FT800 (FTDI Eve)

[David John Barker]

The MCU shown on the video is an 18F25K22 on a PIC18 Firewing board. Limiting factor is speed via the SPI. However, having more grunt on the MCU does enable you do perform more challenging tasks. I originally thought the use of SPI may be too limiting but so far that has not been the case. The FT800 GPU can do some pretty powerful transformations that even a hardcore PIC would struggle with. The images uploaded via SPI are heavily compressed (lossless) and the GPU can unzip these extremely fast. Loading the "raw" images via SPI and rendering takes much longer than uploading, unpacking and rendering. I would have liked to see more basic drawing primitives on the device, but overall I am very happy with what can be achieved. As you have already pointed out, you don't need a lot of code to do some pretty cool stuff...

[David John Barker]

> Are all the sample codes functional with the Gameduino

I forgot to add, if the sample code uses a RTC (which the Gameduino does not have) then the program will lock (as it is unable to access a none existent RTC). Just change any code to something like

Code: Select all

   #if FT_MODEL <> GAMEDUINO     
   Time = DS1307.ReadTime()
   #else
      Time.Hour = 8
      Time.Minute = 13
      Time.Second = 37
   #endif

[bitfogav]

Yes - make sure you are using the very latest BETA...I have tested all the sample files with

Code: Select all

#option FT_MODEL = GAMEDUINO

using BETA 1.0.0.6 (B2)
http://www.firewing.info/pmwiki.php?n=Firewing.Download
If you are using the latest compiler with the sample files, have enabled the #option and cannot get them to work, please let me know...

All working great - thank you Dave

[David John Barker]

Great news! Thanks for letting me know...

[bitfogav]

> Are all the sample codes functional with the Gameduino
I forgot to add, if the sample code uses a RTC (which the Gameduino does not have) then the program will lock (as it is unable to access a none existent RTC). Just change any code to something like

Code: Select all

   #if FT_MODEL <> GAMEDUINO     
   Time = DS1307.ReadTime()
   #else
      Time.Hour = 8
      Time.Minute = 13
      Time.Second = 37
   #endif

Can you not use the Firewing SD Plus shield inline with the Gameduino, as long has you don't use the SD Card (on the shield)?, actually just tested it and the example codes with RTC work a treat with the Gameduino!

[skartalov]

Hi,

wonder if tried the Synth functions of the FT800.
I have VM800C43A-D Demo Board from FTDI, it works with your library but musical instruments do not work. No sound at all.

Thanks!

[David John Barker]

I've not been able to get the instruments to work. I do not know why and didn't really get much time on this particular problem as I needed to finish the graphics. I'm pretty sure the initialisation sequence is correct and cannot see why the instruments do not work. When I get time I may will revisit this problem, but in the meantime if anyone else could shed some light on this it would be very helpful.

[skartalov]

OK, I've made my own board for a project that uses PIC24HJ512GP504, FT800, SD card
Everything work OK, the sample program runs (has to be #OPTION FT_MODEL = GAMEDUINO).
I used the schematic from the original GAMEDUINO 2 Board -> Download here: http://excamera.com/files/Gameduino2hw.zip

The problem is that the TFT is flickering! I noticed on my original FTDI VM800C43A demo board there is a 12MHz clock on the PCB, but GAMEDUINO doesn't have one.

What can be the reason for this flickering?

P.S. By the way, the synth functions works great on my board!

EDIT------------------------------------------------
I fixed the flickering by setting -> wr8(REG_PCLK, 3)

Now my 4.3 INCH TFT works really great, but I have another 5 inch TFT, which also works but the image is too bright. Does the FT800 has some gamma adjustment, or anything else to be able to adjust this? See the attached images.

[stevexyz]

> I've not been able to get the instruments to work... in the meantime if anyone else could shed some light on this it would be very helpful.

I'm not sure if this is the same problem but I've been playing with an FTDI EVE VM800 BU43A-D board and I was unable to get any sound to work on it at all. A very close look at the circuit diagram reveals that AUDIOSHDN# is connected to GPIO1 which is apparently configured as an INPUT by default.

If you set GPIO1 direction to OUTPUT and then set that to 1:

write8(EVE_REG_GPIO_DIR, 0x82)
write8(EVE_REG_GPIO, 0x82)

(GPIO7 is LCD DISP)

Then the audio amplifier is activated and you can hear sound.

Cheers, Steve

[David John Barker]

Thanks for posting a follow up Steve - really appreciated. Next time I fire up my FT800 I will check it out...