AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Discussion of development of software for any "obsolete" computer or video game system. See the WSdev wiki and ObscureDev wiki for more information on certain platforms.
lidnariq
Posts: 11432
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:12 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by lidnariq »

Huh, wacky. To the best of my understanding, the NTSC C64 and VIC-20 produce the exact same timing ...

oh. Right. Are these PAL consoles?

(P.S. could you attach the image to the forum instead of using an external hosting service?)
giobbi
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:33 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by giobbi »

lidnariq wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 6:33 pm Huh, wacky. To the best of my understanding, the NTSC C64 and VIC-20 produce the exact same timing ...
I believed that too... but if you "fix" the sync using this board: https://www.hackup.net/2018/01/syncfix6 ... #more-1088 it doesn't work with the VIC-20. The clever guy who developed the project confirmed me it doesn't. I didn't try it with other Commodore computers, however.
oh. Right. Are these PAL consoles?
Yes. I can also confirm that board works fine with C64 NTSC too (in fact my SX64 is NTSC). I also have a NTSC VIC-20 here but I didn't try it. I can only suppose it will not work using the board described above.
(P.S. could you attach the image to the forum instead of using an external hosting service?)
Of course, sorry for that. Most forums doesn't accept attachments so I didn't think at that.
Attachments
vic-20.jpg
Last edited by giobbi on Sat May 22, 2021 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
lidnariq
Posts: 11432
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:12 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by lidnariq »

giobbi wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 8:23 pm I believed it too, both NTSC and PAL afaik... but now I'm not so sure; if you "fix" the sync using this board: https://www.hackup.net/2018/01/syncfix6 ... #more-1088 it doesn't work with the VIC-20. The clever guy who developed the project confirmed me it doesn't. I didn't try it with other Commodore computers, however.
[...]
Yes. Can confirm the board works with C64 NTSC too (in fact my SX64 is NTSC). I also have a NTSC VIC-20 but I didn't try it. I suppose it will not work using the board I described above.
Oh, huh. I assumed the problem was that the PAL VIC was wrong-length scanlines but apparently it's "just" the hsync signal being wrong during vertical sync. I guess I'd need to look an oscilloscope of the video signal during that time to be able to take a guess what was going wrong.

edit: Oh, I see, raphnet's described what's going wrong: https://www.raphnet.net/divers/commodor ... x_en.php#1
giobbi
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:33 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by giobbi »

lidnariq wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 8:42 pm edit: Oh, I see, raphnet's described what's going wrong: https://www.raphnet.net/divers/commodor ... x_en.php#1
Probably the VIC-20 has an even worse signal, in a way the LM 1881 can't fix...
lidnariq
Posts: 11432
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:12 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by lidnariq »

Well, if you know anyone with an oscilloscope and can take a photo of the vsync pulses, I might have a suggestion.
Mohit
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed May 19, 2021 1:10 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by Mohit »

Mohit wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 8:10 am Anyone who can help me with this issue I have a amt630a display driver board it's works fine with 480×272 resolution display but when I connect a 800×480 resolution display it's behaving like this. Any solution would be very helpful please help me to fix the issue if possible.
Anyone?
giobbi
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:33 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by giobbi »

Mohit wrote: Sun May 23, 2021 8:38 pm
Mohit wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 8:10 am Anyone who can help me with this issue I have a amt630a display driver board it's works fine with 480×272 resolution display but when I connect a 800×480 resolution display it's behaving like this. Any solution would be very helpful please help me to fix the issue if possible.
Anyone?
I think you're talking about those 5" monitors for rear camera... I'm waiting one from China, I'm going to test it in a couple of week or so. I will tell you later! Maybe a firmware patch could be solve it. Did you looked at the firmware @nocash provided?
------------------
Try to press the menu button while you're powering the display. It should be appear the panel selection menu. Try to select a different one with the + and - buttons. Do some tests and see if you can find a choice that works.
If you can get the rid of it, please enter the menu and see what is the panel name in the panel model option, then post the result here, thank you!
Mohit
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed May 19, 2021 1:10 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by Mohit »

giobbi wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 11:19 am
Mohit wrote: Sun May 23, 2021 8:38 pm
Mohit wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 8:10 am Anyone who can help me with this issue I have a amt630a display driver board it's works fine with 480×272 resolution display but when I connect a 800×480 resolution display it's behaving like this. Any solution would be very helpful please help me to fix the issue if possible.
Anyone?
I think you're talking about those 5" monitors for rear camera... I'm waiting one from China, I'm going to test it in a couple of week or so. I will tell you later! Maybe a firmware patch could be solve it. Did you looked at the firmware @nocash provided?
------------------
Try to press the menu button while you're powering the display. It should be appear the panel selection menu. Try to select a different one with the + and - buttons. Do some tests and see if you can find a choice that works.
If you can get the rid of it, please enter the menu and see what is the panel name in the panel model option, then post the result here, thank you!
Yes I am using the driver board from the car rear monitor ones. And the display is from raspberry Pi 5inch tft 800×480 one. Actually the thing is I am new in spi flashing could you help me out with the pinout to flash the firmware provided by @nocash.
giobbi
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:33 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by giobbi »

Mohit wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:12 pm Yes I am using the driver board from the car rear monitor ones. And the display is from raspberry Pi 5inch tft 800×480 one. Actually the thing is I am new in spi flashing could you help me out with the pinout to flash the firmware provided by @nocash.
Did you mix a controller board and a tft display from different sources? Are you sure it should work?

----------------

Flashing the spi: I'm not an expert, so I'm just sharing what I did.

I have a Genius G540 cheap chinese programmer (similar to the TL866). I use it mostly for eprom and flash rom DIP.

Since I hadn't an adapter SOP8 -> DIP for the SMD chip, I built an small board similar to this one: https://http2.mlstatic.com/D_NQ_NP_2X_4 ... 016-F.webp

I unsoldered the SPI chip from the board (if you haven't and hot air gun you must to be really careful for not to break any pad while removing)
I then soldered it on the adapter. Basically, pin #1 of the SPI to the pin #1 of the programmer, etc.
I used the MACRONIX MX25L4005 config to program it.
After the chip was programmed with the @nocash firmware, I soldered again the chip on the board.

There are other ways to do that (however I can't say exactly how), but I've opted for the easiest way, that worked fine for me.
Mohit
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed May 19, 2021 1:10 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by Mohit »

giobbi wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 1:34 pm
Mohit wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:12 pm Yes I am using the driver board from the car rear monitor ones. And the display is from raspberry Pi 5inch tft 800×480 one. Actually the thing is I am new in spi flashing could you help me out with the pinout to flash the firmware provided by @nocash.
Did you mix a controller board and a tft display from different sources? Are you sure it should work?

----------------

Flashing the spi: I'm not an expert, so I'm just sharing what I did.

I have a Genius G540 cheap chinese programmer (similar to the TL866). I use it mostly for eprom and flash rom DIP.

Since I hadn't an adapter SOP8 -> DIP for the SMD chip, I built an small board similar to this one: https://http2.mlstatic.com/D_NQ_NP_2X_4 ... 016-F.webp

I unsoldered the SPI chip from the board (if you haven't and hot air gun you must to be really careful for not to break any pad while removing)
I then soldered it on the adapter. Basically, pin #1 of the SPI to the pin #1 of the programmer, etc.
I used the MACRONIX MX25L4005 config to program it.
After the chip was programmed with the @nocash firmware, I soldered again the chip on the board.

There are other ways to do that (however I can't say exactly how), but I've opted for the easiest way, that worked fine for me.
Could you please reshare the exact firmware which works with the 5inch board and can handle upto 800×480 resolution?and also I think the pic display should work with the driver board but the only issue is about the resolution.
giobbi
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:33 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by giobbi »

Mohit wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 7:30 pm Could you please reshare the exact firmware which works with the 5inch board and can handle upto 800×480 resolution?and also I think the pic display should work with the driver board but the only issue is about the resolution.
I haven't patched a 5 inches display yet, just a couple of 4.3 inches, so I don't know if it will work. I'm waiting from China a 5" display to make some tests. ---- For my 4.3" monitors I used the AMT630A.BIN firmware from the Nocash site.
Mohit
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed May 19, 2021 1:10 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by Mohit »

giobbi wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 8:12 pm
Mohit wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 7:30 pm Could you please reshare the exact firmware which works with the 5inch board and can handle upto 800×480 resolution?and also I think the pic display should work with the driver board but the only issue is about the resolution.
I haven't patched a 5 inches display yet, just a couple of 4.3 inches, so I don't know if it will work. I'm waiting from China a 5" display to make some tests. ---- For my 4.3" monitors I used the AMT630A.BIN firmware from the Nocash site.
Oh okay they I will also give it a try hope the firmware works with the pi display.
giobbi
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:33 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by giobbi »

nocash wrote: Fri May 21, 2021 5:37 pm The 8pin SPI FLASH chips are more or less all the same, and should be all working (in theory).
The voltages may differ though, and there seem to be at least two different pin-out schemes.
Well, and there may be some more or less subtle differences, about write sector size, max MHz, or 2bit-data mode support, I don't have a list of which chips work how.
Martin, some updates from the 5 inches display I just received.

1) The panel doesn't work properly with your firmware. As I can see, it hasn't the specs for the 800x480 panel type. I tried to understand how to change the 480x272 value into 800x480, but I hit my head against some hex values I don't understand.
I think I should change some values in the resolution_io_list_for_480x272, mode_ratio_io_list_480x272_wide and mode_ratio_io_list_480x272_narrow sections, but I don't know what are the correct values (I suppose it's not just a matter to replace 480 with 800 and 272 with 480...)

2) I did a little try before to dump the original firmware (attached) and replace it with yours. It keeps the settings (brightness, contrast, etc.) even if you power off and on again, so it seems to me the MK chip is capable to store the setting.

I'm totally lost because I don't know how to set the panel inside your firmware, LOL. Please let me know if you want I make some tests...

Giovi
Attachments
5.jpg
3.jpg
2.jpg
1.jpg
original firmware.zip
(22.49 KiB) Downloaded 300 times
Last edited by giobbi on Tue Jun 01, 2021 10:11 am, edited 5 times in total.
giobbi
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:33 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by giobbi »

and here a picture of the flat cable for some reason I can't attach to the previous message
Attachments
4.jpg
giobbi
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:33 am

Re: AMT630A firmware for mini TFT screens

Post by giobbi »

I did one (useless) step ahead...

I fixed the hex values in the resolution list wherever I found the statements +480 and +272 (replacing, respectively, with +800 and +480 and converting the resulting sum in hex numbers).

That worked at least when there's no signal: the blue screen and the snow are now full screen and the menu works fine.

However I can't (yet?) get the rid of the image.

It also has an annoying flickering image, I suppose because I didn't patch the frequency yet.

--------------

I found a DIP flash rom in an old motherboard, so I connected a DIP socket using some long wires in place of the SMD flash chip. This way I can easily program on the fly the DIP spi flash without to break anything. Now, at least, it's easy and fast to get frustrated by my firmware changes, LOL
Attachments
I can't get the rid of it. I don't understand if it's a frequency problem or something else, and I can't find a place into the source code that changes drastically this image.
I can't get the rid of it. I don't understand if it's a frequency problem or something else, and I can't find a place into the source code that changes drastically this image.
6.jpg
Post Reply