Message generating programs for the MiniPOV

[magician13134]

There's a lot of great programs for this floating around these forums, so I figured it would be a good idea to consolidate them all into one post to make it easy to find them.

Magician13134's
Screen shot:

Original thread:
http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3488
Features:
- Stand alone EXE
- Save/Load
- Import images
- Add text
- One click compiling/transfer to MiniPOV
Download:
http://www.magicsoftinc.com/software/MiniPOV/
Alternative, in development web interface: http://magicsoftinc.com/MiniPOV/

AndyIsGreen's
Screen shot:

Original thread:
http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3488
Features:
- Written in Java
- Can be run on Windows, Linux, Mac, anything with Java installed
- Clean, simple, powerful
Download:
http://mini-pov-editor.googlecode.com/f ... Editor.jar

efimomax's
Screen shot:

Original thread:
http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6025
Features:
- save created messages in simple text file for future load
- load saved messages from file
- resize message lenght (in rows) without clearing the current message (in case if you make it wider)
- Set delay for "minipov.c" file with message
- set com port for "makefile" file
- create complet "minipov.c" file with delay setting
- create complete "makefile" file with comport setting
- flash miniPOV from program with created/loaded messages (WinAVR should be installed)
Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/118634889/M ... ERATOR.rar

oPossum's
Screen shot:

Original thread:
http://ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4941
Features:
Does not require AVRDude!
Download it:
http://www.compendiumarcana.com/pov/minipov3asd.zip

Repulsor's
Screen shot:

Original thread:
None
Features:
Web-based, neat!
Use it:
http://www.repulsor.net/minipov/

schmarki's
No screen shot yet
Original thread:
2nd page of http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3488
Features:
A Mac-compatible version
Sorry I can't be more specific, I don't have a Mac
Download:
http://www.hmwenzel.de/MiniPOV-Programmer03.xls.zip

Raphae1's
No screen shot yet
Original thread:
http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5481
Features:
Simply a PERL script, no EXE
Sorry I can't be more specific, I don't know what to do with PERL
Download:
http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5481

jpstanley's
No screen shot yet
Original thread:
http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4323
Features:
Simply call it with a bmp as a parameter
Sorry I can't be more specific, I don't know have SDL installed
Download:
http://www.xmission.com/~jstanley/povgen.zip

Vrungel's
No screen shot yet
Original thread:
http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4372
Features:
- A Mac-compatible version
- save/load your POV messages as data files for later use.
- generate .c table that can be copied into your sources or simply use #include to include the table.
- insert column anywhere (using contextual menu)
- remove any column (using contextual menu)
- turn all LEDs On/Off for any column (using contextual menu)
- add/remove columns an the end using +/-
Download:
http://homepage.mac.com/maxym/FileSharing35.html


Did I miss yours? Do you have more details or a screen shot? Did you just write one?
Let me know, either in a PM or simply post it here!

[Edits]
Added oPossum's

[opossum]

Use any ordinary text editor with this firmware

[corwin]

I love this C64 font helper file! It automatically replaces the text in your .c firmware with the correct B8(BANNED) bytes at compile-time. By (stingray)

http://forums.ladyada.net/viewtopic.php?p=8945

[SamuelAaronWard]

Hello, everyone!

My name is Aaron. I'm an electrical engineer from Charleston, West Virginia. For my day job, I design lighting and power systems for new buildings (boring). As a hobby, I design electronics / robotics (fun). I am new to MicroChip PICs and love them! My weapon of choice so far is the PIC16F684. I have designed / built / programmed four projects so far and have had great success! I started out as a computer science major at WVU Tech in 1996 and studied C++, of which I remember very little. I have been programming my PICs in C, though my knowledge is very limited. After changing my major to electrical engineering, I took a course in microprocessors (Motorola 68HC12) and learned a little ASM programming.

I discovered Limor (Lady Ada) a few months ago, and I'm a big fan! I'm trying to make my own MiniPOV, and I need a little help. To answer your questions, Limor, here are my answers to your READ ME FIRST post:

1) I am building a DIY POV using a PIC16F684 (preferably programmed in C). Yes, I definitely need to work on my C and ASM programming skills.
2) I am using Window XP.
3) I am using a MicroChip PICkit 1 Flash Starter Kit programmer, which uses a USB cable for programming.
4) Yes, my POV did light up upon programming, but only 5 LEDs are working so far. They are flashing, and it is obvious that the POV is almost working correctly. Yes, I checked my circuit.
5) I believe that the problem lies in how my I/O pins are connected to the LEDs. Limor used a PIC16F630 in her original MiniPOV, and I am using a PIC16F684. I looked up the datasheets for each, and the applicable I/O pinouts are the same for both PICs. So it should work! I tried reading and understanding Limor's ASM code, but I hardly understand it at all due to my limited ASM programming experience. I think that I have simply connected the I/O pins to the wrong LEDs; they're just out of order. I'll try studying Limor's PCB to see which I/O pins go where. That should solve it, I think.
6 & 7) Labeled picture: http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8871/minipov1.png
*Sorry for the poor resolution; I need a new digital camera. This should suffice.

If anyone has any comments / suggestions, please e-mail me directly at samuelaaronward@gmail.com or even call me directly at (740) 357-8016 USA cell.

Thanks!
Aaron

[sparr]

My firmware includes a font, so you just type the text you want into a string variable and it gets rendered.

http://ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=8030

[akula169]

You can add my new text generator to the list:

http://www.repulsor.net/minipov/text/

It actually generates a PNG in the background with the selected TrueType font and reads the individual pixel data from that image to generate the code.

[adafruit]

neat

[mlmforshypeople.com]

My message is pretty long, so I need to scroll the message as it gets displayed...

Ideally, each time it cycles through the display, it needs to start and end at a different location in the message...maybe 50-60 lines of a 250 line message.

Is this possible? I guess that it is, but I am not a programmer... Anyone out there do this already?

Lui

[tldr]

My message is pretty long, so I need to scroll the message as it gets displayed...

Ideally, each time it cycles through the display, it needs to start and end at a different location in the message...maybe 50-60 lines of a 250 line message.

Is this possible? I guess that it is, but I am not a programmer... Anyone out there do this already?

Lui

don't think the minipov is the device for you. the attiny2313 used has only 2k of flash memory into which your code must fit as well as your data. there is a code compatible version of the chip, the attiny4313, with 4k of flash, but that's still not nearly enough.

another, more basic, problem will be that, unless your message is particularly compelling, i can pretty much guarantee that nobody is going to stand around and watch through 250 lines of text.

now that i've vented all my negativity, here's a link to a pov version designed to do pretty much what you want although on a more modest scale. the code, itself, and the character generation tables are a little over 1k, so only about 900 characters of text are displayable.

atmel makes a number of chips with larger flash memories. the atmega328 and atmega32u4 used in current arduinos each have 32k of flash, which may or my not be enough for your application. the hardware registers used on these chips are different from those on the tinyx313's, so a little modification of the code would be required.

[sparr]

My message is pretty long

my firmware can handle 1200 characters, but it doesn't do the scrolling part. it shouldn't be hard to modify for that, and you'd sacrifice a few characters for the new code.

[maltman23]

The Message Generating Program (for Windows) at the top of this thread
was written by magician13134, aka Ben Perkins.



His magicsoftinc.com website is no longer active.
But Ben gave me permission to share his Message Generating Program.

Here it is, available from my website -- thanks Ben!
http://cornfieldelectronics.com/cfe/mfa ... iniPOV.exe

[headtechnologies]

Thanks


http://headtechnologies.xyz/