Uploaded June 2016 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Repository for this sketch and HMI File here github.com/thebreadboard/SampleSketches
The folks over at ITEAD Studio sent me a few LCD Colour Intelligent displays to look at. itead.cc/display/nextion.html
The really nice thing about these displays is they are so easy to interface to an Arduino, Launchpad, Raspberry PI etc. They are programed using a free editor you can download from here nextion.itead.cc/download.html
By adding images, control components like buttons, text boxes, sliders, waveform control etc, you can quickly build up a beautiful display interface (HMI) for your project.
I used Powerpoint to create the basic layout and control designs I wanted and save it as a PNG scaled for the target display, one image with the normal controls and one with the controls in their active state. You can use any design tool you like though as long as it can save a BMP, PNG, JPEG etc.
The Nextion Designer IDE allows you to select the image for an activated control vs a non active one. these do not have to be on separate images, they can be from a full screen sized one as I will show.
Every element on the screen can send or receive information to/from the serial interface and with a little simple scripting that runs on the display controller a certain level of autonomy can be implemented without needing your micro to intervene.
What is the point of these displays, well how much time in coding has been used in the past just in setting up and controlling the display of your project (Never mind how much local resources in FLASH, RAM, CPU time and added complexity). with these you only need to include the code in your micro to manipulate the elements, not draw them or detect when the touch screen is pressed. It is effectively a remote display to your solution.
The latest displays also now include EEPROM and 8 GPIO lines for added functionality along with a faster CPU on the larger models.. The GPIO are also able to perform PWM etc. I don't show this in this video but will in a future one.
So the next time your looking for an easy to implement low complexity colour touch enabled interface for you project, give them some consideration, in my opinion, there a great product and I will be using them in a few project in the near future.
The 2.4" models (Including the Enhanced) starts at about 17USD so why would you want to write all that display code yourself ???
Repository for this sketch and HMI File here github.com/thebreadboard/SampleSketches
The folks over at ITEAD Studio sent me a few LCD Colour Intelligent displays to look at. itead.cc/display/nextion.html
The really nice thing about these displays is they are so easy to interface to an Arduino, Launchpad, Raspberry PI etc. They are programed using a free editor you can download from here nextion.itead.cc/download.html
By adding images, control components like buttons, text boxes, sliders, waveform control etc, you can quickly build up a beautiful display interface (HMI) for your project.
I used Powerpoint to create the basic layout and control designs I wanted and save it as a PNG scaled for the target display, one image with the normal controls and one with the controls in their active state. You can use any design tool you like though as long as it can save a BMP, PNG, JPEG etc.
The Nextion Designer IDE allows you to select the image for an activated control vs a non active one. these do not have to be on separate images, they can be from a full screen sized one as I will show.
Every element on the screen can send or receive information to/from the serial interface and with a little simple scripting that runs on the display controller a certain level of autonomy can be implemented without needing your micro to intervene.
What is the point of these displays, well how much time in coding has been used in the past just in setting up and controlling the display of your project (Never mind how much local resources in FLASH, RAM, CPU time and added complexity). with these you only need to include the code in your micro to manipulate the elements, not draw them or detect when the touch screen is pressed. It is effectively a remote display to your solution.
The latest displays also now include EEPROM and 8 GPIO lines for added functionality along with a faster CPU on the larger models.. The GPIO are also able to perform PWM etc. I don't show this in this video but will in a future one.
So the next time your looking for an easy to implement low complexity colour touch enabled interface for you project, give them some consideration, in my opinion, there a great product and I will be using them in a few project in the near future.
The 2.4" models (Including the Enhanced) starts at about 17USD so why would you want to write all that display code yourself ???
