Update to SDD1306 and SH1106 GLCD Driver

[Bonkers]

sorry - I didn't hit re-post, computer did.
The ASM is now clean:
;I2C pins need to be input for SSP module when used on Microchip PIC device
;Dir HI2C_DATA in
banksel TRISA
bsf TRISA,2
;Dir HI2C_CLOCK in
bsf TRISA,1

but the APFCON register (11D, 285 decimal) doesn't seem to get defined - none of those 3 search terms find anything. It only needs to be cleared, so maybe that happens within a loop, clearing all the peripheral control registers, dunno.

[Bonkers]

Yes - still got the programmer attached - I'll try it with just 3V3 PSU.
both SCL and SDA are pulled-up with 4k7.

[Bonkers]

Genius you - it's now chucking out lots of data - will connect to OLEDs shortly///

[Anobium]

Add the following to ensure I2C Is setup ok

#startup init, 75

sub init
    afpcon = 0x00
end sub

This will ensure the afpcon register is set befire the init of the I2C.

[Bonkers]

IT WORKS !!

Brilliant work, well done - 2 out of 3 displays working, the dead one probably has a different I2C address, will investigate. The font is really tiny, but again, now it works I can mess with that possibly... - does character mode support different font sizes?

I'll add the code you mention - maybe it just works without this because UUUU is normally 0000 on a cold power-up.
Would you like me to post a photo, or is that too much?

[Anobium]

pictures are always good!

[Bonkers]

Here's a not very good picture of SSD1306 driver working on a 256-byte RAM part PIC12LF1552, with 2kW ROM, in character mode.
- the top OLED is 96 x 16, CPC part SC15656
- the middle one is 128 x 32, alibaba £1 part.
- the lower OLED doesn't work, possibly an I2C address jumper is wrong.
- Praise be to Anobium.

[Bonkers]

Progress report:
I commented out the FONT2 disable, and set font 2 as the default:

'#DEFINE GLCD_DISABLE_OLED_FONT2
GLCDfntDefaultsize= 2 'A larger 10 width * 16 height pixel font.

and here is a very pleasing result on the 128 x 32 tiny OLED:
(picture)

[Bonkers]

Further reports...
I'm trying to understand the driver directives, there are 8 possibilities - two drivers and 2 flags each - (low-mem and character-only) - and of course there are 2 fonts.
- the two drivers are...
- GLCD_TYPE GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306
- GLCD_TYPE GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_32
not sure what is different about the _32 driver, versus the original with GLCD_HEIGHT set to 32 rather than 64.
the _32 driver increases the apparent font size.
however, both consume the same resources, at least in the case where GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY is defined.
similarly, disabling font2, which is an option, has no effect on resource either.

If CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY is defined (my only test case so far) then both drivers draw the same resource, and again the same whether GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_LOWMEMORY_GLCD_MODE is true or false.

It appears that GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_LOWMEMORY_GLCD_MODE gets set whenever GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY is defined. - it does make a difference to the errors, I'm pretty sure I only get the warning:
Warning: Selected MCU requires use of GLCD Open&Close Page Transaction.
if LOWMEMORY is not declared - but operation and resource are the same.

I can definitely state that the ifDEV directives that test for LOWMEMORY in the program, always finds it true.

    #ifdef GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY
      #ifdef GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_LOWMEMORY_GLCD_MODE
        GLCDPrint 0,42, "LM GLCDMode SSD1306"
      #endif
    #endif

    #ifdef GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY
      #ifndef GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_LOWMEMORY_GLCD_MODE
        GLCDPrint 0,32, "TX GLCDMode SSD1306"
      #endif
    #endif

    it always gives the first answer, regardless (or so it seems). 
    anyway - enough on that, it works and makes some very nice screenshots.

[Anobium]

This would be true. See this segment of code from C:\GCstudio\GreatCowBasic\include\glcd_ssd1306.h

Essentially, this will ensure low RAM chip use only LM mode.

'Setup code for SSD1306 controllers
  #script     ' This script set the capabilities based upon the amount of RAM

     IGNORE_SPECIFIED_GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY = 0
     if IGNORE_GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_LOW_MEMORY_WARNINGS then
        IGNORE_SPECIFIED_GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY = 1
     end if

     if GLCD_TYPE = GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306 then
       If ChipRAM < 1024  Then
           GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY = TRUE
           GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_LOWMEMORY_GLCD_MODE = TRUE

          If ChipRAM < 225  Then
            If ChipFamily = 14 Then
              Error "Selected MCU has insufficient contiguous RAM to support GLCD operations"
            End if
          End if
          If ChipRAM > 225  Then
            if NODEF(IGNORE_SPECIFIED_GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY) then
              Warning "Memory < 1024 bytes."
              Warning "Selected MCU requires use of GLCD Open&Close Page Transaction."
              Warning "See Help for usage."
              Warning "Define a constant IGNORE_GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_LOW_MEMORY_WARNINGS to remove this message."
            end if
          End if
       End If
     end if

     if GLCD_TYPE = GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_32 then
       If ChipRAM < 512  Then
           GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_CHARACTER_MODE_ONLY = TRUE
           GLCD_TYPE_SSD1306_LOWMEMORY_GLCD_MODE = TRUE
           If ChipRAM < 256  Then
              Error "Chip has insufficient RAM to support this specific GLCD"
           End if
       End If
     end if
   #endscript

[Bonkers]

Here's the base driver (not the 32-row version) and the bigger Font2

[Bonkers]

And here's the _32 version with the smaller Font1, looks very nice and fits a lot on the screen.
It's John Cooper Clarke's first Haiku:

[Anobium]

Nice fotos! There is another thread on Font control.

Lots of fonts options. :=)

https://sourceforge.net/p/gcbasic/discussion/579125/thread/0f10731cc9/#7afc

[Bonkers]

Thanks Anobium - I will look into the Font control.
Just to round-off the discussion, I understand from your post above that the compiler forces the flags "LOWMEMORY" and "CHARACTER_MODE" - and that character mode is a subset of low memory operation. It all makes sense.

I find that Font1 renders ever so much faster that Font2 - but needs to be used with the _32 driver or else the font is really tiny .

For general info, here is the resource usage :
Chip resource usage:
Chip Model: 12LF1552
Program Memory: 1743/2048 words (85.11%)
RAM: 202/256 bytes (78.91%)
OSC: INTOSC, 16Mhz (Internal oscillator)

Not much room for user program on top of this, enough for a nifty little voltmeter certainly (watch this space) - which will fit well into this 8 pin device. There are bigger parts - I'd recommend 4kW minimum program memory.

However, the intention here was just to see what overhead is needed to drive an OLED, and what font options you get - ultimately to see if we can get to a low-resource "improved character-only display" sort of thing. The answer is a definite yes, and I'm only starting to tinker with the font options, there are many more to try.

I can't believe the level of support I've had, and the speed of it - many thanks to the GCB Gods!

Oh, and the part I used is this https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32777216785.html
They're about £1.50 all told if you get 5.

[Anobium]

Really great to here the progress.

Send me one of the SSD's. I need a spare.

Evan

[Bonkers]

Spare SSD1306 128x32 is in the post, with a board to go with it like in the photo below.

The PIC12LF1552 ROM (2kw) was filled by the time I added print statements for 3 screens, all with different fonts. - but hey, makes for a really neat greeting card message thingy running off a CR2032 battery...

I was using both fonts 1 and 2 - maybe could get more screens by dropping Font2,
But that's not the point anyway...
The 3-screen greeting card is a stake in the ground, a calibration point, using standard GCBASIC - it's 2kw ROM and 202B RAM - without any attempt at further optimisation.
I'd be interested to know what resources Arduino needs, to do the same thing.

I'll post more screens later. The one below is GLCDFontWidth= 5, font1 - and is the best density. The default is GLCDFontWidth= 6, and just adds another column of kerning (2 pixels between characters not 1 pixel) - and reads better.