Pi PICO DRO/Quill-Knee combiner

[JamesC]

Looking Good Bill.

Having spent a lifetime working in metric my brain struggles to convert fractions to decimals.  I can see this being a great help.

[BillTodd]

Yes that's exactly my experience. I've no particular problem with fractions , but converting to decimal is not something i can do  in-my-head at any useful speed.

@AdeV  I love the name woodworker . it i now the internal name for this 'screen'

def Run(self,):         #self.ScnMan.show("About")         #time.sleep(3)         #self.ScnMan.show("XY")         self.ScnMan.show("woodworker")

[AdeV]

Looks really cool!

One thing I'd be tempted to do to it - when you hit your fraction "bang on" (or, at least, as close as you can given there's inevitably some which are 0.00005" "off" from the decimal conversion) - have the scale change colour. That way, when you're woodworking, you can pretend that you're being accurate 

[BillTodd]

Looks really cool!

One thing I'd be tempted to do to it - when you hit your fraction "bang on" (or, at least, as close as you can given there's inevitably some which are 0.00005" "off" from the decimal conversion) - have the scale change colour. That way, when you're woodworking, you can pretend that you're being accurate 

What's that they say about great minds?   Anyway great or small, that's what I was thinking 

I'm already at 50 on the grey-scale so rather than just dim , I'll try flashing it , if that looks pants , I can easily throw a border around it  - or maybe invert ?

[edit] I was going to just use the displayed accuracy , so if display is set to 1dp  it'll be +/-0.1mm etc. I'm also planning for a '@zero' output (probably logic level or O/C  and relay)

[BillTodd]

I'm not entirely sure about the invert high light and it really only works well at lower resolutions .

I have removed the variable gray scale on the scrolling text (it was supposed to be darker at the edges, but without extra work i could only fade the whole character string - I made be able to fade at pixel level if i rewrite the display driver)

[AdeV]

Ah, I forgot you were using an OLED, which unfortunately rules out colours.

I'd be tempted to draw a single-pixel line (instead of the ">" character, or the "-" character you've used). I'd keep the highlight personally - but YMMV.

I've actually switched away from an OLED for my project - partly because they're expensive for their size (I was using Adafruit's 128x128 display, which costs a little over £20/unit); now I use a 128x160 TFT: The per unit price is around £6.00 (from a reputable supplier), I get a whole pile of colours, and some extra pixels to boot. Yeah, the viewing angle isn't as good as OLED, but that doesn't seem to be a problem in normal use.

[BillTodd]

I'm not sure about the oled either. As you say expensive for a small area. The Dro requires a large low res display,  but glass area seems expensive these days.

I was looking at the programmable displays (insert forgotten name here)  but they would need more code   I guess.

 
Edit.

I have managed to remove the ghosting.. the contrast setting parameter was way too high in the default driver

[BillTodd]

Initial Git commit here:

https://github.com/WKTodd/PicoDRO/tree/main

[BillTodd]

Update:

I've added a surface speed bargraph to the two axis display .ATM it assumes the axes are perpendicular but any angle could be programmed.

To compensate for the shortage of IO pins I've had to make an I2c keypad . Using a cheap LCD-I2C board made to interface LCD modules  (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/292479533680?)

I have a 4x4 matrix with 4 additional keys to ground (it would be possible to drive 24 keys with the 8bit chip but the lcd boards use P3 as a LED output via a transistor (it can still used as a row driver for the multiplex with a bit of bit inversion) .

 

[BillTodd]

Apologies for lack of progress.

The A12 resurfacing work  has reached stanway , and even though I am a couple of miles away the buggers are waking me at 3 or 4am every bloody night with the low frequency vibration. It's like having a bus ticking over outside the window! 

[awemawson]

I feel your pain Bill.

We're on the A21 and they've been doing 'safety upgrades' for weeks on end overnight. They even coned our driveway off and made us press a buzzer to summons escorts to leave the premises !

[BillTodd]

It has enabled me to time travel, just by closing my eyes...

Forwards about an hour

[BillTodd]

Well after a couple of weeks of nocturnal jungle drums from the A12.  I just spent a week possessed by a demon...

After four days standing on my neck, it got bored and chose to move to my ears and scream as loud as it could. And, just to make things fun , it kept moving the ground beneath my feet if I tried to stand , occasionally throwing me against walls .   

Luckily, it seems to have taken a shine to my neighbour, and has now left me alone... I hope.

[JamesC]

Hope it is gone for good,

We have the 'upgrade for your convenience' of the M27 to look forward to. One of the diversion routes is past our front door. 

James

[BillTodd]

Hope it is gone for good,

It made a brief return at the weekend - apparently buzzing around my head in a small jet engined vehicle  . I feel ok at the moment.

We have the 'upgrade for your convenience' of the M27 to look forward to. One of the diversion routes is past our front door. 

James

You have my deepest sympathy  -  I know some of the locals had the trucks from Felixstow and Harwich trundling past the home in the early hours when they closed the main road -  It would caused nightmares ... had they been able to sleep.

Luckily I've had the demon to keep me company while the A12 work is progressing - It didn't wake me last-night - I'm hoping the trend continues...

[BillTodd]

Gonads!

This project will be paused while the damage done by demon is surgically repaired.

...

[JamesC]

Hope it goes well Bill and you make a spedy recovery

[BillTodd]

Thanks James  ,

They said ' bypass' , I was thinking flyover and round-about .