Graphlcd-plugin/touchcol

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Description

Author: Community maintained.

This page is about a branch of the GraphLCD plugin with built-in support for skins. The GraphLCD plugin integrates a graphical display into VDR and makes it possible to control VDR even if the television is off.

The branch was started by Andreas 'powarman' Regel but was then abandoned and given to new maintainers by his request.

The functionality of this branch is rather impressive but unfortunately the code is hardly documented.

So this page will be used as a starting point for collecting and formatting its features. Thus this page will be started being a pigsty and improved 'along the way'.

Images

OLED, 256x64, customised skin
GLCD, 240x128, another customised skin
LCD panel, 640x200, connected to USB13700 module


Installation

Hardware requirements

To use this plugin you need a graphical display with supported controller. It's even possible to redirect the output of the plugin to image files or to the framebuffer to drive e.g. TFT monitors.

Supported are the following controllers (or compatibles) and modules:

  • Hitachi HD61830
  • Samsung KS0108
  • Toshiba T6963
  • Epson SED1520
  • Epson SED1330
  • Noritake GU140X32F-7806
  • Noritake GU256X64-372

and with the extra library [serdisplib] even a lot more (list of supported displays/modules: [supported displays]).

Software requirements

  • freetype (rendering of TrueType fonts)
  • serdisplib (optional, see above, not required at compile time)

Installation of graphlcd

graphlcd (skin-branch) consists of two parts:

  • graphlcd-base: library with low level drivers, basic functionality, and skin support
  • vdr-plugin-graphlcd: VDR plugin.


First of all a current version (contains included skin support) of graphlcd-base needs to be installed:

  • Get current version from the GIT repoository:
  git clone git://projects.vdr-developer.org/graphlcd-base.git
  • compile and install the library


Then the VDR plugin needs to be retrieved, installed, and compiled:

  • Note: $SOURCEDIR/VDR is the source directory of VDR and needs to be adapted accordingly.
  • Get current version of the branch from the GIT repository:
  cd $SOURCEDIR/VDR/PLUGINS/src/
  git clone git://projects.vdr-developer.org/vdr-plugin-graphlcd.git -b 0.2.0 vdr-plugin-graphlcd_0.2.0
  ln -s vdr-plugin-graphlcd_0.2.0 graphlcd
  • compile plugin, eg:
  cd $SOURCEDIR/VDR/
  make plugins

Everything else is the same as described in plugin installation.

Configuration

After finishing the installation, some files need to be copied.

  • copy the configuration file graphlcd.conf to some destination, on most installations this will be /etc.
    can be manually configured by setting parameter --skin (see below):
 cp graphlcd.conf /etc/
  • copy the directory with logos, fonts, and skins to $VDRCONFIG/plugins (depending on your installation this will be /etc/vdr/plugins, or /video/plugins, or some other destination):
 cp -r $SOURCEDIR/VDR/PLUGINS/src/graphlcd/graphlcd $VDRCONFIG/plugins/

Parameter

Parameter (short) Parameter (long) Description Default (if parameter not given)
-c CFG --config=CFG use CFG as driver config file /etc/graphlcd.conf
-d DISP --display=DISP use display DISP for ouput first display defined in config file
-s SKIN --skin=SKIN use skin SKIN default
-p SKINPATH path to skin files $VDRCONFIG/plugins/graphlcd/skins


Skins

A skin gives a high flexibility of how and which information is brought to a display. Its markup language is the well-known XML.

Structure and elements of a skin

Example skeleton of a skin 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<skin version="1.0" name="testskin">
 
 

 <variable id="LogoWdith" value="40" condition="le({ScreenHeight},64)" />
 <variable id="LogoWdith" value="64" />

 <display id="normal">

   <variable id="TextX" value="4" />

   <text x1="#TextX" ...>
     {PresentTitle}
   </text>

   <image ... />
   <rectangle ... />
   <progress ... />

   <block condition="{Recordings}">
     <image ... />
     <text ...>
       {Recordings}
     </text>
   </block>

   <variable id="Arrow" value="'images/arrow.pbm'"/>
   <text ... >{MenuTitle}</text>
   <list ...>
     <item height="ITEMHEIGHT" />
     <text ... >{MenuCurrent}</text>
     <text ... >{Menuitem}</text>
     <image ... path="#Arrow" condition="{IsMenuCurrent}" />
   </list>

 </display>
</skin>


A skin definition contains different types and sections of information:

font
defines an easy to remember font 'handle'. if a condition is given the font item is only defined if the condition is true.
Note:: fonts can only be defined in the context 'skin'.
variable
defines a variable which can be a constant or calculated using a complex evaluation.
Note:: variables can be defined everywhere, but the scope will always be skin-wide!


sections:

skin
root element.
display
a layer containing drawing elements.
block
groups elements together. may be displayed or hidden depending on a condition.
list
a menu with a defined item height, selected text line, line marker, maybe some lines before, and after the .selected line.

drawing elements:

  • image
  • text
  • pixel
  • line
  • rectangle
  • elipse
  • slope
  • progress (progress bar)
  • item (needed in lists)


functions, conditions, evaluations, and tokens:

function
retrieves a value of a certain entity, eg. the height of a font or width of a text string in pixels.
condition
evaluates boolean terms (returns either true or false).
evaluation
evaluates a simple calculation using basic arithmetic operations.
token
contains an information (eg. runtime information from VDR like present title, current channel name, ...) and is either displayed or used in evaluations or conditions.

List of tokens defined in either graphlcd-base or vdr-plugin-graphlcd

  • Current channel
{ChannelNumber}
The Channel Number
{ChannelName}
The Channel Name
{ChannelShortName}
The Channel short Name if present
{ChannelProvider}
The Provider Name if present
{ChannelPortal}
The Name of the VDRs channel group the Channel is in
{ChannelSource}
Signal source of the channel, as defined in sources.conf.
{ChannelID}
The VDRs channel ID
{ChannelHasTeletext}
True if Teletext is present
{ChannelHasMultilang}
True if more than one Audio stream is present
{ChannelHasDolby}
True if Dolby Digital stream is present
{ChannelIsEncrypted}
True if the channel is encrypted
{ChannelIsRadio}
True if the channel is an Radio channel
{ChannelAlias}
The ChannelAlis, this is an virtual channel Name mapped throw the channel.alias mapping file.
Its the preferred way for naming channel logos
svdrpsend plug graphlcd set <key> <value, space allowed>
svdrpsend plug graphlcd setexp <exp> <key> <value, space allowed>
svdrpsend plug graphlcd unset <key>
svdrpsend plug graphlcd get <key>
{ExtDataIsAvailable:<key>}
Check if a given variable is set with an SVDRP call
{ExtDataItem:<key>}
Retrieve the contend of the given variable
  • Other Plugins Services
{ServiceIsAvailable:<service>}
Check if a given Service is available
{ServiceItem:<service>,<key>[,<parameter 1>][,<parameter 2>]}
Retrieve a service value
{ServiceItem:radio,<key>}
Update interval 100 ms
key Description
default at rds_info = 2: <start hh>:<start mm> <title> | <artist>
at rds_info = 1: <radiotext>
at rds_info = 0: empty
title Titel
artist Artist
text Radiotext
rds_info info 0 = No RDS present
1 = Radiotext present
2 = Radiotext, Title and Artist present
rds_pty pty Program type
http://tech.ebu.ch/docs/techreview/trev_255-beale.pdf (Page 3)
{ServiceItem:lcr,<key>}
Update interval 60 s
key Description
default ?
destination ?
price ?
pulse ?
{ServiceItem:femon,<key>[,<format>][,<divisor>]}
Update interval 2 s
key Description
default status ?
name ?
snr ?
signal ?
percent_snr ?
percent_signal ?
ber ?
unc ?
video_bitrate vbr ?
audio_bitrate abr ?
dolby_bitrate dbr ?
<format> and <divisor> are only available with key video_bitrate/vbr, audio_bitrate/abr and dolby_bitrate/dbr
<format> is an valid strftime format string

Problems

Links

[1] http://projects.vdr-developer.org/projects/show/graphlcd new plugin homepage
[2] http://projects.vdr-developer.org/wiki/graphlcd/GraphlcdSkin page for skin branch

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