Menu system

[subjektivdk]

Does anyone have an idea to how to make a menu system that is easy to control using the joystick and LED display?

[scotty101]

How complex do you want it to be?

A simple menu could just be a python list (or dictionary) of menu options that are displayed on the screen and can be selected by moving the joystick or pressing the button. Moving the joystick left or right moves between menu items in the list.
Response of the menu might be a bit slow since writing to the screen prevents button presses being detected immediately.

[ShiftPlusOne]

Something like this has been developed for the astro pi mission. I don't know if it's going to be public, but I'll ask.

[scotty101]

Something like this has been developed for the astro pi mission. I don't know if it's going to be public, but I'll ask.

Is this the "Master Control Program"? I asked a similar question on the blog post. Don't think it was answered.

[ShiftPlusOne]

That's the one.

Still, developing your own would be more interesting. There's a lot of stuff in MCP that you'll never need, I think.

[scotty101]

I had been going to develop one but got distracted writing a version of snake and pong!

Original Poster, if you have some more details about what you are looking for, I'll see if I have some time when I have my SenseHat handy.

[ShiftPlusOne]

got distracted writing a version of snake

That was the first thing I did as well (/usr/src/sense-hat/examples)... maybe the software would be in a much better state if I didn't then get distracted playing it.

[scotty101]

Yeah I spotted that version after I wrote mine based on the python example "Wormy". I also made it so that the worm could wrap round the screens edges.

I still need to spend some time thinking about how to use one of the other keypress event libraries rather than pygame.

[ShiftPlusOne]

I still need to spend some time thinking about how to use one of the other keypress event libraries rather than pygame.

Have you seen this bunch of posts?
viewtopic.php?f=104&t=119025#p807878

[scotty101]

I still need to spend some time thinking about how to use one of the other keypress event libraries rather than pygame.

Have you seen this bunch of posts?
viewtopic.php?f=104&t=119025#p807878

Yep, that was what started my thought process. I haven't decided which of the methods is most suitable for standalone Pi's where using PyGame is overkill. I think evdev will be the easiest apart from the fact that you have to map it to a specific input device.

Any idea what the real AstroPi uses?

[ShiftPlusOne]

Any idea what the real AstroPi uses?

The parts I wrote (in C) access the input device directly, MCP uses python-evdev, and I think some student code uses pygame.

the fact that you have to map it to a specific input device

Not quite, you can read from all the devices:
https://python-evdev.readthedocs.org/en ... le-devices

[scotty101]

the fact that you have to map it to a specific input device

Not quite, you can read from all the devices:
https://python-evdev.readthedocs.org/en ... le-devices

Ahhh. I guess I could use glob to get all of the input devices and listen to all of them for specific key presses. I'd like to replicate the pygame functionality. I'll give it a bash tomorrow.

[subjektivdk]

I had been going to develop one but got distracted writing a version of snake and pong!

Original Poster, if you have some more details about what you are looking for, I'll see if I have some time when I have my SenseHat handy.

I was thinking of something like the code used for the Pimoroni Display-O-Tron 3000 https://github.com/pimoroni/dot3k

[scotty101]

Original Poster, if you have some more details about what you are looking for, I'll see if I have some time when I have my SenseHat handy.

I was thinking of something like the code used for the Pimoroni Display-O-Tron 3000 https://github.com/pimoroni/dot3k

The Display-O-Tron has the advantage of multiple lines all shown simultaneously rather than a single line of scrolling text. An SenseHat menu would have to be a lot simpler.

[subjektivdk]

Yes I am aware of the need for it to be much simpler. But the functionality could be more or less the same - one would only be able to see one menu item at a time.

[JSingleton]

There is a new version of the display-o-tron: https://shop.pimoroni.com/collections/r ... o-tron-hat

The joystick (as used in the sense HAT) has been replaced with capacitative touch buttons.

[subjektivdk]

I had been going to develop one but got distracted writing a version of snake and pong!

Original Poster, if you have some more details about what you are looking for, I'll see if I have some time when I have my SenseHat handy.

Simple graphics for every menu item. Use joystick to move up/down, joystick press or right to select, left to leave menu item. Then the uo/down should just cycle the menu.