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| Please note that display customisation and the changes to character
sets described on this page are only available to you before you make your order. These are not changes that can
be made by the user after a unit has been purchased. |
We are often asked about customisation of our products. We always try to accomodate
the requests that we can, however what we can do is limited. We generally only do simple modifications to the software
running on our existing products. For example selecting a subset of the gps data for display.
We regret that it is not possible to offer customisation of the GPSBOXKBD standard units. In the past when we only did units with fixed displays, we would customise
units by changing the display. Now our standard units have displays that can be set up by the user we no longer
do this. If you have a requirement which cannot be met by our standard units please contact us and we will see
if we can help. Normally this would be a custom unit with a fixed display, without a keyboard interface.
If you come to us with a well defined specification then we will always look at it and see if we can help. However
if you don't take the time to understand you own needs and develop a specification then we cannot provide you with
a solution. See the example sent to us by a customer below. He presented exactly what he wanted in a very clear
and concise way. As well as the display he also wanted a brake switch input connection. Having understood the layout
and connections of our unit he was able to define his own circuitry to interface to the electronics of the vehicle.
This allowed us to define the brake switching input as a normally open TTL level connection to work with his interface. |
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| When we had looked at the specification we were able to explain the limitation of
the unit with regard to the number of characters per line. This meant we had to rearrange the customer's display
layout slightly. After mocking up the changes we were able to agree the final layout as shown below. |
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| This layout and the brake switch input were then implemented and tested. The test
video shown below was then sent to the customer for his final approval before the custom unit was dispatched. |
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Smaller characters and different character
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| At the time you make your order we can provide one of two alternate character sets
to the default standard character set. The character set cannot be changed by the user once units are delivered.
The standard character set is suitable for a wide range of applications including those where small screens are
used or viewed at a distance. The smaller alternate character sets can be more suitable for use with LCD panel
displays. |
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Alternate character set 2 and standard character set compared
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| However the hardware does have limitations which need to be understood. The characters
are generated on a fixed grid of cells, each 12 by 18. This means that while the character size can be reduced
within each cell, the spacing between characters is fixed. The fixed size character cells limit the display to
the full width of the screen, as shown below. |
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Fixed width character cells
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Standard character set
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Alternate smaller character set 2
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| The size of the area highlighted when the character background is selected is also
fixed, as shown below. Please take into account the likely resolution of your display and playback devices as well
as the compression used. Small characters can be illegible on a small screen or when viewed at a distance. |
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Background setting with smaller character set
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| Character sets like Hebrew or Cyrillic can be added if a full specification of the
required keyboard mapping is provided. |
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Standard character set
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Alternate smaller character set 1 with example Hebrew characters
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Alternate smaller character set 2
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© The BlackBoxCameraTM Company Limited
2020
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