Nextion alternative

1

Have used Nextion displays for a number of projects and love them. All you need is RX and TX links and they can be driven by any processor with RX, TX communications. They have sufficient memory to accept jpg files for graphics making coding really easy.

But they have limitations….

  • Fonts are jagged and mono spaced.
  • png transparencies cannot be used.
  • No animations
  • Program function limitations
  • Can’t update software remotely

…to name just a few.

It appears that Itead has worldwide distribution rights (except China). I imagine that TJC aren’t happy that their 0.55 editor version improvements that would gain them extra sales are being ignored. Instead, Nextion want paying extra for what we would call ‘product support’

I recently bought an enhanced screen with the new demo software and if you think the fonts look better (which they do) then check out the animation, sliding and fading text etc. etc. It’s brilliant.

So what about an alternative.

Whilst I can use Nextion editor and Arduino IDE, I’m not in the same league as say Iuma and hag and similar experts who know what’s going on deep down.

But I do know that the Arduino, Esp and Esp8266 have usb, serial and SPI comms so why not attach one of these processors to a standard SPI touch screen, then develop a library and GUI similar to Nextion but with added features, which could also include remote firmware updates. If the Esp was used, then that includes GPIO pins.
All this dedicated to the display and built on to a PCB attached to the touch screen. So keeping the same RX, TX comms with any microprocessor.

Even better news is that this is all open source so hopefully the thousands of other experts out there could contribute.

Costly? – I don’t think so - have priced a 3.5 inch touch screen and Esp for less than £8.00 retail. I pay about £20 for same size Nextion. Surely that would allow a manufacturer to get reasonable profit margin for a superior product.

2

I think GUIslice might be exactly what you describe. Fully open source, supports multiple platforms, and supports multiple TFT touchscreens in a generic way. It’s not quite up to the level of Nextion yet but is under very rapid development and is not being held hostage by money-grabbing assholes.

2 Likes
3

FWIW Ebay item 273169918198 looks interesting. New 3.5 inch HMI Uart TFT LCD Display Module 480x320 Capacitive Touch Screen, hunda tech visual lcd studio development environment.
http://www.hundatech.com/download/VisualLcdStudio_user_manual.pdf

4

Thanks for the link Ian. This is the kind of thing I am interested in.
On first sight these look impressive – 64 mbyte memory, Capacitive touch and i2c + reset interface and not much more costly than Nextion.
However, very little information about them, and I can’t see link to download ‘Visual LCD Studio’ software

This appears to be datasheet
http://www.hundatech.com/download/HD35-I2C%20LCD说明书V1.2.pdf

and this Arduino user is having problem with Visual LCD Studio
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=615233.0

Will be very interested to see if they can be programmed as stand-alone.

….Nextion - watch out - I love your 0.58 version and the improved fonts.
Maybe time to release the ‘intellegent’ only functions like fades, video and png transparency to us mere basic users.

5

LOL goddamn, and I thought Nextion support was awful.

6

Before this, I did some projects with nextion. This is a video of the project made with STONELCD. STONE LCD display is the same as nextion display, with additional functions, such as stone display can play video and flash with usb flash. I think it contains more possibilities. The official website has detailed information and introduction: [https://www.stoneitech.com/]

7

I ran across this display after seeing a suspiciously-similarly-worded post here. The pricing on the panels is even worse than Nextion and I don’t see any additional features that Nextion doesn’t already have.

I’m all for alternatives to Nextion (and am still looking for one) but I don’t see as how this improves on anything.

8

i tried different modules for validation. tried different modules for validation.

9

Hi Luma, this is STONE Tech.
The STONE HMI has similar features to Nextion, but with much better hardware configurations, so complex projects can run smoothly.
The reliability is good: our products use high quality components, can be used in Industrial applications as well as civil devices like beauty machines
We also have experienced SUPPORT TEAM for users, without charge. We treat our users sincerely and equally, at least won’t turn you down by rude replies.
The price - if you buy in large quantities, will be cheaper than Nextion.
You can get a sample for testing by contact leon@stone-hmi.com or info@stone-hmi.com

10

If you’re feeling up to it, I’m sure we could find a skilled forum member here (or several) that would be happy to accept a review sample and tell the rest of us how it goes.

11

@STONE-Technology you have my attention!

It’s a shame the only “Buy now” takes us to AliExpress, in RUSSIA !!! :frowning:

Stone-RU.PNG
Stone-RU.PNG1154×973 297 KB

12

Hi DVEous, thank you for the reply. The Aliexpress store is our official B2C distribution channel.
If you don’t want to buy at Aliexpress, just write to leon@stone-hmi with your requirements.

13

Hi luma,
Thanks for the idea, we’d love to send free sample for a review.
I’m new here, would you kindly recommend one or two skilled & active forum member to do it?

14

I had a look at your displays and I really wanted to use them for my project. However I‘m a private person, with an open source project that I do not sell, but that people build on their own. This means order quantities of 1-2, where your prices are unfortunately way less competitive. Additionally I might migrate to the even cheaper TJC panels.

Any chance that your prices for low volume orders will drop one day…?

Kind regards,
Max

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15

I’m in the exact same boat. I’ve purchased hundreds of Nextion panels (not thousands), and I doubt that is going to get me much of a price break, but my major problem is that I’m publishing open source hardware projects where my users are buying the panels one at a time.

Volume pricing breaks are cool, but a serial-attached LCD tends to attract the sort of user who might only be buying one or two at a time.

16

What I can offer is a quick review of your editor!

Website is pretty easy to navigate, finding the download section was straightforward. There I’m greeted with a bunch of software titles that aren’t terribly descriptive but one of them is from 2020 and the others from 2018 so I go with the 2020 file labelled “20200607-TOOL 2019”. Download speeds are slow as hell but hey it’s the other side of the world.

There’s no installer, just a folder full of files ready-to-run. I actually appreciate this approach as it makes it a lot easier to juggle multiple versions of the editor, something I’m forced to do w/ Nextion.

Next up, launch the executable and I’m first treated with an error C:\VGUS2019 Development Tool\800x480_Test_Project\ViewTech.vt contains an incorrect path. Looks like the editor has some hard default to some location that presumably exists on the developer’s machine. This is pretty shoddy and strongly suggests that their testing (if any) is done entirely on a single developer’s machine.

Next up after clicking that error… The software license has expired, please contact our company technical support to re-authorize. Click OK and then the application closes, followed by an attempt to add something to the registry. For an unknown chinese software source… yeah ain’t happenin people. Request denied. Launch the software again, same two messages, app is force closed, but the second time there is no registry prompt.

Taking a further look around I find “Register.cmd” which has some code to copy and register mscomm32.ocx. Microsoft’s digital signature on the OCX is intact so the files are probably OK. Then there’s a call to reg.exe to add what appears to be the missing license info to the registry:

reg add "HKCR\Licenses\4250E830-6AC2-11cf-8ADB-00AA00C00905" /v "" /d "kjljvjjjoquqmjjjvpqqkqmqykypoqjquoun"

Unfortunately… the syntax of that command is wrong on Windows 10 so REG.exe pukes and nothing happens. What they should have in that batch file is this:

reg add "HKCR\Licenses\4250E830-6AC2-11cf-8ADB-00AA00C00905" /ve /d "kjljvjjjoquqmjjjvpqqkqmqykypoqjquoun"

With that license info in the registry… still the same error: The software license has expired, please contact our company technical support to re-authorize.

After some googling I find that license key is for the mscomm32.ocx component. No telling what license the editor itself is looking for.

And so that’s where I’m at. Can’t open the free editor because I don’t have a license I guess? Why is there a license check at all?

We’re not off to a great start here.

17

@STONE-Technology
Hi I’m Mangy_Dog if you look around on this forum you’ll see I made a couple of posts about my issues with nextion…

I also run a small youtube channel where I show my projects as i develop them…
https://www.youtube.com/MangyDogBuilds

If you send me a range of panels, i will happily do a review of them, while my channel isnt focused on reviewing tech, it is focused on development work with tech, so I could slip in this review…

But please be aware, I will be critical. I would mention its good points and its bad. And I wont hold back. I also would not seek review approval and you will have no say in the final review.

You will also need to prepay any expected import duty fees and shipping, and if you would want me to return the review sample, you will need to also pay for return shipping costs.

After what we have all gone through with nextion, please do not expect anything less from any other main forum member here. And be aware, if we as users end up experiencing quality fade issues I will report on such and change my opinion of the product, essentially redacting my old review.

If you are still interested in me reviewing a sample of displays get in touch…

Kind and sincere regards
Mangy Dog

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18

This had me doing some further digging which lead to this Chinese vendor, also offering LCDs, with an editor of the same name. Checking the download and it is in fact the exact same editor, with all of the exact same errors. This time I said YOLO and let it do the registry modification it wanted, then the app told me it wasn’t going to work on Windows 10 without running in compatibility mode, and then crashed.

So, set compatibility mode and now that editor launches. I tried the same thing on the STONE editor and the program now is able to almost load before it once again throws a license error and quits.

So, STONE is using the same editor as View Technologies, the editor isn’t able to run on Windows 10 natively without some hacks, and also needs a license which I guess I don’t have and I don’t find any way to load the license.

@STONE-Technology - can you explain your relationship with View Technologies? Do you have a license file for your editor that can be downloaded anywhere?

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19

I enjoy reading this thread, which also coincides with my experiences (besides the fact that their programming model seems to be much less intuitive than Nextion’s). I’m gonna get some beer and popcorn and wait for further discoveries to come…

BTW: Did anyone else have a look at their manual?

Now, I think the next thing we could see is a vehement “STONE is NOT View Technologies” statement… :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

20

Further investigation tells that the domain stone-hmi.com is hosted with Aliyun Computing Co., LTD in Beijing, China. The corresponding ASN (Provider ID) is AS37963 which belongs to Hangzhou Alibaba Advertising Co.,Ltd.

Looks a little suspicious to me…