Creating the First Project with

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GUI design made easy

To our valued customers,

I want to express my thanks to you for being interested in our products and for having confidence in Mikroelektronika.The primary aim of our company is to design and produce high quality electronic products and to constantly improve the performance thereof in order to better suit your needs.

Nebojša MatićGeneral Manager

mikroElektronika Visual TFT Additional Software 3

Table of contents

Introduction 4

Creating a new project 5

Creating visual contents 8

Generating a code 12

What’s next? 16

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Visual TFT is a software with intuitive graphic environment intended for design of visual contents to be displayed on TFT displays. Due to a simple and user-friendly graphic interface on your PC, you can easily place images, text, interactive contents, etc. When your visual contents design is complete, one single click on the appropriate icon will make the Visual TFT program to generate a code that will be opened later in the compiler...

Introduction

Figure 1 - Start-up window

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Name your project and specify location to save your project on in the New Project Location window. Click on the Save button after that.

Figure 1 - New project

Figure 2 - Project name

Figure 3 - New project location

In order to make the process of creating a new project in the Visual TFT program easy, we divided it in a few simple steps. Just follow them and create your visual contents in an easy and fast way.

When you click on the New Project icon, a new window called Project Settings will appear on the screen.

Creating a new project

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When the project name and location are specified, a window used to confirm your choices appears on the screen. Click on the OK button.

Set necessary parameters for TFT display, microcontroller, compiler and window layout in the Options window.

Figure 4 - Project name confirmation

Figure 5 - Setting project parameters options

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Select the MikroMMB_for_dsPIC33 option from the Hardware Patterns drop-down menu in the General Options section (tab General). From the Target Compiler drop-down menu, select a compiler you want to use. You don’t need to set other parameters in this window as they will be automatically set in accordance with the selected development system. Click on the OK button.

We are going to use the mikroMMB for dsPIC33 development system in this guide and all the parameters for TFT display will be set accordingly.

Figure 6 - Main options

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Creating visual contents

Figure 1 - TFT display’s IDE

When the main options are set, the main window of the TFT display working environment will appear on the screen. Here you can create your own visual contents.

To create visual contents, use the tools on the right side of the main window. When you decide which of the available tools you want to use, you should click on it first, then click on the appropriate place within the main window where you want to create your visual contents. When the selected tool is placed, a set of options used to adjust the currently active tool will appear on the left side of the main window, Figure 2.

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Figure 2 - The main window with a text tool active

Figure 3 - PSet of tools Figure 4 - Tool adjustment

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A set of tools includes basic shapes that can help you create visual contents. Each tool may be adjusted to the user needs by using a set of options for tool adjustment, Figure 4. In addition to these basic shapes, you can also place images in .bmp, .jpg or .jpeg format. The maximum size of image is limited by the size of the TFT display in use.

When the image tool is placed in the main window, it is necessary to import an image from the image folder. Select an image and click on the Open button. The selected image will appear in the main window.

Figure 5 - Selecting image

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Figure 6 - Selected image placed in the main window

When the desired visual contents is placed and displayed in the main window, it is time to create a code to be loaded into the compiler.

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By clicking on the Generate code icon, a folder with files required by the compiler in order to generate a hex code will be automatically created.

Click on the Start compiler icon to open the compiler that you are going to use to generate a .hex code.

At the bottom of the main window, you can see the code to be loaded into the compiler.

Figure 2 - Code generation

Figure 3 - Code

Figure 4 - Start compiler icon

Before we proceed, it is necessary to save the current project. Just in case. Then you should generate a code.

Generating a code

Figure 1 - Save option

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Figure 6 - Compiler window with code

The mikroC PRO for dsPIC compiler is the compiler we have selected in the Option window when we started to create a new project.

Figure 5 - Compiler window

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After loading the .hex code into the microcontroller, the results of your work will be visible on the TFT display. Look at the Figure above.

Figure 7 - Project complete

Click on the Build option within the compiler to start the process of compiling the program into the .hex code. When the compiling process is completed, it is necessary to load the code into the microcontroller. After that, the image we have selected in the previous step will be displayed on the mikroMMB for dsPIC33 development system’s TFT display.

All the products owned by MikroElektronika are protected by copyright law and international copyright treaty. Therefore, this manual is to be treated as any other copyright material. No part of this manual, including product and software described herein, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, translated or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of MikroElektronika. The manual PDF edition can be printed for private or local use, but not for distribution. Any modification of this manual is prohibited.

MikroElektronika provides this manual ‘as is’ without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties or conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

MikroElektronika shall assume no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions and inaccuracies that may appear in this manual. In no event shall MikroElektronika, its directors, officers, employees or distributors be liable for any indirect, specific, incidental or consequential damages (including damages for loss of business profits and business information, business interruption or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of this manual or product, even if MikroElektronika has been advised of the possibility of such damages. MikroElektronika reserves the right to change information contained in this manual at any time without prior notice, if necessary.

HIGH RISK ACTIVITIES

The products of MikroElektronika are not fault – tolerant nor designed, manufactured or intended for use or resale as on – line control equipment in hazardous environments requiring fail – safe performance, such as in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, air traffic control, direct life support machines or weapons systems in which the failure of Software could lead directly to death, personal injury or severe physical or environmental damage (‘High Risk Activities’). MikroElektronika and its suppliers specifically disclaim any expressed or implied warranty of fitness for High Risk Activities.

TRADEMARKS

The Mikroelektronika name and logo, the Mikroelektronika logo, mikroC, mikroC PRO, mikroBasic, mikroBasic PRO, mikroPascal, mikroPascal PRO, AVRflash, PICflash, dsPICprog, 18FJprog, PSOCprog, AVRprog, 8051prog, ARMflash, EasyPIC5, EasyPIC6, BigPIC5, BigPIC6, dsPIC PRO4, Easy8051B, EasyARM, EasyAVR5, EasyAVR6, BigAVR2, EasydsPIC4A, EasyPSoC4, EasyVR Stamp LV18FJ, LV24-33A, LV32MX, PIC32MX4 MultiMedia Board, PICPLC16, PICPLC8 PICPLC4, SmartGSM/GPRS, UNI-DS are trademarks of Mikroelektronika. All other trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective companies.

All other product and corporate names appearing in this manual may or may not be registered trademarks or copyrights of their respective companies, and are only used for identification or explanation and to the owners’ benefit, with no intent to infringe.

Copyright © 2003 – 2010 MikroElektronika. All rights reserved.

Disclaimer

What’s next?MORE PROJECTSNow when you have successfully created the first project, it’s time to move on to more complex examples. Check out the examples provid-ed in the Examples folder located in the VisualTFT installation folder. Feel free to experiment on your own and change the code as you like to suit your new project idea.

COMPILERSYou still don’t have the appropriate compiler? Visit http://www.mikroe.com/eng/categories/view/2/compilers/ and choose the compiler that suits you best. The software is equipped with fully functional demo version, limited only to 2K of generated code’s program words.

SUPPORT If you cannot find enough information in the Help file, or you need to ask a question or report a malfunction, feel free to contact our Techni-cal Support Team athttp://www.mikroe.com/esupport