This is the description of the Delphi/Lazarus API bindings for the LCD 20x4 Bricklet. General information and technical specifications for the LCD 20x4 Bricklet are summarized in its hardware description.
An installation guide for the Delphi/Lazarus API bindings is part of their general description.
The example code below is Public Domain (CC0 1.0).
Download (ExampleHelloWorld.pas)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 | program ExampleHelloWorld;
{$ifdef MSWINDOWS}{$apptype CONSOLE}{$endif}
{$ifdef FPC}{$mode OBJFPC}{$H+}{$endif}
uses
SysUtils, IPConnection, BrickletLCD20x4;
type
TExample = class
private
ipcon: TIPConnection;
lcd: TBrickletLCD20x4;
public
procedure Execute;
end;
const
HOST = 'localhost';
PORT = 4223;
UID = 'XYZ'; { Change XYZ to the UID of your LCD 20x4 Bricklet }
var
e: TExample;
procedure TExample.Execute;
begin
{ Create IP connection }
ipcon := TIPConnection.Create;
{ Create device object }
lcd := TBrickletLCD20x4.Create(UID, ipcon);
{ Connect to brickd }
ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT);
{ Don't use device before ipcon is connected }
{ Turn backlight on }
lcd.BacklightOn;
{ Write "Hello World" }
lcd.WriteLine(0, 0, 'Hello World');
WriteLn('Press key to exit');
ReadLn;
ipcon.Destroy; { Calls ipcon.Disconnect internally }
end;
begin
e := TExample.Create;
e.Execute;
e.Destroy;
end.
|
Download (ExampleButtonCallback.pas)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 | program ExampleButtonCallback;
{$ifdef MSWINDOWS}{$apptype CONSOLE}{$endif}
{$ifdef FPC}{$mode OBJFPC}{$H+}{$endif}
uses
SysUtils, IPConnection, BrickletLCD20x4;
type
TExample = class
private
ipcon: TIPConnection;
lcd: TBrickletLCD20x4;
public
procedure ButtonPressedCB(sender: TBrickletLCD20x4; const button: byte);
procedure ButtonReleasedCB(sender: TBrickletLCD20x4; const button: byte);
procedure Execute;
end;
const
HOST = 'localhost';
PORT = 4223;
UID = 'XYZ'; { Change XYZ to the UID of your LCD 20x4 Bricklet }
var
e: TExample;
{ Callback procedure for button pressed callback }
procedure TExample.ButtonPressedCB(sender: TBrickletLCD20x4; const button: byte);
begin
WriteLn(Format('Button Pressed: %d', [button]));
end;
{ Callback procedure for button released callback }
procedure TExample.ButtonReleasedCB(sender: TBrickletLCD20x4; const button: byte);
begin
WriteLn(Format('Button Released: %d', [button]));
end;
procedure TExample.Execute;
begin
{ Create IP connection }
ipcon := TIPConnection.Create;
{ Create device object }
lcd := TBrickletLCD20x4.Create(UID, ipcon);
{ Connect to brickd }
ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT);
{ Don't use device before ipcon is connected }
{ Register button pressed callback to procedure ButtonPressedCB }
lcd.OnButtonPressed := {$ifdef FPC}@{$endif}ButtonPressedCB;
{ Register button released callback to procedure ButtonReleasedCB }
lcd.OnButtonReleased := {$ifdef FPC}@{$endif}ButtonReleasedCB;
WriteLn('Press key to exit');
ReadLn;
ipcon.Destroy; { Calls ipcon.Disconnect internally }
end;
begin
e := TExample.Create;
e.Execute;
e.Destroy;
end.
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 | program ExampleUnicode;
{$ifdef MSWINDOWS}{$apptype CONSOLE}{$endif}
{$ifdef FPC}{$mode OBJFPC}{$H+}{$endif}
uses
SysUtils, IPConnection, BrickletLCD20x4;
type
TExample = class
private
ipcon: TIPConnection;
lcd: TBrickletLCD20x4;
public
function WideStringToKS0066U(const text: WideString): string;
procedure Execute;
end;
const
HOST = 'localhost';
PORT = 4223;
UID = 'XYZ'; { Change XYZ to the UID of your LCD 20x4 Bricklet }
var
e: TExample;
function TExample.WideStringToKS0066U(const text: WideString): string;
var i, codePoint: longint; w: word; c: char; ks0066u: string;
begin
i := 1;
SetLength(ks0066u, 0);
while (i <= Length(text)) do begin
{ WideString is UTF-16, handle surrogates }
w := word(text[i]);
if ((w >= $D800) and (w <= $DBFF)) then begin
codePoint := $10000 + (w - $D800) * $400 + (w - $DC00);
i := i + 2;
end
else begin
codePoint := w;
i := i + 1;
end;
{ ASCII subset from JIS X 0201 }
if ((codePoint >= $0020) and (codePoint <= $007E)) then begin
{ The LCD charset doesn't include '\' and '~', use similar characters instead }
case codePoint of
$005C: c := char($A4); { REVERSE SOLIDUS maps to IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA }
$007E: c := char($2D); { TILDE maps to HYPHEN-MINUS }
else c := char(codePoint);
end;
end
{ Katakana subset from JIS X 0201 }
else if ((codePoint >= $FF61) and (codePoint <= $FF9F)) then begin
c := char(codePoint - $FEC0);
end
{ Special characters }
else begin
case codePoint of
$00A5: c := char($5C); { YEN SIGN }
$2192: c := char($7E); { RIGHTWARDS ARROW }
$2190: c := char($7F); { LEFTWARDS ARROW }
$00B0: c := char($DF); { DEGREE SIGN maps to KATAKANA SEMI-VOICED SOUND MARK }
$03B1: c := char($E0); { GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA }
$00C4: c := char($E1); { LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS }
$00E4: c := char($E1); { LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH DIAERESIS }
$00DF: c := char($E2); { LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S }
$03B5: c := char($E3); { GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON }
$00B5: c := char($E4); { MICRO SIGN }
$03BC: c := char($E4); { GREEK SMALL LETTER MU }
$03C2: c := char($E5); { GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA }
$03C1: c := char($E6); { GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO }
$221A: c := char($E8); { SQUARE ROOT }
$00B9: c := char($E9); { SUPERSCRIPT ONE maps to SUPERSCRIPT (minus) ONE }
$00A4: c := char($EB); { CURRENCY SIGN }
$00A2: c := char($EC); { CENT SIGN }
$2C60: c := char($ED); { LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH DOUBLE BAR }
$00F1: c := char($EE); { LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH TILDE }
$00D6: c := char($EF); { LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS }
$00F6: c := char($EF); { LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS }
$03F4: c := char($F2); { GREEK CAPITAL THETA SYMBOL }
$221E: c := char($F3); { INFINITY }
$03A9: c := char($F4); { GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA }
$00DC: c := char($F5); { LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS }
$00FC: c := char($F5); { LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH DIAERESIS }
$03A3: c := char($F6); { GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA }
$03C0: c := char($F7); { GREEK SMALL LETTER PI }
$0304: c := char($F8); { COMBINING MACRON }
$00F7: c := char($FD); { DIVISION SIGN }
$25A0: c := char($FF); { BLACK SQUARE }
else c := char($FF); { BLACK SQUARE }
end
end;
{ Special handling for 'x' followed by COMBINING MACRON }
if (c = char($F8)) then begin
if (ks0066u[Length(ks0066u) - 1] <> 'x') then begin
c := char($FF); { BLACK SQUARE }
end;
if (Length(ks0066u) > 0) then begin
SetLength(ks0066u, Length(ks0066u) - 1);
end;
end;
ks0066u := ks0066u + c;
end;
result := ks0066u;
end;
procedure TExample.Execute;
begin
{ Create IP connection }
ipcon := TIPConnection.Create;
{ Create device object }
lcd := TBrickletLCD20x4.Create(UID, ipcon);
{ Connect to brickd }
ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT);
{ Don't use device before ipcon is connected }
{ Turn backlight on }
lcd.BacklightOn;
{ Write a string using the WideStringToKS0066U function to map to the LCD charset }
{ Note: For the Free Pascal Compiler (and Lazarus) UTF8Decode is used to create a
WideString. It assumes that your source file is UTF-8 encoded }
lcd.WriteLine(0, 0, WideStringToKS0066U({$ifdef FPC}UTF8Decode{$endif}('Stromstärke: 17µA')));
lcd.WriteLine(1, 0, WideStringToKS0066U({$ifdef FPC}UTF8Decode{$endif}('Temperatur: 23°C')));
{ Write a string directly including characters from the LCD charset }
lcd.WriteLine(2, 0, 'Drehzahl: 750min' + char($E9));
WriteLn('Press key to exit');
ReadLn;
ipcon.Destroy; { Calls ipcon.Disconnect internally }
end;
begin
e := TExample.Create;
e.Execute;
e.Destroy;
end.
|
Since Delphi does not support multiple return values directly, we use the
out
keyword to return multiple values from a function.
All functions and procedures listed below are thread-safe.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
Create
(const uid: string; ipcon: TIPConnection)¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Returns: |
|
Creates an object with the unique device ID uid
:
lcd20x4 := TBrickletLCD20x4.Create('YOUR_DEVICE_UID', ipcon);
This object can then be used after the IP Connection is connected.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
WriteLine
(const line: byte; const position: byte; const text: string)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Writes text to a specific line with a specific position. The text can have a maximum of 20 characters.
For example: (0, 7, "Hello") will write Hello in the middle of the first line of the display.
The display uses a special charset that includes all ASCII characters except backslash and tilde. The LCD charset also includes several other non-ASCII characters, see the charset specification for details. The Unicode example above shows how to specify non-ASCII characters and how to translate from Unicode to the LCD charset.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
ClearDisplay
¶Deletes all characters from the display.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
BacklightOn
¶Turns the backlight on.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
BacklightOff
¶Turns the backlight off.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
IsBacklightOn
: boolean¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns true if the backlight is on and false otherwise.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
SetConfig
(const cursor: boolean; const blinking: boolean)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Configures if the cursor (shown as "_") should be visible and if it
should be blinking (shown as a blinking block). The cursor position
is one character behind the the last text written with
WriteLine
.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
GetConfig
(out cursor: boolean; out blinking: boolean)¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the configuration as set by SetConfig
.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
IsButtonPressed
(const button: byte): boolean¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Returns: |
|
Returns true if the button (0 to 2 or 0 to 3 since hardware version 1.2) is pressed.
If you want to react on button presses and releases it is recommended to use
the OnButtonPressed
and OnButtonReleased
callbacks.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
SetCustomCharacter
(const index: byte; const character: array [0..7] of byte)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
The LCD 20x4 Bricklet can store up to 8 custom characters. The characters consist of 5x8 pixels and can be addressed with the index 0-7. To describe the pixels, the first 5 bits of 8 bytes are used. For example, to make a custom character "H", you should transfer the following:
character[0] = 0b00010001
(decimal value 17)character[1] = 0b00010001
(decimal value 17)character[2] = 0b00010001
(decimal value 17)character[3] = 0b00011111
(decimal value 31)character[4] = 0b00010001
(decimal value 17)character[5] = 0b00010001
(decimal value 17)character[6] = 0b00010001
(decimal value 17)character[7] = 0b00000000
(decimal value 0)The characters can later be written with WriteLine
by using the
characters with the byte representation 8 ("\x08" or "\u0008") to 15
("\x0F" or "\u000F").
You can play around with the custom characters in Brick Viewer version since 2.0.1.
Custom characters are stored by the LCD in RAM, so they have to be set after each startup.
New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).
TBrickletLCD20x4.
GetCustomCharacter
(const index: byte): array [0..7] of byte¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Returns: |
|
Returns the custom character for a given index, as set with
SetCustomCharacter
.
New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).
TBrickletLCD20x4.
SetDefaultText
(const line: byte; const text: string)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the default text for lines 0-3. The max number of characters per line is 20.
The default text is shown on the LCD, if the default text counter
expires, see SetDefaultTextCounter
.
New in version 2.0.2 (Plugin).
TBrickletLCD20x4.
GetDefaultText
(const line: byte): string¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Returns: |
|
Returns the default text for a given line (0-3) as set by
SetDefaultText
.
New in version 2.0.2 (Plugin).
TBrickletLCD20x4.
SetDefaultTextCounter
(const counter: longint)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Sets the default text counter. This counter is decremented each
ms by the LCD firmware. If the counter reaches 0, the default text
(see SetDefaultText
) is shown on the LCD.
This functionality can be used to show a default text if the controlling program crashes or the connection is interrupted.
A possible approach is to call SetDefaultTextCounter
every
minute with the parameter 1000*60*2 (2 minutes). In this case the
default text will be shown no later than 2 minutes after the
controlling program crashes.
A negative counter turns the default text functionality off.
New in version 2.0.2 (Plugin).
TBrickletLCD20x4.
GetDefaultTextCounter
: longint¶Returns: |
|
---|
Returns the current value of the default text counter.
New in version 2.0.2 (Plugin).
TBrickletLCD20x4.
GetIdentity
(out uid: string; out connectedUid: string; out position: char; out hardwareVersion: array [0..2] of byte; out firmwareVersion: array [0..2] of byte; out deviceIdentifier: word)¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the UID, the UID where the Bricklet is connected to, the position, the hardware and firmware version as well as the device identifier.
The position can be 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g' or 'h' (Bricklet Port). A Bricklet connected to an Isolator Bricklet is always at position 'z'.
The device identifier numbers can be found here. There is also a constant for the device identifier of this Bricklet.
Callbacks can be registered to receive time critical or recurring data from the device. The registration is done by assigning a procedure to an callback property of the device object:
procedure TExample.MyCallback(sender: TBrickletLCD20x4; const value: longint); begin WriteLn(Format('Value: %d', [value])); end; lcd20x4.OnExample := {$ifdef FPC}@{$endif}example.MyCallback;
The available callback properties and their parameter types are described below.
Note
Using callbacks for recurring events is always preferred compared to using getters. It will use less USB bandwidth and the latency will be a lot better, since there is no round trip time.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
OnButtonPressed
¶procedure(sender: TBrickletLCD20x4; const button: byte) of object;
Callback Parameters: |
|
---|
This callback is triggered when a button is pressed. The parameter is the number of the button (0 to 2 or 0 to 3 since hardware version 1.2).
TBrickletLCD20x4.
OnButtonReleased
¶procedure(sender: TBrickletLCD20x4; const button: byte) of object;
Callback Parameters: |
|
---|
This callback is triggered when a button is released. The parameter is the number of the button (0 to 2 or 0 to 3 since hardware version 1.2).
Virtual functions don't communicate with the device itself, but operate only on the API bindings device object. They can be called without the corresponding IP Connection object being connected.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
GetAPIVersion
: array [0..2] of byte¶Output Parameters: |
|
---|
Returns the version of the API definition implemented by this API bindings. This is neither the release version of this API bindings nor does it tell you anything about the represented Brick or Bricklet.
TBrickletLCD20x4.
GetResponseExpected
(const functionId: byte): boolean¶Parameters: |
|
---|---|
Returns: |
|
Returns the response expected flag for the function specified by the function ID parameter. It is true if the function is expected to send a response, false otherwise.
For getter functions this is enabled by default and cannot be disabled,
because those functions will always send a response. For callback configuration
functions it is enabled by default too, but can be disabled by
SetResponseExpected
. For setter functions it is disabled by default
and can be enabled.
Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.
The following constants are available for this function:
For functionId:
TBrickletLCD20x4.
SetResponseExpected
(const functionId: byte; const responseExpected: boolean)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Changes the response expected flag of the function specified by the function ID parameter. This flag can only be changed for setter (default value: false) and callback configuration functions (default value: true). For getter functions it is always enabled.
Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.
The following constants are available for this function:
For functionId:
TBrickletLCD20x4.
SetResponseExpectedAll
(const responseExpected: boolean)¶Parameters: |
|
---|
Changes the response expected flag for all setter and callback configuration functions of this device at once.
BRICKLET_LCD_20X4_DEVICE_IDENTIFIER
¶This constant is used to identify a LCD 20x4 Bricklet.
The GetIdentity
function and the
TIPConnection.OnEnumerate
callback of the IP Connection have a deviceIdentifier
parameter to specify
the Brick's or Bricklet's type.
BRICKLET_LCD_20X4_DEVICE_DISPLAY_NAME
¶This constant represents the human readable name of a LCD 20x4 Bricklet.