Bringing 3.5” HMI display shield venture to life

27th July 2018

Bridgetek

Enaie Azambuja

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Bridgetek’s Embedded Video Engine (EVE) technology continues to gain traction within the global open source community, as well as with larger OEMs. The highly integrated graphics controller devices - which are able to take care of the display, touch and audio aspects of modern human machine interfaces (HMIs) - are featuring in a growing number of products being developed by small start-ups.

The latest of these is the Sunflower Shield, which is currently being crowdfunded via Kickstarter. Using the FT813 EVE IC, the Sunflower Shield allows makers to add a touch-enabled premium quality 3.5" (QVGA) TFT LCD display, to their Arduino projects.

With the ability to render 24-bit colour content in either landscape or portrait orientations, plus support for smooth 60fps animations, this compact board has a 5-point multi-touch capacitive touchscreen for delivery of intuitive operation and compelling user experiences.

Also incorporated are a pulse width modulated (PWM) audio amplifier with a 1W speaker, a thermocouple input (with probe included in the package) for taking temperature measurements, solid state relay outputs and a microSD memory card slot for data storage purposes.

Pairing the EVE graphics controller with an MCU, such as the Arduino, has resulted in a well partitioned design that is capable of performing advanced colour graphics control at a very attractive price point.

“It is always encouraging to see a product you have developed being adopted by the market and applied in interesting new applications, such as the Sunflower shield. It is particularly satisfying to see all three key elements of the FT813 being deployed in this new shield - rich graphics, fast touch response and the audio elements for alarms. We wish this endeavour every success,” stated Bridgetek’s CEO and founder Fred Dart.

The crowdfunding campaign has witnessed strong uptake, and is already fully funded - but there is still time to get involved, as it is open for backers until 31st July.