I need help for getting text onto a KS1080B 128x64 GLCD as sold by Techsupplies at a decent speed. The trouble is - this controller doesn't seem to have a built-in capability for text. Putting text onto the display takes up much of the PICAXE (40X2) memory just for the numbers to define which pixels need to be set for which letters.
I decided that to overcome this I could use a serial driver chip for the display which is capable of putting text on it. I checked out the FGC thing offered on Techsupplies but it has flaws and is expensive. Its flaws are slow serial, and only allowing 7 lines of text when the display is capable of 8. I started producing my own version on the PICAXE-20X2 which lacks the circle-drawing and other features of the GLIC-K1 but has text on 8 lines, a PWM pin used for controlling the backlight (command: 249, byte for level), and allows direct control of the LCD as well through the high speed serial interface.
Only problem - it is very slow at printing the characters on screen... well not very slow for human standards but slow to computer standards. When the serial connection is disconnected, it continues printing the text which shows that all the data has already been received through hardware serial.
The code is attached as it is too big to show here. I'm thinking I may need to go for a lookup table with the command of the same name but typing that out will take an eternity so I'm looking for advice first. I have also included a video to demonstrate it. Those who own a GLIC-K1 may be able to tell me whether it provides a faster speed or not. Either way, I want this to look more professional.
The latest version of the code can be found at the end of this thread. The video has a PDF extension so that it can be uploaded here but you must change the extension back to 3gp to watch it. An easy way to do this is to right-click on the attachment link, click Save Link As, in the save dialog that appears, change the file extension filter to 'All Files' and add '.3GP' to the end of the file name in the file name box (after removing the '.PDF')
I decided that to overcome this I could use a serial driver chip for the display which is capable of putting text on it. I checked out the FGC thing offered on Techsupplies but it has flaws and is expensive. Its flaws are slow serial, and only allowing 7 lines of text when the display is capable of 8. I started producing my own version on the PICAXE-20X2 which lacks the circle-drawing and other features of the GLIC-K1 but has text on 8 lines, a PWM pin used for controlling the backlight (command: 249, byte for level), and allows direct control of the LCD as well through the high speed serial interface.
Only problem - it is very slow at printing the characters on screen... well not very slow for human standards but slow to computer standards. When the serial connection is disconnected, it continues printing the text which shows that all the data has already been received through hardware serial.
The code is attached as it is too big to show here. I'm thinking I may need to go for a lookup table with the command of the same name but typing that out will take an eternity so I'm looking for advice first. I have also included a video to demonstrate it. Those who own a GLIC-K1 may be able to tell me whether it provides a faster speed or not. Either way, I want this to look more professional.
The latest version of the code can be found at the end of this thread. The video has a PDF extension so that it can be uploaded here but you must change the extension back to 3gp to watch it. An easy way to do this is to right-click on the attachment link, click Save Link As, in the save dialog that appears, change the file extension filter to 'All Files' and add '.3GP' to the end of the file name in the file name box (after removing the '.PDF')
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