DebugPrinter Feature available in TouchGFX 4.12.3?

[Marco.R]

Hi

Does anyone know if the DebugPrinter is still available in current version (see Link)?​. I tried to implement it but it looks like LCD16DebugPrinter isn't available anymore.

If it is still available, how can I use it?

Thanks

Marco

[Martin KJELDSEN · Accepted solution]

I think that in 4.12.3 the DebugPrinter was renamed to LCD24DebugPrinter. It probably was 24bit to begin with (related to the hand-written glyphs being used).

In 4.13.0 we have DebugPrinter support for all LCD drivers. Should be out this december.

/d/TouchGFX/4.12.3/touchgfx/lib/core/cortex_m7/gcc
$ nm libtouchgfx.a | grep DebugPrinter
00000001 W _ZN8touchgfx17LCD24DebugPrinterD0Ev
00000001 W _ZN8touchgfx17LCD24DebugPrinterD1Ev
00000001 W _ZN8touchgfx17LCD24DebugPrinterD2Ev
00000000 n _ZN8touchgfx17LCD24DebugPrinterD5Ev
00000001 T _ZNK8touchgfx17LCD24DebugPrinter4drawERKNS_3LCDE
00000000 R _ZTVN8touchgfx17LCD24DebugPrinterE

/Martin

[Marco.R]

Hi @Martin KJELDSEN​

Thank you for the information. In that case I'll wait for the next release.

Marco

[scottSD]

I ran across DebugPrinter yesterday and was wondering about how to implement it as well.

Thanks for providing the link you did.

Martin, are are there an example that utilizes it?

[scottSD]

I did get something to compile and work (somewhat). Things have changed since the TouchGFX Tips and Tricks in the link you provided.

FrontendApplication.cpp:

#include <gui/common/FrontendApplication.hpp>
#include <platform/driver/lcd/LCD24bpp.hpp>
LCD24DebugPrinter lcd24bppDebugPrinter;
 
FrontendApplication::FrontendApplication(Model& m, FrontendHeap& heap)
    : FrontendApplicationBase(m, heap)
{
	lcd24bppDebugPrinter.setDebugPosition(0, 0, 240, 40);
	lcd24bppDebugPrinter.setDebugScale(2);
	lcd24bppDebugPrinter.setDebugColor(0x00); //black
	Application::setDebugPrinter(&lcd24bppDebugPrinter);
}

Then when implementing it in a Screen1View.cpp, calling the following function works except not invalidated on the screen correctly.

Unicode::UnicodeChar debugStringBuffer[30];
 
void Screen1View::updateDebugString()
{
  static int count = 0;
  count++;
  Unicode::snprintf(debugStringBuffer, sizeof(debugStringBuffer), "%d", count);
  Application::getDebugPrinter()->setDebugString((const char*)debugStringBuffer);
  //  touchgfx::Application::invalidateDebugRegion();
}

I needed to comment out the call to invalidateDebugRegion() because it is no longer a valid function.

I tried to call invalidateArea(), but is a protected function.

[scottSD]

In TouchGFX 4.12.3, they added setDebugString to the Application class (framework/include/touchgfx/Application.hpp):

/**
     * @fn static void setDebugString(const char* string);
     *
     * @brief Sets the debug string to be displayed onscreen.
     *
     *        Sets the debug string to be displayed onscreen on top of the framebuffer.
     *
     * @param [in] string The debug string to display onscreen.
     */
    static void setDebugString(const char* string)
    {
        if (debugPrinter)
        {
            debugPrinter->setDebugString(string);
            getInstance()->invalidateArea(debugPrinter->region());
        }
    }

And it appears that it should do the invalidating so there is no need to call invalidateDebugRegion().

As stated, it is not invalidating correctly on my display, however.

[Martin KJELDSEN]

Here's an example:

Here's the important code. This is just using a simulator.

int CALLBACK WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
    ...
    LCD24DebugPrinter lcd24bppDebugPrinter;
 
    char allchars[256];
    int ix = 0;
    for (int i = 32; i < 128; i++)
    {
        allchars[ix++] = i;
        if (i % 32 == 31)
        {
            allchars[ix++] = '\n';
        }
    }
    allchars[ix] = 0;
 
    char buf[300];
    snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "Hello World!\nMulti - line debug message!\nWindow size: %d*%d\n\n%s", SIM_WIDTH, SIM_HEIGHT, allchars);
 
    // Create hardware layer. Display size is defined in SimConstants.hpp
    // Martin: Important to init HAL before using Color class
    HAL& hal = touchgfx_generic_init<HALSDL2>(dma, lcd, tc, SIM_WIDTH, SIM_HEIGHT, 0, 0);
 
    // Simulate hardware running at 60Hz generating a vsync every 16.6667 ms
    static_cast<HALSDL2&>(hal).setVsyncInterval(16.6667f);
    static_cast<HALSDL2&>(hal).setWindowTitle(SIM_TITLE);
 
    //Configure debug printer
    lcd24bppDebugPrinter.setPosition(50, 10, SIM_WIDTH - 60, SIM_HEIGHT - 30);
    lcd24bppDebugPrinter.setColor(Color::getColorFrom24BitRGB(255, 0, 0));
    lcd24bppDebugPrinter.setScale(2);
 
    //Set printer object and debug string
    Application::setDebugPrinter(&lcd24bppDebugPrinter);
    Application::setDebugString(buf);
    ....
}

[scottSD]

Martin,

Thanks for your reply.

I was getting errors when implementing on the STM32F746G-Discovery kit as it didn't know what setPosition(), setColor(), and setScale() were (TouchGFX 4.12.3).

I used setDebugPosition(), setDebugColor(), and setDebugScale() (which the TouchGFX console suggested)..

It complied when I call those functions instead. And for anyone else looking at doing this, I needed include the following at the top of simulator/main.cpp:

#include <platform/driver/lcd/LCD24bpp.hpp>
#include <touchgfx/Color.hpp>

I plan on trying this on the target next as this feature is actually more applicable to a target since the Simulator already has a console for logging debug messages.

[scottSD]

When I attempted placing Martin's code inside the BoardConfiguration.cpp file, it compiled but I got a Hard Fault.

When I placed it in Screen1View.cpp (Screen1View::setupScreen), I get the first character ("H") to display, but nothing else is displayed. I checked with the debugger and the values of the buf variable are correct prior to calling setDebugString().

Can this be implemented in Screen1View.cpp?