This guide describes the basic steps to create a graphics-enabled application using the Multimedia Expansion Board II with PIC32MZ Embedded Graphics with Stacked DRAM (DA) Starter Kit. You will build a simple application that displays an image and touch button. It starts with the creation of a new MPLAB® project and finishes with a graphics application equivalent to aria_quickstart.

The demonstration will render the following image on the display:

Who should use this guide

This guide is intended for developers who are building applications on a custom PIC32MZ DA setup similar to or the same as components on the Multimedia Expansion Board II and PIC32MZ Embedded Graphics with Stacked DRAM (DA) Starter Kit.

What this guide contains

You will build a simple application that displays an image and touch button. It starts with the creation of a new MPLAB® project and finishes with a graphics application equivalent to aria_quickstart. Here are the primary steps to create a graphics application for your PIC32MZ DA hardware:

1. Create a new project and configure clock for PIC32MZ DA.
   • Create MPLAB® Harmony v3 Project using MPLAB® X IDE
   • Verify Clock Settings
2. Configure Harmony components for graphics middleware and drivers
3. Configure pins for external graphics communication
4. Generate Code
5. Add application code to project
6. Build, program and observe outputs

Materials you will need

Documentation

Documentation	Description
Multimedia Expansion Board II (MEB II) User's Guide	Board User Guide with Schematics
PIC32MZ DA Family Starter Kit User's Guide	MCU User Guide with Schematics

Hardware

Hardware	Description
Multimedia Expansion Board II	Development Board
PIC32MZ Embedded Graphics with Stacked DRAM (DA) Starter Kit
Standard USB A to mini-B cable	PC debugging connector.

NOTE: The PIC32 Starter Kit includes an on-board debugger, which requires no additional hardware to get started. For programming/debugging, the debug port connects to the host PC through the USB mini-B connector on the PIC32 Starter Kit.

Hardware Setup

On the MEB II, the EBIWE and LCD_PCLK (J9) must be jumpered to use the internal SRAM for graphics frame buffer. The J9 jumper is located on the bottom of the MEB II board, beneath where the starter kit is plugged into the board. Refer to the following figure for the exact location.

NOTE: The board and display are powered by a Mini-B – USB A cable from PC to the “USB Debug” port on the MEB II board.

Software

Software	Description	Install
MPLAB® X Integrated Development Environment	v5.15 or later	Install MPLAB® IDE
MPLAB® XC32/32++ C Compiler	v2.20 or later	Install Compiler
MPLAB® Harmony 3	v3.5 or later	Install Harmony v3

NOTE: This project has been verified to work with the following versions of software tools: MPLAB® X IDE v5.20, MPLAB® XC32 Compiler v2.20, MPLAB® Harmony v3.5.0

NOTE: Because we regularly update our tools, occasionally you may discover an issue while using the newer versions. If you suspect that to be the case, we recommend that you use the same versions that the project was tested with.

1. Select File > New Project from the main IDE menu.

2. In the Categories pane, select Microchip Embedded. In the Projects pane, select 32-bit MPLAB® Harmony 3 Project, then click Next.

NOTE: If 32-Bit MPLAB® Harmony 3 Project selection is not displayed, Download MPLAB® Harmony Framework.

3. In the Framework Path edit box, browse to the folder you downloaded the framework to. If you haven't done this, or want to download it to a different folder, click the Launch Framework Downloader button, then click Next.

NOTE: For more information on the framework downloader, see the, Download MPLAB® Harmony Framework section of the "MPLAB® Harmony Configurator Overview" page.

4. In the Project Settings window, apply the following settings:

   • Location: Indicates the path to the root folder of the new project. All project files will be placed inside this folder. The project location can be any valid path, for example: C:\microchip\harmony\v3.
   • Folder: Indicates the name of the MPLABX .X folder. Enter “pic32_mzda” to create a pic32_mzda.X folder.
   • Name: Enter the project’s logical name as “my_board”. This is the name that will be shown from within the MPLAB® X IDE.
   • Click Next to proceed to Configuration Settings.

NOTE: Folder must be a valid directory name for your operating system. The Path box is read-only. It will update as you make changes to the other entries.

5. Follow the steps below to set the project’s Configuration Settings.

   • Name: Enter the configuration name as “pic32_mzda”.
   • Target Device: Select “PIC32MZ2064DAR169” as the target device.
   • Click Finish to launch the MHC.

NOTE: You can select the Device Family or enter a Device Filter to filter the list in Target Device in order to make it easier to locate the desired device.

• When Finish is clicked, the following message may be displayed while the configuration database setup dialog is loaded.

6. Configuration Database Setup.

• Click Launch.

• Launching MPLAB® Harmony Configurator. The following message will be displayed while the project is loaded into MPLAB® X.

7. The MHC plugin’s main window for the project will be displayed. This is the initial project graph.

8. Before proceeding, set up the compiler toolchain. Click on the Projects tab on the top left pane. Right click on the project name my_board and go to Properties.

Make sure that XC32 (v2.20) is selected as the Compiler Toolchain for XC32. Click on Apply and then click on OK.

1. Launch Clock Diagram by going to MHC tab in MPLABX IDE and then select Tools > Clock Configuration.

A new tab, Clock Diagram, is opened in the project’s main window.

2. Click on the Clock Diagram tab, scroll to the right and verify that SYSCLK is set to 200 MHz. Verify that REFCLK5 is ON and set to 200000000 Hz

3. Verify that GLCD REFCLK5 is ON and set to 200000000 Hz. The REFCLK5 setting effects the Pixel Clock (Hz) via the Pixel Clock Divider. By default, the Pixel Clock Divider is set to 4 which produces a Pixel Clock of 50Hz when REFCLK5 is set to 200000000 Hz.

NOTE: If your display requires a different pixel clock, you can change the divider using GLCD Configuration Options menu. This is illustrated below.

1. Because this is a Harmony based application, you will need to use the Harmony Core Service Component.

Under the bottom left tab, Available Components, expand Harmony. Double click or drag and drop Core to add the Harmony Core Service to the project graph. When prompted to activate FreeRTOS, click No.

2. You will also need the Time System Service.

NOTE: Harmony components lists Current Consumers and Available Consumers when a right click occurs on the circle icons.

• On the Harmony Core Service component, right click the Core Service icon, select Available Consumers, then select TIME(sys_time).

• On the Time System Service component, right click the TMR diamond icon, select CORE_TIMER(core_timer).

Because this is a GFX enabled application, you will need to select a graphics library. For this tutorial, we will use Aria.

3. Under the bottom left tab, Available Components, expand Graphics>Middleware. Double click or drag and drop Aria to add the Aria graphics library to the project graph.

4. On the Aria component, right click the GFX HAL diamond icon, select Satisfiers, and select GFX Core.

5. On the GFX Core component, right click the Display Driver diamond icon icon, select Satisfiers, and select GLCD.

6. On the GFX Core component, right click Graphics Display diamond icon, select Satisfiers, and select PDA TM4301B (gfx_disp_pdatm4301b_480x272).

7. On the PDA TM4301B component, right click Touch Panel diamond icon, select Consumers, and select MaXTouch Controller (gfx_maxtouch_controller).

8. On the MaXTouch Controller component, right click DRV_I2C diamond icon, select Satisfiers, and select I2C (drv_i2c).

9. On the MaXTouch Controller component, right click Input System Service circle icon, select Available Satisfiers, and select Input System Service (sys_input).

10. On the I2C Driver component, right click Input I2C diamond icon, select Satisfiers, and select I2C1 (i2c1).

11. Under the bottom left tab, Available Components, expand Peripherals. Double click or drag and drop DDR to add the DDR Peripheral Library to the project graph.

On completion, your Project Graph window should look similar to the following image:

1. Select **GLCD ** component, then select Configuration Options.

A new window, Confoguration Options, is opened in the project’s main window.

2. Verify that Pixel Clock Divider is set to 6. This will produce a Pixel Clock of 33MHz.

NOTE: If your display requires a different pixel clock, you can change the divider using GLCD Configuration Options menu.

If the display timing needs to be configured, then you will need to launch Display Manager. For this tutorial, Display Managing is not required. See Getting started with Display Manager for more information.

In this step, you will need to connect the PIC32MZ DA to the external touch controller and display modules.

If you are using the MEB II board, please reference the Multimedia Expansion Board II schematics obtained from the Multimedia Expansion Board II (MEB II) User's Guide and PIC32MZ DA Family Starter Kit User's Guide.

NOTE: If you are using a schematic for your custom board, map the required graphics pins to your board.

NOTE: If you are using a schematic for your custom board, map the required graphics pins to your board.

The pin mapping table below is made available for convenience.

Ball/Pin Number	Pin ID	Name	Function	Direction	Latch
B9	RB1	BSP_MAXTOUCH_CHG	GPIO	In
M11	RA14	SCL1	SCL1
N11	RA15	SDA1	SDA1
M3	RE3	TM4301B_BACKLIGHT	GPIO	OUT	High

1. Open the Pin Configuration tabs by clicking MHC > Tools > Pin Configuration.

2. Select the MHC Pin Settings tab and sort the entries by Port names as shown below.

3. Use the table above to establish your Pin Settings.

MPLAB® Harmony Graphics Suite contains a pre-build UI design for verification purposes. Use Graphics Composer to insert the Pre-Build UI Design into your project.

Launch the Graphics Composer from the MHC/Tools Menu:

• When MHGC’s Welcome Dialog is displayed. Click the Create a new project using the new project wizard button.

If the Welcome Dialog does not appear, it is because it had been disabled previously. The Welcome Dialog can be re-enabled by using MHGC’s File > Settings > General menu:

• In the MPLAB® Harmony Graphics Composer (MHGC) screen use the left-most icon to create a new graphics design.

In the New Project Wizard, for the Color Mode step,

• Select RGB_565
• Click NEXT.

Memory Size

For the Memory Size step, accept the default Flash Memory Size and click NEXT. It is not recommended to change this setting for this tutorial.

Project Type

For the Project Type step, chose the second option create a new project using a basic template and click NEXT.

The MHGC window will display the following image:

1. When done, before generating code, click Save MHC State as shown below.

2. Save the configuration in its default location when prompted.

3. Generate the code as shown below.

4. Click on the Generate button in the Generate Project window, keeping the default settings as shown below. If prompted for saving the configuration, click Save.

5. As the code is generated, MHC displays the progress as shown below.

6. Examine the generated code.

MHC will include all the MPLAB® Harmony library files and generate the code based on the MHC selections. The generated code would add files and folders to your Harmony project

7. Navigate to the Projects tab to view the project tree structure.

1. Connect the Type-A male to mini-B USB cable to micro-B DEBUG USB port to power and debug the PIC32MZ DA Starter Kit.

2. Go to File > Project Properties and make sure that the EDBG is selected as the debugger under the Hardware Tools and XC32 (v2.20) is selected as the Compiler Toolchain for XC32.

3. Clean and build your application by clicking on the Clean and Build button as shown below.

4. Program your application to the device, by clicking on the Make and Program button as shown below.

The application should build and program successfully. A compilation error could occur if a pin name is undefined. For example:

The demonstration will display the following UI:

You observed that the application displayed the home screen. You were able to change screens and control widgets.

You have successfully created an application using MPLAB® Harmony v3 on PIC32MZ DA WQVGA. Your application used all the fundamental elements that go in building a graphics application. Your application successfully rendered a UI to the High-Performance 4.3" WQVGA Display Module. The application also took user from the display module.

In this application, you used MPLAB® Harmony Configurator (MHC) to configure PIC32MZ DA WQVGA. You used MHC to add and connect components. You used Pin Configurator to set up the pins for display and maxTouch controller.

This guide provided you training of configuring and using all the fundamental components needed to build a graphics application on a Multimedia Expansion Board II with PIC32MZ DA WQVGA using MPLAB® Harmony v3 Framework. As a next step, you may customize this application and reconfigure some of the components used in this tutorial. You could also add new components (PLIBs, etc.) to enhance this application to realize your end application.

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