Webinar: Low cost GUI solution with TouchGFX Q&A part 3

[Soren Myllerup MIKKELSEN]

Q&A session from webinar "Low cost GUI solution with TouchGFX"

2. TouchGFX looks impressive concerning memory footprint and performance. But are you planning to officially support other graphics frameworks like LVGL (what Espressif/NXP is doing)?

ST has partnership with many other framework such as Embedded Wizard, Crank, Qt and maybe also LVGL (to be confirmed) but even if they make full use of ST's graphic-related accelerators, none is as integrated as TouchGFX is in the ST ecosystem. That being said the mass-market launch of the Cube Expansion Pack feature (the way to add pack to CubeMX) is quite recent so things may change but only if partners are involved in the process.

Can I get this source code?

Sure, until it is deployed as a MooC video please request it from the Online support portal : https://my.st.com/ols#/ols/

I want to use GFX UI wirh MicroPython backend. Will it work together? Are there any known examples?

No at this time

You spoke about a 5USD bom at the beginning of the project. What exactly is included in this price ?

There is the MCU - STM32G070, SPI display as reference on the X-NUCLEO-GFX01M, SPI flash 4Mbytes, 2 layers PCB. All for volumes in range of 100ku.

Is there a 2D, multi variable graphing example ?

The Tversion 4.15 of the Designer introduces a new graph widget indeed

Is there a bigger widget colletion or just the few included?

No only the ones exposed in the Designer tool for the moment

Hi, GFX01M1 board provide a Tearing Effect which seems to be connected to G071RB PA0 : Interrupt line. Question is tearing effect line mandatory ? many cheap displsy does'nt provide such signal.

No it is not mandatory, on other board a timer interrupt triggered evera 16ms is used instead

Is it necessary to build TouchGFX project around C%2B%2B project or is it possible to build it in C?

The TouchGFX framework is in C++ as well as the code generated by the Designer tool but it interacts with C code since CubeMX generates only C code for the MCU configuration

Hi, is it also possible to use a STM32F030 MCU to control a grayscale 128x64 display via I2C, with integrated display controller (memory in external display controller).

There are no limitation for this use case

Portenta H7 DisplayPort example ?

No

Do you have any training about custom display?

Not yet but some MooC videos are in our plans

Does the TouchGFX solution supports multitouch / gestures recognition? How powerful should MCU be?

TouchGFX doesn't support multi touch. The TouchController interface is based on a single set of coordinates and whether a touch was registered or not. If you have a touch controller IC that can do multi-touch you could probably imeplement these as special events and propagate them to your active views.

If I create the UI interaction with the TouchGFX Designer and then I customize it editing the code, is it possible that the TouchGFX Designer will refuse to edit it again? Thanks.

The source code generated by TouchGFX is read-only, you can only modify sub-classes of it so that when the code is generated again it will not override your updates, see : https://support.touchgfx.com/docs/development/ui-development/software-architecture/code-structure/#generated-code-vs-user-code

Is there any demo with low cost monochrome LCD-Display with low resolution for example 128x64?

No

Which is the most powerful STM32 I can use with GFX?

It may be the STM32H735

Can you provide link to source files of the 3 projects mentioned/showed at begin of the webinar?

Only two of them, open TouchGFX Designer and go to the "Online Application" tab then create a project based on one of the two to download the source code

Is there a version of TouchGFX that work with any of the RFID demo boards? ie. ST25 Discovery MB1396

No, TouchGFX is dedicated to STM32 MCUs

How can I manage custom board with TouchGFX

You should start from the CubeMX tool along with the TouchGFX Generator module and then integrate the BSP part based on your display/external memory datasheet.

can you generate c code using touch gfx?

No the TouchGFX framework is written in C++.

Other Question: is there any restruction to use TouchGFX with monochrome 1-Bit Displays?

No, TouchGFX does not care what type of display is connected as long as it is able to refresh it, it can support 1, 2, 4, 6/8, 16, 24 bit per pixel.

Is there a ready to use kepypad in the UI or I'd need to develop my own?

There is a virtual keyboard, not a keypad, but as it is delivered in source code you may start from it or re-implement your own

Is the STM32WB-Series supported by TouchGFX?

Yes

How do we link resources (images, fonts) on custom external Flash for custom board design ?

TouchGFX Designer defines sections for input bitmaps and fonts : "ExtFlashSection", "FontFlashSection" and "TextFlashSection", these names can then be used in the linker script to locate these objects in specific memory areas, see : https://support.touchgfx.com/docs/development/scenarios/using-non-memory-mapped-flash/#linker-script-modifications

Are any graphs a standard GUI element? For example line graph or pie chart?

Yes a new Graph widget has been introduced in the latest version 4.15 of the TouchGFX Designer

Is there (or do you plan to add) analog video input to manage analog camera video?

This is not planned within the Designer tool but the Dynamic Bitmap feature (see https://support.touchgfx.com/docs/development/ui-development/touchgfx-engine-features/dynamic-bitmaps/) may allow you to do so already by routing the output of a camera to this kind of widget dipslayed in the GUI. The ST Community could also be a great source of use cases from other customers including this one (see https://community.st.com/s/topic/0TO0X0000003iw6WAA/touchgfx).

Will there be another webinar (besides the one already available) explaining more in detail the process of integrating hardware to the application? Thanks in advance!

Most probably as a series of MooC videos, a webinar duration is not the best format for such a subject

Can I easily import a TTF font ?

Yes the TouchGFX Designer has a "Fonts" panel where you can impor any True Type Font, see https://support.touchgfx.com/docs/development/ui-development/touchgfx-engine-features/texts-and-fonts/#the-font-converter

STM32F1 are not supported ?

F1 family contains a Cortex-M3 which is not supported by the TouchGFX library, because of a lack of demand from customers

TouchFX and MicroPython - can they run together?

If you mean calling Python from TouchGFX GUI then no.

Back in the STM 32 Cube ide V1.1.0 there used to be a graphics tab which was very convenient. Why was it removed?

With graphics, we could start the project from the IDE instead of Graphics. When we start the project from GFX interface, additional freertos tend to freeze the display. Do you recommend a solution?

Indeed the graphic integration in CubeMX was completely reworked at the beginning of 2020 and the graphic selector ws then pushed out. It may come back in another form in a near future. For the other question please log a ticket to the online support portal as more information would be required to answer : https://my.st.com/ols#/ols/

How do we set spi connections and all spi settings for custom display?

You can use CubeMX for the pinout and general settings of the SPI annd then edit the generate code to set the proper low-level commands based on your display's datasheet, taking the existing porting a surce of inspiration for the API.

Which license comes from TouchGFX, can we distribute our application "freely" to our customers ?

Yes you can, the licensing can be found here : https://support.touchgfx.com/assets/files/third-party-components-4.15-98979afec1712f832c1588f1057a9ab5.pdf it follows the SLA0048 : https://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/legal/legal_agreement/license_agreement/group0/39/50/32/6c/e0/a8/45/2d/DM00218346/files/DM00218346.pdf/jcr:content/translations/en.DM00218346.pdf

Is a tutorial available that shows in detail how to implement a TouchGFX project on custom hardware?

Not a real tutorial, more a set of guidelines : https://support.touchgfx.com/docs/development/board-bring-up/board-introduction

It's not easy on your web site to retrieve the SDK plateform supporting Touch GFX.

If refering to TouchGFX Designer, please see : https://support.touchgfx.com/docs/introduction/installation/#installing-touchgfx-designer

What are cortex version supported by touchGFX? M0, M0%2B, M4, etc?

Today : M0, M4, M7 and M33, not M3

Can TouchGFX run together with FreeRTOS?

Sure, all the examples are using FreeRTOS even if it can run with other or even no OS at all

Trying to setup TouchGFX on a STM32429I-eval.  IS there a demo or tutorial on this board?

Yes there is a dedicated application template in the TouchGFX Designer to start from for this board.

Is STemWin no longer recommended in favor of using TouchGFX?

Indeed, but STemWin is still supported as a legacy solution