in the events module located in the User Code implements area On every pass of the loop the variable RESET_FLAG is checked to see if itis not equal lt gt to zero value If it is equal to zero nothing else happens program execution goes to the while loops wend instruction and the looping starts over again at the first instruction after the while true statement Event handler routine code in events module will change RESET_FLAG s value when the RESET button on the screen has been clicked If RESET_FLAG s value is zero 0 it will be changed to a one 1 value or if it is at the value of one 1 it will be changed to a value of two 2 A value of 1 or 2 will cause the test code below to evaluate as TRUE so the routine Reset_Counter will be called every time the loop repeats while RESET_FLAG is not equal to zero In the codes logic design the Reset_Counter routine can be called many times when RESET_FLAG 1 because a waiting condition for a second click of the RESET button exists then So the Reset_Counter routine will blink the RESET button red to indicate the waiting for confirma
5. mess tae Features and Controls Expansion Bay font color Black for Future Usage of E Bay1 Kits when available E Show Altayers ee DL e Illustration 10 Object has been moved to new layer Any Object s you move will be Top or Front Most after being pasted now no matter where it was in the Object layering Priority list before being moved If it has not happened to you yet at some point while working in V TFT you will be moving Objects around the Layers or putting copies of some Objects on a screen and you will find that the draw order Priority is wrong with the Objects now and you will find you need to be clever about how you get them sorted so they are all being displayed correctly had some cases where wasn t sure would get the Layering mess sorted out right without surrendering to frustration and deleting the problem Object s and making new ones from scratch because could not see a workable solution to get things right actually did resort to deleting and using new components but that was with a very buggy V TFT version It has not happened for some time now am happy to say BONUS CONTENT Because there can be so many possible conditions with multiple Objects on multiple Layers and I can t realistically cover them all I had the Idea to make available a collection of V TFT screen exports from a complex personal project I have been working on I have changed the target hardware from MMB for PIC32
6. There can be many Tasks in the main loop that execute one after the next and or you can have Task selecting management code to call Tasks only if criteria is met The V TFT Template does provide a powerful and flexible Framework for users to create applications with if the framework is used in a proper way The Tutorial V TFT example application provided has a slightly different flowchart than any show above But it follows the rules and requirements of the Template framework still This framework description is just a way to introduce you to the concepts that V TFT employes and give you a solid knowledge base from which to work with Keep it in mind and you should have no problems making your project ideas work if you build from this template concept 1 The task manager code can either increment thru the Task numbers itself so only one of the 7 User tasks plus the Check _TP task gets executed per cycle of the main loop in order set by select case coding Or the Task variable that tracks which is scheduled gets modified in User Code routine code or user code in event handler routines or by code in each User Task routine code for smart task scheduling based on each tasks actions done Where they are anc Over View Visual TFTs output is code that is organized by Templates V TFT is programmed to follow What code is generated is determined by what Objects there are in a Project Each object s related code structures are a T
7. and as a small way to give thanks and honor your legacy I dedicate this manual to you and Merry Christmas from Idaho USA make it a Present for any who hopefully find it useful The About the Author pdf is not required reading But if you have a sense of humor and adventure you will find everything you didn t want to know about me in the stories somewhere maybe I hope you feel you got something valuable from this and it serves you well Robert MegaHurts B ALTA E Contents Answer For the image shown 30 MPH setting Objects 12 But the total Objects for it is 34 Not all are ever shown at any time There are Four 4 different speed ranges the Gauge can be set to 20 mph 30 mph 40 mph and 50 mph So there are 4 different EVE Number sets only one showing at a time There is also 2 EVEGauge Components used to make the speedometer but only one is showing its tick marks
8. dressed out application as the result of keeping it sleek and simple But it can be used as the starting point for anyone to expand it more That was intentional planning also I guess it could be thought of being kind of like a science experimenter kit many of us have grown up with The parts are here mostly you just have to finish putting it together the way you want This tutorial manual is also a work in progress effort I want to give you as close to 100 of the accumulated knowledge of using V TFT as I can But I cannot do it all at once so there will be updates to this manual over time as I get the material put into it I am also learning to use some features of Apache Office that I have not tried before and the editing does not always go as I would have liked But I have discovered features that I can use to make this document present the information in better Ways than just text and I m sure some would really like that Or you can look at it as lessons in American English So please bear with me as I work on getting this finished I hope you enjoy the results R M T Visual TFT About Visual TFT for new users While I targeted this manual as a beginners tutorial I feel I included material that everyone no matter the skill level can find useful If not you didn t waste any money right Most of that material is in the section V TFT TIPS amp TRICKS but you might find other bits of useful information in the rest of the material an
9. example project also shows how to use multiple components to create what looks like a single screen indicator object The indicator object was designed to look like a mechanical multi wheel numerical counter The indicator object uses seven Button components to display a single digit each of the events total counts in order to get the appearance of a mechanical wheel counter I did not attempt to program any wheel digit rolling to the next higher digit value in this example project That is beyond the scope of this demo example The wheel counter looks pretty good as is anyway This V TFT project also shows how to make a proper user code single pass routine get called from within the main endless loop that V TFT sets up in this module to drive its TP checking and event handling core code Or you could call it a How to share the loop example It demonstrates how to do this and have it manage the RESET buttons visual effects to show confirmation is required before a counter reset gets done by calling a routine located in the events modules User Code area from the loop here when it is needed to do so It also shows how to add confirmation safety to any button press method You are invited to examine this projects code and screen components in V TFT and a compiler in order to see how it all gets done and use the knowledge you get from it in your own projects or you can take the simple work done here and use it as the base for making a more c
10. has been clicked once RESET_FLAG 2 Flag state is RESET button has been clicked twice routine call in main program module loop will call Reset_Counter routine while RESET_FLAG gt 0 value cleared and handle blinking the buttons colors while waiting for another click of the RESET button and when if it happens it will clear COUNTER_VALUE variable and set all counter digits to 0 zero RESET Button event handler Resets COUNTER_VALUE to zero 0 when clicked twice Final word s from the Author about this example project For those who wanted or expected more features or controls or examples of using different sources for trigger events to select I have to say Sorry but as you can see it took me far longer to type the comments and tutorial info than the actual program coding for just what is included in this example project for making custom gadgets and it is intended to only tutor and show some important BASIC facts of what makes a working V TFT project and how V TFT organizes the project parts it makes from a users use of its components It was meant to be a beginners guide for understanding the parts of a V TFT project and guide source for how to implement a few cool tricks or practices I hoped everyone could gain something from this example work no mater the skill level but mainly that beginners could use to help make sure their projects start off better and w
11. is also why I decided to make this beginners tutorial as a band aid for everyone who needs it until something official is released Zf you found the V TFT Help File not helpful for every question that arises when you use V TFT this document might address a few or more of those new user questions I tried to remember of as many as I could that are important enough to get you started on making V TFT projects that won t have conflicts with how the program template is intended to be used This tutorial is a guide to help you get started and make you aware of some dangers that can cause your project to not function as intended Where I stress the importance of doing something or not doing something in the projects code files is not absolute but my suggestion that unless or until you are more advanced in skills enough to know how to avoid the dangers associated with going against the suggestions you should not but keep in mind there are usually exceptions to the rules implied and you may one day need to disregard them to have success with what you want to do in a V TFT project It is easy to say Keep an Open Mind but hard to do daily I also wanted to pass on some Tips and Tricks I have discovered myself or learned at some point in my life or found on the forums I will try to acknowledge who s Tip Trick it is if not my own or of public domain source I do not want to anger anyone by any usage of any content in this document If you think you should
12. objects used in your project so doing any code editing in those files is not recommended unless you do it in a compiler and will not be loading it back in to V TFT again Other modules may require that any routines coded here also have an associated Forwards code line placed in the User Declarations area above in order to be visible to that and other modules All V TFT generated event handler routines will have a forwards declaration automatically added to externals area above the User Declarations area so users only have to declare a routines forward if they write their own and it needs to be visible to other modules in the project V TFT will take care of this automatically for all routines it generates and needs to x Note from the Author V TFT Users You can use the objects that make up the counter copy them to your project and copy this entire sub procedures code also to your V TFT project to easily add this custom numerical wheels display to your design as is or modify it to meet your needs of more or less digits displayed Just make sure the naming matches between code and objects and you will need to also declare a global Variable named COUNTER_VALUE longword type to hold the value you want to be displayed when you call this routine the way itis coded now or change this sub procedures declaration so value is passed as argument to it and you can use what ever variable name in your projec
13. properties are expecting the information assigned to it to be in the String data type format with a Null character 0 terminating the String There is no automatic conversions done to the data You must have the data already in the proper type format String before trying to assign it to the Caption property This is not a problem if only using alphabetical characters They are already of the String data type But when you need to display numerical data with a components caption you have to do the conversion to String data type first exception is the EVE Numbers component The Conversions Library in your compiler has the functions needed to do this for every numerical data type supported by the compiler Be aware though the result from the conversion will be Right justified in the target String with leading spaces padding the string if the number of characters in conversion is less than the declared target string variables length The Max Length property of the components Caption property 1s its declared character length Another Library has a function that can strip the spaces from the front left of a number to string conversion that is less in length than the target strings declared length if you need to have the spaces removed so your display looks like you wanted The Library is the String Library and the function is Itrim string variable left trim If you want more information and Code examples about this Topic I made another Tut
14. screen RESET button has been clicked at least once On first click flag is set to 1 and Reset_Counter routine will cause a message to appear and the RESET button to blink between its normal colors and red and maroon colors until it is clicked again to confirm reset wanted RESET_FLAG now set to 2 or user presses MINUS button to cancel RESET_FLAG set to 0 cleared and the count total is not lost See the code and comments in Reset_Counter subroutine to see how this effect was done Re end of while loop because configured as endless loop this makes program execution flow go to the next instruction after the while true statement goto main EOF trap Prevent execution to end jump to main to start over End of main program code and file End Visual TFT Event Counter Program Events_Code File code listing module pic32mmb_v370_example_tutorial_events_code Project Module Name include pic32mmb_v370_example_tutorial_objects include pic32mmb_v370_example_tutorial_resources include pic32mmb_v370_example_tutorial_driver sub procedure ButtonRound_MINUS_OnClick sub procedure ButtonRound_PLUS_OnClick sub procedure CircleButton_RESET_OnClick V TFT puts a forwards declaration here for every Object Event Action you set This area should be used to declare your User Code routines forwards for those
15. the tutorial These places in the Driver file contain useful information for you that can help you do your coding in the User Code areas of the main and events_code files The Driver file has all of the routines needed to make a component do its function It also has the routines to handle TP activity and determines if activity involves any objects and if so calls the objects event action assigned handling routine which is your code for what tasks to do on that activity It also has the routines for device HW initializations Each component used in a project will have all of the routines and code needed to make it work added to the other objects used routines and code and this becomes the V TFT core code A component is not a feature of the TFT display controllers exception is EVE controller They are constructs made using standard TFT Library drawing functions defined by each ones properties data structures that the Driver file object drawing routines use to create them on the TFT screen a side note Screens in V TFT are just groupings of objects data for each screen Knowing where these object data structures are in the Driver file can help you when you are using Dynamic Objects Static False and you want to manipulate their properties When making your own projects knowing the right object drawing routine to call for each object you used 1s also important The 2 following section topics will show you those places in the Driver file where you c
16. use for certain circumstances If you have a very complex Event Handler routine that has to check for many conditions and do a lot of tasks based on the conditions you might end up having a routine that exceeds the 2000 byte length limitation any single routine may have for certain MCU families see your compiler manual for details on page limits for routines to see if your MCU has this limitation You can break the routine up into separate smaller routines and have your code change the Event Routine pointer to point to different routines you have made based on condition testing Remember your User Code routines and Event Handler routines are both considered Implements in the project events_code module so place the alternative routines in the User Code area Forward declarations for the other routines will also need to be made at the top of the module in the area User code declarations that shown is to be used by Users for doing this see the topic section in this manual Project Files User Code Template areas for more information You can use this trick for a lot of reasons f you think it will be easier to change the routine that gets called for the objects TP activity in certain circumstances then you can do so as long as the object is Dynamic and not Static Since this concept is not covered in the V TFT Help file and something recently realized could be done there is not any other documentation can point you t
17. waiting for confirmation or cancellation It gets set visible or not by the RESET buttons event handler routine and made not visible also by the Minus buttons event handler routine if canceling RESET condition sub procedure Reset_Counter if RESET_FLAG 1 then test if RESET clicked one time if BLINK_TIMER lt BLINK then yes so do blink timing handling inc BLINK_TIMER not enough passes have happened yet else so add to counter BLINK_TIMER 0 OK change RESET buttons colors and if CircleButton_RESET_ Transparent 1 then start over counting passes CircleButton_RESET_ Transparent 0 Transparent is set TRUE YES this is TRUE DrawCCircle Circle2 redraw red circle else flip state of transparent property CircleButton_RESET_ Transparent 1 Transparent is set FALSE YES this is FALSE end if Transparent logic is reversed of others in V TFT DrawCircleButton CircleButton_RESET_ redraws RESET button transparent end if or not end if This second block of code when executed will reset the button objects that display the individual digits for the value of what COUNTER_VALUE is currently at and clear its value to zero and clear the RESET_FLAG to zero and make sure the RESET buttons normal colors are visible It is coded so that it resets ONE digit at a time starting from least to most significant digit right to left with a little delay between each digit resetting change all
18. Delay_ms Xxxx values to suit if RESET_FLAG 2 then Button_One_Caption 0 DrawButton Button_One Button_Ten_Caption 0 Delay_ms 100 DrawButton Button_Ten Button_Hundred_Caption 0 Delay_ms 100 DrawButton Button_Hundred Button_Thousand_Caption 0 Delay_ms 100 DrawButton Button_Thousand Button_TenThousand_Caption 0 Delay_ms 100 DrawButton Button_TenThousand Button_HundredThousand_Caption 0 Delay_ms 100 DrawButton Button_HundredThousand Button_Million_Caption 0 Delay_ms 100 RESET_FLAG bFALSE clear the flag BLINK_TIMER bFALSE clear the timer CircleButton_RESET_ Transparent 1 make sure the buttons real colors show Delay_ms 600 DrawScreen Screen1ScreenID redraw whole screen so RESET message is erased end if this approach was used because it is the easiest way to solve the problem of the message text being printed over a gradient background Normal method to erase text would still leave visible text of a single color standing out from the gradient colors So redrawing the whole screen with message label visibility set False is the only way to keep screen looking correct Replace with this code for1 0 to 6 strcpy digits 1 Caption 0 DrawButton digits 1 Delay_ms 100 next 1 end sub Naan nen enc cena anne Do Not Mod
19. GetRoundButton 810 Button_Million Transparent 1 Gy Init ADC Button Million Caption Button Million Caption Button Million Font_Color 7 5 0 0 Process TP_Up Button Million Gradient 1 SetCurrentMyScreenBylr Button_Million Gradient Orientation 0 Start_TP D Button Million Gradient_Start_Color O0x4A69 There is an oops with the comment they have V TFT put by the routines name though it should be Dynamic not Static A Projects Static objects properties declarations are found above the Modules implements statement All of the dynamic objects used in your project will have their properties listed here You should not change the first two 2 objects structure values though They are not normal object properties and are used by the V TFT core code only Changing either of them without knowing what you are doing will cause problems with your program running right The 1 one is used to indicate the screen that the object belongs to IE Button Million OQwnerScreenID 32768 The 2 one is the objects drawing Order priority for the DrawScreen routine s IE Button Million Order 2 The rest of the objects property variables and pointers you can see and Copy the ones you are going to use in your projects User Code routines to change an objects position size color s visibility transparency active or other properties as you need Use the same trick of Copying the properties variables names or pointers nam
20. N tel ZA Il gh Seat ee EO Call col ATO one Files The User Code program templates EVENT COUNTER oo000000 Features and Controls Expansion Bay Remove Panel Screws to Access a ay Complete with MikroBASIC Pro for PIC32 and dsP33EP MMB Example Files for a 9 999 999 Event Counter Custom Display Gadget PICISF MMB mPASCAL version coming soon MANUAL CONTENTS by ORDER Version 3 0 0 12 15 2013 Introduction Legal Stuff First Things About Visual TFT for new users Note to Experienced and Advanced level Users Visual TFT About what V TFT does not do What V TFT is NOT What V TFT IS What V TFT Creates The intentions of the manual and project example VISUAL TFT TIPS amp TRICKS for success Visual TFT Components and Layers Tutorials About Components and Objects in Visual TFT Important facts about components static property How to Display Changing Alphanumerical Data with Components NEW for Version 3 0 Making your own Components Layers and Layering Objects Object Layering in V TFT ABOUT EVE FT800 PROJECT OBJECTS NEW for Version 3 0 Objects and Layers used in the Example Project Moving Objects on the Layers Tutorial MegaHurts BONUS CONTENT Descriptions Usage amp Download Info NEW for Version 3 0 The MAIN Loop and Multitasking in V TFT Flowcharts Visual TFT Project Files User Code Template Areas Where they are and example usages in mikroBASIC Pro Overview of Program Files Co
21. an look up information that you can copy and paste to your User code or find the routine s name s you need to use for drawing or redrawing any of your projects objects DRIVER FILE Whenever you add a component to your project V TFT adds the routines needed to draw that object for whatever state it is in Static or Dynamic You can find out what drawing routine s are available by looking in the Driver File near the top of the file It should be the 4 listed group from the top 2 entry is the project includes of other files to link in project include dspic33epmmb_v370 event counter example objects include dspic33epmmb_v370 event counter example resources sub procedure ButtonRound MINUS OnClick external sub procedure ButtonRound PLUS OnClick external sub procedure CircleButton RESET OnClick external Here is a trick I use I copy all of the forwards from here to the event_code file and make them comments Then I don t have to keep going to the driver file to see or copy to use in my code I copy the first part to and fill in the rest IE DrawButton Button_One for the 1 time usage and copy the completed code for pasting then on You can get an area in the user code space for putting in comments any used often long code chains and mark the area with active comment or a dummy permissible identifier for that area so you can quickly jump there to get a copy of something you don t w
22. ant to type in Only works in a compiler or equivalent code editor DRIVER FILE All Dynamic objects properties are initialized in the Driver file routine InitializeObjects called from the routine Start_TP see image 1 that gets called from the Main program file at start up Every property of a dynamic object except Static that can be changed by your code during run time is group listed by object name in the InitializeObjects routine As you will see or have seen MikroElectronika s programmers did a great job with the code template layout V TFT makes see image 2 wow _taCenter Tahomai2xi6 Regular o OxFFFF 6a InitializeT ouchPanel IslnsideObject 20 0S Lau ucu Button Million Caption Bote cis nests z Button Million TextAlign Button Million FontName BP TP D i Button Million PressColEnablied rocess_TP_Down i a Process_TP_Press e e image I image 2 a w AEH UMON k a s TP E E Code Explorer Z es B dspic33epmmb_v370_event_counter_example_driver mbas es gt dspic33epmmb _v370_event_counter_exam ra 2103 JE rocedure Start i G GetlBox 7 p 0 4 a gt dim CurrentMyScreen as TMyScreen m gl GetCButton mit cUi 2 Symbols A implements lt Start of routines im driver file Ba S Types E E G GetCCircle ca Globais m Ot GetCircleButton InitializeTouchPanel amp Functions fH G GetCLabe
23. ar 127 Font Style B Z U Pen Width 2 CircleButton RESET Pen Width in pixels zero is a valid setting too Pen Color clGray CircleButton RESET Pen Color Visible J true CircleButton RESET Visible 1 True 0 False Active J true CircleButton RESET Active 1 True 0 False Transparent false d Gradient Enabled J true CircleButton RESET Gradient J True 0 False Orientation Top to Bottom CircleButton RESET Gradient_ Orientation Start Color clWhite CircleButton RESET Gradient_ Start Color End Color clSilver CircleButton RESET Gradient End Color Color clSilver CircleButton RESET Color Press Color clGray Enabled CircleButton RESET Press Color Static false See text below in Yellow section about this property And here is the complete listing of the RESET CircleButton s Properties that are initialized in the InitializeObjects routine CircleButton_RESET_ Left_ 135 CircleButton_RESET_ Top 56 CircleButton_RESET_ Radius 23 CircleButton_RESET_ Pen_Width CircleButton_RESET_ Pen_Color 0x8410 CircleButton_RESET Visible 1 CircleButton_RESET_ Active 1 CircleButton RESET TextAlign taCenter CircleButton_RESET_ PressColEnabled 1 CircleButton_RESET_ Font_Color 0x0000 CircleButton_RESET_ Gradient 1 CircleButton_RESET_ Gradient_Orientation 0 CircleButton_RESET_ Gradient_Start_Color OxFFFF CircleButton_RESET_ Gradient_End_Color 0xC618 CircleButton_RESET_ Color 0xC618 CircleButt
24. at can be done if done right Remember Users have to supply the task code inside of the Template event handling routine s PLUS Button event handler adds 1 to COUNTER_VALUE variable still less than max so add ONE to counter value at max roll counter over to zero Comment lines that start with a minus are my end of Routine markers call routine to handle updating counter value displayed PLUS Button event handler adds 1 to COUNTER_VALUE variable Comment lines that start with a plus are my Start of Routine markers MINUS Button event handler subtracts 1 from COUNTER_VALUE variable and or clears the Reset Counter to zero waiting for confirmation click condition This Object event handling routine is dual purpose 1 it checks if a RESET confirmation is in effect and cancels it if it is 2 it subtracts 1 from the counter if not canceling the RESET test test if in the waiting for another RESET button confirmation click condition yes so Clear the waiting for another RESET button confirmation click condition set stuff back to normal and redraw the screen to make sure there are no pixel artifacts left over not in RESET waiting condition so test if subtract ONE from value possible value still above 0 so subtract ONE from value was at zero so roll over to max value
25. at users only have the LABEL component to use for displaying changing alphanumerical characters This is incorrect ANY component that has a Caption property 1s capable of displaying changing data as long as its Static property is set to FALSE see above about the Static property In my experience using a Label for doing this is the hardest way to do so Here is a short lesson on using the Label component to show changing data and the alternatives The Label object requires that you first erase the old data on the screen by changing the font color to that of the background color and redrawing the exact same data in the background color and at the exact same location then putting the new data in to the Labels Caption property and change the font color again to a different color than the background color and then redraw the Label to show the new data Important There is another component property that must be set correctly when using ANY object to display changing alphanumerical data The Max Length property This properties value must be set to the maximum number of characters that you will be placing into the Caption property of the object The default value of zero 0 is to be only used if the contents of the Caption property will NOT be changing during run time A zero value means that V TFT will automatically set the correct value in the output code based on the number of characters the Caption property contains at project build o
26. ata structure is coded either as Constants or Variables So there is no coded property variable or constant for Static Its setting is held in the V TFT projects file Orange section The Caption properties of all objects that have a Caption have two properties that look alike but are different One is a pointer to the other one You can code to use the pointer to place new string data into the actual Caption string variable or you can code to use the Caption string variable directly The V TFT Help file shows the direct to variable as example and no mention of the pointer holder You just need to make sure you are using the one you choose to use correctly This is another good reason to actually Copy the property variables name identifier to make sure spelling is correct and using the one you intended because their spellings are so close to the same Tan section 1 These properties are the ones that hold the pointers to the Action Events you can assign to most Objects including the Screen itself In V TFT you can either Double Click on an Action to create a new Event Handler routine or choose one from any that have already been made for other objects Every new Event Action routine made is added to the list of routines that can be assigned to an object Since these Event routine pointers are part of the objects dynamic properties we can change the assignments with our code during run time if we want to This can be a very useful option to
27. ations have available to use Not properly managing the Stack is a easy error for programs to experience as the devices have a very limited amount of Stack memory to start with Not all programming errors that can cause Stack overflow errors can be caught by the compilers during a projects compiling These are called run time errors since they are only apparent when a program is run This information is to let you know about the first possible error condition your User Code program logic can cause if not coded correctly If you override the V TFT main routine call by using your own routines or your routines call it from within a TP object event action handling routine possible stack overflow issues arise 2 Task TP Activity Event Handler with User Code FlowChart Main Loop While True Event Code file User Code area Do This User Code Criver File Check_TPQ i Task 1 Check_TP Buttont OncClick end sub Main File Driver Elle Event_code File While True Event Handlers P ee Se 3 ode User event end sub TASK Check TPQ case select task case 1 A TASK 2 T TASK 3 4 see text for details MultiTask manager for 8 Tasks 4 V TFT Task 10f 7 User Tasks required V TFT Check_TP execution pass s your for 2 total executed per loop cycle application will fail to work or freeze Program code This flowchart shows a simplif
28. but it is not required for the Gadget to be functional It just does a fancy zeroing of the display by setting the wheel digits values to 0 one at a time Setting the COUNTER VALUE variable to 0 before it is called will also work The fancy manipulations could be integrated into the Event Counter routine if desired The Text Layer has the projects Label Objects on it Features and Controls Expansion Bay Remove Panel Screws to Access The Future Features Layer has all of the objects used to make the lower half of the screens expansion bay panel graphics see image above at left The Controls Layer has all of the Objects that make up the three 3 TP input controls If you have the example project in V TFT and right click the Controls Layer and click Select all Layer Objects you will see that there is actually four 4 Objects that make up the three 3 input controls The Hidden Object is a Circle Component Behind the RESET CircleButton that is inactive and also set Static as it does not need any of its properties changeable during run time and colored in RED and MAROON Gradient fill colors Normally it is not even visible until the RESET Button is clicked on then the user code ee the Transparent iced of the RESET CircleButton to TRUE 0 Yes a zero is considered as setting the working running code proves this so the center of it after redrawing the Red Circle and the RESET Button in that order 1s now red inst
29. can have your code in the Driver file for current version 3 7 0 This limitation may change later Trying to edit those areas outside of V TFT will get erased once the project is loaded back into V TFT So only do the editing using V TFTs os Aix See the V TFT Help File for more information and usage instructions on those Code entry Dialogs They are not ic But that information I gave is required for new users to have so you won t have any surprises or spend time doing xt work I will show you where in the Driver file those blocks of User Custom routine code ends up but that is where discussion about them I will end any more If you want to explore doing changes to the Driver file read the forum threads about others trying to do so Nobody will say it is easy Most report of not having any successful results so play in this file at your own Risk To prevent any code loss if you do make copies of the code you add or change in the Driver file in a separate file from the projects files It can be a plain text file or a blank module file Then you can copy your custom code from it back into the Driver file if V TFT overwrites it The focus of this section about the Driver file will be showing you the areas that will be helpful to you when you write your own projects code Since we cannot safely write any code in the Driver file that leaves us the option of reading it correct And where to read is what I will show you in this section of
30. ce to do their coding in but it will have to be done a little differently than some of you are familiar with in order to work without breaking how the V TFT generated stuff works Please read all of the comments in this file for more detailed instructions about this User Symbol defines can go here but they will only work in this module see compiler help file or manual for more information on symbols and program organization BE tt a te Bd sets E ee ae tetas a Users Variables declarations can go here global see compiler help file or manual for more information on variables Remember This color shows the open for User Code areas Users Constants defines can go here global see compiler help file or manual for more information on constants Users subroutines coding can go here see compiler help file or manual for more information on subroutines Users Function routines can go here see compiler help file or manual for more information on function routines Users ISR routine s go here see compiler help file or manual for more information on Interrupt Service Routines Start of main program body Program execution begins at the first instruction after the main label marker and proceeds downwards towards the end label main V TFT core code in Driver Module to initialize HW and SW V TFT Objects Resources and Screens U
31. d I hope so Check also the The MAIN Loop and Multitasking in V TFT Flowcharts section and challenges at the end of this document Visual TET V TFT here on is a unique software development tool for creating GUI or non GUI applications for all of the Mikro Media Boards MMB and hardware development tools that use a TFT display device from MikroElektronika This means it also supports all of the different Compiler languages too This makes it a very versatile platform allowing users to have the choices of what hardware and programming platforms they work with That being said it would be impossible for me to write a tutorial that covers every HW device and programming language So details are limited to being general and in mBASIC Knowledge of programming Micro controllers in one of the programming languages mBASIC mPASCAL or mikroC is required to finish a V TFT project and having a licensed unlocked Compiler in one of the languages to compile any project s you make V TFT projects are too big for Demo versions of the compilers The information in this document is intended to help you get a good idea of what is possible and not possible using V TFT It was clear to me that new users can have a distorted idea of what V TFT does and how to make use of what it actually can do from my own experiences and seeing what questions are being asked in the forums I felt I could contribute some help to the community of users by making this example pro
32. d architecture having many objects ayered on the screen may or may not look good in actual practice for any given device It will depend on how you have them stacked and which one s need to be redrawn to perform its desired function My best advice is for you to play around with some objects stacked ayered over each other and see what happens when they are redrawn in different orders For most display controllers any area on a screen shows the last thing drawn there and what used to be there can be lost not visible until told to redraw it again For many applications this is not a problem For some it will be due to how the designer wants to manipulate the display If you change an Objects property that affects it visually it won t actually happen until you redraw the Object using the proper object drawing routine see the section about Driver file drawing routine list also vienai TET See the V TFT Help file for more information on Layers and the controls available if you need more than this to work with If you redraw an object that has other objects over it they will not be visible any more and will require being redrawn also if your design needs them to be visible too The general rule is that you will need to redraw all objects forward to front of any object that you have your code redraw if they are affected visibly by the rear most object you had the program redraw The V TFT core code does not keep track of what
33. d have some form of information or description of what and why the differences or the concept it demonstrates if not a conversion to other HW SW This document would also get updated to list submissions and include documentation if included Desi rec EVENT COUNTER 22 1 Ba Additional Credits and Mentions eksandar For his always valuable help he provided and provides to the whole community And for working with me to make sure the coding is correct and does not violate MCU programming principles The alternative codes in the program files are his examples of using variable pointers and making use of the pointers already present in the structures of V TFT Objects His contributions to this effort will help many improve their skill levels it certainly has helped mine Dany for his many contributions and hosting of this tutorial V TFT project at his site also If you use PICs check his site out at http www rosseeld be DRO PIC index htm He keeps a large Vault of goodies there for PIC enthusiasts Janni for all the answers he has given to me and many others and the many useful Libraries and the list goes on All you guys who answered MY questions I had along the way many thanks for making the Forums what it 1s You users who have given the courtesy thanks and feedback WOW CONVENES De PEA Gig To all you forum members that make the effort to help others applaud your nature and actions
34. e areas is not recommended unless you know how to do it without causing problems There are a few threads on the V TFT forum about different ways to get around some of the limits that V TFTs project structure imposes and a very good topic by forum member aCkO on how to reuse objects on different screens instead of the way V TFT has you make a Copy of or make new ones for each screen He has also made a number of utilities for the community in various categories for MikroElectronika product users including V TFT The last thing to show maybe it should have been the first is a comparison of an objects properties in V TFT and how it gets put into the driver file code The image at below left shows all of the properties for the tutorials RESET CircleButton component The CircleButton Component properties structure variables names are shown to the right of its location in the picture of the component properties explorer window Components CircleButton_RESET_ Properties Events Mi The Current Object on the Current Screen Selected Name CircleButton_RES See text below in Yellow section about this property Left 135 CircleButton RESET Left_ Top 56 CircleButton RESET Top Radius 24 CircleButton RESET Radius Caption RESET Text Alignment taCenter CircleButton RESET TextAlign Font Font Name Tahoma Font Size 10 Font Color clBlack Start Char 32 End Ch
35. e number of digits or places it can display as needed You have the freedom to imagine and change it like you want Post or email comments or questions about this example if you have any and I will do best to respond or answer any questions if I can wawww Robert Townsley 2013 U S A MegaHurts j End of Module AREA CO Overview of the Driver Module file Driver Module file Breakdown of Important Areas for Users Welcome to the New coverage of an important part of any V TFT project the Driver Module File The Driver Module is as its Name implies The Force behind any V TFT or V GLCD application it creates with your help of course The Driver Module is so critical to a project it is devoid of any User Code areas like what is available in the Events Code Module and Projects Main File Any change to any object or its properties causes V TFT to rewrite the ENTIRE Driver file So anything you do to the code in it has a very short life if the project is loaded back into V TFT This is just a part of how V TFT is designed The Driver file has to have a lot of changes made based on your screen s design s and use of the components While there are no designated User Code areas there are areas that you can place your code into in V TFT that does end up in this file in special places that correspond to the code entry dialog windows in V TFTs Project Options menu dialog They are the only place and way you
36. ead of the normal White Silver Gradient colors The user code flips the setting of the Transparent property back and forth in a timed manner to achieve the visual blinking effect see the example code listings for how this was done f D Image Press again to RESET count or Press Minus button to cancel ne The last Layer is the layer for the message Label that becomes visible after the RESET button has been clicked once Features and Controls Expansion Bay TE Remove Panel Screws to Access o te Show Al Layers Visible Layer name Lock layer CONTROLS COUNTER TEXT FUTURE FEATURES Message eee ep Pat This section will cover moving objects from one Layer to another Layer and how it will mm effect your project A E At some point in time you will need to move an object from the layer it is on to another on layer Sometimes when placing Objects on your screen the Object ends up on the wrong Layer or you find you need to move ee an Object to another Layer to make it easier Cion TEVENT COUNTER to edit the layout of your screens design Yo Tionname tom Features and Controls Expansion Bay Abad ee em H waa for Future Usage of E Bay1 Kits when available might find it harder than you thought because Satcher 32 Font Style BJZ U S there is still a minor bug in V TFT regarding Visbie T the Layers I ll show you the bug and how to j get the resu
37. eir MMB s for PIC but do not have the mikromediaWorkStation development system you should still get all examples libraries and the documentation for it Now you would have schematics for wiring the MMB to a lot of other external HW AND examples to run or examine for how to interface to such stuff There is a good chance that there is something just like you want to do or very close to use as an example that can help you with your project This applies to any common core HW and SW product lines you use of theirs Take notice of how named the V TFT button objects in this example By putting a Underscore _ at the end of the name the OnClick V TFT adds won t make the name so hard to read in the code Change the names of your Objects before you assign any events to them V TFT does not change the name of an Action Event routine name assigned to an Object when the Objects name has been changed You only need to do this to Objects that will have touch events assigned it won t be needed for other Objects as they don t get suffixes added to their names by V TFT unless you assign an Event to it Even though V TFT automatically assigns names to the Objects as they are added to a project leaving the names as is will cause you difficulty for keeping track of many Objects and their properties on different screens in large projects have developed this naming convention that helps me out and maybe it will help you too or give you ideas on doi
38. elements is the goal If you save the job of assigning events creating event subroutines in event module to the objects for last and you have more than one screen in your project you can assign events one screen at a time and the created routines will be grouped by screen together in the events file If that confused you do not worry you will understand it when you make your first project with more than one screen You Can re arrange the Event Action Routines once they have been made in the Event Handler section of a Projects events_code File Edit either in V TFT or in a Compiler If in V TFT any new ones made are placed after the last end Routine statement If you can do all of the graphical work of your screen s layout and components properties before you have time invested in programming code for them There is always a good chance that you will change the design at least once before you get the design how you like or need it to be in order to function Test compiling and loading a screen before doing the code work can save you from doing work that won t be used in the end project V TFT object editing is a lot harder if there is also program code associated to the objects Example If you copy an object that you have assigned a TP activity event to do when triggered the copy will also have the same event action assigned You may or may not have wanted that to be If you did then no problems but if you want a different e
39. emplate even the related code to instruct the display controller how to draw an object Once there has been an object used in a project the Template of all code needed to handle that object type is included in the output Most of the code generated by V TFT goes into the files projectname_driver projectname_objects and projectname_resources These files are regenerated in V TFT every time the project is saved or built and all code is first erased then built up by V TFT placing the required templates of code needed for the elements a user has made their project with So those files are not considered safe for User Code The framework that V TFT molds the templates of code to has designated areas for users to place their code that completes the architecture of the application and makes it functional For Visual TFT versions 3 7 0 and older there are 2 files in the V TFT projects template that are files a User can place their own User Code in that can be done with little worry it will get overwritten They are always made by V TFT for any supported hardware and in the compiler language selected for the project There is another place users can place code safely also their own module s files This Tutorial does not cover the usage of Users Modules The first one is the V TFT projects Events_Code file This is a Program Module file for the project This file provides User Code areas to declare Variables and Consta
40. ered as usable for User Code if used correctly as the V TFT project template expects This example projects comments will show you the organization of the template Warning This file will be completely overwritten anytime you change the Hardware Profile to use in the projects Options This issue applies to Visual TFT Version 3 7 0 and may get changed in a later version Here is a sample of a blank projects Main program file listing as it would look to anyone no matter almost the language programmed in V TFT generated comments about the project and hardware it was intended to run on program name declaration Symbol declarations would go here Variable declarations would go here Constants declarations would go here Sub Procedures declarations would go here Sub Function declarations would go here Interrupt Service Routine s ISR would go here Label main program starts here User code can go here Gets executed one time only Required V TFT routine call to do HW Initializations calibrate the Touch Panel User code can go here not in the main loop yet Gets executed one time only Start of the main loop ALL code after here gets executed repeatedly User code can go here IN the main loop so gets executed repeatedly User code can go here IN the main loop so gets executed repeatedly End of the main loop program flow repeats at while TRUE statement line No
41. es you plan on affecting with code over to the Events Code file and Paste them as comments in the routines that will be using them so you can Copy and reuse when you need the property variable in code This way you will get the names correct and avoid syntax and declarations errors You can learn a lot by studying the driver file too There are some cool codes and methodologies being used in those V TFT core code routines If you do not know much about structures pointers and complex nesting of conditional tests if you try to figure out what is going on in this module you can learn a lot by its example But it is pretty complex stuff Not all of the comments that it does have are helpful or in a few places wrong Some of the comments are helpful though but there is not enough of them There are a few routines I have trouble understanding as to what is being done because it has complex nested logic testing and or references being done without any comments to illuminate its function When I m working on a project I check this routine before leaving V TFT to work on it in the compiler to make sure the objects I wanted to be Dynamic are listed and the objects I wanted to be Static are not in the isting here they should be in the declarations area above the implements statement There is no harm in exploring the files in a V TFT project so look all you want but remember that editing the driver file or the others that do not have User Cod
42. es so ANY code put here should be of the single pass execution design and allow program execution to continue on back here in a timely manner or the program might appear locked up or actually be locked up and non responsive Check_TP is routine is what will call your code in a screen object event handler routine when TP activity triggers the need to be handled by a predefined event condition you set in V TFT for an object Once all of the code this routine has execute and any event handler code you program in is done program execution flow returns back here to the next instruction after this one That may be your own routine call or if no user code is present the wend statement will cause another pass of this loop to start again and so on and so on and so on This routine call must be allowed to execute repeatedly and as quickly as possible so TP activity can be detected So be discreet with your code you place in this endless loop If your program seems to be locked up or not responding correctly to TP input check any code you have placed here Routine s can be called that are either coded above or in the events module or in a user made module from within this loop that will perform HW controlling or checking the MCU s HW Analog or Digital Inputs for changes or new data and if needed call other ro
43. es the graphical elements Objects you place on a screen and creates the program template and program code that sends the data to a display controller to reproduce the Objects as you designed them on a TFT TP screen This is done for everything created in V TFT or needed as supporting Data or Executable code for a project so it will be included when the project is compiled before programming the target HW device See the Help File about project Objects File and Resources File They contain the needed supporting Data Code Objects and screens are configured as different object structures Some are Dynamic RAM Variables or Static Code constants and each has its supporting Pointers and data type structures The program template it creates provides areas for your applications User code for Event Handler routines empty of executable code for screen objects that are active to touch Routines for the devices HW initializations and what is called the V TFT Stack and Core code in the projects driver module file These files will be in a format that corresponds to the Compiler language selected in the projects options Since I intended for this to be a fun beginners guide and tutorial manual the more advanced features and descriptions will not be covered in this document A future advanced topics document is planned but I am waiting to see what MikroElektronika will have in the official Visual TFT Users Manual that is to be released date unknown That
44. get familiar with the User Code areas and the Framework of the V TFT output Code Template so You can plan how to get your project idea up and working It can not create fully programmed programmable applications from what you design in it You will still have to edit at least one of the files it makes in a compiler and add additional programming code to complete the templates of code it does make for the objects you used on the projects screen s The output for a project made in V TFT must also be loaded in to a Compiler as a multiple file project so it can be compiled in to the binary file needed to program a device with V TFT does not output files that are ready to be programed into a device The output of files it makes need to be put in to a compiler for the language it is set to use and compiled before the project can be programmed into a device Only a very simple project could be made that did not require you to do additional programming Sorry but you still have to do some work Good news is that it would not be as much as you would have to do if you did not use V TFT V TFT is not a add on library to the compilers V TFT is not a tool that makes libraries for the compilers either V TFT is not a code editor or a code compiler V TFT is not a device programmer V TFT is not a device library maker V TFT is not required to be running while editing a project in a compiler or even required to be installed on a PC for the project files it
45. gle Task No TP Activity Detected flow chart Project Main Program File While True Task 1 Check_TP Project Main Program File While True d Project Driver Program File Task 2 Check_TP Your_Task Activity end sub These Flowcharts show the program execution flow after the Main Loop in the main Task and a double Task Framework with no TP activity and a 2 Task with TP activity 2 Task No TP Activity Detected Flow Chart entered for a single Project Driver Program File Check_TP yo Activity end sub Project Event_Code Program File User Code area K wend end sub These two flowchart diagrams show the basic program execution flow for the initial V TFT project that is not modified by user code for adding an additional task in the main loop left chart and program flow for adding a User Task code routine right chart Both also show the program flow without any TP activity happening Once a V TFT project program execution reaches the main loop and executes the call to the Check _ TPO routine the call MUST be able to be completed otherwise the TP will not respond when user tries to use screen controls The call to any routine requires some information be placed on a Stack for later restorations for Returning from call and also cleared from the Stack So not letting a call to a routine be completed reduces the amount of stack memory other calls and oper
46. has been redrawn by user code so the users must do this themselves For most display controllers the TFT display is like a school chalk board in that whatever is drawn last erases what was there before But unlike a chalk board you can redraw an object that lies underneath other objects drawn over it and have it now made visible until other objects get drawn over it This is the basis for layering objects on a screen The Layers tool in V TFT has nothing to do with this architecture of what is drawn on the display unless you organize the objects to match the layering in the Layers you have made in V TFT You have the freedom to organize the objects and Layers this way or not Just remember that the Layers cease to exists outside of V TFT for the time being and the objects priority is the factor that determines which object is drawn over other objects when doing a DrawScreen Q function An objects draw priority value is set in V TFT and changing this with user code is not supported by current design Most of an Objects properties settings in V TFT have a direct affect to how the Object will initially appear on the screen when the project is compiled and run on a device so set your objects properties in V TFT to the settings you want them to exhibit when the application is actually run on a device If an Object is not Static you can pre load property values from user code before it is actually displayed or change them at any time afterwords from user c
47. have credit or reason for anything to be removed contact me by email and I will discuss the matter with you If you want to submit any thing that would be helpful also or a good alternative to any procedures please do and I ll do updates to the document Post on forum thread or comments at the Examples LibStock blog fe Wie b Visual TFT TIPS amp TRICKS for success For AH Skill Levels First 3 rules you should know before and while programming anything call these RULES the 3 Laws of programming Hike the 3 laws of Robotics RULE NO program YOU write will EVER run and DO what you wanted it to DO it will ALWAYS run and do EXACTLY what YOU told it to Do RULE 2 If data is corrupted it will still run and do EXACTLY what it was told to DO IF it can but NOT what YOU told it to DO RULE 3 Just because a program compiled without errors it does not mean there are No errors or guarantee it will execute as wanted see RULE Aleksandar and I agreed during a discussion there needed to be a RULE 3 to complete the LOGIC circle So learning how programmable digital systems actually operate to follow a programs instructions will be one of the best tools you will use when writing your own programs did not make the rules they are a natural result and inherent to all programmable digital devices Bit Calculator Get the BitCalc tool that Aleksandar Vukelic made and can be downloaded at http www lib
48. he originally p EEEE selected Layer is not 2 FUTURE FEATURES z Message Illustration 6 The Layer desired is now selected Screen editing window es A quick side note p O I want to establish a Terminology for a User Action in V TFT visible Layer name Lock layer The Clear Click CONTROLS A Clear Click action is when you place COUNTER the mouse pointer anywhere in the TEXT Screen Editing Window that is not example Clear Click location a FUTURE FEATURES over the screen being edited and x meme then Click left mouse button current Laver ee ie GUI Screws so nothing is selected but y the screen edit window See image at left Layers current screen The Clear Click use of the mouse can be used a lot in V TFT to make sure nothing is selected and have an effect on the out come of a editing operation It is usually best to Clear Right Click in the area that is not part of the current screen you are working on when doing a Paste operation If you right Click in the screen editing area there is a good chance the Layer selection will get changed to the Layer the Object you clicked over is on Where the mouse pointer is at has no effect on where an Object gets pasted If it was Copied the new object usually appears low right of original or some always appear directly over the original Object A Cut Object should appear at original location For either operation the pasted Object should be show
49. ied example of the main loop pass with Touch Panel usage detected The user code for the Obj event handler routine has a task done by another User Code routine also Depending on the MCU being used the number of routine calls you can nest in the first one Check_TP from the main may be too much of a restriction for your design to work All routines must complete their invocation to clear off the stack markers to prevent overflow errors Check the number of levels deep your project gets in your compilers Statistics Function Tree tool after a successful compile You can see the nesting of routine calls with that tool to spot badly placed calls nesting You should examine a new projects structure before any user code is added to see what is a normal structure This Flowchart best illustrates how this tutorials example project is coded to run These Flowcharts show the basic s of the V TFT project Template Framework and flow structure These are not the only way a user can configure the flow structure But no mater how you configure your design and the tasks your code does it needs to provide the equivalent of the program flow demonstrated in these Flowcharts shown here If any part of your User Code breaks the chain of the must be capable of allowing this continuously repeating execution of routines of Both V TFT and User Code to cycle without the code preventing the exiting of any routines in the loop
50. ify this se a a a comment or put Se A EA E ee ge ee oe eg any code above it and below the comment line above From this point on down V TFT places Objects Event Handler Routine Code Templates User must write Task Code V TFT places all screen s objects touch press and click initial blank event handling routines below the comment Event Handlers above that it also makes in this file module whenever the user assigns a new event to a screens object All event handler routines are considered implements code by compiler All event handler routines are blank when V TFT creates them and needs the user to put their own code inside each for action s or task s to be performed when Touch Panel activity causes the assigned event to trigger a call to the handler routine s User code inside of a event handler routine can be programmed to do all actions needed for the event or call a routine in User Code area that does tasks that are common also to other screen objects event handling needs so they can call it also Other scenarios can also be implemented in this layout for controls coding it depends on what needs to be done by how a user designs the GUI screens Many many possibilities can be done with this methodology V TFT uses a few can not as it is for now Changes to V TFT may come that enable more flexibility or void what I have described here But mostly there are no limits to wh
51. ing like this functionality integrated into V TFT For now will have to wait and see if the software development department at MikroElektronika will use some ideas submitted on having the feature added and to what extent they go with the concept The biggest problem now with doing this is the way V TFT will rename the Objects on the imported screen when bringing a Gadget into a project If you try this you will see what I mean and the problems it causes I am pushing to have this fixed for a future release of V TFT ay O Did you know That Components are just a lot of TFT Library drawing functions that V TFT generated code uses to make the Objects They are pure data constructs that V TFT driver code makes into components from predetermined code Templates for each Component A few words about Layers in V TFT needs to be said before we continue on Layers are only a organization tool for users to use to help with the tasks of editing Objects and doing your design They do not have any effect on the display order or visibility of objects in the final output Layers in V TFT have no code structure or existence in the output code They are to use only in aiding you while editing in V TFT A lot of users have voiced opinions that it would be nice if they were a part of the output framework and could be controlled by user code to have a form of control over the objects on a Layer as a whole Maybe it would be nice but for now it is
52. ing run time The property Static must be set to False for ANY objects you want to have their properties changed by code during run time The Static property determines if the component will be coded in the output files as a structure of variables or of constants Static True Object is coded as Constants structure NOT CHANGEABLE DURING RUN TIME Static False Object is coded as Variables structure IS CHANGEABLE DURING RUN TIME This setting of the Static property has to be done to the object s when you edit them in V TFT so they are structured in the output code as either dynamic variables in RAM or static constants in program memory ROM You can not change them afterwords in a compiler as the whole structure for the object must be coded by V TFT based on the setting of the Object s Static property All code that handles the Objects structures pointers is set at build time in V TFT also so the setting of this must be done in V TFT before compiling is done Once an Objects Static property is set to TRUE the Only operations that can be done with it is to redraw it and assign any Action Event TP trap to it Events can be assigned to Objects with the Static property set to either TRUE or FALSE sna How to Display Changing Alphanumerical Data with Components a iole that this lesson was not in the original tutorial manual as it is a very important one for new V TFT users j Visual TFI The V TFT help file implies th
53. ions with the 7 right most characters in the temp string after the longword to string with zeros conversion This was the best way I could think of to get the digits separated out of a single variable holding the count total One method I actually tried wrote code for was to have the routine keep track of each digits displayed value separately and only update the Button s that have changed values Even though it worked I realized it was too complicated for what needed to be done and while this routines solution redraws all 7 Buttons whether the value for a Button has changed or not it is much simpler uses a lot less variables always a good thing and executes much faster due to less code and almost no conditional testing required I have to give thanks to aCkO Aleksandar for a bunch of help information about the proper way s to do string elements manipulations without causing memory corruption Without his advise and intimate knowledge of these compilers many of us would be struggling and much frustrated Thank You Again Aleksandar So as a bonus now you also get a little bit of example code about string element direct manipulations that the compilers manuals do not provide correctly the mBASIC help file does not provide it at this time go see what I mean sub procedure Event_Counter create local temp variables dim TEMP_STRING as string 10 temp string for LongWord conversion result holder SHRT_STR as stri
54. ject that explains in more detail how V TFTs output code is organized One of the problems J feel V TFT causes is that first time users initially are presented with program files it creates that are not on first look understandable because many new users have minimal experiences with multiple file projects and the V TFT Help file does not contain the information they need to clear up the confusion It is also my hopes that MikroElektronika will address this in the future V TFT creates a Framework for you to fill out and complete to make a fully functional application The Framework code V TFT produces to manage your screen display and TP input associated to your Objects usage is structured as a Task Routine Check_TP that needs to be executed called repeatedly in order to detect catch TP touch activity This Task does not sit and wait for TP activity to happen and respond to it It checks for activity when executed and if none detected exits the Task Routine So users have available the groundwork for multitasking Task procedures management This powerful framework design means you can make applications that are run entirely inside the Framework of the Check TP routine for simple applications or your project may require the management of other HW be done as a Task of their own This Tutorial and Example V TFT Project mikroBASIC Pro for PIC32 mmB Compiler Language Program files demonstrate a simple 2 Task example to help you
55. ke sure SHRT_STR has a terminating Null character in the 2 string element SHRT_STR 1 The value in the 1st element is considered to be unknown upon its declaration and until it has been assigned a value SHRT_STR 1 0 or SHRT_STR 0 would work also The difference is that this example sets a value to both elements of SHRT_STR so would actually take more machine code to accomplish when it was compiled It does ensure that the value of the 1 element is now known also Keep this in mind when you write your own Apps Get Button_One s digit character SHRT_STR 0 TEMP_STRING 9 copy 10th element to ist element in SHRT_STR Button_One_Caption SHRT_STR Ones place holder digit value update DrawButton Button_One redraw the button on the screen coded this so it would be a clear example of manipulating string elements and not inside optimized indexing code get Button_Ten s digit character SHRT_STR 0 TEMP_STRING 8 copy 9th element to Ist element in SHRT_STR Button_Ten_Caption SHRT_STR Tens place holder digit value update DrawButton Button_Ten redraw the button on the screen get Button_Hundred s digit character SHRT_STR 0 TEMP_STRING 7 copy 8th element to 1st element in SHRT_STR Button_Hundred_Caption SHRT_STR Hundreds place holder digit value update DrawButton Button_Hundred redraw the button on the screen get Button_Thousand s digit charac
56. l Calibrate 750 ae procedure Init_apc i i Gg Check_TP sub procedure InitializeTouchPanel static gi GetCLine d Delay ms 1000 a _DrawButton a oe H gl GetCRoundButton d TET Fill Sereen 0 a Drac Hos omment is Wrong i F pas g w DrawCButton amp sub procedure Calibrate p Showild be H a GetRoundButton i T 2110 Calibrate Q DrawCCircle 3 i ho Init ADC H 6 DrawCircleButton g oD Init J TFT Fill Screen 0 ciple Init MCU lt p ran 797 Ea Initialize0bjects NA a G DrawCRoundButton Ge itaat hF InitializeObjects H G DrawRoundButton i ALAIZE OUCAr ane i 2 e z m 800 Button Million OwnerScreenID 32768 G sinsideDbj display width Screenl Width pepo Bocton_Mi11i0n order 2 E ainsideU bject f S i a et_Object 7 oa F i display height Screenl Height H G GetButton i Button Million Left_ 110 Gl Gl Process_TP_Down H GetCBox gt Button Million Top 25 io rT i DrawScreen 32768 ISAE i b Process_TP_Press i m G GetCButton Button_Million Width 13 a we Bice TRL end sub H G GetCCircle z Button_Million Height 24 a ee athe 3 H G GetCircleButton Button Million Pen Width 0 E SetCurrentMyS creenBylr a GP GetCLabel Button _Million Pen Color 9x0000 yg end H Q GetCLine Button Million Visible 1 Ca Start_TP H G GetCRoundButton Button Million Active 0 i Cs
57. lored view of blank main file Colored view of blank events_code file COLOR Conventions used in the Code Listings Event Counter Program Main File code Listing Event Counter Program Events Code File code listing Stuff you can add and challenges for advanced users The V TFT Driver File Breakdown of Important Parts for Users NEW for Version 3 0 Overview of the Driver Module file Object Drawing Routines to Use List Dynamic Objects Properties Declarations Additional Community Submitted Tutorial Code Examples Tips amp Tricks amp Project Expansions Credits and Thanks About the Author As a separate PDF document that is available at Examples Libstock Blog for download INTRODUCTION Legal Stuff Dest Minimes For those friends viewing this from around the world I am American So Please Forgive My English I have No intentions of insulting anyone So if you use any translator application s on this document I did not say anything about your Mother Brother Sister Wife Husband Girlfriend Boyfriend or any family members including the Dog or Cat no matter what it says I said ok This is the manual for the V TFT Event Counter Tutorial Example project This manual has additional information about the design and operation of the project and information about creating projects in V TFT that apply in general so no matter which programming language or hardware you are working with the information still applies u
58. lts you want in this section with these step by step instructions Illustration I Object and Layers For example the selected Label oldGUILabel2 is on the wrong Layer CONTROLS 1 and we want it on the 3 Layer TEXT 2 see 1 amp 2 in the Illustration 1 above Pee x see Illustration 2 at left w Q oh a If the Object is at the front Right Click on it 1 and select m Cuf 2 or if the Object is hidden behind another object use the tool bars Cuf button 3 150 EL cnn a EVENT COUNTED Ver 1 2 y Undo Ctrl AE Cut Ctrl x Copy Ctrl C a Paste Ctrl V eo Te Ze Cuttine options Object Inspector 3 Display oldGUI creens Illustration 3 Object Cut and available options after Frogressbar Layers gt Wg Show All Layers Visible Layer name Lock layer aki Message ii k GUI Screws Illustration 4 The Layer selection Bug Layers ae o how All Illustration 5 First left click on the original Layer 1 so the ne eei other Layer you want to move the Object to is not highlighted 2 FUTURE FEATURES ry x Message a Illustration 5 Correcting Layers selection Layers 1 a g Show All Layers Illustration 6 Now left click the desired Layer again 1 and ee kaa eeren you should see that only one Layer is selected and t
59. make the digit wheel display Gadget E VE N T CoO U N T E R This Gadget is made from 3 different component types 1x Box 2x line and 7x Button objects for a total of 10 Objects 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Each digit is displayed by one Button object The picture below shows the i common same value properties they have Screen 1 ete sox Properties EVENT COUNTER Rounded Box a e creen A Ovcirde wa n m BS O par nts m objects selecte La T Label Same Component Meu F Round d Butt irde Alphanumeric characte fero Image Set for Simgle Character Al checks Radio B tt ProgressB Features and Controls Expansion Ba MR A en p x Layers Ds Remove Panel Screws to Access E r ow A Lay Visibl Layer name Lock layer i CONTROLS w TEXT les FUTURE FEATURES OO4F4F4F End Color ee Color clBlack 00E2E Disable sucen RAM occupied objects l z A Welcome Display Screen gt User Code 7 objects selected Screen C dspic33epmmb_v370_event_counter_example vtft Total objects on screen 28 It requires only one routine in the User Code area to provide its functionality To change the numbers displayed the routine Event _Counter is called after the variable COUNTER VALUE has been assigned the value to be displayed There is another routine Reset _Counter that manipulates the Gadget also
60. makes to be finished in a compiler and programmed into a device V TFT is a stand alone development tool to aid the user you in creating TFT screen content that can be almost any mixture of Touch Panel TP input controls and output displays of control settings text graphics and anything the target device is capable of needing displayed on a TFT screen V TFT gives the user a graphical development environment in which to work and a selection of screen Components also referred to as Objects you may use individually or in combination to make the I O graphics you need for your desired applications It V TFT provides a What You See Is What You Get WYSIWYG designing environment for the target hardware HW you want that it supports V TFT is a project application code template generator V TFT is a projects screens code manager so users can have multiple screens for different organizations of I O designs as they need within the capabilities of the target HW memory available MCU functions embedded V TFT will make programming language code files based on your selections of project options to use You can see more information about this in the V TFT Help File The Help File will show you information about every menu item and control available What files are created and what they contain depends on the users project selections made at anytime during its designing If you need to see the Help File for more information on this V TFT tak
61. n as selected afterwords The Clear Right Click method helps to ensure you get the results you want Now left click in the screen editing window at a good ss PSE all ayers p Clear Click location 1 so the Layer highlight ed s ST as eames name letters go to Black color 2 like shown in CONTROLS Illustration 7 at right or whatever color you have your D V TFT IDE set at for not selected D EE Message E jpuwon Illustration 7 Clear Click to set Layer selection Select All Illustration 8 Now Right Clear Click in a Clear Click location 1 and select Paste 2 from the menu to put the Label or Object you are moving on the Layer you wanted as shown in image to left Align and Distribute gt ayers Lock lay IN O T FUTURE FEATURES 3 D Fai Message GUI Screws Or you can use the Tool bar Paste Button R Illustration 8 Pasting the also Illustration 9 3 at right Object toa Layer Or Keyboard Ctrl V Illustration 9 Paste T Object Inspector Components palett es Screens Basic IdGUI Box Properties Rounded B Name oldGUI Ovrcirde Be sive o rientation ndscap Common Rul T Label i p d fal si Grid Size F Rounded B t Compo t cir je Butt IdGUILabel Elmag Properties Event A checks ao Moun bel Radio Butt a EVENT COUNTER z
62. nctionality of each as you go Use Use Use your compilers comment feature to give yourself guidelines and reasons why that code is there and what it is supposed to do remember RULE 1 You do not have to comment everything just like did for this example project but try to help your future self with what you are doing now in your code Before jumping in and trying to make that multi screen GUI you have been thinking about for a long time now you should do a very simple 1 screen test project from scratch to make sure you have selected the correct device HW configuration settings that work and you can get the device to show the TP calibration if equipped screen and the first screen of the V TFT test project with at least 1 active Button on it so you can test that the TP works at desired touch pressures and can be accurately calibrated when programmed and powered up to run the program V TFT examples to consider also There are a great many program examples available for all of the hardware and software MikroElektronika makes Some examples you may not consider to check is because you do not have that hardware but you might pass up the exact or helpful example if you do not consider them For example you must have one of the TFT products if you are even reading this but have you gotten and looked over all of the examples for any of their products that include or can have connected a TFT display If you are using one of th
63. neath all other objects should you need to Right Click the background Layer in the Layer Window select all Layers Objects Right Click on a selected Object select Send to Back When using many layers to separate and organize the objects on multiple screens any time you change the screen being displayed in the V TFT screen edit window the selected Layer for editing activity will be the last Layer Bottom of the Layer window list not the one you were using last on that screen The Layer selected for a screen is not persistent An indication that there is a Object Party happening you were not invited to Check what LAYER is selected after adding a new component from the Palette or Pasting a Cut Copied object to the screen if you are using multiple LAYERS say this because still find some of my Screen Objects having a party with Objects that live on a different Layer than the ones thought put it with See the section about moving Objects around on Layers to fix It is much easier to do the coding in a Compiler than in V TFT The only file you have full Read and Write access to is the User Code events_code file You can not even copy any code from the other project files while in V TFT eee Dad ES 7 Cempenenis pakita x x m sn a _ m Personal Project with EVE FT800 Breakout board Multiple screen GUI Controller for Electric Bicycle ESC Still a work in progress Project How many
64. ng 1 temp string for holding a single character test to make sure value is valid 0 lt COUNTER_VALUE lt 9 999 999 if COUNTER_VALUE gt 9999999 then COUNTER_VALUE 0 out of range roll over to zero s end if convert the COUNTER_VALUE variable value directly to a 10 character long string with leading zeros to match the counters display methodology Conversions Library Function LongWord ToStrWithZeros COUNTER_VALUE TEMP_STRING Example if COUNTER_VALUE has value of 36272 then TEMP_STRING would contain the characters 0000036272 null character after conversion Then individual access of the strings elements by the code below would result with Button_Million_Caption 0 TEMP_STRING 3 4th element Button_HundredThousand_Caption 0 TEMP_STRING 4 5th element Button_TenThousand_Caption 3 TEMP_STRING 5 6th element 6 TEMP_STRING 6 7th element Button_Hundred_Caption Button_Ten_Caption Button_One_Caption Button_One is right most digit displayed and Button_Million is left most digit displayed in event counter display 2 TEMP_STRING 7 8th element 7 TEMP_STRING 8 9th element 2 TEMP_STRING 9 10th element Button_Thousand_Caption Now pull out each individual character for place holder digit value displayed in counter display starting with the Ones value first and redraw each Button after its Caption property has been updated first we ma
65. ng your own version If a project has more than one 1 screen name every Object with the screen name it belongs to as the prefix to the name Screen1Box1 and a Screen2Button1_ Object will have Screen2Button1_OnClick for its routine name when assigned If an Object is used as a display of data or indicator Its name should reflect its purpose Screen OnLight instead of Circle You will have to remember the Objects type so you use the correct V TFT drawing routine for each Object but you will find writing your code easier to do and reading it will make more sense with descriptive names You do not have to rename every Object used in a project but any that you have to refer to in your User Code should be renamed Variables and constants naming You might find this useful or not Normally Constant identifiers names are done all in UPPERCASE so just looking at the name tells you it is a Constant If you look at the User Code in this tutorials example project you will see that also have all of the Variables names in UPPERCASE too find this helps me when looking over the code I write There is no confusing them with routine names or language Keywords by doing this find leave all programming Keywords in lowercase and routine names are just capitalized each word in the identifier like this Reset_Counter The point is to have a system any system and be consistent with its usage Making the code legible and easy to discern the
66. nless stated otherwise All code examples and the entire project are in the mikroBASIC mBASIC language from MikroElektronika This manuals instructions assume the reader you have already read the V TFT Help file that comes with it If you have not read the Help file 1t advised that you do so first before reading this tutorial It 1s not required to before using this manual but this manual is intended as a supplement to the Help file not a replacement There is information in the Help file you will also need to know in order to be successful in creating working projects in V TFT I will try very hard to keep the references generic and non specific to any HW whenever possible This can t be helped in the projects code listing section obviously Since all of the example code was written in mikroBASIC I have included the 2 files complete code listings that are the focus of this tutorials topics in this document so users of mikroC and mikroPASCAL have an easy way to also access their contents I did not want to exclude any users of V TFT just because I or you do not have and use all of the compilers My wanting to make sure everybody could benefit from the example project 1s how this PDF manual got started Once that happened it seemed only natural to make use of its potential to include more than just commented text and I Just cannot help myself from pushing buttons and clicking format controls when they are on my screen This project is not a fully
67. nts and to place your subroutines and sub functions that can be called from your code in any objects Event Handler routine created As the files name says this file is the one V TFT uses to place an objects assigned Event Action routine s The order the Event routines appear in the file is determined by the order you assigned Events to your Objects in V TFT These assignments MUST be done in V TFT so all Template code and pointer assignments are set correctly in the output code in the Driver file This version of the tutorial manual has BONUS Code variations that are optimized and make use of the counters objects structures pointers for better manipulations of their caption properties done by Aleksandar Vukelic You can compare the two ways the same thing gets done and get some insight into the workings of V TFT ee Projects module File name Linking other modules to this project These areas that are light Red in color are places you cannot place your code If you place any code in these areas you will cause the V TFT program to lose track of where your User Code should be and usually ends with your project not working This area is new with V TFT Ver 3 7 0 and not documented Any code I have tried placing here not a external declaration got erased when project build was done OFF LIMITS AREA 1 User Code area available in a V TFT projects event_code file This is where the variables and constants you will be
68. o that offers more help if you need it Maybe there will be some discussions in the V TFT forum once this concept trick gets being used by some other users might add a code example for doing this in the future but right now do not have one I can share The project was working on when made this realization and am using it in is not something can put out for the public The Example project this manual covers did not need to use it because it is such a simple program But decided that it is a too important piece of information to not add it to this manual for you to know about If there are dangers or reasons to not use this trick other than the obvious ones have not discovered them yet mainly don t forget when and where you pointed the objects Event Action Handler to If do find one that is not an obvious one will post about it in this Tutorial projects thread and add it to this manuals next update version If you try it and find one please let us or me know so it can be made known to all users Additional Community Submitted Tutorial Code Examples Tips amp Tricks amp Project Expansions If you really want to give thanks consider this I welcome any submissions anyone would like to have me post on libstock of additions or features to this Tutorial example project It can be as simple as a project conversion to other compilers or device Hardware I will add tt to the Libstock page with your credits Submissions shoul
69. objects do you think are used for this Speedometer gauge Answer is at the end of this manual DASH SETUP TWEEX Splash Dashire i Setup TABEX SHEARS Sore ETRAS PROFILES LISAR f Tiekome E Deps Dashi S Leer Cocke i Lia RO TIP Number of different Objects used in a Project las a Major impact on the Code File sizes Use fewer Types to save RAM amp ROM MEMORY Visual TFT Components amp Objects Tutorial O _ gt First lets make sure we are on the same page about Components and Objects You will see both terms used in this document and in Visual TFTs official documents Help File as referring to the same thing and this is correct mostly In the V TFT program they are listed in the Components Palette and divided into two groups BASIC and COMMON I have come to think of it this way and so I must let you know this so there is no confusion between us about term usage Component s Term to apply to the different types of Objects available for you to use in your projects Components are usually made from multiple Objects Object s Generic term a Component type is called once it has been placed into the project on any screen An Object is the simplest V TFT element that you can use in a project IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT COMPONENTS STATIC PROPERTY If the objects property is set to Static True in V TFT you can not change any of its properties dur
70. ode to achieve the desired visual effects ABOUT EVE FT800 PROJECT OBJECTS The EVE FT800 display controller based devices are an exception to the rules stated above Its methodology for displaying a screens objects is handled differently With the EVE a user makes a change to an objects property or properties that affect its appearance with user code and then issues a complete screen redraw command to have the change s manifest on the TFT The EVE redraws the whole screen following a LIST of drawing commands whose place in the List determines which objects are shown in front of others With the EVE the priority assigned to an Object actually determines its place in the List of drawing commands But the EVE has the ability to move the commands around in this list also This ability is equivalent to changing an Objects drawing priority value which is not supported during run time with the other display controllers supported by V TFT In truth the EVE controller would need a whole book dedicated to its features and functions so J am not going to go any further into its capabilities here just this information to let you readers know that there are differences with the EVE display controllers and the original display controllers that V TFT was originally made to work with The following screen captures show the objects on a layer all selected so their editing outlines are all visible to you The Counter Layer has all of the objects used to
71. omplex feature filled application to suit your needs or just to experiment more on Your choices you do as you want with it So I hope you take the time to read all of the comments and that they help you to a better understanding and usage of MikroElektronika s Visual TFT software If you find anything hard to read understand or confusing to you please let me know post a comment on its LibStock code page or forum thread Best Regards to all Robert Note to users of MikroC and MikroPASCAL languages Sorry but I do not use those compilers so MikroBASIC versions are all I can make for now I may someday add PASCAL to my arsenal but not C Sorry but I just do not like that language and never have any version But you users of those others should be able to understand what is going on in BASIC in this project without too much trouble and more so for you PASCAL users not much difference between them really The coding is simple and the comments apply to all languages as for how V TFT is organized program pic32mmb_v370_example_tutorial_main Users code can go any where in this module as long as its placement follows the compilers rules for a programs organization layout that is always in effect New users to V TFT may at first be confused by this very plain bare almost MAIN program file and its lack of all the normal coding you were expecting With V TFT projects the main file is left bare so users can still have a pla
72. on_RESET_ Press_Color 0x8410 CircleButton_RESET_ OnUpPtr 0 CircleButton_RESET_ OnDownPtr 0 CircleButton_RESET_ OnClickPtr CircleButton_RESET_OnClick CircleButton_RESET_ OnPressPtr 0 1 See text below in Tan section about these Properties As you can see things are not exactly the same between the code and V TFT interface Each has some things the other does not Dont worry the reasons why they do not match is not a ina locked secret with no key to the reasons why there are A i some differences between the V TFT IDE interface and A the V TFT generated code that represents the users settings of an Objects properties in the V TFT IDE The following text sections are colored as said above so easier to locate the material that belongs to that properties explanations Yellow section The properties marked above with yellow are settings that are used by V TFT only and are not available for users to change with run time code The first one is the Components Name so it is used in the name of all of the properties also You cannot rename or re declare a variable with run time code The next one is the value V TFT will use to set the length of the Objects Caption String variable declaration Again not one that can be changed anytime during execution of the program If the Object is Static leave Max Length at zero 0 The last one is the all important Object Static setting It can only be set while in V TFT so the Objects d
73. oncept A custom gadget like any built in V TFT components requires two parts in order to work 1 are the graphical elements to make it a visual construct of objects and 2 is the code to be executed that provides the functionality of the gadget This seems simple enough right So lets build one a fictional one for now Here are the steps to take 1 Make the custom component from the Objects available on a screen by itself 2 Make the routine s and declarations needed to support its functionality in Event Handlers and or User Code and or User code declarations 3 Export the screen so it can be imported in to other projects 4 Load the V TFT Project for the Gadget in to your compiler 5 Add a blank Module file to the project and place all routines in the new module file below implements and any declarations for variables and constants above implements 6 Make entries of Forwards for the routine s that need to be seen external to this module above the variables and constants declarations The modules name should indicate what Gadget it provides support for The objects used to make your Gadget that need to be manipulated by code should have unique names that can help indicate what functionality they are there for so calling on them from the main project body will be easier to understand There will be more effort to get a better way to implement someth
74. only a wish request and layers cease to have any function outside of V TFT This does not mean they are useless or cannot provide you with assistance in making your design Here are some examples of Layers and their purpose for possible usage practices for organizing a V TFT project There are more uses the Layers can be used for and you will find the ones that are most helpful to you as you go Each Project may be different in how you use them if at all based on the complexity of the design you are working on See the BONUS CONTENT Section in this manual for access to real hands on V TFT Screens you can examine and use the Objects from it if you want examples of the Layers Usages described above N Object Layering in V TRT oy While the Layers in V TFT do not have any effect on the output code how you layer Objects in V TFT has great impact on the output and how the TFT display will be drawn The drawing priority for the objects on a screen is first determined by the order they are placed on the screen Objects placed first are drawn first and Objects placed last get drawn last by the drawscreen routine in the driver file The drawing priority can be changed for any object by right Clicking it and picking one of the two options to move it to front or back Many objects can be stacked Layered over one another to create a visual display you want Depending on the display controller you are using and the device MCU an
75. orial about it and it can be gotten at Libstock site also That V TFT example project does not have a PDF manual like this one with it though All explanations are done as comments in the mBASIC Pro for PIC32 Source Code Files Main and Events_Code project files This is why I have not included code examples in this tutorial Z had already made them Click HERE to open the Examples page at Libstock com I feel some talk about this is required There has been requests for some additional components to be added to V TFT and the ability to create custom components that become part of the components palette While having some new components added to V TFT would be nice I think users are not taking full advantage of what can be done with what it has now This is the main reason I made the example project that would be the reference for this tutorial The Event Counter display Gadget is an example of how to make a custom component using the available objects in V TFT By demonstrating how the Display Gadget was made you will also get a lesson about Layers and layering Objects When you think about it it is the purpose of V TFT to give you the tools to make as intricate an interface as you want If you use this concept you can start building up a library of reusable gadgets you make or be able to use any that others put up to share freely The Display Gadget is the first one available from hopefully a growing list of them soon Here 1s the c
76. ork like they wanted with out hitting any common mistakes that would make a V TFT project not work at all on first attempts to make one The method I used to time the Blink intervals of the RESET Button is only one way to do this and not the best way for every circumstance when other HW modules controlling needs more processor time to work This method works for this application because there is not other tasks requirements of precise timing For you more skilled users here are some suggestions for what you can add to this project to make it more versatile and take it to the next level as a example project Or make it a complete project and Lab tool you can use If you have the time skill ideas and ambition please contribute on this and post your results of additions or changes back on LibStock site Some additional controls and features a real event counter could would have Start Stop Hold count controls Threshold settings for Analog ADC sampling trigger monitor source s Multiple counters for multiple trigger sources and controls to configure them Controls to select from many digital inputs connected to One or more PORTS as trigger s Controls to configure timing test conditions to any source ex was Digital input change long or short enough or time between event triggers equal to a setting Digital inputs that trigger Interrupt events to count Device HW timers configurations fo
77. r save and usually reserved for Labels that are Static in nature As you can see using the Label component to display changing information on the screen is not straight forward and easy And there is no justification that can be applied to the contents left right center Labels are fixed with left justification Labels do have uses though They are great for writing alphanumerical characters that are Static and need never change The alternatives are to use one of the other components that also have a Caption property like the Buttons The advantages The downside to using a Button as a Label There will always be an area around the Caption contents that gets drawn also This can be a problem for you based on how you have your layout designed but changing the layout design can overcome this most of the time The Button must be dynamic Static FALSE so having many buttons doing labels function eats up RAM memory fast you can use Static Buttons for displaying non changing data still You can set the properties of a Button so that it does not appear to be a Button also Setting the Pen Width Property to zero 0 will make it so there is no boarder and setting the gradient property to False and the solid color to match the background achieves this But if you set the Transparent property to True so background shows thru you will have the same problems with erasing o d data as you have with using the Label component All Caption
78. r trigger events to count And Or anything else you can imagine would be a good feature to have added Additionally please do not think that just because I said you have to follow some rules RULEs 1 amp 2 amp 3 are excluded that they are set in stone and non violable and are rules that MikroElectronika has established in V TFT or V GLCD for that matter I put those in here as what I have perceived and found to be programming practices that work and do not cause issues in V TFT projects I like a lot of new users did just about everything you could do wrong with a V TFT project at my first attempts to make my own application I do not consider myself to be an expert programmer at all and less so when it applies to microcontrollers I am completely self taught on programming PIC s and make a lot of mistakes too so if you find any in this project tutorial do as I do Blame the teacher B So take the guide lines I have pointed out as at least good practices to start with for a V TFT project and please push those boundaries to find out what really can be done or not yourself s You will not find out what works if you do not find out first what does not work Lastly I hope you have realized that the counter display can be used as just a numerical or alphanumerical display for about anything you want displayed in the manner it does You can also add or subtract to th
79. roup all Objects in your project IN V TFT before trying to compile and run it on a device The keyboard SHIFT key when held down allows you to left click on objects to add or subtract them to from multiple selected objects for grouping or moving or deleting The keyboard Ins or Insert key toggles between Insert and Overwrite modes in text code editors Not all Components have a Static property because they have properties whose values must change in order to function as designed Since they are Dynamic you can take advantage of changing any of their properties to achieve visual effects to help indicate a state or condition is in affect in your application instead of adding more Objects to your project to do the same If you need to change any Objects properties from your code during run time it MUST have its Static property set to False in V TFT before you send the project to a compiler If you will not be changing an Objects properties from your code during run time you should set its Static property to True so RAM memory is not wasted holding all of its properties values You can use Layers to group same object types together by layer or have all objects used to make a custom display or control on its own layer so easier to move or hide on the screen If you use any Objects to make a background for the screen putting them all on a Layer by themselves makes it easier to get the background back under
80. routines that need to be called from outside of this project module forward declaration so the calls from the main program file to it will work This area is where users variables and constants are declared and defined that will be used by users executable code in users own routines or the routines V TFT generates for screen objects touched event handling in the area below marked as Event Handlers because users must supply the code to be executed in those event handler routines V TFT just makes empty routine declarations for you the user programmer User Code variables GLOBAL variable to hold counted events total variable for tracking RESET button clicks and Reset_Counter routine operations variable for counting number of passes in Reset_Counter as time control for blinking colors of RESET button User Code constants GLOBAL constant for setting or testing a logical One 1 True state constant for setting or testing a logical Zero 0 False state change value to adjust rate RESET button blinks colors Lower faster Higher slower when BLINK_TIMER value gets greater than this constant RESET button colors change using pointers declaration goes here const digits as TButtonPtr 7 Button_One Button_Ten Button_Hundred Button_Thousand Button_TenThousand Button_HundredThousand Button_Million
81. ser code here gets executed one time only on power up or after a reset because of endless loop below User variables initialize these variables are declared in events module COUNTER_VALUE 0 setvalue to zero RESET_FLAG 0 clear flag state BLINK_TIMER 0 setvalue to zero Start of Program execution flow during run time Routine Call Start_TP in Start_TP Generated call to initialize HW and V TFT screen s and objects Projects The routine called is in the driver module and it calls on yee other routines in the driver module before returning program execution flow back here It is only called once per This gets called device power up or after a hard or soft restart reset s One 1 time Only on power up main program endless loop section begin Return From sub Routine end sub while TRUE V TFT makes this endless loop as part of a V TFT project It is a important part of how a V TFT program executes Once program execution flow enters this loop it never can exit it and should not so do not change the loop set up or put code that will cause program execution to exit it out the bottom If it does the application will enter a continuous NOP loop state at the end statement and become locked up and unresponsive to any input A RESET will be required to restart the application every time it do
82. st method to keep things looking and running balanced I am not going to go into those other methods for this example project but wanted to point out that there are timing factors to be considered and managed once you start sharing the processors time for V TFT s core code by putting your code in this loop A lot of tasks can be done by this method and some may require it to be done this way while the controlling of some MCU s hardware will require a more advanced method using timer interrupts to keep the timing of the code as required for the HW controlling to work Program Loops to instruction after while TRUE First REPEATING TASK Routine Call Check_TP in Projects Driver Module Return from Check_TP sub Routine end sub Represents Driver Module Code and possibly User Event Handler Code in Events_Code Module before returning back to this Main Program Module Code I will try to make an example project that demonstrates that method in the maybe near future or sooner if a lot of requests for it I get user code for sharing V TFT endless loop to get repeating passes of execution on some user code that is of single pass execution design Routine Call RESET_FLAG gt 0 YES NO if RESET_FLAG gt 0 then events_code Reset_Counter call this routine if the RESET_FLAG variable is not end if equal to zero which is the indicator that it
83. stock com projects view 666 bitcalc if you do not already have it BitCalc v1 02 size Decimal Hexadecimal Binary Char Shift 8 bits 640433498 D9 D3C2A6 11011001 11010011 11000010 10100110 11011001 11010011 11000010 10100110 hes 2 EG ieee 16 bits 32 bits 1269559185 48 AB EF 91 01001011 10101011 11101111 10010001 lt lt 1 z be Sign AND OR XOR D Simed 1837617865 9278 2D 37 10010010 01111000 00101101 00110111 Enn cur 7 5 C gt A c gt Bs ber C Unsigned pers S130 29 25 27 20 25 24 23 22 Z1 20 15 185 17 16 15 14 13 17 11 10 a A o o EB A o o o ae EEA o foo o o o e o e o Eo o Eo a aA a A Eee e Ea Bo To Mo Te To o E c Wio o io o o o N o o ol Lollo o EEL Bb N fae Fl Help F2 About A E It will aid you in learning about Bit Masking and using Bit operators in programming much more I consider it an SSential tool for programming and troubleshooting your code and analyzing others code to see how logical operations programmed get the right results Of wrong It is a stand alone application that can be added to your compilers External Tool s configuration so it is always at hand When designing in V TFT it is usually better to make the least complicated interface at first then test it and if that works then consider what to change to add more elaborate features Try to do the project in discreet small chunks of functions checking the fu
84. ter SHRT_STR 0 TEMP_STRING 6 copy 7th element to 1st element in SHRT_STR Button_Thousand_Caption SHRT_STR Thousands place holder digit value update DrawButton Button_Thousand redraw the button on the screen get Button_TenThousand s digit character SHRT_STR 0 TEMP_STRING 5 copy 6th element to 1st element in SHRT_STR Button_TenThousand_Caption SHRT_STR Ten Thousands place holder digit value update DrawButton Button_TenThousand redraw the button on the screen get Button_HundredThousand s digit character SHRT_STR 0 TEMP_STRING 4 copy 5th element to 1st element in SHRT_STR Button_HundredThousand_Caption SHRT_STR Hundred Thousands place update DrawButton Button_HundredThousand redraw the button on the screen get Button_Million s digit character SHRT_STR 0 TEMP_STRING 3 copy 4th element to 1st element in SHRT_STR Button_Million_Caption SHRT_STR millions place holder value update DrawButton Button_Million redraw the button on the screen And that s it the Counter display has had all digits updated If you decide that having every Button redrawn looks bad or unacceptable for your usage if you use this Display Gadget in your own project you can change each Buttons update to have a test done to see if it actually needs to be updated Here is an example way to code to do so SHRT_STR O TEMP_STRING 3 if Button_Million_Caption lt gt SHRT_STR then B
85. thing here Just empty space End of the program file Visual TFT Project File Areas by the COLOR s To help make clear the different parts and areas of the Project Template code ge The User Code areas and the V TFT code areas backgrounds will be differently co These project code files listings have a coloring scheme of the background colors as follows ae Generated Program Code Colors Key V TFT Template generated Program Code V TFT Template generated Program Comments The User Code Colors Key The Examples Tutorial Comments The Example User Code Program Code al Visual THI Event Counter Program Main File code Listing 1 Project name pic32mmb_v370_example_tutorial vtft Generated by Visual TFT Date of creation 10 18 2013 Time of creation 2 51 18 AM Test configuration FEMCU P32MX460F512L Dev Board MyMikroMMB_PIC32_hwRev_1_10 Oscillator 80000000 Hz SW mikroBasic PRO for PIC32 http www mikroe com mikrobasic pic32 x Original Programming and Tutorial comments done by Robert Townsley Alternative optimized code versions in events_code file by Aleksandar Vukelic Program Description This is a V TFT example project by Robert Townsley MegaHurts to show how to make a simple lab instrument event counter that can count up to 9 999 999 events It can be modified to count higher by any body that has a need to do so This V TFT
86. tion click state while RESET_FLAG 1 But after user clicks the reset button a second time RESET_FLAG is set to a value of 2 by the RESET buttons on_Click event handler routine and when the Reset_Counter routine is called again it will detect the next state change and clear the counters counting variable 0 clear the RESET_FLAG variable 0 and set all 7 wheel digits to 0 and reset the blinking timer variable for the next time the RESET button is clicked on resulting with only a single call to Reset_Counter routine when the RESET_FLAG variable is equal to two 2 After the call the RESET_FLAG will be back to zero value again and the if then end if conditional test below will fail and not call the Reset_Counter routine again until RESET_FLAG changes This setup will result in a varying amount of time the User Code will take of the processor and may become apparent with some of the screen updates and or responsiveness of the TP to inputs when different amounts of user code is being executed in this way To balance this and keep everything looking and acting like there is no imbalance of V TFT core code vs User Code the if then end if test below could be modified so that when RESET_FLAG 0 a small delay instruction is executed that simulates the amount of time the Reset_Counter routine would take if it were being called This is probably not required for this application and is not the be
87. to the Connect EVE FT800 Breakout board so had Idea to let the community have those MMB screens as Object Layering on multiple Layers examples to aid those who want more examples on this topic The project they came from was for a custom Electric Bicycle Brushed DC Motor PWM Electronic Speed Controller ESC and Graphic System Management TP GUI I think there is 9 or 10 screens in the collection more than shown in the image below esc_adc bmp 1 1 Background lo amp pen 1 i esc_system bmp 1 1 Background l esc_xtras bmp 1 1 Background aar es ee d pede beet hel ara E Laii laralasal k i ee ae SYS PWM ADE XTRAS PANEL STATS rsv PWM ADC XTRAS AS N CHANNEL T 0 1 O a ie G FORCES h esc_panel bmp 1 1 Background celle mE S esc_setup2 bmp 1 1 Background 0 1 2 3 4 o 2 sealer alaralas LEPINI E lanal a A salesale A A ons alas salas aa os i A f P sosbos stored sestss sl ony A r le i M ADC XTRAS PANEL STATS SYS PWM ADC XTRAS PANEL stats i PWH CHANNEL AND EASE TREO SELECTION TURN a e SPEEDOMETER WHEEL SIZE CALIBRATION j SET CIRCUMFERENCE D Ge a Ga ESC TEMP Ewer wira me J SPEED SENSOR ON IT CH E Periop MMM RES Bits BR eE ETER i PROGRAMABLE PWM MIN MAX DUTY RATIO LIMITS ENTER 7 TO ADJUST LIMITS d ENTER OLD PIN 7 MIN lt DN OR UP gt MAX tF gt D A i THROTTLE b A 00000 0 TRIP 0000 RESET ESS FC
88. ts code to accumulate a value you want displayed by this custom wheel digital display I hope you reading this and looking this example project over have found it useful and easy to understand how it works or at least gotten something useful from it to spark your own creative design ideas to do in V TFT This is the best way I have found to share or acquire custom components so far for V TFT Use any combination of objects to make a custom display gadget or TP input control indicator gadget and include any routines needed to implement it and make a simple V TFT project to hold and show it off with and post it for others to download and check out please include enough instructions or comments for others to keep it at least easy to use in their own projects I invite you to use any part of the user code or methods I demonstrated in your own projects and if you do put your project up for downloading by others to have as your example please have comments by my code you used stating that you got it from this example so others can trace back to get original material for use if they want it Thank you for any passing and sharing of methods ideas solutions examples you have or may do with the community User code subroutines and or function routines COUNTER DISPLAY OBJECTS DRIVER AND DISPLAY UPDATER ROUTINE Routine takes the value in COUNTER_VALUE variable and converts it to a string of 10 characters and updates the 7 Buttons capt
89. using in your project get declared See actual Example Code for example usage OFF LIMITS AREA Start of YOUR 2 Safe Code Area for your Applications Routines You need to organize your projects tasks so they can be encapsulated inside of your User Code subroutines and this area is where many of them are going to reside OFF LIMITS AREA This starts the area that V TFT places code templates to declare the Routines assigned to any objects Event Action and where you will put your code to perform the task s you want to be done for the Event triggered Event Routine Template sub procedure ObjectName_OnAction your User Code for Event task here end sub The space between the last end sub and the end file termination Label is subject to being overwritten by templates of any new Objects Event Action handling routine Only comment lines should be placed here until editing in V TFT is done i MAR Project Main File The second one is the MAIN program file every compiler project needs While this file is required it contains only 2 V TFT routine calls Start_TPQ is a one time only call before the endless loop and Check_TP gets called every pass of the loop The rest of the file is empty of code and only has some V TFT made comments about the project at top of file Even though there are no V TFT comments indicating any User Code areas this whole file can be consid
90. utines to do actions based on what has changed or the new data in But they must allow program execution to resume back here after doing the task programmed By placing your routine call s or other code here in this loop you are sharing CPU processing time with the V TFT core code so share nicely The time taken by the V TFT Check_TP routine will vary depending on TP activity and number of screen objects to test and the code YOU program in the event handling routines and so on So any code you program in the event handling routines if done wrong can also cause an application lock up if it does not allow execution to return here for another pass of the loop For this example project if anyone wants to add the ability for the counter to be triggered by a PORT pin set as input instead of the UP amp DOWN buttons on the screen you place a call to a routine that reads the PORT here in this loop after you make the routine that does the PORT reading Also in that routine you have it add 1 to the variable COUNTER_VALUE and call the routine I made that updates the screen counter object Event_Counter and it will update the screen to the new value after it checks for roll over condition 9 999 999 counts My update routine will return program execution flow to the next statement in your routine after the call to it when done Your routine for reading a PORT can be located above where I indicated with
91. utton_Million_Caption SHRT_STR DrawButton Button_Million end if This would make the display look more natural in operation if you can see any flickering of the digits that do not change values Feel free to try both methods by changing the code for each Button as I shown above on a copy of this end sub the first block of code in this routine handles the repeating calls made to it from the loop in main program module The repeating calls serve a purpose for timing of the RESET buttons blinking effect This is done by changing the RESET buttons Transparent property between True 0 and False 1 after every BLINK constant value set in User Declarations above 1 times this routine is called while the RESET_FLAG variable equals 1 The variable BLINK_TIMER is used to keep track of the number of execution passes or calls this routine gets from the main program loop When the RESET buttons Transparent property is set True 0 another circle that is behind the button and colored red to maroon gradient will be visible for BLINK 1 number of execution passes then the buttons transparent property will be set to False 1 for the same number of execution passes and will repeat until the user either presses the RESET button again to confirm reset or presses the Minus button to cancel the reset counter state A text message of instructions is also displayed while
92. vent routine to be assigned to the copied new object you will probably end up deleting the original objects event routine trying to clear the assignment from the copied object Only copy an object that already has an event action routine assigned to it if you want the copy to use same routine or there is already a event routine made you want it to use instead Otherwise using a new component instead is easier and saves you trouble You cannot rely on the V TFT Undo button s functionality to save you from project damage due to a software bug Keep a backup in a separate folder that you can update manually after a editing session is finished have rarely gotten the results expected from using it It may function correctly for normal editing mistakes but if you are trying to reverse the results of a V TFT software bug there is a good chance it will cause more damage to your project up to and including TOTAL LOSS of project being usable or loadable into V TFT again It is easier to copy an object that has a lot of properties set like you want another one to have than configure a new one added from the component palette Bug in V TFT ver 3 7 0 Grouped Objects Having any group s of Objects in your V TFT project when project is saved or sent to compiler directly when compiled and run on device after loading will cause your application to freeze up trying to draw the screen that has any Objects Grouped together Make sure you UN g

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