Enable TFT display

The TFT display doesn't need to be enabled, the necessary files are always part of an inos project.

The functions to access the display directly are documented in cinossiotft.h. The explorer functionality is in cinossiotftexp.h

TFT display config

The TFT display is connected via RS232 (SIO). Therefore a .dt2 config file is needed to configure the COM-port for the TFT display.

hw-mas-sio.dt2

// ! table-name
HW-MAS-SIO-CHN
 
// ! table-data-record-start
Name;           text_32;    "COM1";         // channel name
Baudrate;       uint32;     115200;         // baudrate
ParityEnabled;  uint8;      0;              // parity (0=disabled, 1=enabled)
ParityOdd;      uint8;      0;              // odd/even (0=even, 1=odd)
DataBits;       uint8;      8;              // data bits (7 or 8)
StopBits;       uint8;      1;              // stop bits (1 or 2)
Options;        uint8;      1;              // 0x01=ignore DSR error
ChannelNo;      uint8;      0x01;           // channel number
//! table-data-record-end

This port then needs to be given to the TFT display driver so it knows how to communicate with the display hardware. The TFT name can be chosen freely but needs to be valid for registering in the INCO tree. If the internal explorer application should be used then another .xml config file is needed for the content of the explorer. The name of this file also needs to be passed to the display driver.

tftdisplay.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!--
    trans-table-type="xcfg-mod-sio-tft"
-->
<Card Name="TFT" ProductName="SIO-TFT" ProductCode="611145101" VendorId="0">
 
    <Card Name="TFT1" Interface="COM1" ExplorerDef="tftexplorer_xml"/>
 
</Card>

The simplest form of the explorer is in text form and looks like a table with the variable names on the left, the values in the middle and the units on the right, similar to the desktop INCOExplorer application. The registered call procedures are shown at the bottom of the display.

tftexplorer.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="yes" ?>
<Inco>
    <Folder Name="MyApp" ValueColumn="23" UnitColumn="45">
        <Var Type="title" Name="App values" ></Var>
        <Var Type="title" Name="----------"></Var>
        <Var Type="nop"></Var>
        <Var Path="MyApp.Prop.Value1"></Var>
        <Var Path="MyApp.Prop.Value2"></Var>
        <Var Path="MyApp.Prop.Value3" Char="0x01"></Var>
        <Var Type="nop"></Var>
        <Var Path="MyApp.Data.Setting1" Char="0x01"></Var>
 
        <Proc Path="MyApp.SetLangDE"></Proc>
        <Proc Path="MyApp.SetLangEN"></Proc>
        <Proc Path="MyApp.StartMeasure"></Proc>
    </Folder>
 
    <Folder Name="MyApp" ValueColumn="23" UnitColumn="45">
        <Var Type="title" Name="System values" ></Var>
        <Var Type="title" Name="-------------"></Var>
        <Var Type="nop"></Var>
        <Var Path="Target.Prop.Temperature"></Var>
        <Var Path="Target.Memory.Pools.Heap.FreeSize"></Var>
        <Var Path="Target.Prop.IpAddress"></Var>
 
        <Proc Path="Target.Cmd.Reset"></Proc>
    </Folder>
</Inco>

TFT explorer config file

A standard xml file header.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>

Needed in every file to form a valid xml file.

Inco explorer node

<Inco>
    <Explorer ...
    <button ...
    <Lang ...
    <Folder ...
</Inco>

The file needs a standard xml file header as all xml files do. All explorer items are contained in a node named Inco. This includes all folders, variables, procedures, images, languages etc. The Inco node itself

Inco explorer settings

The explorer application can have some global settings. At startup the system can check that the TFT application burned into the display is correct. If it's not then it's possible to load the MacroFile into the display.

Attribute	Description	Required
TFTProject	Name of the project to check for in the TFT display.
MacroFile	Name of the file to load into the TFT display if necessary.
UserLayout	Set to one if the layout should not be the standard explorer layout.
Debug	Switch on debugging: Eventlog traces, borders around visual elements.

Folder node

// UserLayout=0
<Folder Name="AppFolder" ValueColumn="23" UnitColumn="45">
</Folder>
// UserLayout=1
<Folder Name="Production" BitmapActive="35" BitmapInactive="34" PosX="680" PosY="157" SizeX="120" SizeY="79" ColBack="8">
</Folder>

Depending on the UserLayout setting the attributes can be very different.

Attribute	Description	UserLayout
Name	Name of the folder.	Always required
ValueColumn	Text column of variable values.	0
UnitColumn	Text column of variable unit.	0
BitmapActive	Number of bitmap for active state.	1
BitmapInactive	Number of bitmap for inactive state.	1
PosX	X coordinate of folder image.	1
PosY	Y coordinate of folder image.	1
SizeX	Width of folder image.	1
SizeY	Height of folder image.	1
ColBack	Background color for folder image. Use 255 for parent color.	1
LangX	Translation for language X.	0/1

Variable node

// UserLayout=0
<Var Type="title" Name="MyTitle" Lang2="Translation2"/>
<Var Type="nop"/>
<Var Path="MyApp.MyVar" Char="0x01"/>
// UserLayout=1
<Var Type="bitmap" Name="status_off" Bitmap="10" PosX="7" PosY="7"/>
<Var Type="static" Name="description" Value="A Description" PosX="356" PosY="375" SizeX="40" SizeY="30" Align="1"/>
<Var Path="MyApp.MyVar" ReadOnly="1" PosX="0" PosY="125" SizeX="200" SizeY="60" Digits="0" Align="3" Char="1" Frame="0"/>

Depending on the UserLayout setting the attributes can very different.

Attribute	Description	UserLayout
Name	Name of the variable.	Optional
Type	If no Path is given then the type must define the type of the variable: title, static, bitmap, nop.	0/1
Path	Inco path of registered variable.	0/1
ReadOnly	Don't allow writing to variable.	0/1
Min	Minimum value for writing variable.	0/1
Max	Maximum value for writing variable.	0/1
Digits	Number of digits of shown variable value.	0/1
Char	Characteristics of shown variable value.	0/1
Value	Type static: Fixed value to show.	0/1
KeyBoard	Keyboard layout to use for editing variable.	0/1
Bitmap	Number of bitmap for variable.	0/1
BitmapActive	Number of bitmap for active state.	1
BitmapInactive	Number of bitmap for inactive state.	1
PosX	X coordinate of variable image.	1
PosY	Y coordinate of variable image.	1
SizeX	Width of variable image.	1
SizeY	Height of variable image.	1
ColFore	Foreground color for variable. Use 255 for parent color.	0
ColBack	Background color for variable. Use 255 for parent color.	0/1
LangX	Translation for language X.	0/1

Procedure node

// UserLayout=0
<Proc Path="MyApp.MyProc"/>
// UserLayout=1
<Proc Path="Machine.Cmd.Confirm" Name="confirm" Bitmap="64" PosX="80" PosY="0" SizeX="580" SizeY="75"/>

Depending on the UserLayout setting the attributes can very different.

Attribute	Description	UserLayout
Name	Name of the procedure.	Optional
Path	Path of registered Inco procedure.	Required
Bitmap	Number of bitmap for variable.	0/1
PosX	X coordinate of variable image.	1
PosY	Y coordinate of variable image.	1
SizeX	Width of variable image.	1
SizeY	Height of variable image.	1
ColFore	Foreground color for variable. Use 255 for parent color.	0
ColBack	Background color for variable. Use 255 for parent color.	0/1
Align	Align variable value.
Frame	Draw a frame around variable.	1
Font	Font to use for this variable	1
LangX	Translation for language X.	0/1

Language node

The language translations of the various visual elements can be given directly in the xml node of the element in the explorer xml definition file. However it might be cleaner and easier to handle if the translations are all kept in a separate file (one per language). In this case the used trnalsation files need to be given to the explorer application with Lang xml nodes.

If both LangX=".." and language files are present then the entry in the node gets priority over the file. Like this it is possible to have a general translation in the file and still use a different text for some special items.

The format of the language files need to be like this: Name <TAB> Translation <EOL>

This is chosen to keep the handling as well as the parsing as simple as possible.

Attribute	Description	Required
Name	Name of the language.	X
File	Name of text file as stored in the DatabaseTables.	X

Example german.txt

MyApp   Prima Applikation
Value1  Wert 1
Value2  Wert 2
Value3  Wert 3
Setting1    Einstellung 1

Example english.txt

MyApp   Super Application
Value1  Value 1
Value2  Value 2
Value3  Value 3
Setting1    Setting 1

Button node

Only for UserLayout="1" it is possible to define the look of buttons.

Attribute	Description
ColNormFill	Color in normal state for filling.
ColNormOut	Color in normal state for outline.
ColNormIn	Color in normal state for inline.
ColSelFill	Color in selected state for filling.
ColSelOut	Color in selected state for outline.
ColSelIn	Color in selected state for inline.
Frame	Number of frame to use.
FontNr	Number of font to set.
FontZoomX	Zoom factor in horizontal direction.
FontZoomY	Zoom factor in vertical direction.
ColNormFont	Text color in normal state.
SizeX	Horizontal size of button.
SizeY	Vertical size of button.

Issues

The display is connected to a COM-port, the commands are sent in a text protocol. If there are errors in the transmission then the sent commands are not valid anymore. However the display will still try to interpret them as valid and may do something that was not intended e.g. change from text mode to graphics mode. First try to remedy the situation is by sending a reset command to the display which it hopefully still understands: CINOSSioTft::ResetDisplay.

It's also possible that the display controller will get completely asynchronous and not accept any command anymore. In this case it helps to switch off and on the TFT display.

If even switching the display off and on doesn't help then it's possible that the macro file that was burned into the display got corrupt and prevents the display from starting up correctly. In this case there's a jumper/bridge on the back that can be set before power on.

DPOM = Disable Power On Macro

If this makes the display boot up again normally then the macro file can be burned again over the SIO cable. If this still doesn't help then the hardware might be at fault.