Dear All,
At first, happy new year!
I use Arduino's to manage a model railway circuit. I need to read a lot of sensors, change the direction of the turnouts, calculate if a train can run or stop.
For doing that I need a lot of variables and I have to trace them and of course print and format them.
I tried to use the serial monitor but it not easy to read the screen, I tried to use PLX-DAQ that send data using a serial output to excel, but there are too many data and excel crash.
I know that the Arduino is not able to manage the VGA/HDMI signal, so I am looking for a shield using I2C to send my variables to a basic screen with a VGA/HMDI connector.
I found a shield VGADuino but seems it is not available and uses serial communication.
I found too 4d System Screens that seems fantastic but use serial and is a little bit complex and expansive for displaying data for trace.
Do you have any ideas regarding my request ?
Summary : to be able to print data to a screen (VGA/HDMI), 80 char * 25 lines, using a shield that received commands from Arduino and manage the display.
Thanks a lot for your help.
Best Regards
Hi @alain9080
See if this helps:
Why don't you just use a display like ILI9341 with 240x320 resolution and SPI interface for example?
http://www.lcdwiki.com/3.2inch_SPI_Module_ILI9341_SKU:MSP3218
Dear All
Thanks a lot for your answer.
@ ruilviana: It seems that today the Micro VGA shield is out of stock. I tried to output VGA directly from an Arduino. Of course it is working but need a lot of resources even if i use a secondary Arduino as a slave to manage the Vga output. I need a refresh the trace every 0.5 second and the slave was not able to manage the Vga output and receive data from the master via I2C.
@ flashko: This is a good display but it is too small to be read from more than one metre away. Do you know the maximum length of the SPI wires ? Thanks
Regards
I don't know.
Maybe you can transmit the data wirelessly and another Arduino with a suitable display can visualize it? Or with ESP8266 and Wi-Fi to watch them on your phone, tablet or laptop.
My goal is just to display data for debugging !
This is why I would like to reuse a basic pc screen 80 * 25!
Thanks
Does the display have HDMI? How about using a raspberry pi?
Or an Arduino with a long enough USB cable connected to a laptop and running a program in 'Processing' for data visualization.
Hello
I have a screen with an HDMI.
I started my project there were 6 years ago and at this time i have chosen Arduino. Why because Arduino is more suitable regarding my usage that is an "automat" and need to read / write multiple "bits". And again I just need to trace data during debugging.
Thanks
I do not want to use a laptop !
I was not suggesting that you use a raspberry pi for the project itself, but rather as the interface between the arduino and the display. A raspberry pi zero running a VT100 emulator (or similar terminal program) would allow the arduino to send commands over USB / serial / I2C to control what was displayed on an 80x25 text terminal.
< edit > I see there is even a VT100 library in the IDE's library manager to make it easier to control a VT100 compatible terminal.
David,I understand what you mean.
And you give an idea.
It seems in any case i need a laptop or a pc just to display my data.
If we use the serial.println the data are send to an USB port from the Arduino to the PC.
Let's imagine that we use VT100 escape code such as ESC [ line#; Col# we are able to create table.
So now which win10 tool is able to read and display the data? Vt100 emulator or do I need to create a custom program ?
Thanks
Hello
I dowload and use Putty as VT100 emulator and I download the arduino lib's BasicTerm from Git'.
It is working well but my business requirement was to have an autonomous "application" without a computer.
Thanks for your help and if you heard something about a vga/hdmi shield using I2C, please replys.
See you.
Other question!
Do you know if it possible to modify a PC screen (vga or hdmi) to an dummy terminal such as a VT100 ?
Thanks
Yes, you just need a minimal "PC" to drive the emulation - such as a Raspberry Pi. 
If you already have a screen then something like this may be suitable: https://geoffg.net/terminal.html
Or if you prefer to use an Android tablet (can be quite cheap for a larher display and more modern than a VGA CRT) then you should be able to find a terminal program for that.