I have just found Nextion Touch screen displays by Itead (and various generic copies) that are claimed to work well with Arduino. I can't find much current or recent information on these, does anyone have experience or comments they can share?
I like the idea of a interactive display/MMI to go with a Battery Discharge Data logger I am building, I also like the idea of "virtual" inputs for a number of other possible projects.
Any comments gratefully received.
Since no one answered you, I thought I would try. I do have a couple of these displays, and they do work well. The concept is that they use an onboard processor to control all the aspects of the display. the Arduino/other type of processor only provides the data. This can free up your Arduino for other things. Unfortunately these displays can be expensive compared to a android smart phone or tablet. The advantages of these devices is you can use them for other things. You also get more memory, a faster processor, and an operating system. It really depends on what you need to do with your product. Whether you need a dedicated display, or you can use a portable display/android device. Another advantage is, you get to learn how to interface your Arduino with a android device.
I just got one, so far it's a bit cryptic, but I've only spent an hour with it...
I have recently used 1 in a project
Download the IDE for them, takes a bit of getting used to but found if to work well
Thanks for the responses, most helpful.
promacjoe2 The first application I have is for a Battery Discharge Data Logger, this could be checked by a number of people so a permanent display is probably better suited for now. I do want to understand how interfacing with Smartphones works but thats can come later.
Qdeathstar I have been "playing" with just the editor, this weekends goal is to drop a simple program into a Uno and get it working with the simulator before I buy the screen.
wellyb00t Where did you download the IDE from? what libraries are you using? would you mind sharing your successful code so I can get an idea of what I need to be thinking about please?
I bought two of the 7" displays and have played with them but have not gotten serious yet. The trick is hunting down the material needed to make them work. I made a simple screen with a slider....it might have been an example but it worked well. I found the manuals and have watched several youtube videos. The plan is to spend some time with them this week and see what I can figure out.
These were helpful: #56 Inexpensive Intelligent Touch Displays for Arduino, ESP8266, and others: Nextion (Tutorial) - YouTube
The learning curve is pretty steep...what isn't right? For me the tricky part is going to be figuring out a graphics editor to make interesting screens.
I think the IDE is specific to the screen you are using. The youtube link has a lot of good info with links to the IDE's and examples
I have had my Nextion 3.2" display for about a week now and yes the learning curve is fairly steep.
But I can now control LEDs and servos through a Arduino Mega2560 using buttons and sliders that
I have created on the display. It is getting easier and has been very satisfying.
I definitely don't regret getting a Nextion display and plan to get either a 5" 0r 7" soon.
I have used two and spent alot of time with them. Unfortunately, the serial interface is sensitive. I needed to use a hardware uart mega 2560, since software serial sid not work consistantly.
After switching to hardware serial interface, the problems reduced but did not go away. I still have trouble registeringtouch events - for reasons unknown. The sleep mode is also an issue if you plan to power save since a light screen uses lots more power.
The forum support was good. The people attended to my issues and helped me with my misunderstandings. I was not alone with the problems I had with my applications.
The displays do cut down on the amount of time and effort it would take me to make my own device to do this, since it pretty much needs all arduino pins, timers, resources etc... just to handle lcd interface and touch screen.
Yes: it is worth buying - you will save time using. No: it is not flawless, expect surprise and glitch.
Thanks folks for the input and sorry for the slow response, I have been away from this project for the last little while and just found the latest comments. I think I will order one to try out.
It's really the only thing like it. In order for you to do something like that, without the Nextion - you will either use most all your pins, a bunch of memory, probably other micro-controller just devoted to an LCD and touch input - and / or a whole lot of your time. One good advantage of making a whole u/i board yourself is the experience, and having your own libraries to interface with the hardware to make more for less money, do whatever you want with it - and be able to troubleshoot and modify anything. The Nextion is already done the work - it is a very fair price for what it is. You just need to dig into their code and sort through when you discover a glitch, but the tech support is very helpful in that forum.
I downloaded a copy of inkscape to make the graphic screens and have found that the learning curve isn't nearly as steep as I thought it would be.
I use GIMP. Corel draw is a whole lot better, but that is more like vectorized graphics (I have been using it for over 20 years). There are plenty of easy tutorials around to show you have to draw anything. You just make a .PNG and import onto that user-interface designer - its really easy.
The user interface designer on the nextion is also a big huge part of that device. It would take alot of work to re-make that thing by hand - probably take me a week, maybe more if I had to write that mysself.
You can import .ttf fonts from your computer too. Though with the 3" screens I use, it's really too small to get fancy with. There is not much room to put too many buttons. I have enormous American sausage sized fingers. I think 3" screens are better suited for a small oriental person with fingers sized to assemble gears in wrist-watches. The 3" screen is really too small to see, if I mount it to the dashboard of my truck at a visual distance over 12", there is no way I am reading gauges or text on that, especially when I drive. I have to get within 6" face distance of the screen (which really goes for any screen that size). I was making touch control panel digital dashboard for the automation in my truck, but I stopped my project.
I have only purchased the 7" screens but I see they are coming out with a 9". I started with GIMP but somehow wound up with inkscape.
They really need to make a screen that has the same color and constrast to all the mobile phones they have now. Active touchscreen technology is not new. I do not understand why not done by now. Some phones can cost as much as these LCD components cost. Alot of people are just buying and using phones for a user interface for their stuff, can just do a bluetooth connection and serial data touch events from the screen.
Does that require building an app for the phone?
Yes. Unfortunately - it is also alot of work. I did it, took me a long while to learn android studio. Then the BLE modules came out, and that started getting fussy and difficult to code. I used the old hc-05/06 module - that worked without needing the user to authorize the phone and ask permissions every time they wanted to do something.
There are plenty more tutorials now than there was when I did it about 4 years ago. But yea, it's probably just too much. Just figure I would throw out the idea, for an option in case you were interested in learning.
I tried the easy way out (I thought) with app inventor. Made a few simple ones but I sure don't like the jigsaw puzzle thing. In the end I decided I just don't have the time to learn/study another programming package. That said, I would gladly pay someone to write several apps for me.
I can write software and am for hire. What do you want done, and how much are you paying? Send me a private message if you like.