New touch screen build

Using Zynthian
1

Worked first time.

IMG_4580
IMG_45804032×3024 2.03 MB

But I have a question: it’s clear that navigation using the touch screen is context sensitive, but I am struggling with finding the correct way to get back to the MAIN menu from various places. The wiki says bold press (or is it long press) on the layer button works from everywhere - but where is that on the touch screen if you’re not in a control display?

2

I think the “title bar” at the top of the screen acts like a “back home” button when touched. Sorry to be so vague, I’m on my way out the door, wanted to give you some clue rather than nothing, quickly.

3

Yes, the topbar title section acts as a navigation button with short and bold press actions. The status section on the right acts separately so be sure to tap towards the left. I see that you have on-screen buttons enabled. This adds the top left back button.

We are currently updating the docs for Oram and working on the touch-only UI. This should result in better workflow with more accurate documentation.

4

I played with it tonight and it seems to be that a tap on the title bar takes me to a related screen whereupon another tap leads to the main menu. It worked several times despite starting in a different place each time. If this sounds correct then I’ve figured it out!

The problem is likely that I was bold pressing when I should have been tapping on one or the other. I just need to internalize the sequence so I don’t make the mistake again.

5

We need to finish our rationalisation of touch navigation then accurately document it. Touch had been a poor cousin to the main UI navigation and we are fixing that now.

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6

What is happening with @wanthalf development of onscreen buttons ? This would be a game changer if it can be merged to main zynthian build and enabled by configuration. Big DSI capacitive touchscreens are becoming cheap and with good sound card and direct 4 encoder wiring we can have very functional zynthian.

I am referring to this post: DIY: upgrading to V5 - or the question of new buttons - #136 by wanthalf

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7

Yes +1

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8

@jofemodo will need some time to look at this, I suppose. It can be merged without problems, but it concerns scaling of all the UI screens (I do not know some of them, but I already noticed some missing changes). It might be cleaner (and better for the future) to do some deeper modification of the “display size” attributes, since until now, all the screens have just supposed the display size is all available to them. But I did not dare to go that deep myself. Also, scaling of some screen details should be optimized.

Meanwhile, you can use my fork from Github. It works and I am merging updates from the primary repository continuously.

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9

I would suggest this should not be merged into Oram until after it’s release. We need to get Oram out and we can’t afford the delay of merging and resolving issues of such a significant change. So you may have to use the dev branch for a while.

After Oram release, we would have to decide whether this is accepted into mainstream zynthian and if so, whether it should be added to Oram as a point release/ update or whether it goes into the next full release.

The concept sounds interesting but in practice, there are some considerations to be made.

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10

Hi Wanthalf… do you have a procedure how to install zynthian with your adapted code? I aml ooking forward to try the touchscreen interface that replaced the hardware buttons.

Thanks,
Maarten

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11

I am currently on holiday, but it should work as follows:

  1. Go to /zynthian/zynthian-ui/ and edit the file .git/config. You need to change the URL from the original https://github.com/zynthian/zynthian-ui.git to my fork https://github.com/wanthalf/zynthian-ui.git
  2. Update with git pull
  3. Switch the branch with git checkout v5touch
  4. Then just add the line ZYNTHIAN_TOUCH_KEYPAD="V5" to /zynthian/config/zynthian_envars.sh to activate the touch keypad (or comment/remove it to disable)

Now a restart of the zynthian service (or the whole zynthian) should show it.

And you may want to install sudo apt install python3-cairosvg to support the SVG metronome icon, but it should fall back to the PNG version if you don’t do that (not tested).

Feel free to correct me, anyone.

4 Likes
12

Hi Pavel,

Thanks for the clear procedure!!

You are on holidays … I am lucky you read these messages… :blush:
The interface looks really great!! Unfortunately it is not really operational… not on my OLED screen as also not via VNC.
I found out that the screen was inverted… but then it did not work. The old ui part still works. I see that the new buttons respond… the text changes as if the button is pressed. I logged messages, but I do not want to pollute this item page here.

Great work. I am really looking forward to use the V5 screen buttons :blush::blush:

I hope you enjoy your holidays!!

Cheers,
Maarten

13

Not operational? Inverted? You mean inverted colors or the touch is/was badly calibrated?

It works for me. Well, I merged latest updates from the upstream before I wrote the message last night. They should not break it, but… So, what does not work?

14

Hi Pavel,

Thanks for your quick response…

The V5 software button are shown, but they do not invoke a action when pressed, either on the OLED sceen or VNC screen.

Inverted: my screen was set to ‘inverted’ on a DSI display.
After settin this to default (= not inverted) I could use the UI part that always existed, but not the buttons that you added.
The new button showed that they are pressed by translating the text of the botton a little…

Cheers and enjoy,
Maarten

15

Hi Pavel,
Just agreeing with what maarten posted.

I followed your instructions and the new interface looks great.
No interaction when a button is pressed, even though the button animates to show it has been pressed.

Dave

16

Well, this is not totally exact. I assume you have enabled the “onscreen buttons” from the webconf’s UI options (advanced). Then it works like this:

  • The topbar has a square back button at left side. This works as expected for the back button:

    • Short-push for returning to the previous view (most of times), or opening preset/bank view when used from control screen.
    • Bold-push to open mixer view from anywhere

  • The title-bar itself acts as a MENU button.

    • Short-push to open the contextual menu. Second push to open main menu. If no contextual menu available, the main menu will be shown directly at first push.
    • Bold-push to open mixer view from anywhere

This should be added to the new ORAM documentation ASAP.

Regards,

1 Like
17

I have been doing some work around touch today but this needs a bit of consideration to validate our existing touch workflow - it never really got a full treatment that it deserves.

18

I rarely use the touch interface in zynthian. I really love knobs and buttons :wink:

BTW, would you prefer to have this behaviour for the title-bar?

  • The title-bar itself acts as a MENU button.
    • Short-push to open the contextual menu. Second push to open main menu. If no contextual menu available, the main menu will be shown directly at first push.
    • Bold-push to open ADMIN view from anywhere

By doing so, the title-bar would act like the OPT/ADMIN button in V5.

Regards,

4 Likes
19

Oh, of course you also need to configure the buttons to their V5 actions as mentioned somewhere above. I don’t know what kind of the mystical “wiring layout” you are using, but you need to set up at least 24 virtual switches by entering 24 times (if it is empty or unused yet) -1 separated by commas into the switch pin configuration (appears for “Custom” or the “Mcp23017 …” layouts. Then you can select the “V5” profile and the configuration for the 20 switches of V5 should appear below. Apply/restart.

20

This would work fine for me, but I can’t speak for other touch screen users.

1 Like