Digital Campus Guide: MSU-IIT CCS Edition

Interactive CCS Kiosk built on Renesas RA6M3, RT-Thread & LVGL.

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Digital Campus Guide: MSU-IIT CCS Edition

Things used in this project

Hardware components

renesas

Software apps and online services

RT-Thread IoT OS

Story

We’ve all walked past those old-school cork bulletin boards in our colleges—cluttered with paper, hard to read, and honestly, a bit boring.

I wanted to change that for my college, the College of Computer Studies (CCS).

My project, the CCS Interactive Kiosk, is a digital upgrade to the traditional student handbook. It’s a portable, touch-screen guide running on the Renesas HMI-Board. Instead of flipping through pages or staring at a wall, students can tap through a sleek, "Sky Blue" interface to learn about our college’s Vision, Mission, and the different degrees we offer (like CS, CA, IT, and IS).

It’s basically a mini-tablet experience built entirely on a microcontroller!I had two big motivations for this project:

School Spirit: I wanted to create something that looked and felt like us. I spent a lot of time tweaking the design to match our college’s branding using our specific Sky Blue colors and showcasing our mandate. I wanted a way to welcome new students that felt modern and professional.
The "No-SD Card" Challenge: Most people build these kinds of UIs using a Raspberry Pi or by loading heavy images from an SD card. I wanted to challenge myself to do it "the hard way" (and the efficient way!). I decided to build this on the Renesas RA6M3 without any external storage. This meant I had to learn how to be extremely efficient with memory, drawing graphics with code instead of just loading JPEGs

How does it work?

Under the hood, this isn't just a slideshow. It's a real-time application. Here is how I put it together:

1. The Brains (Renesas RA6M3)I chose the HMI-Board because it’s a beast for graphics. It has a dedicated controller (GLCDC) that talks directly to the screen. This means that when you tap a button, the screen reacts instantly—no lag, no stutter. It feels responsive, just like your phone.

2. The Software (RT-Thread & LVGL)I used RT-Thread as my operating system to keep everything organized. For the visuals, I used LVGL, which is an amazing graphics library.

The "Secret Sauce": Since I didn't use an SD card, I couldn't just drag-and-drop the MSU-IIT logo. I actually wrote C code to draw the logo shape-by-shape (circles and text) directly on the screen. It was tricky, but it makes the app load instantly because it runs straight from the chip's internal flash memory.

The "Secret Sauce": Since I didn't use an SD card, I couldn't just drag-and-drop the MSU-IIT logo. I actually wrote C code to draw the logo shape-by-shape (circles and text) directly on the screen. It was tricky, but it makes the app load instantly because it runs straight from the chip's internal flash memory.

3. The ExperienceWhen you start the kiosk, you get a warm "Welcome" screen. Tapping "PROCEED" smoothly animates you to our Mandate page. From there, I built a "Tabbed View" for our departments—so you can easily switch between reading about Computer Science or Information Technology without getting lost in menus.Note:AI assistance was used to brainstorm the design theme and refine the project text. (Gemini AI, ChatGPT)

/* src/main.c */
#include <rtthread.h>
#include <rtdevice.h>
#include "hal_data.h"
#include <board.h>

/* Define the Backlight Pin (P600) */
#ifndef BSP_IO_PORT_06_PIN_00
#define BACKLIGHT_PIN    BSP_IO_PORT_06_PIN_00
#else
#define BACKLIGHT_PIN    BSP_IO_PORT_06_PIN_00
#endif

int main(void)
{
    /* --- 1. Hardware Initialization --- */

    /* Set the Backlight Pin to Output Mode */
    rt_pin_mode(BACKLIGHT_PIN, PIN_MODE_OUTPUT);

    /* Force the Backlight HIGH to turn on the LCD */
    rt_pin_write(BACKLIGHT_PIN, PIN_HIGH);

    rt_kprintf("System Init: Backlight ON (P600 HIGH)\n");

    /* --- 2. Keep Main Thread Alive --- */
    /* The LVGL logic starts automatically in its own thread because
       we defined lv_user_gui_init in lvgl_port.c */
    while (1)
    {
        rt_thread_mdelay(1000);
    }

    return 0;
}

/* src/main.c */
#include <rtthread.h>
#include <rtdevice.h>
#include "hal_data.h"
#include <board.h>

/* Define the Backlight Pin (P600) */
#ifndef BSP_IO_PORT_06_PIN_00
#define BACKLIGHT_PIN    BSP_IO_PORT_06_PIN_00
#else
#define BACKLIGHT_PIN    BSP_IO_PORT_06_PIN_00
#endif

int main(void)
{
    /* --- 1. Hardware Initialization --- */

    /* Set the Backlight Pin to Output Mode */
    rt_pin_mode(BACKLIGHT_PIN, PIN_MODE_OUTPUT);

    /* Force the Backlight HIGH to turn on the LCD */
    rt_pin_write(BACKLIGHT_PIN, PIN_HIGH);

    rt_kprintf("System Init: Backlight ON (P600 HIGH)\n");

    /* --- 2. Keep Main Thread Alive --- */
    /* The LVGL logic starts automatically in its own thread because
       we defined lv_user_gui_init in lvgl_port.c */
    while (1)
    {
        rt_thread_mdelay(1000);
    }

    return 0;
}