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Multifunction instrument based on BeagleBone Black

shabaz

Hi Brian,

 

We're thinking on the same track. I'm interested to hear what your cape is like, and ideas you're considering for it's use and how good the touchscreen is. It looks like a very high quality screen. I've been experimenting with connecting up a larger LCD with the same resolution too, it may be the same model maybe, although I just have the bare LCD, not a cape, so I have a bit of interworking to do currently. I was undecided if I wanted to hook into the dedicated LCD pins (full color) like your cape, or go the PRU route (with reduced 256 or 65k color initially), since both methods could be useful depending on the application. I'd be interested to know if it works with the current release software, and what gets configured in Linux to set the correct timings (I've not really experimented with display drivers in Linux before, so I'm not sure where to look). I think it will be really neat if we can get several different sizes of LCDs working using both methods to cover a few different scenarios.

LCDs are so expensive though.

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  • Hi shabaz,

     

    Yes I do have some ideas for its use, my 4ch scope died a while back, thick black smoke and all.   I have been tinkering with high speed ADCs and FPGAs running currently at 60Mhz and transferring data to my PC over USB.  Then along came BBB and it's PRUs  image so my thinking is more along the lines of a multi function device, basic scope, logic analyser, frequency counter..... 

     

    Anyway back to the LCD4 cape some good points:

    • Full circuit diagrams available here
    • LCD module NewHaven NHD‐4.3‐480272MF‐ATXI#‐T‐1 info here app note here
    • Resistive touch screen so can use a nice thin stylus instead of thick stubby fingers.
    • The two LEDs on the board are GREEN

    The cape works as the x-windows desktop with the standard distribution but as it resolution is only 480 x 272 a lot of the X applications are written for higher resolutions so their windows and menus end up half off screen with no way to get at everything.  I have tried it with the latest 2013-05-27 Angstrom image which has a few issues ( the kernel is still in a state of flux so these problems are being worked on) for this cape apparently the pull-up/pull-down resister configurations for user buttons are not being set correctly so they are triggering multiple hits.  There are 4 holes which match up to the BBB mounting holes but you can't use them without first removing the LCD panel which is attached to the PCB with sticky pads. There are 4 more mounting holes for the cape PCB that are accessible.

     

    That's as far as I have been able to get for now as we have been invaded with grandchildren and I have nowhere to hide image  I will dig a lot deeper when I get the chance.

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  • Hi shabaz,

     

    Yes I do have some ideas for its use, my 4ch scope died a while back, thick black smoke and all.   I have been tinkering with high speed ADCs and FPGAs running currently at 60Mhz and transferring data to my PC over USB.  Then along came BBB and it's PRUs  image so my thinking is more along the lines of a multi function device, basic scope, logic analyser, frequency counter..... 

     

    Anyway back to the LCD4 cape some good points:

    • Full circuit diagrams available here
    • LCD module NewHaven NHD‐4.3‐480272MF‐ATXI#‐T‐1 info here app note here
    • Resistive touch screen so can use a nice thin stylus instead of thick stubby fingers.
    • The two LEDs on the board are GREEN

    The cape works as the x-windows desktop with the standard distribution but as it resolution is only 480 x 272 a lot of the X applications are written for higher resolutions so their windows and menus end up half off screen with no way to get at everything.  I have tried it with the latest 2013-05-27 Angstrom image which has a few issues ( the kernel is still in a state of flux so these problems are being worked on) for this cape apparently the pull-up/pull-down resister configurations for user buttons are not being set correctly so they are triggering multiple hits.  There are 4 holes which match up to the BBB mounting holes but you can't use them without first removing the LCD panel which is attached to the PCB with sticky pads. There are 4 more mounting holes for the cape PCB that are accessible.

     

    That's as far as I have been able to get for now as we have been invaded with grandchildren and I have nowhere to hide image  I will dig a lot deeper when I get the chance.

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