TcMenu is a modular, IoT ready multi level menu library for Arduino, mbed, Pico-SDK, mbed and many more platforms supporting many input, display and IoT / remote interfaces. It makes presenting configuration, status and operational information much easier. Apache licensed and therefore safe for commercial use.
Start by working out what information and state is to be represented in the Designer UI. Take inspiration from the Arduino menu examples. Then, run Code Generator which outputs code for the selected board ready for use in an IDE.
Embedded Menu for Arduino
Web based menu designer:
- Start web based TcMenu Turbo designer
- Documentation for Web based TcMenu Turbo
- Get help from the C++/Java/Flutter consultants who wrote tcMenu
Using Tc menu library:
- TcMenu library examples and starter projects
- Guide to working with Menu Item Types
- Code Generator and plugins guide
- EEPROM integration with menus
- Setting up IO expanders in designer
- Authentication - securing sub-menus and remote connections
- Creating and generating menus using the CLI
- MenuManager and Menu iteration Guide
- Writing a multi-language locale based menu
- Useful helper functions in tcUtil.h
- Embedded library reference documentation
- GitHub Repository - for source and releases
- Major code level differences between library versions
Desktop version of the menu designer
Menu library for vendor environments using CMake (non Arduino)
You can use PicoSDK without requiring Arduino framework at all. The opensource version of IoAbstraction supports PicoSDK directly for nearly all cases. Our direct support generally works via CMake, and the starting point for these builds is our CMake based project in the cmakeProject directory. If you're using this commercially, please contact us for commercial support.
We can support other platforms such as ESP-IDF and STM32 using this approach commercially.
Working with displays
- Working with display renderers
- Creating and using TitleWidgets and bitmaps
- Themes, properties, grids and card layout
- How to define fonts within theme configuration
- Taking over the display and dashboards
Display plugins
- DfRobot LCD shield driver
- LiquidCrystal / hd44780 display driver
- AdaFruit_GFX driver - ILI9341, ST7735, Nokia5110 etc
- AdaFruit_GFX NativeCpp/PicoSDK/mbed RTOS for OLED - SSD1306, SH1106
- U8g2 driver - for SSD1306, SH1106 etc
- SSD1306Ascii low memory driver - for SSD1306 on Uno
- TFT_eSPI driver with double buffering
- STM32 LTDC mbed frame buffer with touch
- Customising a display driver
Theme plugins
- OLED/Mono themes both bordered and inverse
- Color themes for most display sizes
- Dark themes for most display sizes
Input plugins
- Rotary encoder, buttons or joystick
- Using a matrix keyboard to control menu
- DfRobot analog pin keypad input
- Resistive touch screen menu integration
- XPT2046 and FT6206 touch screen menu integration
- Capacitive Touch-pad sensor input
Specific for Java on Raspberry PI or embedded Linux
We have tested the designer application and embedCONTROL on a Raspberry PI, so not only can you make a Raspberry PI embedded application, you can even run designer and embedCONTROL on an RPI as well! The Java API and EmbedControl libraries are fully JavaDoc commented.
- Creating an embedded Java menu application for RaspberryPI
- Display menu on JavaFX/OpenJDK on Raspberry PI
- Menu In Menu - Embed remote menus into a single app
Remotely controlling your menu / IoT
Our menu designer can build in IoT capabilities near automatically (on Ethernet2, UipEthernet (ENC28J60), ESP8266-WiFi, ESP32-WiFi, Bluetooth and Serial). Allowing you to remotely monitor and control your device using Embed Control with minimal effort.
However, to write your own remote monitoring, use our Java Remote API, TypeScript/JavaScript API, C#/DotNet API, or the Python API. Coming soon is a Dart API.
- embedCONTROL UI documentation
- Menu library remote connectivity tutorial
- IoT monitoring and control using the Java API
- TagVal protocol documentation
IoT and Remote control plugins
- Serial driver for usb, rs232 and Bluetooth control
- Ethernet driver for Ethernet2 and Uip control
- WiFi driver for ESP32 and ESP8266 control
- Simhub connector for tcMenu using custom serial protocol
- Embedded Java plugin for ethernet/WiFi remote
- Serving up embedCONTROL in a web browser
- Device acts as client to remote server
Creating / building / modifying plugins
Working with lists of data - ListRuntimeMenuItem
Runtime lists support the displaying of list based data, where each row can have a name and values. There are three types of list item: Firstly FLASH based items, these work similar to enum items as the items are predefined at compile time. You can build these in designer directly. Secondly there's the option to have RAM based values, where an...
Working with large numbers - EditableLargeNumberMenuItem
tcMenu supports Large numbers for editing, with values up to 12 digits in total, and it can optionally handle negative values too. The underlying storage is a bit packed BCD array. This makes for efficient storage and complete accuracy in all cases. However, you can convert to and from floating-point values for convenience when accuracy is not as important. Class types...
Working with sub-menus - SubMenuItems
Items of type submenu can hold another list of menu items; which are presented as children of this menu item. Depending on the renderer you are using, this will display similar to the main menu when selected. BackMenuItem is silently added during code generation, it is needed to provide the user a way to leave the submenu back to the main...
Working with text, date, time and IP address items -
An item that represents a complex data type that needs to be edited a part at a time. The value is generally held in RAM and can usually be saved in EEPROM between sessions. These items take various forms on the embedded side, either an Ip Address, date, time or plain text. Time menu items allow for the editing of...
Working with boolean values - BooleanMenuItems
An item that can represent only boolean true or false. It can be configured to show as ON/OFF, TRUE/FALSE or YES/NO as required. Type information for BooleanMenuItem Class Type: / in MenuItems.h Enum returned by is MENUTYPE_BOOLEAN_VALUE This item is based on an Info block Information applicable to all menu items BooleanMenuItem reference documentation Creating an object...
Working with floating-point values - FloatMenuItems
Float items are useful for displaying the result of inexact calculations and are only supported for read only purposes. The issue with floating points is that they are inexact and unsuited uses where they are ticked by a rotary encoder. An example use of a float menu item would be the average temperature of many readings. Type information for FloatMenuItem Class...
Working with fixed choices - EnumMenuItems
An item that can represent a known series of values where only one can be selected at a time. Somewhat like a combo box. For enum items these values must be set at compile time, and on AVR / ESP they are in program memory. We store the choice as a zero based integer with the first choice being 0 and...
Working with scroll choice items - ScrollChoiceMenuItem
Scroll Choice menu items allow for a single choice from a list of choices. Unlike enum menu item the choices may not be known until runtime, and could change at any time. There are several ways that choices can be stored either in a fixed width memory character array, EEPROM fixed width array, or lastly using a custom callback for each...
Working with numeric values - AnalogMenuItem
Working with Analog Items An item that can represent an integer, fractional, or decimal numeric value that can be editable using a rotary encoder or touch scroll/slider control. Currently, the underlying value is a 16-bit unsigned integer value but the maximum range is from -32768 to +32767. This is because we can make it appear negative by providing a negative offset....
Detailed description of RuntimeMenuItem
Items that extend from runtime menu item use a callback at runtime that can be used to get more or less every property, but will use the INFO block if it is available (not null). That being the case, they don't need but can use an info block (that is defined ahead of time) ahead of time. However, in...
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Supporting us
We maintain several popular embedded projects and work hard to make them even better. If you're looking for commercial services, please do consider us.
Alternatively, you can buy us a coffee to say thanks.
Sharing links
Learn about TcMenu
We build and maintain an embedded menu designer and framework that works on many platforms.
