Living Guide to "Flexible" Minis

[JochenL]

Electronic miniatures are a neat idea, but unfortunately not too cost-effective:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/anyminis/the-anymini-an-electronic-miniature-for-tabletop

That sounds like a nice project for DIY: Raspberry Pi Pico + 1.2-inch display + self-printed case = ~25 USD
+ some code as open source. I should find some time somewhere... Would be a nice WoA subscriber gimmick, too.

 

[Chuck Dee]

Electronic miniatures are a neat idea, but unfortunately not too cost-effective:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/anyminis/the-anymini-an-electronic-miniature-for-tabletop

First time creator too- It might be good as a novelty, but as @JochenL says, you could DIY it for the same price or less.

 

[JochenL]

First time creator too- It might be good as a novelty, but as @JochenL says, you could DIY it for the same price or less.

Just bought the hardware for it Will create a guide based on it.

 

[Chuck Dee]

Just bought the hardware for it Will create a guide based on it.

Looking forward to it! What hardware did you buy?

 

[JochenL]

• Ingcool Raspberry Pi Pico Board with Pre-Soldered Header, Based on Raspberry Pi RP2040 Chip, Dual-Core ARM Cortex M0+ Processor with up to 133 MHz, Support C/C++ /Python
• Coolwell Waveshare 1.14 Inch LCD Display Module for Raspberry Pi Pico, Embedded ST7789 Driver, 65K RGB Colours, 240 × 135 Pixels, Using SPI Bus

 

[JochenL]

 

[JochenL]

Estimated setup time: 30 to 60 minutes for a developer, double that for a newbie.

I used this guide to install the development environment for C/C++ on Windows.

My changes:

• Use drive D: instead of C:
• Use the current versions of the linked installers

The demo "blink" worked!



If you encounter problems or have any questions, post them here. I will try to answer them.

 

[JochenL]

Setting up and testing the LCD (about 30 minutes)

I used this guide: https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/Pico-LCD-1.14#Download_Demo_codes
...and encountered the first problems!

To fix this, so it works on Windows with the guide in my previous post instead of:

mkdir build
cd build
export PICO_SDK_PATH=../../pico-sdk
cmake ..
make -j9
cp main.uf2 /media/pi/RPI-RP2/

I deleted the existing build folder and executed:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" ..
make
copy main.uf2 E:\

E:\ is the auto-mounted drive representing the Pi on my system.
If you installed "blink" on the Pi (like me), it will not automatically show up in Windows as a drive. Disconnect USB, hold the BOOTSEL button on the Pi, and reconnect USB to get it to show up as a drive again.

 

[JochenL]

My first own drawing: Japanese Flag (30 minutes)

Based on the code in LCD_1in14_test, I created the following function:

int draw_image()
{
  DEV_Delay_ms(100);

  if (DEV_Module_Init() != 0)
  {
    return -1;
  }

  DEV_SET_PWM(50);

  LCD_1IN14_Init(HORIZONTAL);
  LCD_1IN14_Clear(WHITE);

  UDOUBLE image_size = LCD_1IN14_HEIGHT * LCD_1IN14_WIDTH * 2;
  UWORD *back_image;
  if ((back_image = (UWORD *)malloc(image_size)) == NULL)
  {
    return -2;
  }

  Paint_NewImage((UBYTE *)back_image, LCD_1IN14.WIDTH, LCD_1IN14.HEIGHT, 0, WHITE);
  Paint_SetScale(65);
  Paint_Clear(WHITE);
  Paint_SetRotate(ROTATE_0);
  Paint_Clear(WHITE);

  Paint_DrawCircle(LCD_1IN14_HEIGHT / 2, LCD_1IN14_WIDTH / 2, 50, RED, DOT_PIXEL_5X5, DRAW_FILL_FULL);

  while (true)
  {
    LCD_1IN14_Display(back_image);
  }

  free(back_image);
  back_image = NULL;

  DEV_Module_Exit();

  return 0;
}

The code needs further examination, e.g., why is the call to Paint_SetScale necessary?

At least, it works for now: