Cobra "Chumby project"

NETMF & Gadgeteer
101

Anything cool is fine :slight_smile:

102

That would be very good if you could get a proof of concept going. I think Iā€™ll wait to see what you come up with before trying anything myself.

103

Post it post it :smiley: :-[

104

Testing on my Cobra might be finished tonight, which means I can start on this!

105

I probably should have looked at the Chumby before I started work on the OS. Spent a day making this z-indexed movable windows (very 3.1-esc) before finally checking out the videos of it. On the brightside after looking at the interface I should be able to whip something like that up a lot quicker.

Iā€™ve got a 9 hour plane ride tomorrow, Iā€™ll take my laptop with me and do some developing on the flight. Since I havenā€™t gotten to actually ordering a Cobra yet Iā€™m doing everything in the emulator so there will be a lot of ā€œpretendingā€ to do downloads and find stuff on disk.

Iā€™ll include a PE file or two in the resources so you can at least see actual apps running.

106

How far along are you? Iā€™m ready to start when ever you need help!

107

Well I have all the basics floating around in different places, now Iā€™m just slapping them together focusing on Netby. I may even have something ready before I leave tomorrow, it all depends on how busy I am at work today & packing tonight. Iā€™ll post code as soon as itā€™s worth looking at. Iā€™m still using WPF for now just because the point of a proof-of-concept is to prove you can do it quickly so WPF makes prototyping the system faster.

108

I was planning to use WPF for the whole project, but ONLY because it seemed like the only game in town. Do you have a better idea for a graphics interface?

109

@ Chris

Yeah, I was going to code my own. Iā€™ve done a lot of them in the past, including the one Pyxis 1 used. The movable windows I made seemed to work faster than WPF but I didnā€™t get down to taking timing values to prove that yet.

Iā€™m about to mock up the interface for Netby. Iā€™ve got it down on paper and as soon as I make a version in GiMP Iā€™ll upload the shots for you to look @ and approve. Then Iā€™ll get to changing concept art into actual code.

110

Awesome. Iā€™ll be waiting! :clap:

Shall I also start to read up on the documentation on that project website posted a bit back? I want to look into some of the ideas I had early on, like the concept of drivers and an always running WebUI.

111

OK, itā€™s a bit thrown together, but hereā€™s the basic idea for the interface. Let me know if you have any thoughts before I begin the coding.

Looks like I forgot a tiny detail on the right set of apps it should say ā€œMost Usedā€ vertically like it says ā€œRecent Appā€ on the left.

112

Oh man, it looks AWESOME!!! That almost exactly how I envisioned it! Great Job!

113

Cool, glad you like it! Hereā€™s a few thoughts I had on it:

  1. of recent apps displayed will be dynamic based on screen size.

  2. Definitely supporting 32bpp images. I donā€™t care if NETMF doesnā€™t like PNGs, if I can support 32bpp on an Arduino I can make NETMF do it too.

  3. Left images is always the last app used, whether itā€™s a most frequently used app or not.

  4. Distinguishing between installed apps (.PE files) and consumable web services

  5. Theme support.

Iā€™ll get started on the POC right away. Iā€™m not going to do any multisize support in it though, just target the 320x240 screen the emulator uses. Iā€™m also going to modify the Microsoft sample that allows you to draw on the screen to be a Netby App and include the compiled PE in the resources to show how app loading/unloading works.

114

Sounds great! Once I have a chance to play with a POC Iā€™ll probably give more valuable feedback. For now, I want to let you decide what you want to do.

115

A customer already made PNG class for NETMF but forgot who did!

After you convert PNG to ā€œBirmapā€ object then you can do anything you like with that.

NETMF is 16bpp internally which really gives great graphics not need to overkill the processor with 32bpp

116

Ok Skewworks I think you deserve some help from GHI so let me offer you this. Buy a cobra display from the website and its display expansion and we will include a FEZ cobra for free. How does that sound? If you prefer something else then please ask and donā€™t be shy, you are supporting the community and we want to support you :wink:

117

Another typical GHI posting. You guys are awesome. :clap:

118

@ Everyone,

I thought Iā€™d upload in stages so you donā€™t have to wait until everythingā€™s finished to start playing. This first upload gives you the following:

  1. Desktop that can have either solid color or graphic

  2. Menu system complete with sub menus

  3. Click events for menus created

  4. Menu separators (use ā€œ-ā€ for the text to make it a separator)

  5. Custom theme colors for the menubar

  6. Only things not working on menus .visible & .enabled

You can get the project here: http://www.skewworks.com/downloads/netmf/NetbyPOC.zip

That is also where Iā€™ll be uploading files in the future.

@ Gus,

Thanks! Iā€™ll place my order as soon as Iā€™m on my way back from London!

119

Nice!..I will even include the custom plastic enclosureā€¦you deserve it :wink:

120

Awesome! Iā€™ll play with this tonight.