16 channel level converter with dual regulators
May 07
If, like me, you’ve spent a lot of tinkering with things like TFT modules and other highly integrated peripherals then you’ll be familiar with the depressing section in the device datasheet that looks like this: The DC characteristics table tells you the voltages that a device expects to receive and these days it’s common for multiple voltage levels to be expected and sadly...
avr-gcc 4.7.0 and avr-libc 1.8.0 compiled for Windows
Apr 28
At the time of writing, April 2012, the gcc team have released version 4.7.0 of the compiler package and the avr-libc developers have also released version 1.8.0 of the avr-libc library. Version list Tool Version Configuration avr-gcc 4.7.0 –with-gmp=/usr/local –with-mpfr=/usr/local –with-mpc=/usr/local –prefix=/c/avrgcc –target=avr...
stm32plus: ILI9481 TFT driver
Apr 09
The ILI9481 is a driver IC for 480×320 (HVGA) TFT panels. These panels are typically found in mobile phones (for example the iPhone 3G although the display in that phone probably does not have a controller) and other portable devices. HVGA panels contain double the number of pixels of the common 320×240 (QVGA) panels. The TFT panel I picked up one of these panels on ebay. It...
stm32f4discovery: Up and running with the ARM Cortex M4
Mar 31
The stm32f4discovery is the ARM Cortex M4 evaluation board from ST Microelectronics. I’ve been following the progress of the Cortex M4 since its launch, looking for the right time to dip in give the new MCU a test drive. That opportunity came with the launch of the stm32f4discovery board. I got mine from Farnell Electronics where, at the time of writing, they are on sale for £9.96 +...
stm32plus: FAT32 & FAT16 drivers
Mar 24
stm32plus comes with a full featured, object-oriented FAT32 and FAT16 driver written by myself from scratch based on a close adherence to the official Microsoft specification. The interfaces exposed by the file system driver are designed to dovetail seamlessly with other parts of the stm32plus library such as the streams library. Features The driver supports all common filesystem operations...
Reverse engineering the Nokia 2730 QVGA LCD
Mar 06
You may have noticed that I have a bit of a ‘thing’ for the little TFT displays that you can commonly get on ebay. There’s something satisfying about writing your own driver code and seeing one of these little panels come alive with your graphics. Why the 2730 LCD? It’s high resolution (320×240, 200ppi) which means that graphics will look good. It’s used in a...
stm32plus: A full photoframe application
Feb 19
For this next article in the series of stm32plus C++ demonstrations using the STM32F103 series of ARM Cortex M3 microcontrollers I thought that I’d take a break from showcasing LCD drivers and present a fully functional graphical photoframe application. This one application will allow me to demonstrate several STM32 peripherals and capabilities in a series of upcoming articles. In...
stm32plus: ADS7843 touch screen driver
Jan 07
My last few blog articles have presented stm32plus drivers for the HX8347A and ILI9325 controllers. Given that both of these panels came with touch screens I think it’s about time that we took a brief interlude from the TFT drivers and presented a flexible touch screen driver for ADS7843-compatible controllers. This driver will feature pluggable noise-reduction and screen calibration...