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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : hid2cdc - USB keyboard and mouse for picomite VGA
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phil99 Guru  Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2135 |
Although Mode 1 is monochrome it can be "colourized" with tiles. The editor can use colour coding provided the font size matches the tile size. OPTION LCDPANEL CONSOLE 1 OPTION COLOURCODE ON Edited 2024-01-09 22:19 by phil99 |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
i'm sure the height of those tiles could be changed... although for the purposes of testing monochrome is just fine. note - this is the first time i've actually used a picomite VGA, about a week back i soldered together the VGA interface cable. prior to now i had no idea of how bad the default font really was. cheers, rob :-) |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 4234 |
Hi Robert, The picomiute vga 640x480 mode is monochrome in 8x12 font. The characters are on a 8x12 tile, and each tile can be programmed for background and foreground color, as such simulating full color text. The built in editor has been adapted to use the tiles to colorcode the text. Other fonts can be selected or used (such as a 8x16 font). The tiles can be adapted in size (such as 8x16 size). But the automatic coloring of text in the editor is at the moment fixed to 8x12 size font and tiles. Actually, when you start the editor, it will default to MODE 1 and use this font. Volhout Edited 2024-01-09 23:07 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
Volhout: from what you say, it sounds like it would be relatively easy to allow the editor to operate with other fonts that are 8-pixels wide. does anyone who has built the picomite VGA source before care to experiment with this? NoOne has just released an update that fixes some small anomalies with the function keys and has the start of support for non-US keyboard layouts. as before, available here: https://github.com/No0ne/hid2cdc/raw/main/hid2cdc.uf2 question... in terms of mainstream layouts, i am aware of: QWERTY - English US, UK, NZ, AUS AZERTY - used in France, Belgium QWERTZ - German, Austria, Switzerland does this cover the majority of mmbasic (cmm2 and picomite VGA) users? and what other things would folks like to see made available on the HID2CDC? support for RTC, mouse, serial ports, access to additional GPIO pins? cheers, rob :-) Edited 2024-01-13 11:37 by robert.rozee |
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| phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2135 |
For the few who use the PicoVGA for embedded tasks access to more pins (inc. the ADC ones) could be useful. Not needing the PS/2 kb. and moving the RTC over to it help in that regard. There are some who hanker for a mouse though not important to me. For serial, even if only regular I/O can be done that frees up pins for serial on the PicoVGA. NoOne has been doing an excellent job. |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6790 |
If you are going to mess with editor fonts please remember the restrictions placed on you by VGA. The timing is fixed because the Pico can't clock the output any faster to get a higher resolution, therefore you get a fixed number of pixel rows. For best efficiency you need a font that equally divides into 480 pixel rows in mode 1 You can't get round this. Using 12 dot high characters You can get 40 rows of characters in mode 1 and 20 rows in mode 2 because it uses pixel doubling. Using 16 dot high characters You can get 30 rows of characters in mode 1 and 15 rows in mode 2. This is just for the simplest mono system. When you add colour it becomes a little more complex as it isn't a character mapped display in either mode, it just looks like one. Everything is actually bitmapped into a frame buffer. If you do make changes, particularly to the editor, then you will be in danger of creating an incompatible system. You shouldn't need to change the editor anyway - that's not what a program user sees. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
as you say, the video output from the picomite VGA is a fixed 640 x 480 pixels. through line and pixel doubling this also gives a 320 x 240 mode. in 320 x 240 each pixel is represented by 4 bits (ie, 16-colour). in 640 x 480 each pixel is represented by 1 bit, but then this 1 bit selects into an array of 4-bit tiles that are 8 pixels wide by 12 or more pixels high. within these parameters there is no good reason (as far as i can see) to constrain the editor to using an 8 x 12 pixel font. i'm not suggesting changing the font width, just the height. according to the 5.07.07 PicoMiteVGA User Manual, Page 97: TILE HEIGHT n "Sets the height of the tiles. ‘n’ can be between 12 and 480" incidentally, there is not even good reason for the font height to divide exactly into 480. it would just entail leaving a few blank lines at the top or bottom of the screen if it did not divide exactly. but as it happens, 16 pixels high gives exactly 30 lines. 20 pixels high gives exactly 24 lines. as for while a program is running, currently this (as well as the command prompt) is governed by the persistent setting: OPTION LCDPANEL CONSOLE [font [, fc [,bc]]] "The arguments are optional but if supplied must be numbers, 'font' is the default font [...]" so as it stands, an arbitrary run program can not make any assumptions about the current number of columns or lines on screen - any system where the user has typed OPTION LCDPANEL CONSOLE n (where n<>1) at the command prompt is an "incompatible system". the upshot, that a program needs to always start with the line: OPTION LCDPANEL CONSOLE n to ensure universal compatibility. of course, when contained in a program this option setting is not persistent. cheers, rob :-) Edited 2024-01-13 20:19 by robert.rozee |
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javavi Senior Member  Joined: 01/10/2023 Location: UkrainePosts: 213 |
Hi all To connect a USB keyboard to PicoMite, I use this USB-PS/2 converter adapter. I assembled it according to a simple scheme, without “extra” parts. It’s even possible to connect an additional mouse via the PS/2 interface, but I don’t know how? I got the firmware for this adapter here: https://github.com/No0ne/ps2x2pico It would be nice to update this firmware with a software USB Hub...  |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
have just posted the below to the issue list on github: i have a tentative idea for mouse support without needing to make any changes to the PicoMite VGA source code: 1. have mouse wheel up/down movement permanently translate to the up/down arrow keys: VK_UP: escape+"[A" VK_DOWN: escape+"[B" 2. have two key combinations to enable and disable mouse reporting: alt-M turns it on, alt-N turns it off. an alternative would be to hijack the use of scroll-lock, but this key may be missing from some compact keyboards. maybe provide for both options? 3. if mouse reporting is currently turned off, temporarily turn it on while the left or right mouse button is held depressed. 4. translate mouse movement to arrow key escape sequences when mouse reporting is on as follows: VK_UP: escape+"[A" VK_DOWN: escape+"[B" VK_RIGHT: escape+"[C" VK_LEFT: escape+"[D" some scaling of mouse movement may be needed, and the rate of arrow movements limited to, say, 10 reports per second. this rate could perhaps be adjustable, as could X and Y scaling factors, selected using some alt- key combinations. or just use alt-1 to alt-9 to select between 9 different sets of presets. as far as i can see, the above should give us: - mouse wheel always works in editor to scroll up/down. - within the editor one can 'drag' the edit cursor using the mouse while holding down one of the mouse buttons. - within games, there is a means for the user to turn on mouse reporting without need for holding down the mouse button continuously, and thereafter use the mouse instead of the arrow keys. this is all just an idea to mull over for the moment! does it sound usable? cheers, rob :-) addendum: ctrl-E and ctrl-X may be better choices for mouse wheel movement, that way within a game mouse wheel up/down rotation and mouse movement could perform different functions. Edited 2024-01-14 00:09 by robert.rozee |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
looks like No0ne has now released version 1.0 of HID2CDC, which includes an option for German keyboard layout (QWERTZ), as well as presetting the power-on numlock state. the URLs to everything have now changed, see below... complete release directory: https://github.com/No0ne/hid2cdc/releases/tag/1.0 readme file: https://github.com/No0ne/hid2cdc/blob/main/README.md uf2 file: https://github.com/No0ne/hid2cdc/releases/download/1.0/hid2cdc.uf2 the pin usage for this verion is: GPIO0 serial debug output at 115200n8 GPIO2 initial numlock state, jumper to GND for numlock ON GPIO3 ctrl-alt-del reset output, optionally connect to RUN on the picomite GPIO6 jumper to GND for QWERTZ keyboard support can folks please test, particularly with German/QWERTZ keyboards, and PLEASE REPORT BACK YOUR RESULTS. if we can keep up the momentum i am hopefully of seeing No0ne add mouse support of some sort for use with the editor and games, and am myself thinking about how best to add RTC and SD card support - i think i've found a way to 'kludge together' a back channel for fast (12Mbps) 'private' device communications between HID2CDC and picomite over the USB link. cheers, rob :-) Edited 2024-01-17 01:00 by robert.rozee |
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| Pluto Guru Joined: 09/06/2017 Location: FinlandPosts: 358 |
This is a very interesting possibility for getting keyboards from our region to co-operate with PicoMiteVGA. It is mostly the non-alphabetic signs that make the use of PicoMiteVGA problematic with our keyboards. (Stickers on most of the keys is not very pleasant!) Would it also be possible to get the Swedish keybord included? Swe keyboard NB: Swedish keyboard is also the default in Finland. Pluto |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
do you have a github account? they are relatively trivial to set up, then you can raise an issue requesting the author, No0ne, to add Swedish keyboard support here: https://github.com/No0ne/hid2cdc/issues cheers, rob :-) |
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| Pluto Guru Joined: 09/06/2017 Location: FinlandPosts: 358 |
Thanks Rob! I made a request. Pluto |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
looks like No0ne has posted a test version with Swedish support: https://github.com/No0ne/hid2cdc/files/13990437/hid2cdc-swe.zip i don't know how you select it, i've asked the question: https://github.com/No0ne/hid2cdc/issues/4#issuecomment-1900546827 hopefully he will answer shortly. cheers, rob :-) addendum: No0ne has just replied to my query - Swedish is the default in the test .uf2 file Edited 2024-01-20 01:10 by robert.rozee |
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| Pluto Guru Joined: 09/06/2017 Location: FinlandPosts: 358 |
That's great. Unfortunately I am too busy with other things right now, so I cannot set up a test today. May be tomorrow. Thanks to you Rob and to NoOne!  Pluto |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 830 |
Can anybody help me? Somehow nothing works for me. I have a hub with a plug-in power supply, which also sends out a voltage via the input. I have connected the board flashed with the .uf2 to the input of the hub, the keyboard and the PicoMiteVGA are connected to two of the outputs. The PicoMiteVGA works, but the keyboard does not respond at all. The board with the hid2cdc shows no signs of life at all - is that normal? (no lit or flashing LED...) I have tried two different keyboards. What am I doing wrong? What else could I try??? Any help would be appreciated! Frank |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2350 |
hi Frank, the LED on the HID2CDC pico should be lit, have you checked that the HID2CDC is getting power? it could well be that your hub is not feeding power back to the host (HID2CDC), but only to the downstream devices (picomite and keyboard). i use a hub that takes power from the host, hence i just feed 5-volts directly into VBUS (pin 40, ground returned to pin 38) of the HID2CDC pico. see RED and BROWN wires in the below photo, they connect back to a 5-volt supply:  cheers, rob :-) |
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| Frank N. Furter Guru Joined: 28/05/2012 Location: GermanyPosts: 830 |
Hi Rob, thank you for your answer! If I plug in the PicoMiteVGA instead of the HID2CDC, it runs - so there is voltage. However, the HID2CDC does not light up at all, no matter how I supply it with voltage! Frank |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Hi Frank, All, I was about to post that my HID2CDC doesn’t light either but then I thought, I just updated to the latest firmware and I should test it. Well the HID2CDC led does indeed light, so if you are getting power which it looks like you are it must be the firmware isn’t flashed into the HID2CDC Pico, Try reflashing it, now there is no indication of when it is finished on the PC so I leave it for roughly 15seconds to make sure. To prove the LED isn’t some sort of connectivity or communication indicator I plugged my HID2CDC module into a USB power plug pack so there would be no communication and indeed the LED lights up. If you still can’t get it to work try downloading the firmware again in case it got corrupted or try another PICO chip Regards, Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Hi All, I found my wireless kb I used to use when I was working, it’s been sitting in my old tool bag for over 5 years, I decided to test it on the HID2CDC and of course the battery is dead flat, after charging for 30m I was able to get it to power up. It’s one of these tiny cheap as crap (and crap as crap)  I can confirm that the wireless keyboard does indeed work on the HID2CDC, however I was getting multiple key presses for each key, like the autorepeat triggered immediately, I had to quickly tap the keys to get single characters. I will let it fully charge or find a new battery as this one is looking sad and try it again, I also should try on my PC to see if it’s the keyboard or something with the HID2CDC. Watch this space, Regards, Mick EDIT*** After a day of charging the battery fully, that fast repeat has gone, HID2CDC works fine with wireless (dongle based) keyboards Mik . Edited 2024-01-21 18:05 by bigmik Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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