The 4Display-Shield-160 provides an easy interface between a uOLED-160-G2 display module and an Arduino Duemilanove, Arduino Uno, Arduino Mega or other Arduino-compatible board. The unit comes complete with the µOLED-160 module, a 5-way multiswitch joystick, and male headers that help connect the 4Display-Shield to the Arduino boards. The 5-position joystick is connected to the Arduino D2, D3, D4, D5 and D6 pins. The communication interface between the 4Display-Shield and the Arduino is via the Serial UART. Both the TX and RX signals are jumpered on the shield PCB so that the Arduino UART can be freed up when it's being programmed. The uOLED-160 module is integrated with a 1.7" full-color 160×128-pixel resolution OLED screen, powerful GOLDELOX graphics controller chip, and a microSD connector which supports standard and high-capacity memory cards. The memory card can be used to store images, icons and video clips, or for data logging. Arduino boards are sold separately. Slave or Stand-Alone Operation In the Serial environment, the GOLDELOX processor is a slave device, and the Arduino takes the role of host controller. This allows you to develop your graphics applications using the Arduino development environment and software tools. The GOLDELOX chip has a rich set of serial commands built in, and the commands are sent from the Arduino via the serial (UART) interface. All it takes is a few bytes of serial data from the Arduino and you can quickly and easily draw lines, circles, text and even display images as well as play video clips. In the Designer environment, GOLDELOX processor to be a stand-alone device for which all application code is written in 4DGL (4D Graphics Language). 4DGL is an easy-to-learn but powerful language. It allows you to write applications in a high-level syntax similar to BASIC, C or Pascal, and run it directly on the GOLDELOX processor. If you can write Arduino code then 4DGL code should be no problem, but the IDE also has a graphical drag-and-drop programming environment (ViSi) to make it easier. Using 4DGL allows you to take complete control of all available resources on the uOLED-160 module, such as the Serial Port, the graphics display and the microSD memory. Graphics-intensive processes can be offloaded from the Arduino and run on the GOLDELOX chip, along with microSD processes and access to the GOLDELOX I/O pins. This removes a lot of overhead from the host processor by creating the "work horse" objects within the display module itself. For example, if you are making a Tetris-like game, rather than sending all the graphics objects (tile blocks, borders, game score, etc.) as serial graphics primitives, entire functions can be created in 4DGL and receive simple serial commands to control them. This also gives you a neat division between the graphics functions and the game itself, allowing changes in the game's appearance without altering the main Arduino game code — effectively allowing you to "change skins" for the game's appearance. Configuring the GOLDELOX chip between the three environments is done via the 4D Workshop4 IDE. To do this, and to upload 4DGL code, you will need an RS232-to-TTL or USB-to-TTL converter that uses the DTR signal to pulse the Reset line on the processor. Two converters that can plug directly into this module are available from the "Optional Recommended Products" list at the bottom of this page. PMOLED Arduino Shield Features - 160 × 128 resolution; 65K colors; Passive Matrix OLED screen
- 1.7” diagonal size; Viewing Area 33.6 × 27 mm
- No back-lighting needed; near 180° viewing angle
- On-board microSD memory card adapter for storing of icons, images, animations, etc. Supports standard and high-capacity (SDHC) cards
- 5-Way multifunction joystick switch directly connected to Arduino D2, D3, D4, D5 and D6 pins
- Powered from the Arduino board; uses the 5V supply pin
- PCB Dimensions: 105 × 65 × 30 mm
PMOLED Arduino Shield Resources - 4D Workshop4 IDE Tool: This is a free software tool for Windows. The 4D-Workshop4 IDE provides an integrated software development environment for the GOLDELOX processor and associated display modules. The IDE combines the Editor, Compiler, Linker and Downloader to develop complete 4DGL application code. All user application code is developed within the Workshop4 IDE. After clicking the above link, scroll down to find links to the software and the documentation of its various components. Some of the reference manuals, and the links to Arduino serial libraries, have versions for two different graphics chips; be sure to download the GOLDELOX versions. Also note that while the ViSi environment is supported by the GOLDELOX chip, the ViSi-Genie environment is not.
- 4Display-Shield Datasheet
- 4Display-Shield-160 3D PDF
Optional Recommended Products for this Item
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