Just checking in to see how you're doing. You've been quiet lately. I hope all is well with you.
@Chris Savage , I am just recovering from the holiday getting ready for the next one lol. Regards to all forum members I hope y'all being good.
I check in here every day but at the moment I don't have a lot going on, I have been toying around with ESP NOW using Arduino + Micropython, looking at DCC a little I am also looking at using the esp32 as a usb host but these things are only for personal interest, nothing serious.
What I am serious about is a contender that rivals the Rasberry Pi, or does it !! ?. I just need to let go of the money lol, but I will eventually.
I am talking about the ESP32 P4 and here are two links I am thinking of purchasing from, I will only buy from one source and I am leaning to the Waveshare option in particular the kit with the 10 inch display.
https://shop.m5stack.com/products/m5stack-tab5-iot-development-kit-esp32-p4?srsltid=AfmBOoo25IT7U7B1fUyuwou7C1mcYYsDqH_twuu_DPVoXQ-GQpZ8wkmQ
https://www.waveshare.com/esp32-p4-module-dev-kit.htm
Quote from: Jeff_T on Dec 03, 2025, 10:50 AM@Chris Savage , I am just recovering from the holiday getting ready for the next one lol. Regards to all forum members I hope y'all being good.
I think that's how many of us feel when the holidays seem stacked and various family are spread out.
I looked at your links. Very nice. Looks like a lot for minimal investment. Is there a particular project you're hoping to realize out of this platform?
As a note, not everything has to be a serious project. I rather enjoyed your posts documenting the experimenting you were doing. People sometimes find that interesting, enjoyable and good for project ideas.
I don't have a particular project but I did get interested in model railway control, I started looking at electronic turnout control using servos and ESP NOW where many servos could be controlled using a wireless system so assembly and disassembly of a layout would be considerably easier. This led me to look at DCC which superimposes a signal onto the track to control engines and accessories from a central controller. Of course these things have already been done and there are many variations of the theme available even an Arduino DCC controller. So I wanted to see if I could do something similar in Micropython at a significantly lower cost and I thought how cool it would be to have a 10 inch touch screen with an overlay of the track where you could set a point or several points and get a visual of the red/green signals and crossing gates etc. You can see I am getting carried away here lol but that is how my mind works and what keeps me happy. I will let you know when I eventually get my P4.
Quote from: Jeff_T on Dec 03, 2025, 12:17 PMI don't have a particular project but I did get interested in model railway control, I started looking at electronic turnout control using servos and ESP NOW where many servos could be controlled using a wireless system so assembly and disassembly of a layout would be considerably easier. This led me to look at DCC which superimposes a signal onto the track to control engines and accessories from a central controller. Of course these things have already been done and there are many variations of the theme available even an Arduino DCC controller. So I wanted to see if I could do something similar in Micropython at a significantly lower cost and I thought how cool it would be to have a 10 inch touch screen with an overlay of the track where you could set a point or several points and get a visual of the red/green signals and crossing gates etc. You can see I am getting carried away here lol but that is how my mind works and what keeps me happy. I will let you know when I eventually get my P4.
Very ambitious. If it ever does become a project, feel free to start a thread in the member projects section. In the mean time, if you have successes at the various stages, you can post in the appropriate forum about your various experiments. I know I always keep track of the experiments others are doing. I often learn from them myself.
@Chris Savage , I finally got the P4 with the 10 inch display. I'm having fun using the Waveshare examples and I am settling into a spot where I use Squareline Studio to create GUI's and then integrate them into Arduino IDE code that interfaces with the P4. Squareline Studio is like a front end for the lvgl library if your familiar with that. It's really nice to have a touch screen that is this large and touch responsive. Nothing serious as yet just enjoying the graphics, getting started was a little bit difficult, for me anyway, but I'm beginning to feel comfortable with still a long way to go.