TJC firmware/eeprom edit?

I know (now) that the initial error was looking into any Nextion/ITEAD products. The problem is that I can’t find the good 0.55 for download or any guide on how to get the current designer to a English UI.

Leading to the final question before this thing goes into the e-waste:
Why is there no information about the eeprom content or firmware (given Nextion activities not a complete download just a break down/information)?
Hardware is identical so it should be possible to save these devices.

Hi and welcome @user2021!

It’s not exactly clear what your issue is. In the case you ordered a Nextion screen but got a TJC screen (one that does not work with the Nextion Editor) you should definitely open a dispute to get your money back. This is not what you’ve ordered and it does not work as expected.

However, you’re right with the observation that the hardware is the same for both Nextion and TJC screens - as is the software. No reason to let anything go to e-waste. There are many options to bypass the vendor lock bs:

  • I’ve heard that people use a modified v0.58 TJC editor which seems to be the last version that could be patched to english.
  • Download both Nextion and TJC editors (not the installers but the zip files!) and open them side by side. You can work in the TJC Editor and use the Nextion Editor as translation. Most of the time you don’t even need to mess with the chinese names since all component attributes (.txt, .val, …) are exactly the same in both versions. Probably needs some getting used but shouldn’t be too hard.
  • Post (a link to) your HMI file here or on Discord and someone may convert it for you from Nextion to TJC or vice versa (possible for all models and all editor versions). Then you can compile it with the respective editor.
  • Post (a link to) your TFT file here or on Discord and someone may convert it for you from Nextion to TJC or vice versa (possible for T (basic) and K (enhanced) series and all editor versions). The advantage in this case is that you don’t need both editors. You can compile it for the “wrong” target and get it modified afterwards.

Since the options above work without messing with programmers or having to (de)solder anything I guess the interest in modifying EEPROMs and firmwares isn’t that high… some people did try modifying it with varying success.
HMI files on the other hand are well understood by now. TFT files are work in progress.

Kind regards,
Max

Edit: TJC Download Link fixed

@Max The seller is a different topic but shipping it back to china doesn’t make economically sense so I am ending up anyway with this thing. I hoped I could just flash it to the NX version to fix a issue which shouldn’t be there in the beginning.

How do I modify the 0.58 as this doesn’t have the .dll which was replaced in 0.55?
Is there a guide on how to change/modify the hmi or TFT file? Is it enough to change the beginning and end of the file?

True, it doesn’t make sense to ship anything back but it does make sense to ask your money back. And often you don’t need to ship it back. But you’re right, that’s not quite the topic.

I don’t know anything about how to modify that editor version. All I know is that someone once did it and shared it - and Nextion quickly fixed their editor, preventing the patch from working.
Since that patch was so short-lived and couldn’t be modified to work with the newer editor versions, the later developments haven’t been made public anymore. Meaning the tools that can handle HMI and TFT files are only available to a small, trustworthy group of people.
But don’t worry, the purpose is still the same: give as many people as possible the freedom to use TJC panels. Hence they’ll happily convert some files for you if you want. Of course you can try to do it yourself but I can assure you it requires more than just overwriting a couple bytes here and there.

Kind regards,
Max

Hi Guys.
I wanted to ask you if it is indeed possible to use TJC’s in English.
Btw the latest chinese soft i have is 1.6.7 and the latest nextion one is 1.6.2 is that correct?
I tried to mess with the DLL’s (ACTR.dll) but the only thing i managed to to is convert the chinese one to nextion 1.6.7 (doesn’t work with TJC).
If anyone would have any more info on this i would appreciate your help.

How about reading the list of all existing possibilities I wrote three posts above yours? It is still perfectly up-to-date.
Edit: if you already did, I apologise and didn‘t understand your question correctly. Maybe you can be more specific?

Kind regards,
Max

Sorry Max, i was looking for a way for me to convert the chinese 1.6.7 version to English.
I only got a tjc for that reason.

Why would you want to enforce that almost-impossible-to-do conversion if there are known and proven ways to work with the standard nextion editor and TJC displays?

Kind regards,
Max

Hi Max, sorry for the late reply was quite busy and i forgot to reply.
To tell you the truth it is pretty difficult to get other models from TJC except the 2.8 to Europe and even if i was using nextion’s i doubt i’ll use them on a project because their cost is way too much.
Mostly to play at home and be able to use the latest version (which is higher than the one nextion releases. The situation with those 2 companies is annoying.

I sometimes wonder why people complain about Nextion displays being expensive. Compared to the HMIs from 4DSystems and Siemens on one side, and to the time and effort to get the same result only with MCU and a bare LCD display on the other side, the Nextions are still very affordable in my eyes. And finally, it’s not you who pays the price, it’s your final customers.

I have the china 3.2" laying around. Still not sure what exactly I will do with it maybe use it as a devboard as it is still a STM32 with display and RTC.
For me, they shoot themself in the foot as I won’t touch or recommend anything from ITEAD/Sonoff ever again. Their official documentation is underwhelming and “Patrick” made up the rest.

Fjodor that is true they are more affordable than 4D. But 4D actually has a bigger range (which actually suit my needs on a small project and i would go for them even if more expensive) and they don’t fool around with fake claims (they are not the same products etc).
If nextion can’t offer the same range of displays at least they can offer better prices.

Especially now that other gui apps evolve and offer the ability to use cheap normal displays like:
Embedded wizard
LVGL
Touchgfx
μgfx