arduino mega tft lcd tutorial manufacturer

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.

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.

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.

Here’s that function which uses the ultrasonic sensor to calculate the distance and print the values with SevenSegNum font in green color, either in centimeters or inches. If you need more details how the ultrasonic sensor works you can check my particular tutorialfor that. Back in the loop section we can see what happens when we press the select unit buttons as well as the back button.

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:

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. At the end of this article, you can :Write texts and numbers with your desired font.

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.

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 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.

The second adds a library that supports drivers of MCUFRIEND Arduino display shields.#include "TouchScreen.h" // only when you want to use touch screen#include "bitmap_mono.h" // when you want to display a bitmap image from library#include "bitmap_RGB.h" // when you want to display a bitmap image from library#include "Fonts/FreeSans9pt7b.h" // when you want other fonts#include "Fonts/FreeSans12pt7b.h" // when you want other fonts#include "Fonts/FreeSerif12pt7b.h" // when you want other fonts#include "FreeDefaultFonts.h" // when you want other fonts#include "SPI.h" // using sdcard for display bitmap image#include "SD.h"

fillScreen function change the color of screen to t color. The t should be a 16bit variable containing UTFT color code.#define BLACK 0x0000#define NAVY 0x000F#define DARKGREEN 0x03E0#define DARKCYAN 0x03EF#define MAROON 0x7800#define PURPLE 0x780F#define OLIVE 0x7BE0#define LIGHTGREY 0xC618#define DARKGREY 0x7BEF#define BLUE 0x001F#define GREEN 0x07E0#define CYAN 0x07FF#define RED 0xF800#define MAGENTA 0xF81F#define YELLOW 0xFFE0#define WHITE 0xFFFF#define ORANGE 0xFD20#define GREENYELLOW 0xAFE5#define PINK 0xF81F

Drawing Linestft.drawFastVLine(x,y,h,t);//drawFastVLine(int16_t x, int16_t y, int16_t h, uint16_t t)tft.drawFastHLine(x,y,w,t);//drawFastHLine(int16_t x, int16_t y, int16_t w, uint16_t t)tft.drawLine(xi,yi,xj,yj,t);//drawLine(int16_t x0, int16_t y0, int16_t x1, int16_t y1, uint16_t t)

drawLinefunction draws a line that starts in xi and yi locationends is in xj and yj and the color is t.for (uint16_t a=0; a<5; a++){ tft.drawFastVLine(x+a, y, h, t);}for (uint16_t a=0; a<5; a++){ tft.drawFastHLine(x, y+a, w, t);}for (uint16_t a=0; a<5; a++){ tft.drawLine(xi+a, yi, xj+a, yj, t);}for (uint16_t a=0; a<5; a++){ tft.drawLine(xi, yi+a, xj, yj+a, t);}

These three blocks of code draw lines like the previous code with 5-pixel thickness.tft.fillRect(x,y,w,h,t);//fillRect(int16_t x, int16_t y, int16_t w, int16_t h, uint16_t t)tft.drawRect(x,y,w,h,t);//drawRect(int16_t x, int16_t y, int16_t w, int16_t h, uint16_t t)tft.fillRoundRect(x,y,w,h,r,t);//fillRoundRect (int16_t x, int16_t y, int16_t w, int16_t h, uint8_t R , uint16_t t)tft.drawRoundRect(x,y,w,h,r,t);//drawRoundRect(int16_t x, int16_t y, int16_t w, int16_t h, uint8_t R , uint16_t t)

Drawing Circlestft.drawCircle(x,y,r,t); //drawCircle(int16_t x, int16_t y, int16_t r, uint16_t t)tft.fillCircle(x,y,r,t); //fillCircle(int16_t x, int16_t y, int16_t r, uint16_t t)

fillCirclefunction draws a filled circle in x and y location and r radius and t color.for (int p = 0; p < 4000; p++){ j = 120 * (sin(PI * p / 2000));i = 120 * (cos(PI * p / 2000));j2 = 60 * (sin(PI * p / 2000));i2 = 60 * (cos(PI * p / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 160, j2 + 160, i + 160, j + 160, col[n]);}

Drawing Trianglestft.drawTriangle(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,t);//drawTriangle(int16_t x1, int16_t y1, int16_t x2, int16_t y2, int16_t x3, int16_t y3,// uint16_t t)tft.fillTriangle(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,t);//fillTriangle(int16_t x1, int16_t y1, int16_t x2, int16_t y2, int16_t x3, int16_t y3,// uint16_t t)

This code sets the cursor position to of x and ytft.setTextColor(t); //setTextColor(uint16_t t)tft.setTextColor(t,b); //setTextColor(uint16_t t, uint16_t b)

The second function just displays the string.showmsgXY(x,y,sz,&FreeSans9pt7b,"www.Electropeak.com");//void showmsgXY(int x, int y, int sz, const GFXfont *f, const char *msg)void showmsgXY(int x, int y, int sz, const GFXfont *f, const char *msg){ uint16_t x1, y1;uint16_t wid, ht;tft.setFont(f);tft.setCursor(x, y);tft.setTextColor(0x0000);tft.setTextSize(sz);tft.print(msg);}

This function changes the font of the text. You should add this function and font libraries.for (int j = 0; j < 20; j++) {tft.setCursor(145, 290);int color = tft.color565(r -= 12, g -= 12, b -= 12);tft.setTextColor(color);tft.print("www.Electropeak.com");delay(30);}

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 just used a string and 8 filled circles that change their colors in order. To draw circles around a static point, You can use sin(); and cos(); functions. you should define the PI number. To change colors, you can use color565(); function and replace your RGB code.#include "Adafruit_GFX.h"#include "MCUFRIEND_kbv.h"MCUFRIEND_kbv tft;#include "Fonts/FreeSans9pt7b.h"#include "Fonts/FreeSans12pt7b.h"#include "Fonts/FreeSerif12pt7b.h"#include "FreeDefaultFonts.h"#define PI 3.1415926535897932384626433832795int col[8];void showmsgXY(int x, int y, int sz, const GFXfont *f, const char *msg){int16_t x1, y1;uint16_t wid, ht;tft.setFont(f);tft.setCursor(x, y);tft.setTextColor(0x0000);tft.setTextSize(sz);tft.print(msg);}void setup() {tft.reset();Serial.begin(9600);uint16_t ID = tft.readID();tft.begin(ID);tft.setRotation(1);tft.invertDisplay(true);tft.fillScreen(0xffff);showmsgXY(170, 250, 2, &FreeSans9pt7b, "Loading...");col[0] = tft.color565(155, 0, 50);col[1] = tft.color565(170, 30, 80);col[2] = tft.color565(195, 60, 110);col[3] = tft.color565(215, 90, 140);col[4] = tft.color565(230, 120, 170);col[5] = tft.color565(250, 150, 200);col[6] = tft.color565(255, 180, 220);col[7] = tft.color565(255, 210, 240);}void loop() {for (int i = 8; i > 0; i--) {tft.fillCircle(240 + 40 * (cos(-i * PI / 4)), 120 + 40 * (sin(-i * PI / 4)), 10, col[0]); delay(15);tft.fillCircle(240 + 40 * (cos(-(i + 1)*PI / 4)), 120 + 40 * (sin(-(i + 1)*PI / 4)), 10, col[1]); delay(15);tft.fillCircle(240 + 40 * (cos(-(i + 2)*PI / 4)), 120 + 40 * (sin(-(i + 2)*PI / 4)), 10, col[2]); delay(15);tft.fillCircle(240 + 40 * (cos(-(i + 3)*PI / 4)), 120 + 40 * (sin(-(i + 3)*PI / 4)), 10, col[3]); delay(15);tft.fillCircle(240 + 40 * (cos(-(i + 4)*PI / 4)), 120 + 40 * (sin(-(i + 4)*PI / 4)), 10, col[4]); delay(15);tft.fillCircle(240 + 40 * (cos(-(i + 5)*PI / 4)), 120 + 40 * (sin(-(i + 5)*PI / 4)), 10, col[5]); delay(15);tft.fillCircle(240 + 40 * (cos(-(i + 6)*PI / 4)), 120 + 40 * (sin(-(i + 6)*PI / 4)), 10, col[6]); delay(15);tft.fillCircle(240 + 40 * (cos(-(i + 7)*PI / 4)), 120 + 40 * (sin(-(i + 7)*PI / 4)), 10, col[7]); delay(15);}}

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.#include "Adafruit_GFX.h" // Core graphics library#include "MCUFRIEND_kbv.h" // Hardware-specific libraryMCUFRIEND_kbv tft;#include "Ard_Logo.h"#define BLACK 0x0000#define RED 0xF800#define GREEN 0x07E0#define WHITE 0xFFFF#define GREY 0x8410#include "Fonts/FreeSans9pt7b.h"#include "Fonts/FreeSans12pt7b.h"#include "Fonts/FreeSerif12pt7b.h"#include "FreeDefaultFonts.h"void showmsgXY(int x, int y, int sz, const GFXfont *f, const char *msg){int16_t x1, y1;uint16_t wid, ht;tft.setFont(f);tft.setCursor(x, y);tft.setTextSize(sz);tft.println(msg);}uint8_t r = 255, g = 255, b = 255;uint16_t color;void setup(){Serial.begin(9600);uint16_t ID = tft.readID();tft.begin(ID);tft.invertDisplay(true);tft.setRotation(1);}void loop(void){tft.invertDisplay(true);tft.fillScreen(WHITE);tft.drawRGBBitmap(100, 50, Logo, 350, 200);delay(1000);tft.setTextSize(2);for (int j = 0; j < 20; j++) {color = tft.color565(r -= 12, g -= 12, b -= 12);tft.setTextColor(color);showmsgXY(95, 280, 1, &FreeSans12pt7b, "ELECTROPEAK PRESENTS");delay(20);}delay(1000);for (int i = 0; i < 480; i++) {tft.vertScroll(0, 480, i);tft.drawFastVLine(i, 0, 320, 0xffff); // vertical linedelay(5);}while (1);}

In this template, We used draw lines, filled circles, and string display functions.#include "Adafruit_GFX.h"#include "MCUFRIEND_kbv.h"MCUFRIEND_kbv tft;uint16_t ox=0,oy=0;int ave=0, avec=0, avet=0;////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////void aveg(void){int z=0;Serial.println(ave);Serial.println(avec);avet=ave/avec;Serial.println(avet);avet=avet*32;for (int i=0; i<24; i++){for (uint16_t a=0; a<3; a++){tft.drawLine(avet+a, z, avet+a, z+10, 0xFB21);} // thickfor (uint16_t a=0; a<2; a++){ tft.drawLine(avet-a, z, avet-a, z+10, 0xFB21);} delay(100); z=z+20; } } ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// void dchart_10x10(uint16_t nx,uint16_t ny) { ave+=nx; avec++; nx=nx*32; ny=ny*48; tft.drawCircle(nx, ny, 10, 0x0517); tft.drawCircle(nx, ny, 9, 0x0517); tft.fillCircle(nx, ny, 7, 0x0517); delay (100); ox=nx; oy=ny; } /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// void dotchart_10x10(uint16_t nx,uint16_t ny) { ave+=nx; avec++; nx=nx*32; ny=ny*48; int plus=0; float fplus=0; int sign=0; int y=0,x=0; y=oy; x=ox; float xmines, ymines; xmines=nx-ox; ymines=ny-oy; if (ox>nx){xmines=ox-nx;sign=1;}elsesign=0;for (int a=0; a<(ny-oy); a++){fplus+=xmines/ymines;plus=fplus;if (sign==1)tft.drawFastHLine(0, y, x-plus, 0xBFDF);elsetft.drawFastHLine(0, y, x+plus, 0xBFDF);y++;delay(5);}for (uint16_t a=0; a<2; a++){tft.drawLine(ox+a, oy, nx+a, ny, 0x01E8);} // thickfor (uint16_t a=0; a<2; a++){tft.drawLine(ox, oy+a, nx, ny+a, 0x01E8);}ox=nx;oy=ny;}////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////void setup() {tft.reset();Serial.begin(9600);uint16_t ID = tft.readID();tft.begin(ID);}void loop() {tft.invertDisplay(true);tft.fillScreen(0xffff);dotchart_10x10(3, 0);dotchart_10x10(2, 1);dotchart_10x10(4, 2);dotchart_10x10(4, 3);dotchart_10x10(5, 4);dotchart_10x10(3, 5);dotchart_10x10(6, 6);dotchart_10x10(7, 7);dotchart_10x10(9, 8);dotchart_10x10(8, 9);dotchart_10x10(10, 10);dchart_10x10(3, 0);dchart_10x10(2, 1);dchart_10x10(4, 2);dchart_10x10(4, 3);dchart_10x10(5, 4);dchart_10x10(3, 5);dchart_10x10(6, 6);dchart_10x10(7, 7);dchart_10x10(9, 8);dchart_10x10(8, 9);dchart_10x10(10, 10);tft.setRotation(1);tft.setTextSize(2);tft.setTextColor(0x01E8);tft.setCursor(20, 20);tft.print("Average");int dl=20;for (int i=0;i<6;i++){for (uint16_t a=0; a<3; a++){tft.drawLine(dl, 40+a, dl+10, 40+a, 0xFB21);}dl+=16;}tft.setRotation(0);aveg();while(1);}

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.#include "Adafruit_GFX.h"#include "MCUFRIEND_kbv.h"MCUFRIEND_kbv tft;#include "Volume.h"#define BLACK 0x0000int a = 0,b = 4000,c = 1000,d = 3000;int s=2000;int j, j2;int i, i2;int White;void setup(){Serial.begin(9600);uint16_t ID = tft.readID();tft.begin(ID);tft.invertDisplay(true);tft.setRotation(1);}void loop(void){tft.invertDisplay(true);tft.fillScreen(BLACK);tft.drawRGBBitmap(0, 0, test, 480, 320);White = tft.color565(255, 255, 255);while(1){if (a < s) {j = 14 * (sin(PI * a / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * a / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * a / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * a / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 62, j2 + 240, i + 62, j + 240, White);j = 14 * (sin(PI * (a-300) / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * (a-300) / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * (a-300) / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * (a-300) / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 62, j2 + 240, i + 62, j + 240, 0x0000);tft.fillRect(50, 285, 30, 30, 0x0000);tft.setTextSize(2);tft.setTextColor(0xffff);tft.setCursor(50, 285);tft.print(a / 40); tft.print("%");a++;}if (b < s) {j = 14 * (sin(PI * b / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * b / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * b / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * b / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 180, j2 + 240, i + 180, j + 240, White);j = 14 * (sin(PI * (b-300) / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * (b-300) / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * (b-300) / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * (b-300) / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 180, j2 + 240, i + 180, j + 240, 0x0000);tft.fillRect(168, 285, 30, 30, 0x0000);tft.setTextSize(2);tft.setTextColor(0xffff);tft.setCursor(168, 285);tft.print(b / 40); tft.print("%");b++;}if (c < s) {j = 14 * (sin(PI * c / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * c / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * c / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * c / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 297, j2 + 240, i + 297, j + 240, White);j = 14 * (sin(PI * (c-300) / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * (c-300) / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * (c-300) / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * (c-300) / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 297, j2 + 240, i + 297, j + 240, 0x0000);tft.fillRect(286, 285, 30, 30, 0x0000);tft.setTextSize(2);tft.setTextColor(0xffff);tft.setCursor(286, 285);tft.print(c / 40); tft.print("%");c++;}if (d < s) { j = 14 * (sin(PI * d / 2000)); i = 14 * (cos(PI * d / 2000)); j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * d / 2000)); i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * d / 2000)); tft.drawLine(i2 + 414, j2 + 240, i + 414, j + 240, White); j = 14 * (sin(PI * (d-300) / 2000)); i = 14 * (cos(PI * (d-300) / 2000)); j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * (d-300) / 2000)); i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * (d-300) / 2000)); tft.drawLine(i2 + 414, j2 + 240, i + 414, j + 240, 0x0000); tft.fillRect(402, 285, 30, 30, 0x0000); tft.setTextSize(2); tft.setTextColor(0xffff); tft.setCursor(402, 285); tft.print(d / 40); tft.print("%"); d++;} if (a > s) {j = 14 * (sin(PI * a / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * a / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * a / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * a / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 62, j2 + 240, i + 62, j + 240, White);j = 14 * (sin(PI * (a+300) / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * (a+300) / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * (a+300) / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * (a+300) / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 62, j2 + 240, i + 62, j + 240, 0x0000);tft.fillRect(50, 285, 30, 30, 0x0000);tft.setTextSize(2);tft.setTextColor(0xffff);tft.setCursor(50, 285);tft.print(a / 40); tft.print("%");a--;}if (b > s) {j = 14 * (sin(PI * b / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * b / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * b / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * b / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 180, j2 + 240, i + 180, j + 240, White);j = 14 * (sin(PI * (b+300) / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * (b+300) / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * (b+300) / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * (b+300) / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 180, j2 + 240, i + 180, j + 240, 0x0000);tft.fillRect(168, 285, 30, 30, 0x0000);tft.setTextSize(2);tft.setTextColor(0xffff);tft.setCursor(168, 285);tft.print(b / 40); tft.print("%");b--;}if (c > s) {j = 14 * (sin(PI * c / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * c / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * c / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * c / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 297, j2 + 240, i + 297, j + 240, White);j = 14 * (sin(PI * (c+300) / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * (c+300) / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * (c+300) / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * (c+300) / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 297, j2 + 240, i + 297, j + 240, 0x0000);tft.fillRect(286, 285, 30, 30, 0x0000);tft.setTextSize(2);tft.setTextColor(0xffff);tft.setCursor(286, 285);tft.print(c / 40); tft.print("%");c--;}if (d > s) {j = 14 * (sin(PI * d / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * d / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * d / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * d / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 414, j2 + 240, i + 414, j + 240, White);j = 14 * (sin(PI * (d+300) / 2000));i = 14 * (cos(PI * (d+300) / 2000));j2 = 1 * (sin(PI * (d+300) / 2000));i2 = 1 * (cos(PI * (d+300) / 2000));tft.drawLine(i2 + 414, j2 + 240, i + 414, j + 240, 0x0000);tft.fillRect(402, 285, 30, 30, 0x0000);tft.setTextSize(2);tft.setTextColor(0xffff);tft.setCursor(402, 285);tft.print(d / 40); tft.print("%");d--;}}}

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.#include "Adafruit_GFX.h" // Core graphics library#include "MCUFRIEND_kbv.h" // Hardware-specific libraryMCUFRIEND_kbv tft;#define BLACK 0x0000#define RED 0xF800#define GREEN 0x07E0#define WHITE 0xFFFF#define GREY 0x8410#include "images.h"#include "Fonts/FreeSans9pt7b.h"#include "Fonts/FreeSans12pt7b.h"#include "Fonts/FreeSerif12pt7b.h"#include "FreeDefaultFonts.h"int a = 3000;int b = 4000;int j, j2;int i, i2;void showmsgXY(int x, int y, int sz, const GFXfont *f, const char *msg){int16_t x1, y1;uint16_t wid, ht;// tft.drawFastHLine(0, y, tft.width(), 0xffff);tft.setFont(f);tft.setCursor(x, y);tft.setTextColor(WHITE);tft.setTextSize(sz);tft.print(msg);delay(1000);}void setup(){Serial.begin(9600);uint16_t ID = tft.readID();tft.begin(ID);tft.invertDisplay(true);tft.setRotation(1);}void loop(void){tft.invertDisplay(true);tft.fillScreen(BLACK);tft.drawRGBBitmap(0, 0, test, 480, 320);tft.drawBitmap(20, 20, Line1, 45, 45, 0xffff);//batterytft.drawBitmap(65, 20, Line2, 45, 45, 0xffff);//wifitft.drawBitmap(125, 25, Line3, 45, 45, 0xffff);//mailtft.drawBitmap(185, 25, Line4, 45, 45, 0xffff);//instagramtft.drawBitmap(245, 25, Line6, 45, 45, 0xffff);//powertft.drawBitmap(20, 260, Line5, 45, 45, 0xffff);//twittertft.drawBitmap(410, 140, Line7, 45, 45, 0xffff);//raintft.setTextSize(6);tft.setTextColor(0xffff);tft.setCursor(280, 210);tft.print("20:45");tft.setTextSize(2);tft.setTextColor(0xffff);showmsgXY(330, 280, 1, &FreeSans12pt7b, "Saturday");showmsgXY(300, 305, 1, &FreeSans12pt7b, "6 October 2018");while (1);}

×SPECIAL OFFER (VALID UNTIL NOVEMBER 1ST 2018): If you order the 3.5″ LCD from ElectroPeak, our technical staff will design your desired template for free! Just send an email to info@electropeak.Com containing your order number and 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

In this guide we’re going to show you how you can use the 1.8 TFT display with the Arduino. You’ll learn how to wire the display, write text, draw shapes and display images on the screen.

The 1.8 TFT is a colorful display with 128 x 160 color pixels. The display can load images from an SD card – it has an SD card slot at the back. The following figure shows the screen front and back view.

This module uses SPI communication – see the wiring below . To control the display we’ll use the TFT library, which is already included with Arduino IDE 1.0.5 and later.

The TFT display communicates with the Arduino via SPI communication, so you need to include the SPI library on your code. We also use the TFT library to write and draw on the display.

The 1.8 TFT display can load images from the SD card. To read from the SD card you use the SD library, already included in the Arduino IDE software. Follow the next steps to display an image on the display:

In this guide we’ve shown you how to use the 1.8 TFT display with the Arduino: display text, draw shapes and display images. You can easily add a nice visual interface to your projects using this display.

Spice up your Arduino project with a beautiful large touchscreen display shield with built in microSD card connection. This TFT display is big full viewing angle (4.3" diagonal) bright (8 white-LED backlight) and colorfu 800x480 pixels with individual pixel control. As a bonus, this display has a optional resistive touch panel with controller XPT2046 attached by default and a optional capacitive touch panel with controller FT5206 attached by default, so you can detect finger presses anywhere on the screen and doesn"t require pressing down on the screen with a stylus and has nice glossy glass cover.

The shield is fully assembled, tested and ready to go. No wiring, no soldering! Simply plug it in and load up our library - you"ll have it running in under 10 minutes! Works best with any classic Arduino (Due/Mega 2560).

Of course, we wouldn"t just leave you with a datasheet and a "good luck!" - we"ve written a full open source graphics library at the bottom of this page that can draw pixels, lines, rectangles, circles and text. We also have a touch screen library that detects x,y and z (pressure) and example code to demonstrate all of it. The code is written for Arduino but can be easily ported to your favorite microcontroller!

If you"ve had a lot of Arduino DUEs go through your hands (or if you are just unlucky), chances are you’ve come across at least one that does not start-up properly.The symptom is simple: you power up the Arduino but it doesn’t appear to “boot”. Your code simply doesn"t start running.You might have noticed that resetting the board (by pressing the reset button) causes the board to start-up normally.The fix is simple,here is the solution.

– Arduino is an open-source platform used for building electronics projects. Arduino consists of both a physical programmable microcontroller and a piece of software, or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that runs on your computer, used to write and upload computer code to the physical board.

– The Arduino platform unlike most previous programmable circuit boards, the Arduino does not need a separate programmer to load new code onto the board — you can simply use a USB cable. Additionally, the Arduino IDE uses a simplified version of C++, making it easier to learn to program.

– The open sources and extensible language: Arduino IDE is based on open source tool. The programming language used can be extended through the C++ library.

– The open source and expandable hardware: Arduino is based on Atmel’s ATMEGA 8-bit microcontrollers and its SAM3X8E and SAMD21 32-bit microcontrollers. Development boards and modules are planned to be released under the premise of following the “Creative Commons License Agreement”, so experienced circuit designers can make their own modules and carry out corresponding expansions and improvements. Even users who are relatively inexperienced can make a trial version of the basic Uno development board, which is easy to understand the principle of its operation and save costs.

– The Arduino hardware and software were designed for artists, designers, hobbyists, hackers, newbies, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Arduino can interact with buttons, LEDs, motors, speakers, GPS units, cameras, the internet, and even your smart-phone or your TV.

Arduino Leonardo: Arduino’s first development board to use one microcontroller with built-in USB. It is cheaper and simpler. The code libraries allow the board to emulate a computer keyboard, mouse, and more.

LCD means liquid crystal display. Basically, any displays can be used with Arduino, including alphanumeric character LCD display, monochrome graphic LCD display, color TFT LCD display, IPS LCD display. It can also be used for non LCD displays like: PMOLED display, AMOLED display, E-ink (E-paper) displays.  Orient Display developed easy interface (SPI, I2C) displays which can be easily used with Arduino.

LCD displays were first used for watches and calculators.  Now, LCD display technology dominants the display world, it can be found in wearables, smart homes, mobile phones, TVs, laptops, monitors, kiosks, aircraft cockpit, digital cameras, lab instrument, power grid etc.

LCD itself can emit light itself. It has to utilize outside light sources. LCD display module normally includes LCD glass (or LCD panel), LCD driving circuitry ( can be COG, COB or TAB) and a backlight.

A LCD display 16*2 is actually a basic and simple to use LCD module. It includes LCD glass, COB (Chip on PCB Board) LCD control board, backlight, zebra to connect LCD glass and control board and a bezel to hold everything together.  16×2 LCD display can display 16 characters per line and there are two lines. Each character has 5×7 dot matrix pixels and the cursor underneath. All 16×2 LCD display originally used standard Hitachi HD44780 driver. Of course the legendary HD44780 controller had EOL long time ago. All the 16×2 LCD displays use HD44780 compatible LCD controllers. Some of them are drop replacement, some of them need to modify the initialization code a little.

A 16×2 LCD has two registers like data register and command register. The RS (register select) is mainly used to change from one register to another. When the register set is ‘0’, then it is known as command register. Similarly, when the register set is ‘1’, then it is known as data register.

Data Register: The main function of the data register is to store the information which is to be exhibited on the LCD screen. Here, the ASCII value of the character is the information which is to be exhibited on the screen of LCD. Whenever we send the information to LCD, it transmits to the data register, and then the process will be starting there. When register set =1, then the data register will be selected.

All of the code below uses the LiquidCrystal library that comes pre-installed with the Arduino IDE. A library is a set of functions that can be easily added to a program in an abbreviated format. In order to use a library, it needs be included in the program. Line 1 in the code below does this with the command #include . When you include a library in a program, all of the code in the library gets uploaded to the Arduino along with the code for your program.

Now we’re ready to get into the programming! I’ll go over more interesting things you can do in a moment, but for now let’s just run a simple test program. This program will print “hello, world!” to the screen. Enter this code into the Arduino IDE and upload it to the board:

The LiquidCrystal() function sets the pins the Arduino uses to connect to the LCD. You can use any of the Arduino’s digital pins to control the LCD. Just put the Arduino pin numbers inside the parentheses in this order:

This function sets the dimensions of the LCD. It needs to be placed before any other LiquidCrystal function in the void setup() section of the program. The number of rows and number of columns are specified as lcd.begin(columns, rows). For a 16×2 LCD, you would use lcd.begin(16, 2), and for a 20×4 LCD you would use lcd.begin(20, 4).

This function clears any text or data already displayed on the LCD. If you use lcd.clear() with lcd.print() and the delay() function in the void loop() section, you can make a simple blinking text program.

Similar, but more useful than lcd.home() is lcd.setCursor(). This function places the cursor (and any printed text) at any position on the screen. It can be used in the void setup() or void loop() section of your program.

The cursor position is defined with lcd.setCursor(column, row). The column and row coordinates start from zero (0-15 and 0-1 respectively). For example, using lcd.setCursor(2, 1) in the void setup() section of the “hello, world!” program above prints “hello, world!” to the lower line and shifts it to the right two spaces:

This function creates a block style cursor that blinks on and off at approximately 500 milliseconds per cycle. Use it in the void loop() section. The function lcd.noBlink() disables the blinking block cursor.

This function turns on any text or cursors that have been printed to the LCD screen. The function lcd.noDisplay() turns off any text or cursors printed to the LCD, without clearing it from the LCD’s memory.

This function takes anything printed to the LCD and moves it to the left. It should be used in the void loop() section with a delay command following it. The function will move the text 40 spaces to the left before it loops back to the first character. This code moves the “hello, world!” text to the left, at a rate of one second per character.

lcd.noAutoscroll() turns the lcd.autoscroll() function off. Use this function before or after lcd.autoscroll() in the void loop() section to create sequences of scrolling text or animations.

This function sets the direction that text is printed to the screen. The default mode is from left to right using the command lcd.leftToRight(), but you may find some cases where it’s useful to output text in the reverse direction.

This command allows you to create your own custom characters. Each character of a 16×2 LCD has a 5 pixel width and an 8 pixel height. Up to 8 different custom characters can be defined in a single program. To design your own characters, you’ll need to make a binary matrix of your custom character from an LCD character generator or map it yourself. This code creates a degree symbol (°).

The detailed LCD tutorial can be found in the article. ARDUINO LCD SET UP AND PROGRAMMING GUIDE or to check https://github.com/arduino-libraries/LiquidCrystal

I"ve been looking for a product for my 8-bit cpu project and I liked the look of this screen. I was impressed that the claims on the Amazon page says it works with an Arduino mega 2560, so I bought a screen and an Alegoo mega 2560. My project depends the ability to read sn SD card. I currently have an external reader, which may or may not work. However with this TFT screen great I would have a screen and an SD card reader all in one!

The product arrived very after one day. When I opened the screen display, I found the display, a DVD and a touch screen pen. I read the contents of the DVD looking for a manual. There"s a German and English user guide. Looking through I was encouraged to see the mega 2560 being used to control the screen.

Example05-ShowBMP and SDCard Exten Example can not work on MEGA2560, because SPI IO of MEGA2560 is different from that of UNO. So example need to read the SD card can not work on MEGA 2560. The result of the examples are the same as that on UNO."

So to get the screen working I bought a genuine Uno (wasn"t going to buy an Elegoo clone. Was annoyed with them at this time). The Uno arrived and yes the SD card works. The product works well with an Arduino Uno, but not a Mega 2560.

I have looked over the Amazon web page a few times and I don"t see any indication the SD card part of the screen will work with an Arduino Mega 2560. Another annoyance now is that the screen is dedicated to using the Uno. The Uno has only 1 or 2 IO pins remaining to connect to external devices,but the screen covers them over.

For me to give this product five starts, Elegoo need to provide a shield that fits between the Mega2560 board and screen and allows the SD and screen to work. Access to the 53 IO ports is required.

There is little information on the Internet with a combination of this 1.77 inch TFT LCD work on Arduino Mega board. Most of the information is covering the 1.8 inch TFT LCD, and it is a little bit tricky to make this works since the connections on the board, and the code/driver may be different from other LCDs. We use this opportunity to explain the technology behind it besides just showing the readers its schematics. Later, we"ll show how to display both the temperature and humidity on the LCD with the DHT-11 sensor.

In a simple analogy, a computer uses a computer program, device driver, to talk to hardware like a printer and in the Arduino board, there is a microcontroller also uses some drivers to communicate with the LCD device. The communication between the microcontroller and devices can be parallel and/or serial when we look at it from the data transmission level. When we wired two LED lights with two separate I/O PINs on the board, we let the microcontroller sending the data in a parallel fashion. In the serial transmission, the data transmit one bit of data at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel called the bus. In web programming, we have the luxury of sending more complex data on a broader bandwidth, like JSON, a key-value pair data, when comparing with the low-level programming in electronics. There is a pulsing technique controlled by a clock, transmitting one bit every clock pulse. In this way, it compensates for the narrow path for data to pass through while maintaining the understanding of who is talking to whom or how to interpret the pieces of bit information that a device receives. With the clock speed, we can distinguish the data chunk out from the signal stream. It acts like traffic lights in the busiest city where all devices in the SPI bus shared the same clock as it maintains the data flow synchronized and controlled. As a result, paired its data line with a clock signal, the data is transferred synchronously. Many protocols are using this type of methods to communicate, such as SPI, and I2C. In our case, the LCD uses the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) protocol to communicate with the microcontroller on the Arduino board. Just like on the Internet, HTTP is a protocol for data communication between a web server and a client computer.

​The sequence of the events in serial data transmission is initialized when the SS pin set low as in active mode for the slave device. Otherwise, it simply ignores the data sent from the master or the microcontroller on the Arduino board in this scenario since all devices on the SPI bus share the MISO, MOSI, and SCLK lines and the message arrives at the slave devices at the same time. Only the devices that the master wants to communicate have its SS pin set low. During the data transmission, the master begins to toggle the clock line up and down at speed supported by the slave device. For each clock cycle, it sends one bit on the MOSI line, and receive one bit on the MISO line. Until stopping the toggling of the clock line, the transmission is complete, and now the SS pin is returned with a high state. A reset is triggered, and the next sequence of data transmission can be started again. It looks like a controlled escalator moving people up and down in light speed!

Adafruit_ST7735 tft = Adafruit_ST7735(TFT_CS, TFT_DC, TFT_MOSI, TFT_SCLK, TFT_RST);Two constructors in this class mean that there are two ways to create the tft object. For 1.8 inch LCD, you should use the first constructor shown above. In our case, the 1.77 inch LCD requires us to use the second constructor.

I hope this article helps you set up the 1.77 inch TFT LCD successfully. Sometimes it is difficult to know which library to use when your manufacturer does not provide you with anything else except this label on the package. Remember to make sure that the background and text colors must be different to display characters or else you cannot see anything.

Today, we are going to Interface 2.4 inch TFT LCD Shield with Arduino. By using this color TFT LCD shield we can show characters, strings, blocks, images etc on the color TFT LCD. And we can use this TFT Shield in many applications like:  Security System, Home Automation, Games etc.

Interfacing TFT LCD with Arduino is very easy. We only need to have an Arduino Board & a 2.4 inch TFT Shield in hardware part and Arduino IDE & TFT Library in software part. Many libraries are available on the Internet, for TFT Shield to operate, but different TFT LCDs have different inbuilt drivers. So first we need to identify the driver of TFT and then install a suitable library for that. Here we are using 2.4 inch TFT Shield having ili9341 driver. Link, for downloading the Library for given TFT, is given in ‘Steps’ below. Check this for simple LCD interfacing with Arduino.

Then go to the Arduino Library in Program Files, where you have pasted the zipped downloaded library in Step 2­­ and select and open zipped SPFD5408-Master library.

It is 100% compatible with the normal MCU like ARM AVR PIC and 8051,especially on Arduino family such as Arduino Due and Arduino MEGA2560(R3).The module uses the LCD controller Chip SSD1963 with 7 inch LCD including the touchscreen.

LCD-specificed intialization code is provided, so that you can save time to optimize power control register and gamma curves for best display performance. We have test the provided code, it gives the best display performanace

This shiled is just for 7 inch TFT LCD.If you need the LCD Extend shield for 3.2"" or 5"", you may foudn a similar shield which is also provided from our store.

This is a 2.8" Arduino Touch Screen Tutorial with the ILI9325 driver. Is this Arduino touch display a good option for your Arduino projects? Keep watching in...