tft display interface with arduino brands

Display looks nice, installs neatly on top of Mega board, but blocks the rest of the pins. With right-angle pins, you should be able to get around that if necessary, or use cables to connect it instead.

In electronics world today, Arduino is an open-source hardware and software company, project and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Arduino board designs use a variety of microprocessors and controllers. The boards are equipped with sets of digital and analog input/output (I/O) pins that may be interfaced to various expansion boards (‘shields’) or breadboards (for prototyping) and other circuits.

The boards feature serial communications interfaces, including Universal Serial Bus (USB) on some models, which are also used for loading programs. The microcontrollers can be programmed using the C and C++ programming languages, using a standard API which is also known as the “Arduino language”. In addition to using traditional compiler toolchains, the Arduino project provides an integrated development environment (IDE) and a command line tool developed in Go. It aims to provide a low-cost and easy way for hobbyist and professionals to create devices that interact with their environment using sensors and actuators. Common examples of such devices intended for beginner hobbyists include simple robots, thermostats and motion detectors.

In order to follow the market tread, Orient Display engineers have developed several Arduino TFT LCD displays and Arduino OLED displays which are favored by hobbyists and professionals.

Although Orient Display provides many standard small size OLED, TN and IPS Arduino TFT displays, custom made solutions are provided with larger size displays or even with capacitive touch panel.

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible & easy-to-use HW and SW. It"s intended for creating interactive objects or environments (it can read sensors, perform actions based on inputs from buttons, control motors, etc...).

All Arduino boards have one thing in common: they are programmed through the Arduino IDE. This is the software that allows you to write and upload code.

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible & easy-to-use HW and SW. It"s intended for creating interactive objects or environments (it can read sensors, perform actions based on inputs from buttons, control motors, etc...).

All Arduino boards have one thing in common: they are programmed through the Arduino IDE. This is the software that allows you to write and upload code.

The purpose of this application note is to review the RGB interface and discuss any requirements necessary for communicating with the microcontroller through this interface. The display communicates with the microcontroller over 45 pins through an RGB interface. An additional graphics controller is required to use this interface. The graphics controller chosen for this application is the SSD1963 LCD Controller Graphics card.

The display featured in this application note is a transmissive, 5.0” (67.56mmx122.35mm), portrait mode TFT display. The part number for this display is E50RG84885LWAM520-CA. This display has a built in controller IC ILI9806E. This display also has a capacitive touch feature. Features of this display are listed below.

The display used in this application has an internal built-in display controller IC ILI9806E. This controller IC does not contain internal RAM and therefore an additional graphics controller SSD1963 is required to provide the RAM that supports the RGB interface. The ILI9806E controller IC that is built into the display provides the 3-wire serial interface to input the initialization commands for the RGB interface.

Once the initialization commands are sent via the 3-wire serial interface, the graphic controller will be used to send the RGB commands to the display. The SSD1963 graphics controller chip is used to communicate to the RGB interface on the display. The graphics controller provides the SRAM required to drive the display. This controller provides a 1215kB frame buffer to support the 24-bit graphics data to the display.

The graphics controller would not be required if the internal IC embedded in the display contains internal RAM. The specification sheet for the embedded display controller IC should be used to verify this information. The graphics controller chip is accessed after the SPI initialization of the display. The graphics controller chip communicates with the microcontroller through a 16-bit parallel 8080 MCU interface.

The microcontroller in this application is a 32-bit ARM core processor. This device communicates with the display over the serial interface to send the SPI initialization commands. Once completed, the microcontroller will then communicate to the graphics controller through an 8-bit parallel initialization command and then 16-bit graphical data commands and functions.

A review of the connection ports and pins between each device will be specified in this section. Starting with the display and the connections with the graphics controller as well as the microcontroller. The display’s 3 wire serial pins can be directly connected to the microcontroller. The RGB interface pins will be connected to the graphics controller. Below is a description of the pin connections on the display.

The next hardware connection that will be reviewed is between the graphics controller chip and the microcontroller. The two devices are connected through a 16-bit 8080 parallel interface. The graphics controller will receive initialization commands from the microcontroller specifying its own requirements as well as commands that will be sent to the display over the RGB interface. The parallel connection between the microcontroller and the graphics controller are as follows.

The microcontroller provides the logic voltage and logic ground for both the display and the graphics controller. There are two reset pins total, one connected to the display and one for the graphics controller. It is important to only use the reset pin for the SPI initialization and set the graphics controller reset to 3.3V. If the graphics controller reset pin is toggled, the SPI initialization commands stored on the display will be reset as well.

The Arduino Due is connected to both the display and the graphics controller. First the microcontroller sends the SPI initialization commands to the display’s embedded controller IC. Next it will communicate with the graphics controller over an 8-bit 8080 parallel interface to initialize the 16-bit parallel interface parameters. Once both devices are initialized, further commands can be sent through the graphics controller to the display to create an image.

The initialization commands required for the display and graphics controller to start will be reviewed in this section. The microcontroller will need to send two sets of initialization code over each interface. The pins will need to be calibrated to each of their specified interfaces, SPI and 8080 Parallel interfaces. The first set of initialization commands are sent to the display’s SPI pins. This code will define the RGB interface parameters required to use this interface.

This code defines the RGB interface timing characteristics, the resolution of the display, the voltage settings and much more. The initialization commands and data specific to the display can be found in the data sheet of the embedded IC controller ILI9806E. Review the specification sheet for this controller for details on the commands and functions of this code.

To send the data and commands over the SPI interface, four peripheral pins will need to be declared depending on the microcontroller used. Once the data pins are setup the SPI interface can send the initialization code in the following sequence. This code is represented in the following timing diagram as a typical 3-wire SPI interface.

The initialization code for the graphics controller is sent over a parallel 8080 interface. The sequence of commands is to first initialize the graphics controller and specify the display parameters, followed by the code that will be sent over the 16 data buses. The initialization commands for the graphics controller SSD1963 are detailed in the controller’s specification sheet. The code used to initialize the graphics controller can be found here.

The initialization code for the graphics controller defines the parameters of the display and the required timing characteristics. The specifications and timing definitions can be found in the spec sheet of the display. The commands that are sent in this section lets the graphics controller know the details specific to the display that we are using in this example. The data is sent over the 8080-parallel interface to the graphics controller. Below is the timing diagram of this parallel interface.

After the initialization commands for both the display and the graphics controller are sent, the display is now ready for communication. The graphical data or images will be sent to the graphics controller’s RAM to be accessed by the display via the RGB interface. Communication to the display is fast and efficient for transmitting images that are to be displayed. For this example, an application was written to display bitmaps on the screen. Below is the output of this example.

Buyers and others who are developing systems that incorporate FocusLCDs products (collectively, “Designers”) understand and agree that Designers remain responsible for using their independent analysis, evaluation and judgment in designing their applications and that Designers have full and exclusive responsibility to assure the safety of Designers" applications and compliance of their applications (and of all FocusLCDs products used in or for Designers’ applications) with all applicable regulations, laws and other applicable requirements.

In this article, you will learn how to use TFT LCDs by Arduino boards. From basic commands to professional designs and technics are all explained here.

In electronic’s projects, creating an interface between user and system is very important. This interface could be created by displaying useful data, a menu, and ease of access. A beautiful design is also very important.

There are several components to achieve this. LEDs,  7-segments, Character and Graphic displays, and full-color TFT LCDs. The right component for your projects depends on the amount of data to be displayed, type of user interaction, and processor capacity.

TFT LCD is a variant of a liquid-crystal display (LCD) that uses thin-film-transistor (TFT) technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in contrast to passive matrix LCDs or simple, direct-driven LCDs with a few segments.

In Arduino-based projects, the processor frequency is low. So it is not possible to display complex, high definition images and high-speed motions. Therefore, full-color TFT LCDs can only be used to display simple data and commands.

In this article, we have used libraries and advanced technics to display data, charts, menu, etc. with a professional design. This can move your project presentation to a higher level.

In electronic’s projects, creating an interface between user and system is very important. This interface could be created by displaying useful data, a menu, and ease of access. A beautiful design is also very important.

There are several components to achieve this. LEDs,  7-segments, Character and Graphic displays, and full-color TFT LCDs. The right component for your projects depends on the amount of data to be displayed, type of user interaction, and processor capacity.

TFT LCD is a variant of a liquid-crystal display (LCD) that uses thin-film-transistor (TFT) technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in contrast to passive matrix LCDs or simple, direct-driven LCDs with a few segments.

In Arduino-based projects, the processor frequency is low. So it is not possible to display complex, high definition images and high-speed motions. Therefore, full-color TFT LCDs can only be used to display simple data and commands.

In this article, we have used libraries and advanced technics to display data, charts, menu, etc. with a professional design. This can move your project presentation to a higher level.

Size of displays affects your project parameters. Bigger Display is not always better. if you want to display high-resolution images and signs, you should choose a big size display with higher resolution. But it decreases the speed of your processing, needs more space and also needs more current to run.

After choosing the right display, It’s time to choose the right controller. If you want to display characters, tests, numbers and static images and the speed of display is not important, the Atmega328 Arduino boards (such as Arduino UNO) are a proper choice. If the size of your code is big, The UNO board may not be enough. You can use Arduino Mega2560 instead. And if you want to show high resolution images and motions with high speed, you should use the ARM core Arduino boards such as Arduino DUE.

In electronics/computer hardware a display driver is usually a semiconductor integrated circuit (but may alternatively comprise a state machine made of discrete logic and other components) which provides an interface function between a microprocessor, microcontroller, ASIC or general-purpose peripheral interface and a particular type of display device, e.g. LCD, LED, OLED, ePaper, CRT, Vacuum fluorescent or Nixie.

The display driver will typically accept commands and data using an industry-standard general-purpose serial or parallel interface, such as TTL, CMOS, RS232, SPI, I2C, etc. and generate signals with suitable voltage, current, timing and demultiplexing to make the display show the desired text or image.

The LCDs manufacturers use different drivers in their products. Some of them are more popular and some of them are very unknown. To run your display easily, you should use Arduino LCDs libraries and add them to your code. Otherwise running the display may be very difficult. There are many free libraries you can find on the internet but the important point about the libraries is their compatibility with the LCD’s driver. The driver of your LCD must be known by your library. In this article, we use the Adafruit GFX library and MCUFRIEND KBV library and example codes. You can download them from the following links.

You must add the library and then upload the code. If it is the first time you run an Arduino board, don’t worry. Just follow these steps:Go to www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software and download the software of your OS. Install the IDE software as instructed.

By these two functions, You can find out the resolution of the display. Just add them to the code and put the outputs in a uint16_t variable. Then read it from the Serial port by Serial.println(); . First add Serial.begin(9600); in setup().

First you should convert your image to hex code. Download the software from the following link. if you don’t want to change the settings of the software, you must invert the color of the image and make the image horizontally mirrored and rotate it 90 degrees counterclockwise. Now add it to the software and convert it. Open the exported file and copy the hex code to Arduino IDE. x and y are locations of the image. sx and sy are sizes of image. you can change the color of the image in the last input.

Upload your image and download the converted file that the UTFT libraries can process. Now copy the hex code to Arduino IDE. x and y are locations of the image. sx and sy are size of the image.

In this template, We converted a .jpg image to .c file and added to the code, wrote a string and used the fade code to display. Then we used scroll code to move the screen left. Download the .h file and add it to the folder of the Arduino sketch.

In this template, We used sin(); and cos(); functions to draw Arcs with our desired thickness and displayed number by text printing function. Then we converted an image to hex code and added them to the code and displayed the image by bitmap function. Then we used draw lines function to change the style of the image. Download the .h file and add it to the folder of the Arduino sketch.

In this template, We created a function which accepts numbers as input and displays them as a pie chart. We just use draw arc and filled circle functions.

In this template, We added a converted image to code and then used two black and white arcs to create the pointer of volumes.  Download the .h file and add it to the folder of the Arduino sketch.

In this template, We added a converted image and use the arc and print function to create this gauge.  Download the .h file and add it to folder of the Arduino sketch.

while (a < b) { Serial.println(a); j = 80 * (sin(PI * a / 2000)); i = 80 * (cos(PI * a / 2000)); j2 = 50 * (sin(PI * a / 2000)); i2 = 50 * (cos(PI * a / 2000)); tft.drawLine(i2 + 235, j2 + 169, i + 235, j + 169, tft.color565(0, 255, 255)); tft.fillRect(200, 153, 75, 33, 0x0000); tft.setTextSize(3); tft.setTextColor(0xffff); if ((a/20)>99)

while (b < a) { j = 80 * (sin(PI * a / 2000)); i = 80 * (cos(PI * a / 2000)); j2 = 50 * (sin(PI * a / 2000)); i2 = 50 * (cos(PI * a / 2000)); tft.drawLine(i2 + 235, j2 + 169, i + 235, j + 169, tft.color565(0, 0, 0)); tft.fillRect(200, 153, 75, 33, 0x0000); tft.setTextSize(3); tft.setTextColor(0xffff); if ((a/20)>99)

In this template, We display simple images one after each other very fast by bitmap function. So you can make your animation by this trick.  Download the .h file and add it to folder of the Arduino sketch.

In this template, We just display some images by RGBbitmap and bitmap functions. Just make a code for touchscreen and use this template.  Download the .h file and add it to folder of the Arduino sketch.

Hi guys, welcome to today’s tutorial. Today, we will look on how to use the 1.8″ ST7735  colored TFT display with Arduino. The past few tutorials have been focused on how to use the Nokia 5110 LCD display extensively but there will be a time when we will need to use a colored display or something bigger with additional features, that’s where the 1.8″ ST7735 TFT display comes in.

The ST7735 TFT display is a 1.8″ display with a resolution of 128×160 pixels and can display a wide range of colors ( full 18-bit color, 262,144 shades!). The display uses the SPI protocol for communication and has its own pixel-addressable frame buffer which means it can be used with all kinds of microcontroller and you only need 4 i/o pins. To complement the display, it also comes with an SD card slot on which colored bitmaps can be loaded and easily displayed on the screen.

The schematics for this project is fairly easy as the only thing we will be connecting to the Arduino is the display. Connect the display to the Arduino as shown in the schematics below.

Due to variation in display pin out from different manufacturers and for clarity, the pin connection between the Arduino and the TFT display is mapped out below:

We will use two libraries from Adafruit to help us easily communicate with the LCD. The libraries include the Adafruit GFX library which can be downloaded here and the Adafruit ST7735 Library which can be downloaded here.

We will use two example sketches to demonstrate the use of the ST7735 TFT display. The first example is the lightweight TFT Display text example sketch from the Adafruit TFT examples. It can be accessed by going to examples -> TFT -> Arduino -> TFTDisplaytext. This example displays the analog value of pin A0 on the display. It is one of the easiest examples that can be used to demonstrate the ability of this display.

The second example is the graphics test example from the more capable and heavier Adafruit ST7735 Arduino library. I will explain this particular example as it features the use of the display for diverse purposes including the display of text and “animated” graphics. With the Adafruit ST7735 library installed, this example can be accessed by going to examples -> Adafruit ST7735 library -> graphics test.

The first thing, as usual, is to include the libraries to be used after which we declare the pins on the Arduino to which our LCD pins are connected to. We also make a slight change to the code setting reset pin as pin 8 and DC pin as pin 9 to match our schematics.

Next, we create an object of the library with the pins to which the LCD is connected on the Arduino as parameters. There are two options for this, feel free to choose the most preferred.

Next, we move to the void setup function where we initialize the screen and call different test functions to display certain texts or images.  These functions can be edited to display what you want based on your project needs.

All the functions called under the void setup function, perform different functions, some draw lines, some, boxes and text with different font, color and size and they can all be edited to do what your project needs.

The complete code for this is available under the libraries example on the Arduino IDE. Don’t forget to change the DC and the RESET pin configuration in the code to match the schematics.

Uploading the code to the Arduino board brings a flash of different shapes and text with different colors on the display. I captured one and its shown in the image below.

That’s it for this tutorial guys, what interesting thing are you going to build with this display? Let’s get the conversation started. Feel free to reach me via the comment section if you have any questions as regards this project.