Storing images on UTFT Flash from SD Card

Other Hardware Storage
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I got a new 7" Sainsmart display with the SSD1963 and their CTE shield to interface the Arduino Mega2560 to the SSD1963. I read where I can store images in the flash memory on the display board, which sounded great. I downloaded the RinkyDink Electronics SPIFlash and UTFT_SPIFlash libraries. He says there's two ways to do this, using his FlashUploader.exe and running the SPIflash_FlashUploader sketch (I couldn't get this to work, the connection to the board always timed out when connecting with FlashUploader.exe). Or it is even better to load images onto an SD Card "using an SDF (SPIflash Dump File)". And then using the sketch SPIFlash_Restore to upload the SD Card contents to the LCD flash memory.

Since the slower not recommended FlashUploader.exe can't seem to connect with that, I'm lost in determining what a SPIFlash Dump File is, and how to create one. I looked and searched and just am not finding any info on this.

What's the best way to load images onto the LCD flash memory?

If someone can steer me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

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I've got this solved. I found out, the FlashUploader.exe program will create these SDF dump files mentioned, without connecting to the Arduino. I can load many images into the program (all on the right side of the window) and then create a SDF file, to put on a SD card.

The file name should be 8 characters or less. Then I loaded the SPIFlash_Restore sketch, and I entered the name of the file (without the extension), and it loaded that into the flash memory of the display. I'm using Visual Studio to do this, and noticed a bug (or possibly it only has an issue under Visual Studio?) of the Serial.read not correctly working to read in the file name. It wasn't seeing a "13" character to mark the end of input.

Then from the UTFT_SPIFlash library, I ran the Demo_Color_Images sketch, and loaded my image onto the display! Yay!

So, to help anyone else using this same exact hardware, the Arduino Mega2560, the main lines to change in the sketches are:

const int FLASH_chipSelect = 45; // Arduino Mega: 45 - Arduino Due: 52

SPIflash myFlash(FLASH_chipSelect);

ie: use "45" for the CS when opening the SPIflash object.

And:
UTFT myGLCD(CTE70, 38, 39, 40, 41);

One thing I thought I'd mention, the author of these libraries and rinkydinkelectronics.com mentioned he won't help people with SainSmart displays, as they are using his software for commercial purposes without his permission. Given that and the horrible jumpers settings the SainSmart CTE shield came with, I think I'll veer away from SainSmart in the future.

I'm planning on using a series of weather icons for displaying the weather forecast for upcoming days. Should be fun! I hope the above helps someone else in the future.

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Thanks for the feedback; karma added.