Larry the optimizer
@fast-code-r-us.bsky.social
I optimize code for a living. I'm also good with bits, bytes and pixels. I have been in this digital world since before the days of 8-bit home computers. See my FOSS projects on https://github.com/bitbank2
Tekenex's Vectino is a tiny dev board with a powerful Arm Cortex-M85 chip and Helium vector acceleration to crush heavy AI and DSP workloads.
Vectino Packs Massive Power Into a Tiny Dev Board
Vectino is a tiny dev board with a powerful Arm Cortex-M85 chip and Helium vector acceleration to crush heavy AI and DSP workloads.
hackster.io
Anbernic is making handheld repairs easier with official replacement parts for shells, screens, buttons, batteries, joysticks, and more. retrohandhelds.gg/anbernic-fin...
Pro tip: The simplest way to be a "10x" programmer for RPI projects - ditch the RPI (any/all) and develop your software in a Debian VM running on an Apple Silicon Mac.
github.com/bitbank2/Fas... New - I shared a low power eink clock project that updates every minute (no flickering). It pulls the correct time/date from NTP every day and a half and uses the ESP32's RTC to keep the time. It can last for months on a small battery using ESP32's deep sleep.
In today's mail - A fragile piece of glass masquerading as a retail product. The Waveshare 7.8" parallel Eink panel with IT8951 RPI HAT. Soon to be supported by my FastEPD library (on Linux, Arduino and esp-idf).
Some new devices landed on my desk over the past few days. Waveshare AMOLED 2.16 ESP32-S3 (480x480), M5 Paper Color (ESP32-S3 w/ 4" Spectra6), NM-CYD-C5 (not shown) and the GKD Pixel2 (nostalgia machine). Each quite impressive in their own way. I added them to my display libraries (not the GKDP2😜)
PJRC website and email are down today. Hosting company is replacing the server's SSD.
Brett Gossage has put together a ten-minute video guide to using USB MIDI with Teensy, including how to interface a classic 5-pin MIDI DIN connector to a modern Digital Audio Workstation. Older content but still applies to latest Teensy models. www.pjrc.com/usb-midi-how...
@shapoco.net If you point me to the 3D renderer source code, I can tell you if I can optimize it with ESP32-S3 SIMD.
Need more speed with your GIF animations on the ESP32-S3? I wrote some new SIMD code which speeds up playback another 20-25% github.com/bitbank2/Ani...
AnimatedGIF/examples/esp32s3_simd_demo at master · bitbank2/AnimatedGIF
An optimized GIF decoder suitable for microcontrollers and PCs - bitbank2/AnimatedGIF
github.com
@snazzylabs.com Thanks for the shoutout in your latest video about TRMNL; it's nice to be appreciated for my work. You give me a little too much credit. These B/W EPDs are all basically identical hardware, but some are missing features in the controller firmware. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWw5...
8,100 of You Bought This Because of Me. I Owed You a Follow-Up.
YouTube video by Snazzy Labs
youtube.com
Shiver me timbers!!! After nearly six years at Tom's Hardware I am heading off for new horizons! Pimoroni, purveyors of maker toys, tools and kits has added me to its crew! From April 1st I will be Pimoroni's Content Editor. Creating content to inpsire everyone to be a maker! youtu.be/q1FYxBLDyQk
After six years I'm leaving Tom's Hardware and joining Pimoroni — Back to my maker roots!
Shiver me timbers!!! After nearly six years at Tom's Hardware I am heading off for new adventures! The good ship Pimoroni, purveyors of maker toys, tools and what nots has added me to its…
youtu.be
@fasani.bsky.social created something unexpected - a parallel Eink PCB (Sensoria) based on the ESP32-C5. This chip is faster than the ESP32-S3 and has 5GHz WiFi. Now added to my FastEPD library.
**New** I created an #ESPHome display component wrapper for my bb_epaper library. This means that using e-paper on ESPHome devices just got a lot easier. For IoT devices with integrated displays (e.g. this one), 1 line of yaml defines it! (plus flicker-free updates). youtu.be/-B1YK6_o7dI
ESPHome e-paper without flicker
YouTube video by tdfsoftware
youtu.be
Fast 2-bit (4 gray level) updates are now available in my bb_epaper library for both SSD16xx and UC81xx panels. I'll be adding/testing them slowly across devices: youtu.be/JD3HbJ2l6xk youtu.be/zDrvb8IJgks
Fast 4-gray LUT for SSD1677 EPDs
YouTube video by tdfsoftware
youtu.be
New sensoria C5 PCB sent to fabrication today Thanks to @fast-code-r-us.bsky.social for reviewing my schematics. This is the hardware sensor and reports visualiser from sensoria.cat projectPC
New release for mid February: 1.1 version of #Raspberry Pi (Zero2W and 4 versions) parallel Epaper monitor, great for monitoring of displaying your sensors information. Framerate around 12 frames per second. Designed in team with @fast-code-r-us.bsky.social Anyone interested? Please RT & comment
This tiny pocket-friendly e-reader is packed with frustration and potential
This tiny pocket-friendly e-reader is packed with frustration and potential
The Xteink X4 is small enough to slip into a shirt pocket.
buff.ly
New product taking shape - a #RaspberryPi AMOLED display HAT. It works on RPI Zero/1/2/3/4. Hi-res, super saturated colors and wide viewing angles. This one is 460x460 with capacitive touch. Excellent for gaming too (it's fast). Who's interested?
New KiCad project shared to Github - my RPI to UNO LCD shield HAT. Allows use of high speed parallel (and cheap) LCDs. github.com/bitbank2/RPI...
I got inspired today to write some Arm NEON SIMD code. This allows fast 150% stretching (with pixel averaging) of emulated games on the RPI 02W. No need for fbcp or devicetree drivers for the LCD - this is my GBC emu using bb_spi_lcd to draw directly on the ST7789 SPI LCD. youtu.be/eqq6glU0Sl0
RPI02W emulated games running direct to LCD (no fbcp)
YouTube video by tdfsoftware
youtu.be
I just shared a new C++ example project which allows you to easily flip through a series of GIF animations and display them on a Raspberry Pi "HAT" LCD: github.com/bitbank2/rpi... Video demo: youtu.be/m-PzmW8scac
GitHub - bitbank2/rpi_gif_hat: An example project showing how to play animated GIF images on "HAT" LCDs
An example project showing how to play animated GIF images on "HAT" LCDs - bitbank2/rpi_gif_hat
github.com
Hey @pimoroni.com - your Inky Impression 7.3" just learned a new trick - it can run TRMNL 😜 The new Spectra6 panel is a nice improvement - faster and better contrast.
Parallel GPIO on the original RPI 1 and ZeroW can do interesting things too (e.g. drive QSPI displays), but the single core Armv6 CPU is too slow for modern projects of any type. RPI Z2W is the minimum useful board. This GIF player runs at 50fps (360x360 pixels) on the Z2W - much slower on the ZW.
New experiment this weekend - driving QSPI LCD displays on the #RaspberryPi GPIO header: youtube.com/shorts/3yqpt...
Janky wiring, yet high speed QSPI possible on RPI
YouTube video by tdfsoftware
youtube.com
