Skip to content

MOCKUI_PROGRESS.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
75 lines (58 loc) · 3.98 KB

MOCKUI_PROGRESS.md

File metadata and controls

75 lines (58 loc) · 3.98 KB

MockUI Firmware - Progress & Issues

Goal

Get the MockUI scenario working as flashable firmware on the STM32F469 Discovery board.

Status: WORKING

The MockUI firmware boots, displays the full GUI with status bar, icons, menus, and translated English text on the STM32F469 Discovery board.

Branch

fix-mockui-firmware

Files Created/Modified

  • scenarios/mockui_fw/boot.py - Minimal boot with power hold + SDRAM init
  • scenarios/mockui_fw/main.py - Entry point adapted from scenarios/mock_ui.py (simulator)
  • manifests/mockui.py - Frozen manifest including disco libs, platform, MockUI scenarios
  • Makefile - Added mockui target + FROZEN_MANIFEST_MOCKUI variable
  • scenarios/MockUI/basic/symbol_lib/icon.py - Fixed: switched ARGB8888 -> A8 format
  • scenarios/MockUI/src/MockUI/i18n/translations_embedded.py - New: embedded English translations for frozen firmware
  • scenarios/MockUI/src/MockUI/i18n/i18n_manager.py - Fixed: added fallback to embedded translations

Issues Found & Fixed

1. No firmware entry point for MockUI

Problem: MockUI only had a simulator entry (scenarios/mock_ui.py). No boot.py/main.py for flashing. Solution: Created scenarios/mockui_fw/ with proper boot.py (power + SDRAM) and main.py.

2. USB REPL disabled by default boot

Problem: boot/main/boot.py calls pyb.usb_mode(None), killing REPL access. Solution: Custom boot.py in mockui_fw/ that skips USB disabling.

3. Missing platform/config in manifest

Problem: platform.py and config_default.py needed for SDRAM init weren't frozen. Solution: Added freeze('../src', ('platform.py', 'config_default.py')) to mockui manifest.

4. MemoryError: heap fragmentation -- FIXED

Problem: MemoryError: memory allocation failed, allocating 3120 bytes

  • Crash path: NavigationController.__init__ -> StatusBar.__init__ -> BTC_ICONS.UNLOCK.add_to_parent() -> create_icon_from_bitmap() -> bytes(icon_data_argb)
  • Root cause: create_icon_from_bitmap() converts alpha patterns to ARGB8888, requiring 4 bytes/pixel
  • For 24x24 icons: 576 pixels x 4 = 2,304 bytes contiguous allocation
  • After imports, heap has 135KB free but max contiguous block only ~2,320-3,088 bytes
  • The intermediate Python list + final bytes() conversion causes two large allocations

Memory diagnostics before fix (via REPL):

GC: total: 245696, used: 110144, free: 135552
No. of 1-blocks: 624, 2-blocks: 202, max blk sz: 113, max free sz: 193

Max contiguous: 193 blocks x 16 bytes = 3,088 bytes (too small for 3,120 byte allocation)

Solution: Switch from ARGB8888 to A8 (alpha-only) image format in icon.py:

  • A8 uses 1 byte/pixel instead of 4 (576 bytes vs 2,304 for 24x24)
  • The pattern data in btc_icons.py is already stored as bytes([alpha_values...]) -- used directly as A8 image data
  • Zero heap allocation for pixel data (references frozen bytecode in flash)
  • Color applied via LVGL image_recolor style property instead of baking into pixels
  • Cache simplified: one entry per pattern (color-independent) instead of per (pattern, color)

After fix: 122KB free, MockUI boots and renders all icons correctly with colors.

5. i18n translations missing -- FIXED

Problem: Menu items showed raw translation keys (e.g. MAIN_MENU_TITLE) instead of English text. Cause: MicroPython freeze() only handles .py files; JSON translation files aren't frozen.

Solution: Created translations_embedded.py with English translations as a Python dict. Modified i18n_manager.py to fall back to embedded translations when JSON files aren't available (frozen firmware), while still supporting JSON-first loading for the simulator.

After fix: All menu items show proper English text.

Memory Architecture

  • STM32F469: 384KB SRAM, 16MB SDRAM
  • MicroPython GC heap: ~245KB (internal SRAM)
  • After MockUI fully loaded: ~122KB free
  • SDRAM used for display framebuffer, not for Python heap