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LED Matrix Display with LVGL and NetBurner

See the companion blog post for this project at: https://www.netburner.com/learn/external-libraries-lvgl-led-display/

This guide will describe how to create a project in NBEclipse that can build an application for a NetBurner device. The application will rely on LVGL being built as a static library, which is automatically built as part of the same NBEclipse project.

This guide was written for NNDK 3.5.2. It should be applicable for all 3.X NNDK releases.

LVGL is a small graphics library for driving displays. The main project source will exist in the "src" folder, while LVGL will exist in the "lvgl" folder at the root of the project. When building, the application will first build LVGL based on a custom makefile. Then, it will build the application. In further builds, LVGL will only be re-built if its source or dependencies change.

Prototyping with SOMRT1061

NetBurner's new SOMRT1061 based on the NXP i.MX RT106x / RT1060 platform (similar to the RT1062) has been designed for maximum power and flexibility in a small power-saving footprint. It comes in a 1-inch surface mount pick-and-place-compatible board or presoldered to a carrier board with 0.1-inch header pins, and the development kit includes the SOM on the carrier board for easy programming and prototyping.

One goal of this Display project is to demonstrate a typical workflow for customers developing a proof-of-concept and minimum viable product, then moving on to low-volume alpha and beta testing with limited manufacturing resources, and then finally to high-volume production. We've included KiCad design files and a schematic so you can see how easy it is to deliver results with NetBurner modules.

Install

Configure Environment

  1. Review the makefile that we've added to the lvgl subfolder. This makefile will contain the source files that will need to be built to generate the lvgl static library, instead of using lvgl's default cmake routine. This also includes special NetBurner rules to simplify the build. The makefile should reference all the source files necessary to build the project, but not unneeded things like the lvgl draw/nxp, drivers or others folders:
# Generated static library file name
NAME := liblvgl

# Source files to build
C_SRC += \
		$(sort $(wildcard src/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/core/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/display/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/draw/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/draw/sw/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/draw/sw/blend/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/font/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/indev/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/layouts/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/layouts/flex/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/layouts/grid/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/barcode/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/bin_decoder/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/bmp/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/ffmpeg/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/freetype/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/fsdrv/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/gif/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/libjpeg_turbo/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/libpng/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/lodepng/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/lz4/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/qrcode/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/rle/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/rlottie/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/thorvg/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/tiny_ttf/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/libs/tjpg/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/misc/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/misc/cache/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/osal/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/stdlib/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/stdlib/builtin/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/themes/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/themes/default/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/themes/mono/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/themes/simple/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/tick/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/animimage/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/arc/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/bar/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/button/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/buttonmatrix/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/calendar/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/canvas/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/chart/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/checkbox/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/dropdown/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/image/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/imagebutton/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/keyboard/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/label/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/led/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/line/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/list/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/lottie/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/menu/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/msgbox/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/objx_templ/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/property/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/roller/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/scale/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/slider/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/span/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/spinbox/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/spinner/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/switch/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/table/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/tabview/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/textarea/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/tileview/*.c)) \
			$(sort $(wildcard src/widgets/win/*.c))


# Generate a static library in the makefile folder
TARGET_TYPE := lib

# Boilerplate.mk contains all rules to build makefiles for NetBurner devices
include $(NNDK_ROOT)/make/boilerplate.mk
  1. There's also a makefile in the root of the project that includes all C and CPP files in src and src/ui. If you add any new source files, especially new LVGL images/fonts, add them here.
  2. If you change which fonts are being used, especially builtin fonts like Montserrat, edit lvgl/src/lv_conf.h to set their constant to 1

Make (CLI)

Building on the CLI is straightforward, though you do need to build lvgl manually:

cd lvgl
make -j -e PLATFORM=SOMRT1061
cd ..
make -j load -e DEVIP=192.168.10.150 -e PLATFORM=SOMRT1061

NBEclipse

  1. Create a new NBEclipse project. Use the New Project wizard to generate a NetBurner C++ executable project. In this guide, the project name DisplayApplication will be used.
  2. Copy and paste the src and lvgl folders from the file system directly into the NBEclipse project root. The project layout in the project explorer should now look like:
⌄ DisplayApplication
	> Build Targets
	> Includes
	⌄ src
	    > ui
	> html
	⌄ lvgl
		> src
	> overload
	DisplayApplication.eez-project
	makefile.defs
	makefile.targets
	map.png
	README.md
  1. Add a pre-build step to the project. This step will run the LVGL makefile before building the application binary. Note that the makefile in the root of the project is not used by NBEclipse: it's there for CLI-based workflows.
    1. Right click on project and select Properties
    2. Click on C/C++ Build -> Settings
    3. Select the tab Build Steps
    4. Add the command to run the makefile make -C ../lvgl
  2. Add the static library and header folders to the project
    1. Right click on project and select Properties
    2. Click on C/C++ Build -> Settings
    3. Select the tab Tool Settings
    4. Under both GNU C Compiler and then GNU C++ Compiler, select Includes.
      1. Under the Include Paths (-I) pane, add the root folder that the static library uses as its base directory when #include statements are used in source. For LVGL, we use "${workspace_loc:/${ProjName}/lvgl/src}".
    5. Under GNU C/C++ Linker, select Libraries
      1. Add lvgl to the Libraries (-l) pane. You may think to add liblvgl.a here, but that would be incorrect. The GNU toolchain always prepends lib and appends the file extension automatically.
      2. Add ../lvgl/obj/release to the Library search path (-L) pane. This is the folder that will contain the liblvgl.a static library that is built by the library makefile.

With these changes in place, the application project will now properly build both the static library and the project binary, and appropriately detect and rebuild changes.

Running

Assuming an Internet connection via an Ethernet cable that can access https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/satellites/25544 and get time from pool.ntp.org, the display will load the GUI from LVGL and update it with the last 75 known positions of the International Space Station, once per minute. It will also show the current date and time.

You can change the time zone and other settings by browsing to your NetBurner device's Config page, i.e. http://192.168.10.150:20034, and clicking the Expand All button followed by your changes and the red Update Record button.

Develop

  • Open the .eez-project file in the project root in EEZ Studio.
  • Save and Build your EEZ project when done.
  • Edit main.cpp accordingly if you want to modify GUI elements programmatically: the objects and objects_t struct is defined by EEZ Studio in ui/screens.h and contains any named UI elements. You can see how we make them functional in the body of UserMain().

EEZ Bugs

Be aware that EEZ Studio has a couple rough edges:

  • Setting the chart dot size lv_obj_set_style_size(chart, 2, 2, LV_PART_INDICATOR) isn't supported inside EEZ Studio, so we do this in main.cpp instead.
  • When changing a bitmap or other externally-referenced file, its source may need to be re-selected from the filesystem: these files are imported inside the EEZ project and won't automatically update themselves.
  • When setting bitmaps in EEZ Studio, it may erroneously display the same bitmap across all bitmaps in the project. This should be ignorable and is a UI bug.

Assembly

Hardware and assembly instructions coming soon, in the meantime the 3D printed DisplayFrame.stl will hold two of these LED matrix panels side by side with eight M3x10 screws: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5362