Homebrew Computer & OS from modern MCUs

Right now, it feels and looks a little messy, but the new video system is coming together. I am replacing the large M4 Metro Express board with a tiny Waveshare RP2040 Zero and adding the Adafruit Feather DVI (see previous log) on a single board. I've also built a new connector board for the TFT screen that will be 'pluggable' - It's all mostly working now, so the next steps are to build the new connectors and mount the new cards on the board. I'll update when its all back together. Cheers!

Over the past few days, I've been playing with an Adafruit Feather RP2040 DVI to test adding support for external HDMI monitors. Yesterday, I built out a newer, cleaner version of the graphical shell using Adafruit's modified picodvi library and got that working on a little 10-inch monitor. Today, I added in the vine protocol logic so it would populate the command, response, and error widgets. I tested it with the full system by patching into the router output. I got it working after a few iterations, and it looks great and is LIGHTENING FAST compared to the built-in TFT. 

To finish this out, here's the next tasks:

• Replace the Metro M4 that powers the TFT with a standard pico to save space and improve the wiring in the area
  • I will reuse as much of the code from DVI version and attempt some performance improvements for the built-in TFT.
• Add the Feather RP2040 DVI to the top of the board - using the external HDMI display will remain optional.

I'll update once the components are integrated on the board.

I've been working on a remote node that will measure temp/humidity and display 'alerts' from the main machine. It uses a Raspberry Pico WH and connects to the Ficus Webapp to sync time and temperature data currently. It has a AHT21 I2C IIC High Precision Digital Temperature and Humidity Sensor Module and a 0.96 Inch OLED I2C IIC Display Module 12864 128x64 Pixel SSD1306 Mini Self-Luminous OLED Screen for local display. I added a piezo buzzer for audible notifications. I intend to eventually extend the software to let it display notifications from the main computer.