4D Systems has collaborated with MikroElektronika, a producer and retailer of hardware and software tools for developing embedded systems, to introduce the 4D-display click, an adapter board with a mikroBUS™ interface that connects to any of 4D Systems’ gen4 series of intelligent display modules. Suitable for use with any of the growing number of microcontroller development boards that incorporate MikroElektronika’s 8-pin mikroBUSTM interface, such as the Microchip Curiosity board or those from MikroElektronika, the 4D-display click significantly simplifies the integration complexity of adding a display to a host. This approach not only eases the application design process but also does not impose any processing load onto the host MCU, this being handled by the 4D Systems display module. In this way, a full colour touch control display can be added to virtually any design that has a mikroBUSTM interface. Most notable is that a display can be interfaced to a slower, less resource-capable device such a an 8-bit microcontroller, without the need for the designer having to over specify the microcontroller used in the application purely to accommodate a display.
The gen4 series of intelligent displays integrate a 4D System’s Diablo graphic processor and communicate with the host MCU over a UART interface. Elaborate graphic touch screen interfaces can be quickly designed using the 4D Systems Workshop 4 IDE. For the host development, the 4D-display click board is supported within the MikroElektronikamikroSDK, allowing for the rapid addition of a display to a design using preconfigured settings with mikroC, mikroBasic and mikroPascal compilers. The board will also be supported within Microchip’s MPLABS integrated programming environment and Atmel START.
“Our Click boards™ solutions are ideal for HMI interface applications,” said Aleksandar Mitrovic, Product Marketing Manager at MikroElektronika.“This newest 4D-display click allows you to interface 4D Systems gen4 Series intelligent display modules with any board that carries a mikroBUS™ socket. We have simplified communication to the graphics processor and offered a library for controlling graphical objects using mikroE compilers. This significantly simplifies the application design, while reducing the processing load on the host MCU, allowing amazing graphically based applications to be created, even with slower 8-bit MCUs."
The 4D-display click adapter board measures 42.9 x 25.4 mm and features a 30-pin ZIF FFC socket for the display connection and a 2-pole SMD terminal block for connecting an external power supply in situations that warrant a separate supply. A jumper is used to switch between the external power source and power from the mikroBUSTM connector. The 4D-display click will be available to purchase at $9 for a single unit from MikroElektronika and all its major distributors.
