raspberry pi tft display install made in china

One thing I’ve learned over and over from working on the Raspberry Pi is that it’s most likely going to take a chunk of time to get things set up just the way you want.  And this display is no different.

I’ve written in the past about How to Play HD Video on a Raspberry Pi — so this is a continuation from a Raspbian Linux distribution image already in that state.  I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to write this post, but if I ever have to do this again I don’t want to have to google so many steps again.  So hopefully you’ll find this useful as well.

First of all, it’s not plug and play… No, you need to update the Linux kernel, modify boot configurations, change terminal font sizes, and deal with other issues that come up along the way like the mirrors for the packages you need to install not working.  Yes, it’s a mess.

First I tried the instructions from here: Adafruit: Detailed Installation before realizing the available manual has an auto-configure option.  But I couldn’t get these working at first because the Debian package mirrors wouldn’t work so I had to modify my apt sources list to use some working mirrors. The download of the adafruit-pitft-helper package was still unavailable to me via apt but you can get it from Github.

You need to run this script adafruit-pitft-helper specifically to enable the console on your display.  The manual instructions on their website do not tell you how to do this, only for enabling the display for the graphical interface X11.  This script does the heavy lifting.

At this point the terminal is all set for your display.  Following this I will show you how to enable high definition video playback on your TFT display from the command line.  I won’t go into setting up the touchscreen for the X11 desktop, you can refer to the manual for that.  Personally I don’t think the Raspberry Pi makes a good desktop system as it’s slow, I much prefer the console.

If you try the omxplayer from the previous blog post you’ll find the video doesn’t show up on the display.  The reason is that it’s rendering on frame buffer 0 when the TFT is using frame buffer 1.  To get around this you need to use frame buffer copying with the fbcp program.  The instructions they provide are close but don’t follow the second modprobe command (as it messed up my display).

Before I get to the modified instructions on installing fbcp I had to change my apt sources list as I couldn’t install cmake because the mirror wouldn’t respond.

Now that you have it installed you’re ready to play some HD video.  One problem with fbcp is it changes the console resolution and makes it a bit unusable as a console, so you want to toggle it on and off around your video playback.  This is simple enough so lets write a bash command to do that for us for omxplayer.

Now when you want to play a video you type omx myvideo.mp4 and it switches to frame buffer copying, plays the video given as the first parameter with omxplayer (taking advantage of GPU high speed graphics), after omxplayer exits fbcp is closed out with the killall command, we then clear the display of any visual artifacts left behind and we’re back to where we need to be with a nice looking display!

I am trying to figure out how to use a cheap chinese 3.5TFT with Octoprint and Touch Ui.The screen has a link to a driver but I am unsure of how to install it.The directions are non existent.The driver is ILI9486 and I have tried dragging the folder into my sd card with no luck and I have tried 4 or 5 different ways of installing a desktop and web browser also with no luck.I may have two seperate problems because even after trying to install the desktop and web browser and setting up the RPi to boot to the desktop it doesn"t show up either.How hard is it to get the official 3.5TFT working in comparison to one of the knock offs?I can give yo more detailed information if you need it.

I am trying to figure out how to use a cheap chinese 3.5TFT with Octoprint and Touch Ui.The screen has a link to a driver but I am unsure of how to install it.The directions are non existent.The driver is ILI9486 and I have tried dragging the folder into my sd card with no luck and I have tried 4 or 5 different ways of installing a desktop and web browser also with no luck.I may have two seperate problems because even after trying to install the desktop and web browser and setting up the RPi to boot to the desktop it doesn"t show up either.How hard is it to get the official 3.5TFT working in comparison to one of the knock offs?I can give yo more detailed information if you need it.

I have tried 4 or 5 different ways of installing a desktop and web browser also with no luck.The FULL version of Raspbian comes with a desktop and browser ready installed.

I understand that the Chinese bits aren"t really liked and I get that but I picked one up to learn before spending hundreds on official parts without knowing if I will even be capable of getting them to work.I want to eventually purchase the 7 inch for a car pc I would love to make.

I am currently using Octoprint and I have a very limited knowledge of how any of this works so please bear with me.I Have the Touch Ui loaded because Octoprint has a very simple way to load plugins onto the RPi.I am trying to figure out how and where to load the driver first that way I can make sure it isn"t just a driver problem first before assuming it is anything more involved.

I took a look at the link you provided but I just don"t have a grasp of what needs to be done.I have watched a bunch of videos explaining how to install drivers and I have installed a few different kinds of drivers with no luck.The videos all show that the drivers need to be expanded in the home folder on the Pi using the desktop but the driver the screen is specifically calling for doesn"t give the option of expanding it.I tried placing it in the home folder with no luck and I also placed it in the boot partition on the sd card and neither worked.The screen is working because it turns on and just displays an all white screen.I am sorry for being such a lost cause.

I took a look at the link you provided but I just don"t have a grasp of what needs to be done.I have watched a bunch of videos explaining how to install drivers and I have installed a few different kinds of drivers with no luck.The videos all show that the drivers need to be expanded in the home folder on the Pi using the desktop but the driver the screen is specifically calling for doesn"t give the option of expanding it.I tried placing it in the home folder with no luck and I also placed it in the boot partition on the sd card and neither worked.The screen is working because it turns on and just displays an all white screen.I am sorry for being such a lost cause.

Yeah that is the one and it says on the included paperwork that the ili9486 driver is to be used.I am downloading a Jessie image that is set up for these screens and I will see if that works.I really wanted to tinker with a few of these RPi"s but they are looking to be little too complex for me to figure out.I don"t mind doing research but I just can"t seem to get the hang of it.

How do I enter or bypass the log in or is there a way to enter the log in through SSH or VNC.The screen is showing a log in now.I can"t type in the login name or password with the screen and even after I enter the name and password through SSH the screen is still asking for it.I have tried bypassing it a few different ways with no luck.I have tried setting up the Pi to boot to Desktop/CLI with and without auto login and that makes no difference.

I re-organized the README.txt extracted from LCD_show.tar.tz that I extracted from the rpi_35_v1_B_B+_PI2 to make this a little easier to follow, plus added a couple missing steps. I am sure there are other ways to accomplish this, but this worked for me.

Key information: This device"s controller is an ILI9486, which is compatible with ILI9481. The driver for ILI9481 was already in my Raspberry Pi. Here"s what I did to make it work:

I don"t care about the touch-screen, so I didn"t set it up. All I need this is to show me the IP address of the Raspberry Pi so I can connect through SSH. (This is an issue you may encounter only if you find your RPi connecting to WiFi where you cannot control the IP address assignments and with ridiculously short lease times.)

The 12 Inch Touch Screen For Raspberry Pi , using ILITEK touch controller IC,support operation with thick gloves ,thick tempered glass and thick PC on the top, mainly used in industrial, medical, outdoor advertising and other equipment. Deep customization including structural, surface treatment such as AG AR AF and other special effects are supported; All kinds if interface conversion Boards and drive Boards are provided to meet requirements from various customers.

The display resolution of this capacitive touch screen module product is 1024*768(4:3), which can match the VGA or HDMI interface driver board, and the capacitive screen USB interface.The product can be connected to Raspberry Pi by USB and HDMI interface.The pcap uses USB interface,the lcd display uses HDMI interface. It is more suitable for application in some areas where the environment is slightly better. The module products are suitable for use on the equipment installed by the flat assemble module structure, and the capacitive touch screen structure part can also support deep customization;

Hangzhou Hongxiao Technology is a comprehensive service provider of capacitive touch screen module and TFT LCD display for various industries. In order to meet different requirements of worldwide customers, Hongxiao supply all kinds of product structures such as G + G, G + F (G + F + F ),P + G, etc. and various technical support programs such as Cypress , Atmel, EETI, FocalTech, Goodix etc. according to different application environments. We provides solutions that match all customers’ touch screen needs and create products based on multiple technologies. We are committed to supply global customers with first-class products and professional technical services in the touch industries. Our products are of high stability and anti-interference performance and used in various industries with complicated and difficult conditions.

The RPi LCD can be driven in two ways: Method 1. install driver to your Raspbian OS. Method 2. use the Ready-to-use image file of which LCD driver was pre-installed.

2) Connect the TF card to the PC, open the Win32DiskImager software, select the system image downloaded in step 1 and click‘Write’ to write the system image. ( How to write an image to a micro SD card for your Pi? See RPi Image Installation Guides for more details)

3) Connect the TF card to the Raspberry Pi, start the Raspberry Pi. The LCD will display after booting up, and then log in to the Raspberry Pi terminal,(You may need to connect a keyboard and HDMI LCD to Pi for driver installing, or log in remotely with SSH)

This LCD can be calibrated through the xinput-calibrator program. Note: The Raspberry Pi must be connected to the network, or else the program won"t be successfully installed.

This LCD can support Raspberry Pi OS / Ubuntu / Kali / Retropie systems. When the LCD works on systems such as Raspberry Pi OS, the resolution must be set manually, otherwise, it will cause an abnormal display.

8) Connect the HDMI interface of the LCD to the HDMI interface of the Raspberry Pi, power on the Raspberry Pi, and wait for a few seconds until the LCD displays normally.

On December 2, 2021, the Raspberry Pi OS was divided into two branches, the Buster branch, and the Bullseye branch. The Buster branch is a continuation of the old system and is more stable. The Bullseye branch added some new features, using open source libraries and new interfaces. Since the current Bullseye branch has just been released shortly, it is not stable yet. If you are an industrial user, it is strongly recommended to use the Buster branch.

If you use the Buster branch system, you can use it according to the above configuration. But if you are using the Bullseye branch system, you need to modify the default KMS driver to FKMS driver for displaying the system desktop normally.

Connect the Raspberry Pi camera to the CSI interface of the Raspberry Pi, power on the Raspberry Pi again, and after the system boots, execute the following command:

#After the installation is complete, you can open the program in the start menu - "Accessories - "Brightness for backlight adjustment, as shown below:

2. Input command xinput in the terminal, and check the touch ID of the main monitor. (There should be two IDs, you can touch displays to check which is the main one);

This 5 inch TFT display with touch function is a mini panel-mountable HDMI monitor. It"s small and simple, and the shape makes it easy to attach to a electronic product.

5 inch HDMI display with 800*480 mini LCD screen, high-resolution picture, large viewing angle, fast response time, full color display. It supports manual backlight control, backlight switch can be turn off to lower power consumption.

It is resistive touchscreen monitor which comes with a touch pen for easy use. When working with Raspberry Pi 4 3B+ 3B 2B+, directly plugged, I/Os for touch function and power supply, HDMI interface for displaying.

*When working withRaspberry Pi 4, please comment out by adding # in the front of "dtoverlay = vc4-fkms-V3D" or delete this line directly in the config.txt

*When working withRaspberry Pi 4, please comment out by adding # in the front of "dtoverlay = vc4-fkms-V3D" or delete this line directly in the config.txt