BLING Circuitpython Display Helper and Demo

This is a demo showing how to use BLING.py to make using fonts, images, shapes, and animated gifs easier on the UnexpectedMaker BLING board.

BLING.py gives you 2D access to the BLING led pixel grid and abstracts away the Neopixel data structure to write to it.

To use, copy BLING.py to your device. import BLING.py and set up a display object:

import BLING

# Setup BLING neopixel
bling_pixel_width, bling_pixel_height = BLING.display.pixel_size()
bling_num_pixels = bling_pixel_width * bling_pixel_height
BLING_raw = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.MATRIX_DATA,bling_num_pixels,brightness=BLING_BRIGHTNESS,auto_write=False)

# BLING display object
the_bling = BLING.display(matrix=BLING_raw,rotation=2)

With BLING.py you get access to these functions:

.pixel_size() (static method) always returns 40,8 - the dimensions of BLING's led grid w,h = BLING.display.pixel_size()

.rotation (property) get/set the rotation of the BLING display (0,1,2,3) the_bling.rotation=2 or r = the_bling.rotation. Normally you set this in the constructor but this lets you rotate the display after the fact.

.num_pixels (property) get the total number of led pixels on BLING (40*8) num = the_bling.num_pixels

.width and .height (property) width and height of the BLING viewport, accounting for rotation

.xy_to_array(x,y) returns the array index converting x,y coordinate into neopixel array index, accounting for rotation. You don't normally need to use this but it's used by almost all the BLING.py functions internally.

.show() updates the physical BLING display with led values. Use at the end of your display chain to actually write values out to the display.

.clear() write all black to the BLING display and updates automatically

.fill(color) fill BLING with a solid color, as neopixel .fill(color) function.

.setpixel(x,y,color) set a single pixel on BLING to a color, accounting for rotation

.text(text, font, x, y, color_foreground, color_background=None, show=False) Dispays text on BLING using font which can either be a adafruit_bitmap_font object (PCF or BDF) or a string filename pointing to a .bin style font (ie font5x8.bin). if color_background is a color, blank areas around the text are filled with that color. if color_background is None then background pixels will not be written to (preserving pixels for lazy compositing)

.bitmap(image, palette, x,y) and .bitmap_tile(image,palette,x,y,xb,yb,w,h): Show an adafruit_imageload compatible displaio bitmap at coordinates x,y. for .bitmap_tile you can choose a subarea of the bitmap xb,yb,w,h and use it like how TileGrid works in displayio. You can use this in conjunction with gifio to show (small) animated gifs on BLING, see the demo for detail.

These shape functions account for rotation:

• .line(x_0, y_0, x_1, y_1, color): Draw a line
• .hline(x,y,w,color) draw a horizatonal line
• .vline(x,y,h,color) draw a vertical line
• .circle(center_x, center_y, radius, color) draw a circle
• .fill_rect(x,y,w,h,color) draw a filled rectange
• .rect(x,y,w,h,color,fill) draw a rectagle outline, with optional fill

Notes:

• Most drawing functions can extend outside the BLING physical display and just won't show up.
• When you supply a color it can be in whatever is accepted by Neopixels, like a tuple of RGB (128,255,32) or a hexadecimal number 0xFFA322

You need these libraries in /lib to satisfy dependencies:

• adafruit_bitmap_font
• adafruit_imageload
• adafruit_led_animation
• adafruit_framebuf
• adafruit_pixel_framebuf

BLING.github.mp4