Transmitter Software Capabilities and Issues (Jessie)

[vk5bd]

Hello Dave,

I think there is a bit of egg on face happening here , I decided I would start with a fresh Pi, fresh install on a class 10 SD card just to make sure I had not caused any issues and that there were no hardware issues, powered the pi up and sure enough glitchy video and broken audio. Then the technician in me said "Always check your power supplies first" so I measured the voltage at the GPIO pins and the 5v rail was down to 4.5 and varying. Remove the micro usb power lead and direct powered the project from a bench supply and presto, solid video continuous audio.

Sorry for causing alarm, keep up the great work on this project.

73
Bevan, VK5BD

[G8GKQ]

Hi Bevan

Thanks for being so honest! The same power supply problem caught me out on another RPi project last year. My son pointed it out....

Dave

[g0uhy]

Hi Dave,

yes it did prompt me to reboot. After the reboot it just came up with the BATC logo and IP address and wouldn't go any further. I've got another SD card that needs updating so I'll let you know if I have the same problem with that one.

73

Malcolm G0UHY

[g0uhy]

Hi Dave,

second SD card updated without any problem. This update seemed to take less time than the previous one so perhaps a glitch on the download.

Thanks for your quick response.

73

Malcolm G0UHY

[KenW6HHC]

After reviewing the CONSOLE menu for settings and configuration choices on the latest wiki, there are two terms that I do not understand yet (not intuitive).

1) Under the AUTOSTART MENU....what is "button_boot" ?? I understand booting up to the TOUCHCSREEN DISPLAY, but how is TOUCHCSREEN DISPLAY different from "BUTTON_BOOT"?

2) Under the SOURCE MENU -> DESKTOP selection line...what is "Raspberry Pi Display" ?? I understand booting up to TOUCHSCREEN (that normally means displaying the buttons or the "transmitted video") to me , but how is RPi DISPLAY setting different from the TOUCHSCREEN setting?

"still a Portsdown newbie"...de Ken W6HHC

[G8GKQ]

Hi Ken

These are both legacy capabilities from Evariste's original software which I have tried to preserve.

Button_Boot allows you to boot the Pi direct into a mode where you can control transmit and receive directly from hardware button and monitor operation using LED indicator lights. I have not tested this mode, and so do not "support" it, but have tried to preserve and not break it. I am told that some French operators use it.

DESKTOP input mode does just that. It transmits a picture of whatever is displayed on the touchscreen (which is copied from the "desktop"), whether that is the buttons, the BATC Logo or the Linux boot screen with the 3 raspberries. Again, it's been there since I started playing with this software build, and I see no reason to take it away.

Dave

[KenW6HHC]

Hi Dave,

No...not proposing "taking anything away"...I am just trying to clarify the function/purpose .

On "BUTTONS_BOOT", it sounds like the hardware "buttons" are connected to the GPIO pins? Did I get the concept correct now?

on SOURCE menu DESKTOP selection...the DESKTOP video is then NOT a PC DESKTOP supplying video to RpiDATV...but is really "calling the TOUCHSCREEN as the desktop" and then transmitting what ever is being displayed on the TOUCHSCRREN? Do I have that correct? The terminology "copied from the "desktop' I think is saying the same as "copied from the RPi touchscreen"...but I was thinking of some big PC desktop! If I do understand you correctly, then how does the selection of "Raspberry Pi Display" differ from selecting "Show Touchscreen"??

Thanks again for helping me...de Ken W6HHC

[vk5bd]

Hello Dave,

Hopefully I have got my story straight this time, I was attempting to use a 7" touch screen from Element 14 on the Portsdown project, but found the touch response was rotated 90 degrees to the buttons, I looked through the rpidatvtouch.c code and saw that there was an option for "Inverted" display which swapped the axis, the logic indicated that it should be inverted if not a Waveshare display, but the overriding setting seemed to be the first argument give to the command. This lead me to look in the menu.sh script and found that at line 1480 the script showed "/home/pi/rpidatv/bin/rpidatvgui 1" I changed the code to "/home/pi/rpidatv/bin/rpidatvgui 0" and my screen worked as expected.
It is only as I type this that I realise that menu.sh calls rpidatvgui and not rpidatvtouch and currently cant check the code inside rpidatvgui, so not sure if I am barking up the wrong tree.

Regards,
Bevan

[G8GKQ]

Bevan

You have this correct. rpidatvtouch.c is compiled into rpidatvgui with a few other c programs.

What display do you have selected in the Portsdown Main Menu? With this info, I'll be able to incorporate your change into the main build and deliver it in the next update.

Dave

[G8GKQ]

New Software Release

I've just issued a new release 201705200. This introduces a new version of the Shutdown Button script, which is not so trigger-happy. The button needs to be pressed for at least 100ms before a shutdown is initiated. It also enables the auto-shutter on the Pi Camera in H264 mode so that bright images are not washed out (and dark images are not so dark).

If using DATV Express, the Express Server is now correctly started when booting into the touchscreen (thanks to Ken W6HHC for spotting that one). If a screen other than Waveshare is selected, the correct touch orientation should now be available on exiting from the Console Menu (for Bevan).

You should upgrade to this version as soon as you can, especially if you experience problems with the ShutDown button or washed-out pictures.

Dave, G8GKQ