Reef Angel Forum

Hi Everyone,

I decided to go ahead and finalize the Touch Display Expansion Module.
It's been in the back burner for too long.
It will be a remote screen module that you can add to any Reef Angel system.
The module will have a bigger screen (320x240 pixels), touch panel and micro SD card slot.
1st prototype is due in a few weeks.
In the mean time, I'm going to work on the libraries and user interface.
I'd like to ask everyone to submit your design. How would you like this screen to look like and how should it function?
Here is an idea of how it will look like: http://i761.photobucket.com/albums/xx25 ... 172302.jpg
Thanks in advance.

Roberto - Any samples from the mfg that we can use for ideas?

Regardless the look, I'm pretty excited for a bigger screen!!!

I guess I should have waited on trying to make the arLCD work. I haven't got much feedback from the EarthLCD folks on this, but maybe the libraries/widgets will improve over time. I'm sure you'll be able to produce a much better expansion module as well.

I think the ability to display tank parameters in a bigger font along with the input ability to control relays, reset ATO timeouts, and trigger feed/water change modes would be great. I'm not sure what the micro SD card slot adds, but it would be cool to have a sleep screen picture that it loads (maybe that would automatically wake if something is a miss).


-Jon

For the sd, would be nice for logging data...even a cvs file you could import to excel for some long term data...could probably store a lot of data on a 4 or 8gb card.

We can get creative with design.
Just not that much.
Like the previous screen, we have basic drawing like squares, lines, circles, gradients and text.
We can also draw small bitmaps, but they have to be not so big. They are going to be stored in program memory.
The sd card can store photos to be displayed in RA, as well as save logging data.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2

When I was reading about the LCD\Touch screen stuff I got the impression that the SD card slot was included with most of them so that the SD card could hold your graphics IE: fancy buttons Icons etc. so that the info on the display could be dressed up nicely without cost of arduino memory. So if your screen design has some small .gif's or jpg's for example that are graphical representations of of something you want loaded on your screen you load the graphic from the SD card to save the arduino memory space. I didnt get too deep into it but it seems this was the intent of the SD card on all the LCD displays.

Nick

Correct. Depending on the refresh rate some people have to turn off the backlight until the image is loaded then turn it back to create a smooth transition. Not sure which LCD screen Roberto is using but images will be possible off the SD

will this need the expansion module to work? What total costs are we looking at?

Even with images for buttons/logos/etc there should still be room for data logging

Bingo!

it would be really cool if through the touch display you could adjust relay and adjust the dimming expansion yet another expansion i will be buying if i can get my current ones to work

This is really cool. Glad to see the project has been started back up - very exciting!

One thing I think would be really cool is if the module had an integrated motion sensor so that it lights up when you approach it.

This is the one I have right now for your reference on what you could do. I'm using 2 font sizes.
We have 8x8, 12x12 and Arial Bold 20pt available default.
We can add any font type. It just increases the code size.

That's very nice looking!!!!

You might want to consider bitmap fonts and store them on the sd.

id definitely be interested in one of these when it becomes available

Fantastic!

Sign me up for the beta-test group

Some of these have already been mentioned but these are some of the things I'd like to see:

• Graphs - grouped and individual stats
• Stat history
• Export data
• Stat - High, Low, Average
• Ability to change relay status
• Set/Change internal memory
• Set/Change custom memory
• Incorporate the main RA menus
• Easy custom and nested menus for future expansion
• Scrub the algae on the glass
• Automatically get the frozen fish food out of the freezer, thaw it, and feed the fish

I know the last one is a long shot but thought I'd put it out there to see if you can pull it off anyway.

~Charlie

I got this from Mike. Send in yours

I really like the one above.

CoulI i request a reliable mounting mechanism? I am using Velcro which isn't very reliable. I would like to mount this outside of my cabinet so it should look really cool.

Touch buttons should include a feeding mode on the main screen.

This is awesome,

My wish is for aesthetic value for the Display. Will be good if it is simple, slick and elegant
Aluminum body maybe?

Understand cost might be affected but perhaps have a balance for best of both worlds?

Cheers

Do you plan to graph temperature history or any spec? I'm coming up short how to do it on my custom build

This is pretty awesome. Just got my RA yesterday - can't wait to play with it.

Any possible ETA on the screen and possible price range?

Hows the development on the touch screen expansion going?

I'm about to receive the next revision boards next week, but libraries creation is very slow

cool! as everyone says. Good things never happen quickly in this hobby. Very excited for this expansion

like rimai said, the library part is slow....too many other things going on at once (like always).