Salvaged from the ruins of CodePlex

The 'netduino Helpers' is a C# library providing hardware drivers and utility classes supporting the following:

• Analog joysticks
• Interrupt-driven push-button
• Real-time clock (DS1307)
• 8*8 LED matrix
• AdaFruit ILI932x TFT display
• AdaFruit SSD1306 OLED display
• AdaFruit ST7735 TFT display
• AdaFruit VC0706 Camera
• AdaFruit ST7565 Negative LCD display
• AdaFruit LPD8806 LED strip driver
• Sharp GP2Y0A21YK0F Distance Measuring Sensor
• Shift registers (74hc595)
• Runtime assembly & resource loader
• Bitmaps & Bitmap Compositions
• HiTec HS6635HB servo driver
• Serial Interface Builder
• LED matrix driver (Maxim7219 or compatible)
• RTTL sound support (ringtones)
• Variable / Fixed type font rendering
• 16x16 icon rendering
• Basic type serialization / deserialization
• Trigonometry library (exMath-based)
• Lightweight JSON parser (parsing from stream & string)
• Virtual Memory support
• PIX-6T4 console bootloader and games

The library is available as source-code only.

Check the \netduino.helpers\Samples folder for the samples and demos. The project called 'Samples' references all the others and will allowing building everything in one shot.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\PIX6T4 contains the console boot loader and games. The complete project page, with schematics, source code, documentation and ready-to-play games are available from http://www.pix6t4.com/.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\ASSM is a simple class used to illustrate dynamic assembly loading of little-endian PE files on the netduino.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\BeyondHelloWorld is a large sample making use of:

  • an SD card driver Be sure to place the content of the \BeyondHelloWorld\SD Card Resources folder at the root of the SD card before running the sample
  • loads bitmaps, strings and assemblies dynamically
  • drives an 8x8 LED matrix using Persistence Of Vision
  • uses an analog joystick for input

  For a complete project using these drivers, see the PIX-6T4 project.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\DS1307 tests all the functions of the Maxim DS1307 real-time clock.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\AdaFruitSSD1306 sample driving an AdaFruit SSD1306 monochrome OLED display

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\AdaFruitST7735Test sample driving an AdaFruit ST7735 TFT display

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\AdaFruit7565Test sample driving an AdaFruit ST7565 Negative LCD display

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\AdaFruitVC0706Test sample driving an AdaFruit VC0706 TTL serial camera

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\AdaFruitLPD8806Test demo driving an AdaFruit LPD8806 RGB LED strip as a 16x10 display

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\SharpDistanceSensorTest sample using the Sharp GP2Y0A21YK0F Distance Measuring Sensor. Not documented.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\ImagingSamples show how to build multi-layered bitmap compositions. Used as part of the PIX-6T4 project.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\HiTecServoTest simple unit test for the HiTec servo driver moving the arm back and forth from 0 to 180 degrees. This project is documented here.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\Max72197221Test unit tests exercising all the functions of the Maxim 7219 / 7221 LED driver. This driver is documented here and is used in the PIX-6T4 project.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\RingToneTest unit tests for the RTTL sound support. This driver is not documented.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\PIPBoy3000 Geiger counter and Twitter client sample. This project is documented here.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\JSONParserTest JSON parser unit test samples. This project is documented as part of the Klout Klock sample application. This project is documented here.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\KloutKlock network-enabled clock using NTP time to display the date and time and Klout web services to show the user's influence within Social Networks. Requires a Netduino Plus and an AdaFruit ST7735 TFT screen. This project is documented here.

• \netduino.helpers\Samples\WaterHeaterController water heater controller designed to save energy. Makes use of the Serial Interface Builder, the Hitec HS6635HB servo and the DS1307 clock. This project is documented here.

Be sure to check out the netduino Beta forum for the latest flash version required to support SD card I/Os.

All applications have been tested under firmware 4.1.1 Beta 1 only. .Net MF v4.2 is not yet supported as some features were taken out since 4.1.1 unfortunately.

The library is large and will need to be trimmed to meet the needs of your application. This is especially relevant to the Netduino Plus. You can do this two ways: either take out the drivers and classes that you don't need / want and recompile the library (be mindful of inter-dependencies between some of the classes) or you can create you own library using a subset of the files making the Netduino Helpers library.

\netduino.helpers\Tools contains .bmp conversion programs. Expect 1-bit or 24-bit depth horizontal bitmaps.