Countdown timer and scrolling text

[Fearscotty]

I'm looking for lots of help with setting up an 8 min countdown timer. I have no experience with this stuff so it basically needs to be done for me. this project is to help my local footy club keep time on the field.
I have the panel up and working using the below code.

This is my first time here so any information would be much appreciated.

/*************************************************************************

• Description:
• The underlying implementation of the ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel-I2S-DMA only
• supports output to HALF scan panels - which means outputting
• two lines at the same time, 16 or 32 rows apart if a 32px or 64px high panel
• respectively.
• This cannot be changed at the DMA layer as it would require a messy and complex
• rebuild of the library's internals.
• However, it is possible to connect QUARTER (i.e. FOUR lines updated in parallel)
• scan panels to this same library and
• 'trick' the output to work correctly on these panels by way of adjusting the
• pixel co-ordinates that are 'sent' to the ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel-I2S-DMA
• library.

**************************************************************************/
#include "ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel-I2S-DMA.h"

/* Use the Virtual Display class to re-map co-ordinates such that they draw

• correctly on a 32x16 1/8 Scan panel (or chain of such panels).
  */
  #include "ESP32-VirtualMatrixPanel-I2S-DMA.h"

// Panel configuration
#define PANEL_RES_X 64 // Number of pixels wide of each INDIVIDUAL panel module.
#define PANEL_RES_Y 32 // Number of pixels tall of each INDIVIDUAL panel module.

#define NUM_ROWS 1 // Number of rows of chained INDIVIDUAL PANELS
#define NUM_COLS 2 // Number of INDIVIDUAL PANELS per ROW

// ^^^ NOTE: DEFAULT EXAMPLE SETUP IS FOR A CHAIN OF TWO x 1/8 SCAN PANELS

// Change this to your needs, for details on VirtualPanel pls read the PDF!
#define SERPENT true
#define TOPDOWN false

// placeholder for the matrix object
MatrixPanel_I2S_DMA *dma_display = nullptr;

// placeholder for the virtual display object
VirtualMatrixPanel *FourScanPanel = nullptr;

/******************************************************************************

• Setup!
  ******************************************************************************/
  void setup()

{

HUB75_I2S_CFG mxconfig(
            PANEL_RES_X*2,              // DO NOT CHANGE THIS
            PANEL_RES_Y/2,              // DO NOT CHANGE THIS
            NUM_ROWS*NUM_COLS           // DO NOT CHANGE THIS
            //,_pins            // Uncomment to enable custom pins
);

mxconfig.gpio.a = 23; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.b =19; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.c =5; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.d = 22; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.e = 18; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.clk = 21; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.lat = 4 ; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.oe = 15; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.r1 = 25; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.g1 = 26; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.b1 = 27; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.r2 = 14; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.g2 = 12; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.gpio.b2 = 13; // led matrix pin config
mxconfig.clkphase = false; // Change this if you see pixels showing up shifted wrongly by one column the left or right.

//mxconfig.driver   = HUB75_I2S_CFG::FM6126A;     // in case that we use panels based on FM6126A chip, we can set it here before creating MatrixPanel_I2S_DMA object

// OK, now we can create our matrix object
dma_display = new MatrixPanel_I2S_DMA(mxconfig);

// let's adjust default brightness to about 75%
dma_display->setBrightness8(10);    // range is 0-255, 0 - 0%, 255 - 100%

// Allocate memory and start DMA display
if( not dma_display->begin() )
  Serial.println("****** !KABOOM! I2S memory allocation failed ***********");


dma_display->clearScreen();
delay(500);

// create FourScanPanellay object based on our newly created dma_display object
FourScanPanel = new VirtualMatrixPanel((*dma_display), NUM_ROWS, NUM_COLS, PANEL_RES_X, PANEL_RES_Y);

// THE IMPORTANT BIT BELOW!
FourScanPanel->setPhysicalPanelScanRate(FOUR_SCAN_32PX_HIGH);

}

void loop() {

  // Try again using the pixel / dma memory remapper
  int offset = PANEL_RES_X*((NUM_ROWS*NUM_COLS)-1);
  for (int i=0; i< PANEL_RES_X; i++)
  {
   //FourScanPanel->drawLine(i+offset, 0, i+offset, 7, dma_display->color565(0, 0, 255)); // blue
   
    FourScanPanel->drawLine(i+offset, 6, i+offset, 8, dma_display->color565(0, 128,0)); // g        
    FourScanPanel->drawLine(i+offset, 18, i+offset, 20, dma_display->color565(128, 0,0)); // red
    //FourScanPanel->(i+offset, 24, i+offset, 31, dma_display->color565(0, 128, 128)); // blue        
    //delay(10);
  } 

  //delay(1000);


  // Print on each chained panel 1/8 module!
  // This only really works for a single horizontal chain
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_ROWS*NUM_COLS; i++)
  {
     
    FourScanPanel->setTextColor(FourScanPanel->color565(255, 255, 255));
    FourScanPanel->setCursor(i*PANEL_RES_X+3, FourScanPanel->height()/3); //(scott, what the fuck)
  
    
    FourScanPanel->setTextSize(1);
    FourScanPanel->print("MORE");

    FourScanPanel->setTextColor(FourScanPanel->color565(255, 255, 255));
    FourScanPanel->setCursor(i*PANEL_RES_X+30, FourScanPanel->height()/3); //(scott, what the fuck)
  
    
    FourScanPanel->print("HELP");
    
  }

}

[mrcodetastic]

Quite a few Arduino sketches around after a Google that does this/

https://electronics-project-hub.com/arduino-countdown-timer-with-lcd-and-buzzer/

Use similar code and change the drawing code routine to use the Adafruit_GFX ->print(xxx) function instead to print the time?

[Fearscotty]

I really have no knowledge on how to put it all together.

[board707]

@Fearscotty
What is your panel and why do you use a Four_scan_panel example for it?

[Fearscotty]

It is a 1/8 scan panel. To be honest, I don't know why. The other one I tired was doubling up on the words.

[Fearscotty]

Hi guys,

Having a read through some of the questions and answers, it looks like we can not increase the brightness. Is this correct and is there a workaround?