3.2 tft lcd ili9341 touch ssd1289 arduino free sample

In this Arduino touch screen tutorial we will learn how to use TFT LCD Touch Screen with Arduino. You can watch the following video or read the written tutorial below.

For this tutorial I composed three examples. The first example is distance measurement using ultrasonic sensor. The output from the sensor, or the distance is printed on the screen and using the touch screen we can select the units, either centimeters or inches.

The third example is a game. Actually it’s a replica of the popular Flappy Bird game for smartphones. We can play the game using the push button or even using the touch screen itself.

As an example I am using a 3.2” TFT Touch Screen in a combination with a TFT LCD Arduino Mega Shield. We need a shield because the TFT Touch screen works at 3.3V and the Arduino Mega outputs are 5 V. For the first example I have the HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, then for the second example an RGB LED with three resistors and a push button for the game example. Also I had to make a custom made pin header like this, by soldering pin headers and bend on of them so I could insert them in between the Arduino Board and the TFT Shield.

Here’s the circuit schematic. We will use the GND pin, the digital pins from 8 to 13, as well as the pin number 14. As the 5V pins are already used by the TFT Screen I will use the pin number 13 as VCC, by setting it right away high in the setup section of code.

I will use the UTFT and URTouch libraries made by Henning Karlsen. Here I would like to say thanks to him for the incredible work he has done. The libraries enable really easy use of the TFT Screens, and they work with many different TFT screens sizes, shields and controllers. You can download these libraries from his website, RinkyDinkElectronics.com and also find a lot of demo examples and detailed documentation of how to use them.

After we include the libraries we need to create UTFT and URTouch objects. The parameters of these objects depends on the model of the TFT Screen and Shield and these details can be also found in the documentation of the libraries.

Next we need to define the fonts that are coming with the libraries and also define some variables needed for the program. In the setup section we need to initiate the screen and the touch, define the pin modes for the connected sensor, the led and the button, and initially call the drawHomeSreen() custom function, which will draw the home screen of the program.

So now I will explain how we can make the home screen of the program. With the setBackColor() function we need to set the background color of the text, black one in our case. Then we need to set the color to white, set the big font and using the print() function, we will print the string “Arduino TFT Tutorial” at the center of the screen and 10 pixels  down the Y – Axis of the screen. Next we will set the color to red and draw the red line below the text. After that we need to set the color back to white, and print the two other strings, “by HowToMechatronics.com” using the small font and “Select Example” using the big font.

Ok next is the RGB LED Control example. If we press the second button, the drawLedControl() custom function will be called only once for drawing the graphic of that example and the setLedColor() custom function will be repeatedly called. In this function we use the touch screen to set the values of the 3 sliders from 0 to 255. With the if statements we confine the area of each slider and get the X value of the slider. So the values of the X coordinate of each slider are from 38 to 310 pixels and we need to map these values into values from 0 to 255 which will be used as a PWM signal for lighting up the LED. If you need more details how the RGB LED works you can check my particular tutorialfor that. The rest of the code in this custom function is for drawing the sliders. Back in the loop section we only have the back button which also turns off the LED when pressed.

In order the code to work and compile you will have to include an addition “.c” file in the same directory with the Arduino sketch. This file is for the third game example and it’s a bitmap of the bird. For more details how this part of the code work  you can check my particular tutorial. Here you can download that file:

Contact your seller on e-Bay. Ask him what display it is supposed to emulate. Look in the Supported Display file that comes with UTFT/URTouch libraries in the documents folder. See if that display is listed and use its definition in your programs.

I do not see an ILI9341 with 16-bit interface, but it is fairly simple to add suitable support for ILI9341_16 and add some human readable module names as aliases.

I bought the TFT-LCD from our local store with "ILI9341" marked on it. I bought 3 of them. But 2 are ILI9341 and one SD1289. And the wired part is when I look for the lib on the web is always say this LCD is equipped with SD1289 controller.

BTW, the LCD with ILI9341 is better than the one with SD1289. I think the back-light source,white LED, they used for the one with ILI9341 is much better than the one with SD1289. The screen with SD1289 has much more intensity at left hand side. The screen with ILI9341 has uniform intensity over all. Well, it is tested under the TFT LCD Mege Shield V2.2.

But when I plug it in and upload an arduino program, the pixels light up but it won"t do anything. I"ve tried a few example programs but none of them work.

Yes, just using UTFT. Arduino Due with a (saintsmart-isch) 3.2" with SSD1289 ordered from samenkopen.net. Works out of the box. Not using a shield, just wired it directly. There is some documentation in the "UTFT Requirements.PDF" file on the connections.

I did supply it it with 5V, but directly connected the 3.3V pins to the Arduino Due. And connection RST == REST. And supply LED_A with 3,3V, its the backlight. Any miswire wil give white or noisy screens. I had to doublecheck these a few times, its easy to miswire one of the 20+ wires.

I purchased this screen for use with an Arduino Mega. Using the UTFT library, I have been able to access all the features of this screen - LCD, Touch and SD card access. It is excellent value, has good colour rendition and works reliably. UTFT Setup is: UTFT myGLCD(SSD1289,38,39,40,41); UTouch myTouch(6,5,4,3,2); const int chipSelect = 53; pinMode(53, OUTPUT); Connections are: LCD Pin - Function - Arduino Pin 1 - Gnd -Ground 2 - VCC - 5V 3 - NC - No Connection 4 - RS - D38 5 - WR - D39 6 - RD - 3.3V

This is a very short example. How to conenct and use this SSD1289 TFT touch display with Arduino. You need to make the connection and downlaod the library. Then downlaod or copy/paste the example code.

First, you need an SSD1289 TFT display like this one on this link and an Arduino MEGA and the shield. This uses SPI communication to show text, numbers or any other logo with colours. To send data, we will need a library that you will find below. It also have an SD card slot.

First, we need the UTFT.h and URTouch.h library that you could dowload from below. So, for that, go below and downlaod that library. It will be a .zip file. Open Arduino IDE and go to sketch, include library, add .zip library and select the downlaoded file. Now the library is installed. You could downlaod the example code or just copy/paste it from below.

The LED_A signal is the same as LED_BL (A= anode of the backlight LEDs, BL=Backlight, I think). RD is the "read" signal -- you never will read from the LCD, so it needs to be pulled up to digital high -- seems like for the Leonardo this will be 5V, assuming that the other digital pins are 5V.

I would recommend the "REVB" which really means 8 bit mode. So, if you"ve hooked it up as recommended in the UTFT file "UTFT_Requirements.pdf", you should use:

HY-TFT320 is a 3.2 inch TFT LCD Screen module, 320*240 (resolution), 65K color, 34pins interface , not just a LCD breakout, but include the Touch screen, SD card. So it’s a powerful extension module for your project.

This Screen includes a controller SSD1289, it’s 16bit data interface, easy to drive by many MCU like STM32 ,AVR and 8051.HY-TFT320 is designed with a touch controller in it . The touch IC is XPT2046 , and touch interface is included in the 34 pins breakout. Another useful extension in this module is the SD Card socket . It use the SPI mode to operate the SD card, the SPI interface include in the 40pins breakout.

The UTFT library is required to be installed to get this screen model display. This library is especially designed for 3.2” TFT LCD screen using 16 bit mode. The library require the following connections.

Note: The TFT controller model needs to be declared in the initializing statement. ITDB02 myGLCD(38,39,40,41) needs to be modified as myGLCD(38,39,40,41,ITDB32S) when using Arduino Mega2560.ITDB02 myGLCD(19,18,17,16,ITDB32S) needs to be commented when using Aduino UNO. Otherwise it just show a blank screen. In practice, RS, WR, CS, RSET can be connected to any free pin. But the pin number must be in accord with myGLCD(RS,WR,CS,RST).

The LCD has a 3.2" 4-wire resistive touch screen lying over it. The Touch libraryneeds to be installed to get it works. This library is designed for 2.4’’ TFT, 3.2” TFT LCD screen module.

Note:TCLK, TCS, TDIN, TDOUT, IRQ also can be connected to any free pin. But the pin number must be in accord with the touch screen initializing statement myTouch(DCLK,CS,IN,OUT,IRQ).

The default setting is accurate for 2.4” TFT module, but you need to calibrate when using 3.2” TFT module. A program to calibrate the touch screen is included in the example. If you touch screen is inaccurate, you need to run touch_calibration. Follow the on-screen instruction to calibrate the touch screen. Better not use your finger to calibrate it, use your accessory touch pen to pressure the frontsight with stength. Then record the calibration parameters and apply them in ITDB02_Touch.cpp in your touch screen library.

Put the screen(3.2 inch screen schematic) into shield (TFT01-3.2 shield schematic) first, then connect the shield to Arduino, it is quite straight forward.

3)Download and install UTFT ,URTouch ,SdFat,UTFT_Buttons and UTFT_SdRaw library file from following link and copy them into Arduino library folder. ( i.e. D:\arduino ide\Arduino 1.6.9\libraries )

Download the test program (http://www.kookye.com/download/3.2inchscreen/3.2inchtouchscreentest.zip), upzip and open it,then choose the correct board and port.

You will see the code in each sketch: UTFT myGLCD(CTE32_R2, 38, 39, 40, 41).The first value of code refer to the mode of LCD screen. Please write CTE32_R2 or ILI9341_16 if you LCD screen is ILI9341; Please write CTE32 if you LCD screen is SSD1289;

When you use the others LCD screen from the others seller, you could check the PDF instruction in documentation file or open the UTFT.h file to find the correct code.The controller mode could be identifitied by the back mark as the following pictures.

Note: In the project of testing the SD card，please insert the SD card into the slot in back of the 3.2’’ LCD screen. The format of files in SD card must be the FAT32, you need to put the test files(i.e. ICONS.RAW,WAIT4GPS.RAW,SK45) into the SD card root directory.

A wide variety of 3.2 tft touch options are available to you, You can also choose from original manufacturer, odm 3.2 tft touch,As well as from tft, ips, and standard.

Many Arduino projects use monochrome display, one of the reason is the limited resources of a MCU. 320 pixels width, 240 pixels height and 8 bits color for each RGB color channel means 230 KB for each full screen picture. But normal Arduino (ATmega328) only have 32 KB flash and it is time consuming (over a second) to read data from SD card and draw it to the color display.

There are various color display for hobby electronics: LCD, IPS LCD, OLED with different resolutions and different driver chips. LCD can have higher image density but OLED have better viewable angle, IPS LCD can have both. OLED have more power efficient for each light up pixel but may have burn-in problems. Color OLED operate in 14 V, it means you need a dedicate step-up circuit, but it is not a problem if you simply use with a break-out board. LCD in most case can direct operate in 3.3 V, the same operating voltage as ESP32, so you can consider not use break out board to make a slimmer product.

Software support on the other side also influence your selection. You can develop ESP32 program with Arduino IDE or direct use ESP-IDF. But since ESP-IDF did not have too much display library and not much display hardware supported, so I will concentrate on Arduino display libraries only.

For the beginner, I think buying adafruit, or similar supportive vendor, hardware and using its Arduino library can have good seamless experience (though I have no budget to try it all). TFT_eSPI library have better performance but configuration require make changes in the library folder. Ucglib and UTFT-ESP run a little bit slow but it support many hardware and it is a popular library, you can find many Arduino projects using it. LovyanGFX library start appear at 2019, it support many dev device such as M5Stack, M5StickC, TTGO T-Watch, ODROID-GO, ESP-WROVER-KIT, WioTerminal and more. I am also writing a new library called Arduino_GFX since 2019.

OLED have a big advantage, the pixel only draw power if it lights up. On the other hand, LCD back light always draw full power even you are displaying a black screen. So OLED can help save some power for the project powered by a battery.

This is a 1.5" 128 x 128 color OLED, this form factor is very fit for smart-watch-like wearable project. The most barrier of select this should be the price tag is around 4 times of a normal LCD.

ST7735 is a very popular LCD driver model for the resolution 128x128 and 128x160. It may cause by its popularity, there are many manufacturer produce compatible product. However, they are not fully compatible.

Thanks for the popularity of wearable gadget, I can find more small size IPS LCD in the market this year(2018). The above picture is an 0.96" 80x160 IPS color LCD using ST7735 driver chip. As you can see in the 3rd picture, you can treat it as a 128x160 color display in code but only the middle part is actually displaying. The 4th picture is the display without breakout board, it is thin, tiny and very fit for a wearable project!

It is a 2.2" 176x220 color LCD. It is relatively fewer projects using this chips and resolution. It may caused by the success of its chip family brother, ILI9341 (0.2" larger in size but have near double resolution).

I think ILI9341 is the most popular LCD driver chip in the hobby electronics market. In most case it is 240x320 resolution and have many screen size from 1.7" to 3.5". Some breakout board also built-in touch screen feature.

ST7789 also a common driver chip in ESP32 community. One of the reason is ESP32 official development kit using it. As same as ILI9341, ST7789 also can drive 240x320 resolution.

This also the highest pixel density color display in my drawer. As same as normal LCD, it can direct operate in 3.3 V, so it is very good for making slim wearable device.

There are many display libraries that can support various hardware. I have picked 4 of most popular Arduino library for comparison:Adafruit GFX Family

The display speed is one of the most important thing we consider to select which library. I have chosen TFT_eSPI PDQ test for this comparison. I have made some effort to rewrite the PDQ test that can run in 4 libraries. All test will run with the same 2.8" ILI9341 LCD.

As I found TFT_eSPI is the most potential display library for ESP32 in this instructables, I have paid some effort to add support for all my display in hand. The newly added display support marked letter M in red at the above picture, here is my enhanced version:

Adafruit sell various display module in hobby electronics market and they also have very good support in software level. Their display libraries all built on a parent class called Adafruit_GFX, so I call it Adafruit GFX Family. This library generally support most Arduino hardware (also ESP32).

In Arduino Library Manager simply search "adafruit display", you can see all the family members. If you want to install it, say ILI9341, simply select "Adafruit ILI9341" and then click install. Remember also install its dependent library "Adafruit GFX Library".

Note: The most difficult part using this library is you are required to configure this library before you can use it. The configuration file is located at the library folder, it should be "Arduino/libraries/TFT_eSPI/User_setup.h" under you own documents folder. It have many comments help you to do that, please follow the comments step by step to finish the configuration. Here is my User_setup.h for ILI9341:

#define LOAD_GLCD // Font 1. Original Adafruit 8 pixel font needs ~1820 bytes in FLASH
#define LOAD_FONT2 // Font 2. Small 16 pixel high font, needs ~3534 bytes in FLASH, 96 characters

ESP32 + ILI9341 can run at SPI speed 40 MHz, it require some code change at library folder. The above pictures are the fine tuned result. Here are the code change summary:

ST7735 and ILI9341 are the most popular display, this 2 are better option for the beginner. You may notice LCD have a big weakness, the viewable angle, some color lost outside the viewable angle and the screen become unreadable. If you have enough budget, OLED or IPS LCD have much better viewable angle.

In most case, we study how to use a code library by searching sample on the web. I have tried search four libraries keyword in Github, Adafruit is most popular and UTFT the second.

ILI9341 should be most valuable display for the beginner. Adafruit GFX Library should be most easy to use for the beginner, and since TFT_eSPI have very similar method signature, it is very easy to switch to a faster library later on.

OLED require 14 V to light up the pixel so it is not easy to decouple the breakout board. On the other hand, LCD (also IPS LCD) usually operate in 3.3 V, as same as the ESP32. In most case, there are only the LED control circuit required between LCD and ESP32, i.e. a transistor and few resistors. So it relatively easy to make it.

It is very important to read the data sheet first before you decide not using breakout board. The pins layout, pin pitch size, the sample circuit connection and maximum rating all you can find in data sheet. The maximum voltage is especially important, you should sticky follow the rating or you will blow your LCD. The chip can operate in 3.3 V but LED may be 2.8 - 3.0 V so it require some electronics in the middle, most data sheet have the sample circuit. You may ask your seller send a soft copy of data sheet to you or simply Google it by the model number.

My special hint: I like to soldering a FPC cable with the same pin pitch size as the LCD to help the connection with the MCU. I have used this technique in these instructables:

So, basically I make a reset in the beggining (read datasheet) then next I use only SPI_DAT and SPLI_CLK. If I destroy the sequence touching with an oscilloscope, the LCD stops to understand the sequence DAT/CLK and I have to make another reset.

Those 2 pins must be dedicated to the display, otherwise the display will get confused without the CS pin. One DAT/CLK to LCD and another DAT/CLK to I2C.

Hello! Thank"s for your instruction. I want to use your 8pin ili9486 320x480 spi display with one of your presented libraries and esp32. 1.) Could you please tell me the connections between the display and the esp32 and 2.) which numbers do I have to write into the line utft myglcd (ili9486,?,?,?,?)?