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| |What is a best way to get started with Microchip graphics library? |

| |What kind of LCD display can I use with Microchip’s graphics library? |

| |What LCD technology (i.e. TFT, OLED) does Microchip graphic library support? |

| |I want to use LCD display with xyz controller but it is not supported by the Microchip graphics library. What should I |

| |do? |

| |The display I want to use has RGB interface. Can I use it with Microchip graphics library? |

| |What kind of fonts can I use with the Microchip’s graphics library? What do I need to know to use the fonts? |

| |Can I use non-English fonts with the Microchip’s graphics library? |

| |Is there an easy way to pick a color scheme rather than programming all of them and trying it out? |

| |How much Flash and SRAM do I need for Graphics library? |

| |How much processing power does it take to run the graphics library? |

| |The display I am planning to use has the VGA (640 x 480) resolution. Can Microchip graphics library support it? OR What |

| |is a maximum supported resolution for graphics library? |

| |Where can I buy the graphics displays? |

| |What’s a typical cost of the graphics displays? |

| |I have a Graphics PICtail™ Plus Daughter Board with 2.2” LCD display. I am powering it with 9V power supply and the |

| |display seems a little “dim”. Is there any way I can improve brightness of the display? |

| | |

| | |

| |What is a best way to get started with Microchip graphics library? |

| |It is very easy to get started with Microchip graphics library. |

| |[pic|Obtain the Explorer 16 Starter Kit (DV164033) and Graphics PICtail™ Plus Daughter Board (AC164127) from the |

| |] |Development Tools Section |

| |[pic|Refer to Web Seminar 4 on “Microchip Graphics Library Architecture” from the Download and Support Section |

| |] | |

| |[pic|Read application note “AN1136: How to use Widgets in Microchip Graphics Library?” from the Download and Support |

| |] |Section |

| |[pic|Obtain the free licensed Microchip Graphics library from the Download and Support Section |

| |] | |

| |[pic|Refer to Microchip Graphics Library API documentation and start writing code. |

| |] | |

| | (Back) |

| | |

| |What kind of LCD display can I use with Microchip’s graphics library? |

| |The best option is to use LCD panels with the 8-bit CPU interface. There are two variants of 8-bit CPU interface: Intel |

| |80 and Motorola 68K. The Microchip graphics library uses the Parallel Master Port (PMP) module to interface with these |

| |display panels, and provides support for both variants. It also supports LCD panels with SPI/I2C interface. |

| | |

| |The Microchip graphics library also supports LCD panels with the 16-bit CPU interface. There will be some additional |

| |glue logic required for the interface. Please refer to PMP family reference manual chapter (DS39713) for details on 8 |

| |and 16-bit interface. |

| | |

| |If the LCD panels have the RGB interface which consists of R, G, B, HSYNC (horizontal sync) and VSYNC (vertical sync) |

| |signals, please refer to FAQ #5 for interface options. |

| | |

| |Once compatible physical interface is identified, next thing to identify is software compatibility. The graphics library|

| |software support is determined by LCD controller or graphics controller. The web seminar “Graphics LCD system and PIC24 |

| |interface” should help in understanding this concept and terminology. Please refer to LCD module datasheet to get part |

| |number for LCD controller used. Microchip graphics library has highly modular and requires one LCD controller specific |

| |‘C’ file to support it. Microchip is continuously adding support for new LCD controllers. You should find a list of |

| |latest LCD controllers supported by the Microchip graphics library in the Overview Section of the Graphics Design |

| |Center. If the LCD controller is not in the list, please refer to FAQ #4. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |What LCD technology (i.e. TFT, OLED) does Microchip graphic library support? |

| |The Microchip graphic library is highly modular design and it isn’t tied to any specific LCD technology. The Microchip |

| |graphics library talks to graphics LCD controller through parallel or serial interface. The graphics LCD controller |

| |handles the LCD technology specific items. The web seminar “Graphics LCD system and PIC24 interface” should help in |

| |understanding this concept. |

| | |

| |You should find a list of latest LCD controllers supported by the Microchip graphics library in the Overview Section of |

| |the Graphics Design Center. You should see LCD controllers supporting various technologies like STN, TFT and OLED in |

| |that list. If the LCD controller is not in the list, please refer to FAQ #4. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |I want to use LCD display with xyz controller but it is not supported by the Microchip graphic library. What should I |

| |do? |

| |Please go to the Overview Section to find the latest LCD controllers supported by the Microchip graphics library. If the|

| |controller of choice is not found, you may contact your local Microchip sales and support team or web support team with |

| |LCD and LCD controller datasheet for further information about adding the controller support. This will help us |

| |prioritize LCD controller support. |

| | |

| |Additionally, the Microchip graphics library has an open documented interface for driver support. You may take one of |

| |the existing LCD controller driver code and make some modifications to use with LCD controller of your choice. This is |

| |very easy thing to do. Please refer to Graphics Library API Help Document available with library package for details. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |The display I want to use has RGB interface. Can I use it with Microchip graphics library? |

| |The PIC24 device cannot drive RGB display directly so one needs an interface chip to convert PMP interface to RGB |

| |interface. The SSD1906 chip from Solomon Systech is example of one such implementation. This graphics controller has |

| |256KB of RAM for image buffer. Therefore, it will be a 2-chip (PIC24FJ and SSD1906) solution. |

| | |

| |Another option is to use CPLD or FPGA to convert CPU interface to RGB interface. This may require use of external RAM. |

| |This will be a 3-chip solution. |

| | |

| |Microchip intends to do a reference design in the future to explain this concept. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |What kind of fonts can I use with the Microchip’s graphics library? What do I need to know to use the fonts? |

| |The Microchip graphics library font support is similar to Microsoft Windows. All character height is same and has |

| |variable width so width of ‘l’ will be different than ‘M’. All windows fonts may be used with the graphics library. The |

| |Microchip graphics library comes with a PC utility that allows easy way to convert raster fonts (*.fnt files) and true |

| |type fonts (*.ttf files) for use with library. |

| | |

| |The font is a copyrighted material so please ensure that you have rights to use it. You may find free fonts distributed |

| |under Open Font License (OFL) agreement. Some of the fonts distributed under OFL may be found here. |

| | |

| | |

| |You may also buy fonts at reasonable prices from many clipart websites. |

| | |

| |If you want to edit fonts like image for better result then you need to use font editor. You may also create new fonts |

| |with font editor. One such freeware editor Fony is available at . Another example is |

| |. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |Can I use non-English fonts with the Microchip’s graphics library? |

| |Yes. The library operates with 8-bit character encoded strings (ASCII). It covers languages defined in ISO 8859 |

| |standards. The non-roman characters are defined as part of the extended ASCII table. This will support all languages |

| |which has less than 128 characters. |

| | |

| |Microchip is working on Unicode encoding to support Asian languages with more than 128 characters. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |Is there an easy way to pick a color scheme rather than programming all of them and trying it out? |

| |There are quite a few resources available on web to help with color scheme picking. Some of them are: |

| |[pic| - Choosing colors and obtaining the hex code equivalent of the color. |

| |] | |

| |[pic| - Color calculator, color matching, color calibration, color harmonies, and etc.|

| |] | |

| |[pic| – The fundamentals of color, color calculator, color|

| |] |management, and etc. |

| | |

| |It is possible that the color reproduced by your graphics LCD display may not perfectly match the colors on your PC and |

| |may require some tuning. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |How much Flash and SRAM do I need for Graphics library? |

| |The Flash and SRAM requirements may change with each release. It is documented in the ReadMe file of each release. The |

| |resource requirements for non-blocking configuration in V1.0 are: |

| | |

| |Function |Heap |Per |SRAM |#of |Flash |

| | | (Bytes) |Instance (?) |(Bytes) |Instructions | (Bytes) |

| |Primitive | | | | | |

| |- Blocking |0 | |16 |1868 |2802 |

| |- Non-blocking |0 | |76 |2054 |3081 |

| |Driver (S6D0129) |0 | |12 |2180 |3270 |

| |GOL |20 |Per Style Scheme |24 |1286 |1929 |

| |Window |23 |Y |2 |510 |765 |

| |Check Box |21 |Y |2 |650 |975 |

| |Radio Button |25 |Y |12 |720 |1080 |

| |Picture |21 |Y |9 |434 |651 |

| |Static Text |21 |Y |8 |490 |735 |

| |Button |27 |Y |8 |724 |1086 |

| |Group Box |23 |Y |9 |602 |903 |

| |Slider |32 |Y |20 |1454 |2181 |

| |Progress Bar |24 |Y |6 |676 |1014 |

| |Custom Control Demo|22 |Y |6 |402 |603 |

| |List Box |28 |Y |6 |1266 |1989 |

| |Edit Box |25 |Y |2 |634 |951 |

| |Meter |39 |Y |24 |1518 |2277 |

| |Dial |30 |Y |8 |646 |969 |

| |Everything Included| | |234 |16246 |24369 |

| | |

| |The heap is a dynamic memory requirement. It is released when screen is destroyed. Please consider screen with maximum |

| |number of objects to calculate worse case SRAM requirement. If for worse case you have 6 buttons, 2 sliders and 2 edit |

| |box on screen that utilizes three style schemes then worse case dynamic memory requirement will be 6*27 + 2*32 + 2*25 + |

| |3*20; 336 bytes. The SRAM requirement in column 4 doesn’t change based on number of instances. If object is included in |

| |code then it will take fix amount of SRAM irrespective of its usage. |

| | |

| |Each font may require 7 – 10KB of program memory. This is for English fonts. This requirement may change for other |

| |languages with additional characters. |

| | |

| |Images require additional memory. The memory requirement for images depends on color depth and size. |

| | |

| |The fonts and images can be stored in internal memory or external memory. The external memory can be anything serial |

| |EEPROM, parallel Flash, SD card etc. The application provides physical interface code for these devices. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |How much processing power does it take to run the graphics solution? |

| |The processing power varies greatly based on the type of graphics, its size, color-depth and refresh rate. Please watch |

| |demo video on the Introduction Section of the Graphics Design Center as a reference to this FAQ. The display used for |

| |video is 2.8”, 16-bit color, QVGA resolution TFT display. All numbers were taken with CPU running at full 16 MIPS speed |

| |on PIC24F device. |

| | |

| |The button test screen takes approximately 230mS at 16 MIPS to draw screen. After that each button click animation takes|

| |lesser time. Buttons with both bitmap and text (Gradient and duck bitmap buttons) takes around 25mS to draw for press |

| |effect. The button with text takes approximately 16mS. The bigger the button longer it will take. Please remember that |

| |for user interface, response time of 0.5 – 1 second for screen change and few 100mS for visual feedback is very |

| |responsive to human eyes. |

| | |

| |The progress bar screen in slow mode takes anything from 11 – 21% of CPU power at 16MIPS. The actual processing power |

| |mainly depends on the text being displayed. The text like ‘1%’ takes way less CPU power than ‘100%’ due to smaller |

| |graphics content. When we press how fast PIC24F can go, we try to run it very fast. It’s unrealistic application where |

| |you update progress bar this fast and still go through each and every percentage point. This demo is mainly done to show|

| |performance of the library and device capability. In fast mode the CPU resource requirement varies from 52% to 90%. At |

| |this speed we run into LCD bus speed issue. The display used requires 1 wait state on bus so fastest parallel bus speed |

| |is 8 MHz. Some display supports 16 MHz parallel bus speed. In that case we’ll need lesser CPU power for same operation. |

| | |

| |On the meter screen, the meter on left (with filled curve) takes longer to draw. It takes around 95mS to draw meter |

| |initially with value being displayed. After that each needle movement updates takes 0.79mS to draw. If text is also |

| |updated then it takes 1.16mS. This is a very small percentage of the available CPU power. |

| | |

| |The ECG screen is setup for update with live data. It reads data from RAM buffer and updates the screen. The refresh |

| |rate has been setup for worse case ECG of 120 bits per second. This screen takes 6 to 12% of CPU resources at 16 MIPS. |

| |The peak in ECG requires update to lot more points so may take up to 12% of CPU resources. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |The display I am planning to use has the VGA (640 x 480) resolution. Can Microchip graphics library support it? OR What |

| |is a maximum supported resolution for graphics library? |

| |The Microchip graphics library has compile time options to define the display resolution. It doesn’t limit library to |

| |any maximum resolution. The maximum supported resolution depends on the type of graphics being displayed, the required |

| |update rate (fps) and available CPU resources. |

| | |

| |The FAQ above shows some performance numbers for QVGA, 16-bit color display. The VGA display requires 4x more data |

| |transfer then QVGA display so same graphics above if scaled appropriately to VGA resolution will require 4x more |

| |processing power or will take 4x longer to draw. This may still be acceptable for menu/ icons kind of user interface as |

| |far as it can provide reasonably fast user response. |

| | |

| |Most VGA displays have RGB interface so please refer to FAQ #5 for interface options. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |Where can I buy the graphics displays? |

| |The graphics LCD displays can be found from almost all major LCD vendors, some of them are: |

| |[pic|Truly Semiconductor Limited (America Sales, Asia Sales) |

| |] | |

| |[pic|Microtips Technology (America Sales, Asia Sales) |

| |] | |

| |[pic|Orion Display Technology (America Sales, Asia Sales) |

| |] | |

| |[pic|Varitronix |

| |] | |

| |[pic|Tianma (America Sales, Asia Sales, Europe Sales) |

| |] | |

| |[pic|OSD Displays |

| |] | |

| |[pic|Densitron |

| |] | |

| |[pic|Multi-Inno |

| |] | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |What is a typical cost of the graphics displays? |

| |In recent times, the cost of graphics display has come down significantly. You may see two kinds of graphics displays. |

| |One is targeted for consumer market like cell phones. These displays are of smaller size usually less than 3” in size, |

| |QVGA resolution and 18-bit color are quite common. |

| | |

| |The typical 1.8”, 18-bit color displays with resolution of 176 x 120 pixels are available for USD 9 to 13 in a volume of|

| |1K units. The 2.8” 18-bit color QVGA display with resistive touch screen is available for USD 18 to 24 for a volume of |

| |1K units. Please remember this is a typical cost. There are quite a few factors that affect pricing so this information |

| |is no way intended to cover all varieties. |

| | |

| |The pricing mentioned above is for telecom displays. Some of these displays have shorter product life so display may be |

| |end of life (EOL) in a few years. Therefore, you may want to put multiple connectors on your board so if one display |

| |gets EOL you can switch to different one. |

| | |

| |The other kind of graphics displays are targeted for industrial market. These displays offer longer life cycle and may |

| |be more expensive than displays mentioned above. Please check with your display vendors for more information about |

| |“industrial displays”. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

| | |

| |I have a Graphics PICtail™ Plus Daughter Board with 2.2” LCD display. I am powering it with 9V power supply and the |

| |display seems a little “dim”. Is there any way I can improve brightness of the display? |

| |The 2.2” display on Graphics PICtail™ Plus Daughter Board uses 3 series LED for backlight. The Explorer 16 has diode D2 |

| |for reverse polarity protection on power supply. This results in around 8.3V for backlight. That may not provide enough |

| |current for some boards. One option to improve brightness is to use 10 – 12V power supply where 10V is preferred option.|

| |Another option is to short the diode D2 on Explorer 16. If you do that then ensure that the power supply polarity is |

| |correct. Otherwise, you may damage the board. |

| | |

| |(Back) |

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