Software Utility Drivers

Pure-software drivers and helper libraries — no specific chip required. Includes networking helpers, graphics for chips without native display support, file systems, IR decoding, GPS parsing, and more.

Azure SAS

Generates Shared Access Signatures (SAS tokens) used to authenticate with Azure IoT Hub. See the Microsoft Azure page for the full setup.

NuGet package: GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.Azure.SAS.

Basic Graphics

BasicGraphics is a simpler graphics driver that runs on every device, including small chips without native display support. It provides SetPixel, DrawLine, DrawRectangle, DrawCircle, DrawString, and DrawCharacter, plus a tiny 5px font via DrawTinyCharacter and DrawTinyString.

NuGet package: GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.BasicGraphics.

tip

DrawCharacter vs DrawTinyCharacter:

• DrawCharacter accepts a scaling factor to enlarge the font; DrawTinyCharacter doesn't.
• Both only set pixels by default (don't clear blanks). DrawTinyCharacter has a clear option to set blanks to 0 (black).

There are two ways to use BasicGraphics:

Option 1: Override SetPixel and Clear

You control where pixels go — directly to the display, into your own buffer, or anywhere else. BasicGraphics doesn't allocate any memory.

public class BasicGraphicsImp : BasicGraphics {
    public override void SetPixel(int x, int y, uint color) {
        // Buffer pixels or send directly to the display.
    }

    public override void Clear() {
        // Optional — clear your buffer if you're using one.
    }

    public void Flush() {
        // Send your buffer to the display, for example:
        lcd.DrawBufferNative(this.buffer);
    }
}

Then use it:

var basicGfx = new BasicGraphicsImp();
var colorBlue  = BasicGraphics.ColorFromRgb(0,   0,   255);
var colorGreen = BasicGraphics.ColorFromRgb(0,   255, 0  );
var colorRed   = BasicGraphics.ColorFromRgb(255, 0,   0  );

basicGfx.Clear();

basicGfx.DrawString("TinyCLR OS!", colorGreen, 15, 15, 2, 1);
basicGfx.DrawString("SITCore",     colorBlue,  35, 40, 2, 2);
basicGfx.DrawString("SC13xxx",     colorRed,   35, 60, 2, 2);

var color = new Random();
for (var i = 20; i < 140; i++)
    basicGfx.DrawCircle((uint)color.Next(), i, 100, 15);

basicGfx.Flush();

Option 2: Let BasicGraphics manage the buffer

The simpler path — BasicGraphics allocates the video buffer and handles pixel storage for you. Choose 16BPP 5:6:5 or 1BPP.

var basicGfx = new BasicGraphics(160, 128, ColorFormat.Rgb565);

basicGfx.Clear();
basicGfx.DrawString("TinyCLR OS!", colorGreen, 15, 15, 2, 1);
basicGfx.DrawString("SITCore",     colorBlue,  35, 40, 2, 2);

// Send the buffer to the display using your display driver.
MyDisplaySendBuffer(basicGfx.Buffer);

Managed File System

A full FAT file system implementation in pure C# with built-in SPI SD card support — useful on systems without native file system support, or when you specifically want to drive an SD card over SPI rather than the native SDMMC interface.

NuGet package: GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.ManagedFileSystem.

var dataWrite = new byte[] { 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 };
var dataRead = new byte[dataWrite.Length];

var spi = SpiController.FromName(SC13048.SpiBus.Spi1);
var chipSelect = GpioController.GetDefault().OpenPin(SC13048.GpioPin.PB2);

var managedFS = new ManagedFileSystem(spi, chipSelect);
managedFS.Mount();

Debug.WriteLine("Volume:     " + managedFS.VolumeLabel);
Debug.WriteLine("Total size: " + managedFS.TotalSize);
Debug.WriteLine("Free:       " + managedFS.TotalFreeSpace);

managedFS.CreateDirectory(@"\TEST1");

var fileWrite = managedFS.OpenFile(@"\TEST1\TEST2.txt", FileMode.Write | FileMode.CreateAlways);
managedFS.WriteFile(fileWrite, dataWrite, 0, (uint)dataWrite.Length);
managedFS.FlushFile(fileWrite);
managedFS.CloseFile(fileWrite);

var fileRead = managedFS.OpenFile(@"\TEST1\TEST2.txt", FileMode.Read);
managedFS.ReadFile(fileRead, dataRead, 0, (uint)dataRead.Length);
managedFS.CloseFile(fileRead);

Infrared

Decoder for infrared remote-control signals. The included driver supports the NEC protocol — a very common standard that sends an 8-bit address and 8-bit command on every key press, with a separate repeat signal while a key is held.

NuGet package: GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.Infrared.

var receivePin = GpioController.GetDefault().OpenPin(SC20260.GpioPin.PH6);
var ir = new NecIRDecoder(receivePin);

ir.OnDataReceivedEvent += (address, command) => {
    // New key press received.
};

ir.OnRepeatEvent += () => {
    // Key held down — repeat event.
};

Basic Network

Pure-C# TCP/IP stack that works with the Wiznet W5500 Ethernet module — gives networking to chips like the SC13048 that don't have a built-in TCP/IP stack.

NuGet packages: GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.BasicNet, GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.BasicNet.Sockets, GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.WIZnet.W5500.

var cs        = GpioController.GetDefault().OpenPin(SC13048.GpioPin.PB2);
var reset     = GpioController.GetDefault().OpenPin(SC13048.GpioPin.PB15);
var interrupt = GpioController.GetDefault().OpenPin(SC13048.GpioPin.PA0);

var spi = SpiController.FromName(SC13048.SpiBus.Spi1);
var networkController = new W5500Controller(spi, cs, reset, interrupt);

var isReady = false;
networkController.NetworkAddressChanged += (a, b) => {
    var bytes = networkController.Address.GetAddressBytes();
    isReady = bytes[0] != 0 && bytes[1] != 0;
};

var networkSettings = new NetworkInterfaceSettings {
    Address = new IPAddress(new byte[] { 192, 168, 0, 200 }),
    SubnetMask = new IPAddress(new byte[] { 255, 255, 255, 0 }),
    GatewayAddress = new IPAddress(new byte[] { 192, 168, 0, 1 }),
    DnsAddresses = new[] {
        new IPAddress(new byte[] { 75, 75, 75, 75 }),
        new IPAddress(new byte[] { 75, 75, 75, 76 }),
    },
    MacAddress = new byte[] { 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00 },     // Set to a valid, unique MAC.
    DhcpEnable = false,
    DynamicDnsEnable = false,
};

networkController.SetInterfaceSettings(networkSettings);
networkController.Enable();

while (!isReady) ;      // Wait for a valid IP address.

var dns = new Dns(networkController);
var host = dns.GetHostEntry("www.example.com");
var ep = new IPEndPoint(host.AddressList[0], 80);

var socket = new Socket(networkController, AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
socket.Connect(ep);

socket.Send(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: www.example.com\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n"));

var received = socket.Receive(SocketFlags.None);
if (received.Length > 0)
    Debug.WriteLine("Received:\r\n" + new string(Encoding.UTF8.GetChars(received)));

QR Code Generator

Converts a string into a QR-code image bitmap that can be drawn to a display.

No NuGet package — the source is in the Barcode folder of the TinyCLR-Drivers repo. Drop the source into your project to use it.

GPS Parser

Parses standard NMEA sentences from a GPS module's UART output. Run the parser in a background thread; the parsed values become available on the parser class for the main thread to consume.

// Background thread: read NMEA strings from the UART and feed them to the parser.
// Strings start with '$' and end with carriage return.
new Thread(() => {
    while (true) {
        Parser.Parse(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("NMEA string from UART"));
        Thread.Sleep(1);
    }
}).Start();

// Main thread: read parsed sentence data when valid.
while (true) {
    if (Parser.RMCSentence.DataStatus == Parser.DataStatus.Valid) {
        // Read position, time, speed from Parser.RMCSentence.
    }

    if (Parser.GLLSentence.DataStatus == Parser.DataStatus.Valid) {
        // Read position from Parser.GLLSentence.
    }

    Thread.Sleep(1);
}