Parola for Arduino: Main Page

| Parola for Arduino 2.6 Text effects for LED Matrix modular hardware

Main Page

## The Parola Library

The Parola library is implemented to work with the MD_MAX2XX library. It depends on the MD_MAX72xx library for hardware control and will run on all hardware supported by that library. The MD_MAX72XX library can be found here.

This software library implements functions to simplify the implementation of text special effects on the Parola display.

- Left, right or center text justification in the display field.
- Text scrolling, text entering and exit effects.
- Control display parameters and animation speed.
- Multiple virtual displays (zones) in each string of LED modules.
- User defined fonts and/or individual characters substitutions.
- Double height displays.

The latest copy of the Parola Software and hardware files can be found at the Parola website.

The final product with 8 modules connected together

## System Components

- Hardware - documentation for supported hardware found in the MD_MAX72xx library documentation.
- Parola Library

## Revision History

Dec 2016 - version 2.6

- Prefaced all Parola enumerated types with PA_ as some clash with othe libraries
- Edited main library core rouines to allow scrolling in double height mode
- Eliminated trailing char separator from displayed string
- Adjusted some animations to allow for changes to core utility functions
- Changed Double_Height_v2 example to allow for Generic and Parola modules
- Fixed font definitions for font based examples
- Added Arduino Library Print Class extension for easy printing

Nov 2016 - version 2.5

- Added ambulance example
- Updated branding to MD_ diamond
- Added README.md file

Jan 2016 - version 2.4

- Added dynamic zone example
- Added synchZoneStart() method to allow zones start times to be synchronised
- Added double height character example by Arek00
- Modified all examples to conditionally include <SPI.h>
- Added double height character example (v2) using Font file created by MD_MAX72xx font builder
- Added double height clock example
- Added HelloWorld example - simplest working code
- Added FADE animation
- Adjusted documentation structure
- Added #defines ENA_* for granular selection of animations (memory saving)

Aug 2015 - version 2.3

- Added set/getScrollSpacing() methods and associated Scrolling_Spacing example
- Added set/getZoneEffect with FLIP_LR and FLIP_UD, with associated Zone_Mirror example
- Added MESH animation
- Fixed minor bugs and documentation

April 2015 - version 2.2

- Added Scrolling_ML example
- Added Zone_Mesg example
- Overloaded displayClear() for single zone clear
- Fixed bug in SLICE effect when text was too long for display

February 2015 - version 2.1

- Fixed small animation problems with SLICE and SCAN_VERT
- Fixed PROGMEM error compiling with IDE version 1.5.7

March 2014 - version 2.0

- Mods to accommodate revised font handling in MD_MAX72xx library
  - Users can now provide a user defined font PROGMEM data table
  - User code can provide individual character override for equivalent font character
- Additional animations
  - SCAN_HORIZ, SCAN_VERT
  - GROW_UP, GROW_DOWN
  - SCROLL_UP_LEFT, SCROLL_UP_RIGHT, SCROLL_DOWN_LEFT, SCROLL_DOWN_RIGHT
- Implemented Zoned scrolling
  - Multiple independent zoned scrolling areas in one display.
  - Each zone has all character attributes (font, alignment, speed, pause, etc).
- textEffect_t and textAlign_t taken out of the class definition. Requires legacy code mods.
- Backward compatible with library version 1.x code.

September 2013 - version 1.1

- Mods to accommodate changes to hardware SPI implementation in MD_MAX72xx library

June 2013 - version 1.0

- New library

## Copyright

Copyright (C) 2013-2016 Marco Colli. All rights reserved.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA