Video Player Project

[MGR550]

Hello, I'm working on a project with the tinyscreen+ and SD & audio board.
Mechanical: I have one complaint; the micro SD card slot on the shield board makes the SD card itself sits a bit wider than the footprint of the board which is kind of annoying.  My recommendation would be to move the receiver slot more to the center of the board so the overall small square footprint is maintained with the card in place.

Electrically: Are there any unused digital/analog IOs I can tap into in the connector? Pinout diagrams for the connectors on the screen and SD/audio board connectors would be great. Fine soldering is no problem and I just need ideally 1 digital 1 analog input to the board.
Also whats the input voltage range? No space to use the USB to power it and battery is not good for my application so am going to splice in from external supply (12-14V stepped down with a little amazon buck converter).

Software: I am least familiar with software things so could use some tips here. Basically I want it to play a video on startup, then display a static image (or ideally display a voltage read from an analog input). No user interaction or button reading. Im going through the example code but cant quite figure out the sequence of how to call a specific video to play (seems like they are treated as numbered sequentially?), then load that video to buffer(?) then display the video with the functions provided in the example.

Thanks!

[lennevia]

Hello,

The SD slot position is as far into the center as is possible to keep the tan connector correctly placed.

There are unused pins, but I do not recommend soldering to the connectors as this will damage your ability to connect the boards to each other. Consider a prototyping shield instead: https://tinycircuits.com/collections/proto-boards

The pins used by each board are referenced on the product page under the Tech Specs tab, you'll also find the schematics of the boards under the Downloads tab. Check out the product pages:
- TinyScreen+ https://tinycircuits.com/products/tinyscreenplus
- SD & Audio TinyShield: https://tinycircuits.com/collections/memory/products/microsd_audio-tinyshield

Voltage is 3 - 5.5V, also noted under the Tech Specs.

There are some settings available to alter functionality: https://learn.tinycircuits.com/Kits/TinyTV-Tutorial/
Other than that, the source code is open and available for customization: https://learn.tinycircuits.com/Kits/Tiny-Video-Program/
Videos are played in the order they are added to the SD Card. Pay attention to both the main file in the program folder Tiny-Video-Player.ino and videoPlayer.ino for more information on how they are played.
It sounds like you'll have to design something (maybe time-based?) around playing the video and then displaying your utility. The auto playing and looping functionality might help you out in the case that it makes sense to play the full video, and then display your utility. In that way you can "loop" the possible viewing options.

Cheers,
Réna