The text method

As great as a spiffy graphical display is, it often makes sense to have some more specific information displayed about a parameter's current value as well. This is where the text method comes in handy (using the font definition we drew up earlier). Let's say, for instance, we want to have incoming CPS shown as a numeric value. Then, we would have to add the following section:

  [disp5]
  value=rx_cps
  method=text
  font=font1
  rect=50,32,80,40
  style=d
  flags=r
  digits=6
  decimals=1
  unitchar=?
  transform1=60,0,0,60,255,255,33,0,0,33,220,255
  transform2=0,0,0,10,255,255,225,190,140,226,191,141

What this does is display the rx_cps parameter of cFosSpeed, which keeps track of the current CPS reception rate. By setting method to text and font to font1, we make sure the disp section uses the font we've already defined in step two.
The style is set to "d" (=decimal) with one digit after the comma. Setting the "r" flag will have the text right-aligned. Numeric value and measuring unit may take up to 6 digits. Seeing then how our font definition clearly specifies each digit to have a width of 5 and a height of 8 pixels, this would result in a rect of 30x8 pixels to be placed above the bar defined in [disp3].

Having the unitchar point to a "blank" character bitmap will prevent displayed numbers from shifting to the right when there is no measuring unit available. This happens when transfer rates fall outside available (T)era, (G)iga, (M)ega or (K)ilo byte ranges (e.g., when showing bytes only).

While transform1 shifts the color of the text from yellow to orange, transform2 decreases the intensity of the drop shadow, which is also part of the font bitmap.

For outgoing CPS, let's now add the following:

  [disp6]
  value=tx_cps
  method=text
  font=font1
  rect=50,77,80,85
  style=d
  flags=r
  digits=6
  decimals=1
  unitchar=?
  transform1=60,0,0,60,255,255,100,0,0,100,200,220
  transform2=0,0,0,10,255,255,225,190,120,226,191,121

It should be obvious by now that this is basically the same as above – just with other rect coordinates. What's also different here is that the transform1 key changes the color to green, while transform2 creates a slightly darker shadow.

Next step: Adding an LED with the slider method

The history method The slider method Index