Hack && Tell 2017-10-17 - Tiny Wearable VT100 Console

TinTTY is an Arduino Uno based terminal emulator project. This presentation gives a brief overview of the motivation behind the effort, current progress so far and some implementation details.

Transcript

1. Tiny Wearable 8-bit VT100 Console Arduino-based terminal emulator by Nick Matantsev @line_ctrl
2. About Me - Nick Matantsev (@line_ctrl on Twitter) - full-stack developer (@unframework on GitHub) - currently front-end web dev - independent contractor (see beamworks.io) - balancing work with wacky hobbies - retro hardware - electronics and Arduino - learning Mandarin! (不很好) @line_ctrl
3. Command Prompt - most folks in tech have used commandline / shell / terminal prompt - grid of text characters, ASCII - handy low-level access on every OS - universal UI? maybe! - just remember, it’s :q! to exit @line_ctrl
4. Olden Days - not just a handy terminal window, but the only user interface! - bulky appliance on someone’s desk - actual computer with disk drive is elsewhere, in a dedicated data center - “thin client” using serial wire connection - still used to this day @line_ctrl
5. Let’s Make it Wearable! - who needs Apple Watch? - text interface is surprisingly versatile - useful for hacking into the Matrix on the go - finally get to put my Arduino Minis into a real project @line_ctrl
6. How it Works - data in, data out - very little internal logic - VT and ANSI commands - move cursor - set text colour @line_ctrl Arduino Uno Mainframe (Linux / Unix / GLaDOS) Text and Esc-command parsing Input keycode to ASCII translation LCD display (ILI9163C TFT) USB wireless keyboard Serial UART
7. Showing Stuff on Screen - the LCD TFT display has a tiny controller chip with a pixel buffer - 1” by 1” square, ILI9163C, purchased at Creatron - accepts commands over serial SPI hardware bus - example: “put pixel data in address 1234” - Adafruit GFX library adds helper functions like “draw rectangle at X,Y” @line_ctrl
8. Keyboard Input - can’t be too small! - USB connection for versatility - portable wireless keyboard - Arduino USB host shield takes a lot of memory! - might bring out to secondary MCU @line_ctrl
9. Almost Wearable? - not quite yet - parser code needed some attention - need to find a small form-factor USB shield - but it works! (first video) @line_ctrl
10. More Text Density - sub-pixel rendering increases density by 3x - yep, 2 pixels per character! - more in my blog posts @line_ctrl
11. Next Steps - proper wearable prototype! - glasses mount? - something something Lego? - open-source code (already online, needs cleanup) @line_ctrl
12. More Pics/Posts on Twitter and Medium! • Follow on Twitter and Medium: @line_ctrl • Arduino devlog stories and pictures ... also, cough, check out beamworks.io if you need web dev help! (React, WordPress) @line_ctrl