Incredible I/O touchscreen display for instruments
Posted: 16 Sep 2017, 19:44
The touchscreen is made by a company called Nextion, AKA itead. It looks like they want to be a big player in industrial machine control panels, so don't let some of their products/pricing confuse you.
But they also sell other common things such as touchscreens & Arduinos.
The really BIG game changer is the relatively cheap Nextion HMI Touch Displays. Some of these sell for about the same price (or even a little cheaper) as a Raspberry Pi touchscreen display.
These displays will let you create your own individual instrument panels like the Saitek Flight Instrument Panel. And a whole lot more, if you want.
What they won't do is turn a larger monitor into a large group of instruments.
They also won't let you display images from your computer, so forget about interactive GPS or maps.
Nextion NX4832T035 - Generic 3.5" HMI LCD Touch Display16MB Flash US $35.99
What's the "BIG Deal" here?
These HMI Touch Displays have MORE power built into the display than a Raspberry Pi 3.
Steps to creating the "display interface" part of the display.
* You create the "picture" using anything from PowerPoint to your favorite draw program.
* Import the .png image into the free Nextion Editor.
* Use the Nextion Editor to bring it to life (tell it what to do).
* Save it to a micro SD card, plug the card into the display, recycle the display to load it into memory AS A PROGRAM.
And there you have it - an interactive input/output display.
Well, that's the short version.
To interact with your favorite flight sim you need to have it send, or receive, the info trough the 2 I/O wires.
Two I/O wires? Yeah. There are only 4 wires total. Two for power, and two for data.
The big advantage is that your computer isn't getting tied up refreshing a display like it has to do with the Saitek Flight Instrument Panels. All of the "action" is controlled by the display.
In the end, you'll need a way to send the data. It can be from an Arduino, or the more expensive Raspberry Pi.
But either one will also let you use physical buttons, switches, and encoders too so it's a win-win situation.
This creates a whole new option for those that want just a few instruments, or a full cockpit. You're no longer tied to using a full size monitor for instruments.
This is a pretty good video of what you have to do. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjWwVs3pr9I
When Ulrich has the Arduino interface working this should be VERY do-able because the onscreen "instruments" will just need the data to update the "instruments".
For instance = how high to increase the altitude numbers or how far to move the altitude indicator on the dial. And as tha video above shows, the data can move FROM the display, not just TO the display.
Here's another video for inspiration
But they also sell other common things such as touchscreens & Arduinos.
The really BIG game changer is the relatively cheap Nextion HMI Touch Displays. Some of these sell for about the same price (or even a little cheaper) as a Raspberry Pi touchscreen display.
These displays will let you create your own individual instrument panels like the Saitek Flight Instrument Panel. And a whole lot more, if you want.
What they won't do is turn a larger monitor into a large group of instruments.
They also won't let you display images from your computer, so forget about interactive GPS or maps.
Nextion NX4832T035 - Generic 3.5" HMI LCD Touch Display16MB Flash US $35.99
What's the "BIG Deal" here?
These HMI Touch Displays have MORE power built into the display than a Raspberry Pi 3.
Steps to creating the "display interface" part of the display.
* You create the "picture" using anything from PowerPoint to your favorite draw program.
* Import the .png image into the free Nextion Editor.
* Use the Nextion Editor to bring it to life (tell it what to do).
* Save it to a micro SD card, plug the card into the display, recycle the display to load it into memory AS A PROGRAM.
And there you have it - an interactive input/output display.
Well, that's the short version.
To interact with your favorite flight sim you need to have it send, or receive, the info trough the 2 I/O wires.
Two I/O wires? Yeah. There are only 4 wires total. Two for power, and two for data.
The big advantage is that your computer isn't getting tied up refreshing a display like it has to do with the Saitek Flight Instrument Panels. All of the "action" is controlled by the display.
In the end, you'll need a way to send the data. It can be from an Arduino, or the more expensive Raspberry Pi.
But either one will also let you use physical buttons, switches, and encoders too so it's a win-win situation.
This creates a whole new option for those that want just a few instruments, or a full cockpit. You're no longer tied to using a full size monitor for instruments.
This is a pretty good video of what you have to do. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjWwVs3pr9I
When Ulrich has the Arduino interface working this should be VERY do-able because the onscreen "instruments" will just need the data to update the "instruments".
For instance = how high to increase the altitude numbers or how far to move the altitude indicator on the dial. And as tha video above shows, the data can move FROM the display, not just TO the display.
Here's another video for inspiration