How to store images for Touchgfx to external flash

[busenuremir]

I use w25q128 as an external spi nor flash for stm32f429 discovery kit because internal flash is not enough to store lots of images. I can read and write the flash by the library but I do not know how to connect it with touchgfx files.

Below declarations are added into FLASH.ld file:

SPIFLASH    (r)        : ORIGIN = 0x90000000,   LENGTH = 4M

and

ExtFlashSection :
 
   {
 
     *(ExtFlashSection ExtFlashSection.*)
 
     *(.gnu.linkonce.r.*)
 
     . = ALIGN(0x4);
 
   } >SPIFLASH
 
 
 
   FontFlashSection :
 
   {
 
     *(FontFlashSection FontFlashSection.*)
 
     *(.gnu.linkonce.r.*)
 
     . = ALIGN(0x4);
 
   } >SPIFLASH
 
 
 
   TextFlashSection :
 
   {
 
     *(TextFlashSection TextFlashSection.*)
 
     *(.gnu.linkonce.r.*)
 
     . = ALIGN(0x4);
 
   } >SPIFLASH
 

[Romain DIELEMAN]

Hi,

This settings in the flash loader seem fine to me.

In TouchGFX Designer have you set the dafault image configuration to use the external flash section ? This can be done by clicking the Config icon in the bottom left of TouchGFX Designer and going to the Default Image Configuration tab. There you can set the section and extra section to ExtFlashSection to store/use images in external flash.

 

You can also decide to individually store images in internal or external flash when going to the Images section in the top left of TouchGFX Designer and setting the section and extra section to your choice.

/Romain

[busenuremir]

Hi Mr. Dieleman,

Thank you for responding. I have already done that part, and memory details are as shown below.

 

The problem is there is a white screen instead of my design, and it falls into hard fault. What is the thing that I missed?

[Romain DIELEMAN]

There could be different origin for this issue 😅 Difficult to say without seing your project. Did touchgfx work before you enabled external flash ? I suppose you had a look at the Board Bring Up articles already as well.

/Romain

[ssipa.1]

If there is no configuration that matches the memory you use, the MCU, and the pin connection, you need to write your own external flash loader which will be a .stldr file. There is a video tutorial from ST: https://github.com/vlcekji2/External-Loaders

[Ricko]

@ssipa.1 

I just came across this thread. And I am trying to do something similar now that I am designing the electronics.

You mentioned "If there is no configuration that matches the memory you use, the MCU, and the pin connection, you need to write your own external flash loader which will be a .stldr file" and I want to avoid that for a number of reasons.

So how do I find a reference schematic (or general info with part number and preferred connections) so I can use off-the shelf configuration in TouchGFX?

Thank you