4inch Squre Screen

7.85inch Long Screen

The VoCore2 Ultimate has a sound card capable of recording and playing audio, so creating a small device for use with recent open-source AI tools could be a fun project.

• Sound Play The VoCore2 Ultimate uses the ES8388 sound card, which allows it to directly connect to an external 3.5mm standard speaker.
• Sound Record The ES8388 also supports audio recording functionality. On the VoCore2 Ultimate, I have already routed a microphone interface to a 3.5mm jack. For higher-quality recordings, you can instead use a USB microphone to achieve better results.
• AI Server This component cannot run directly on the VoCore due to high memory requirements—even for smaller models—but we can leverage open-source AI APIs like DeepSeek. I will test using the Qwen32B
• model, which works well on my laptop.

The idea works like this: First, record audio input and send it to a server to convert the sound into text. The text is then forwarded to an AI server for processing, where we wait for its response. Once the reply is received, the text is converted back into an audio file (e.g., WAV format), which is transmitted via Wi-Fi or Ethernet to the VoCore2 device. Finally, the audio is played through a connected speaker.

There’s no difficult part—just a few lines of code should be able to accomplish it. 😊 Maybe I can directly use FFmpeg on the VoCore2, so I won’t need to do most of the coding myself. Additionally, the AI itself will help with coding. Hopefully, I’ll finish this project by the end of this week!

After upgrading to v0.23, we are proud to announce an important new feature that enables us to extend MPRO screens for more uses. After many days of rigorous testing, we have now released this feature.

MPRO is based on the ARM core and has approximately 10MB of memory, which is sufficient for most embedded applications. We can easily run LVGL on it. With LVGL (or by directly using MPRO’s extended API), we gain access to several new features:

• Bluetooth dashboard(use bluetooth to UART adaptor)
• Fully customized start up logo, with animate supported.
• Embed setting page in device, can use USB(HID) or UART commuicate with PC.
• Picture-in-Picture, show another small dashboard into exists one.

Source code public at https://github.com/vonger/mpro-extend

You can directly upgrade your screen with the firmware in bin folder for quick test.

The main upgrade in the new version v0.23 is LZ4 compression. With this compression and partial drawing, we can greatly increase the FPS, making it stable at 60Hz or even higher for high-resolution screens like 10-inch (1024×600). With VoCore and USBIP (VirtualHere), it is also possible to make the screen wireless via WiFi.

New firmware, upgrade tool and sample code, download at https://vocore.io/misc/v2scrctl.zip

PS: end of this month we will make a demo board with 3.4 inch round screen and wireless function.

🙁 Very bad, vocore.io is offline. I have no idea what is happening; it just won’t turn on (maybe physical damage). Over the past ten years, the server has been offline many times. Sometimes heavy snow crashes the power supply, sometimes floods get into the server room, and sometimes there is a shortage of power supply.

Double hot backup and automatic switching are very important. After the server recovers, I must find a good way to make it more stable. I cannot rely solely on the server provider.

For now, I need to spend several hours recovering the site backup to another server first.

PS: for new order please directly email to sales@vocore.io, our sales will help you handle it directly.

This change log is copied from https://vocore.io/misc/v2scrctl.zip, README.txt.

From v0.16 to v0.20, the main upgrades include:

• Increased FPS by approximately 30% for all types of screens.
• Support for JPG compressed frames.
• Support for 10-inch screens (1024×600 resolution).
• Reduced 70% MPRO startup time.
• Support for using as the main or extended screen for Windows/Linux (Raspberry Pi/Ubuntu, mpro_drm driver).

2024.09.02

• fix v2scrctl touch trace for 6.8inch screens.

2024.08.19

• support 10inch screen, display/touch.

2024.08.08

• add fwcust.exe, it use old version customized logo firmware to generate latest version customized logo firmware.

2024.08.02

• firmware version upgrade to v0.20
• boot up speed reduce 1.5s.
• speed up v2scrctl scan for screen.

2024.07.30

• firmware version upgrade to v0.19
• firmware increase 28% fps for full draw.
• fix v2scrctl can not find correct firmware.

2024.07.20

• fix touch screen miss hover signal sometimes.
• add nologo firmware.
• fix v2scrctl show wrong touch trace for some screens.

2024.07.17

• add notify at v2scrctl monitor mode.
• add extmon.exe, this is for specified screen for monitor mode.
• add extmon source code.
• move source code to source folder.

2024.07.10

• firmware support baseline jpeg compress. convert: ffmpeg -i 800x480.bmp -v:q 3 -pix_fmt yuvj420p out.jpg
• fix partily draw not align data cannot show.

2024.06.04

• update v2scrctl, automatically choose firmware at Upgrade.

2024.06.02

• tutorial/win10.mkv is for windows10 indirect display driver install.
• add Windows 11 indirect display driver tutorial and pictures to driver/mprodrv/tutorial.

2024.05.25

• add tutorial for install WinUSB/Extend screen driver(tutorial.mkv).
• add Windows extend screen driver.

2024.05.18

• add flip/mirror for most V7B VoCore screens and all MPRO VoCore screens.
• upgrade firmware version to v0.17.

Framebuffer driver is out of date, so our latest driver DRM might be better for raspberrypi user to use VoCore Screen. This tutorial is for new MPRO version screen which support paritialy draw, it is very fast to show raspberry desktop and can easily reach 60FPS.

Source code at https://github.com/Vonger/mpro_drm/tree/6.6.y-dma

Framebuffer driver tutorial: https://vonger.cn/?p=15349 (out of date, not easy to run on new raspi)

When I develop, sometimes wifi or network not working, or ssh can not connect, only way to fix it to use serial port, but serial port do not support transfer file…there are no way to transfer small files, like a simple driver or small application, have to reboot and use uboot to reload everything, and kermit load new firmware to uboot is really slow.

PS: I know somebody can use kermit or sz/lz, but first of all, you need to have them in firmware already, that is a chicken-and-egg problem 🙂

I find default busybox shell(sh) support command “echo -ne”, this is a amazing way to transfer binary data by serial port, and do not need any depends, so I write a simple application, hope this helps.

Usage Example, save TEST.ko to VoCore2 /tmp/TEST.ko: sspdt TEST.ko /dev/ttyACM0

Note: after transfer, remember to run md5sum to check if the data transfer is correct and complete, serial port do not guarantee that. From my test, < 100KB file normally do not have problem, and speed approx 1.5KB/s

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <libserialport.h>

// apt install libserialport-dev
// gcc sspdt.c -o sspdt -lserialport
// speed is approx 1.5KB/s

#define min(a, b) ((a) < (b) ? (a) : (b))

uint8_t *alloc_from_file(const char *name, int *size)
{
    FILE *fp = fopen(name, "rb");
    if (fp == NULL)
        return NULL;

    fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_END);

    *size = ftell(fp);
    fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_SET);

    uint8_t *buf = malloc(*size);
    if (buf)
        fread(buf, 1, *size, fp);
    fclose(fp);

    return buf;
}

struct sp_port *ssport_open(const char *name)
{
    struct sp_port *port;
    int baudrate = 115200, res;

    res = sp_get_port_by_name(name, &port);
    if (SP_OK != res)
        return NULL;

    res = sp_open(port, SP_MODE_READ_WRITE);
    if (SP_OK != res) {
        printf("sp_open=%d, %s\n", res, sp_last_error_message());
        return NULL;
    }

    // clear input/output buffer.
    sp_flush(port, SP_BUF_BOTH);

    // gd32f150 supported protocol 115200, 8n1.
    sp_set_baudrate(port, baudrate);
    sp_set_bits(port, 8);
    sp_set_parity(port, SP_PARITY_NONE);
    sp_set_stopbits(port, 1);

    // necessary, or system will drop 0x11 and 0x13.
    sp_set_flowcontrol(port, SP_FLOWCONTROL_NONE);

    return port;
}

void ssport_close(struct sp_port *port)
{
    sp_flush(port, SP_BUF_BOTH);
    sp_close(port);
    sp_free_port(port);
}

int ssport_write(struct sp_port *port, const void *buf, size_t count)
{
    int wbyte;
    wbyte = sp_blocking_write(port, buf, count, 600);
    //print_hex("wr", buf, wbyte);
    return wbyte;
}

int ssport_read(struct sp_port *port, void *buf, size_t count)
{
    int rbyte;
    rbyte = sp_blocking_read(port, buf, count, 600);
    //print_hex("rd", buf, rbyte);
    return rbyte;
}

void process(int cur, int total)
{
    printf("\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
    printf("\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
    printf("%9dB / %9dB [%3.1f%%]", cur, total, (float)cur / total * 100);
    fflush(stdout);
}

void get_file_name(const char *name, char *out)
{
    int i = strlen(name) - 1;
    for (; i >= 0; i--) {
        if (name[i] == '/' || name[i] == '\\')
            break;
    }
    strcpy(out, name + i);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    if (argc != 3) {
        printf("sspdt [input file] [serial port]\r\n");
        printf("send small files to device term by serial port.\r\n");
        return 0;
    }

    int size = 0;
    uint8_t *buf = alloc_from_file(argv[1], &size);
    struct sp_port *sp = ssport_open(argv[2]);

    ssport_write(sp, "\n\n", 2);
    usleep(1000);

    char name[128] = {0};
    get_file_name(argv[1], name);
    printf("file %s will save to device /tmp/%s\r\n", argv[1], name);

    // each time read 16 bytes
    for (int i = 0; i < size; i += 16) {
        char cmd[0x100] = {0};
        sprintf(cmd, "echo -ne '");
        for (int j = 0; j < min(size - i, 16); j++) {
            char tmp[16];
            sprintf(tmp, "\\x%02x", buf[i + j]);
            strcat(cmd, tmp);
        }
        strcat(cmd, "' >> /tmp/");
        strcat(cmd, name);
        strcat(cmd, "\n");

        ssport_write(sp, cmd, strlen(cmd));
        process(i, size);
        usleep(10000);
    }
    process(size, size);
    ssport_close(sp);

    printf("\r\nDONE!\r\n");
    return 1;
}

We are proud to announce that MPRO now supports a refresh rate of 60Hz.

Please download and try the following: https://vocore.io/misc/v2scrctl.zip. Use the latest firmware and the screen_test.c file.

The main upgrade is that the MPRO firmware now supports baseline JPEG compression, which is typically much smaller than bitmap. For example, an 800×480 16-bit bitmap is approximately 800KB, but a high-quality JPEG image is only 100~200KB. This reduction in size can increase the refresh speed by 300%~500%, allowing us to easily achieve a 60Hz refresh rate.

Note: The software part(like Simhub) may still need some time to adjust, so this feature will take some time to be implemented for dashboard users.

Finally the driver has finished 🙂

Now we can use VoCore screen as a small extend screen for windows.