Support for 16x2 LCD displays

[lausvi]

First of all: thanks, this is a lovely project :) I am slowly building one!

Suggestion for the LCDs: add support for easy-to-get 16x2 LCD panels.

I am using one now (config'd as 20x2) so the lower row ends with " |vol " and the volume is cropped out (I think). Perhaps a view with just 16 characters wide could be still useful? :) Perhaps just a V with an indicator block to show the approximate volume level?

[dwhinham]

First of all: thanks, this is a lovely project :) I am slowly building one!

Excellent! Feel free to share your build in the Discussions area if you like - and thanks for trying it out 🙂

Suggestion for the LCDs: add support for easy-to-get 16x2 LCD panels.

I'll certainly consider it; I don't have any 16-char wide screens to test but I think I can just use my 20-char screens. The first thing I need to do is implement text scrolling so that long messages can be displayed properly.

Thanks!

[lausvi]

Thanks! I have a breadboard-build for testing, still waiting for some more parts but the basic stuff is working :)

As 16-char is less than the MT32, surely it would be Ok to use abbreviations if scrolling is too much a bother!

[lausvi]

Added some photos of my designs in the discussion area :)

Probably due to the 'unsupported' 16x2 display I am using, the LCD-reverse parameter didn't work on it.

[dwhinham]

Thanks - I had a look; great job 🙂

Probably due to the 'unsupported' 16x2 display I am using, the LCD-reverse parameter didn't work on it.

Do you mean the rotation = inverted setting? Unfortunately this is only available for the graphical OLED displays as they have a command to flip the screen. The character LCDs don't have this feature (at least none of the ones I've come across so far).

[arkayii]

If I may please humbly add my voice to those asking for 16x2 support.

I was hasty enough to do a build using one, foolishly choosing not to check whether or not they were supported until after it was built.

So I will look forward to any minor update enabling support if possible please, or alternatively I will try to make some alterations myself. (in that event, any time-saving pointers to specific code blocks would be appreciated)

The only things I would alter would be to, in MT-32 Mode, remove the text "vol" and instead display there the simple 3 character volume level, and in Soundfont Mode, to left-justify the spectrum-display graphic. Nothing else greatly matters.

[dwhinham]

The LCD code is undergoing a major rewrite, which is taking some time, so hacking in any "fixes" for 16-wide at this point would be a bit of a waste of time (and I'd reject any PRs against the currently-released LCD code because of this).

I will aim to include this as part of the next release.

[arkayii]

Thanks Dale that will be cool.

Some of us are discussing our amateur mt32-pi (physical) builds at Vogons if you're interested in seeing. https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=80237

[dwhinham]

Hi @lausvi and @arkayii,

Version 0.10.0 is now available and it includes my attempt at supporting 16-character wide displays. In this version, the MT-32 status text is shortened, and longer messages are also now scrolled across the screen.

I don't have a 16-char display myself, so I've only been able to test it on my 20x4 screen by treating it as a 16x2, but hopefully it will work on the real thing.

Please feel free to test it out and hopefully it will work acceptably for you.

[arkayii]

Finally had a chance to update and check it out. Looks great on the 16x2! Thanks a lot.

[arkayii]

( trivial note: the mt32-pi.cfg comment line which reads # Values: 20-128 (128*) can now be updated to specify 16-128 )