stm32 discovery tft lcd free sample

STM32F429 has also LTDC driver for LCD like that, but this driver we will use later. For now we will use SPI for driving in serial mode and some other pins for controlling.

Remember: This library can also be used, if you are not using STM32F429 Discovery. It can be used in previous STM32F4 Discovery board. All pins can be changed in defines.h file which is included in project.

The LCD I am using is a 2.8″ TFT LCD with SPI communication. I also have another 16-bit Parallel TFT LCD but it will be another story for another time. For this post, let’s focus on how to display what you want on the 2.8″ LCD. You can find all details about this LCD from this page:http://www.lcdwiki.com/2.8inch_SPI_Module_ILI9341_SKU:MSP2807

First thing first, this LCD use SPI as the main communication protocol with your MCU. For STM32 users, HAL Library has already implemented this protocol which makes this project easier for us. But, a little knowledge about this protocol does not hurt anyone. SPI is short for Serial Peripheral Interface which, aside from two data lines, also has a clock line and select lines to choose between devices you want to communicate with.

This LCD uses ILI9341 as a single-chip SOC driver for a display with a resolution of 240×320. More details can be found in the official document of ILI9341. But the most important thing is that we have to establish astart sequencein order for this LCD to work. The “start sequence” includes many other sequences which are also defined in the datasheet. Each sequence starts when you send a command to ILI9341 and then some parameters to follow up. This sequence is applied for all communication between MCU and ILI9341.

For this project, I recommend using theSystem Workbench for STM32for coding and building the code. After installing and open the program, go to the source code you have just downloaded and double click the.cprojectfile. It will automatically be open in your IDE. Then build the program by right click on the folder you just open (TFTLCD) and chooseBuild Project. Wait for it to finish and upload it to the board by right clicking the folder, choose Run As and then clickAc6 STM32C/C++ Application. And that’s it for running the example.

The most important library for this project is obviously the ILI9341_Driver. This driver is built from the provided source code in the lcdwiki.com page. I only choose the part that we need to use the most in many applications like writing string, displaying image and drawing symbols. Another library from the wiki page is the TOUCH library. Most of the libraries I got from the Internet were not working properly due to some adjustments to the original one.

To draw symbols or even display images, we need a “byte array” of that image or symbol. As an illustration, to display an image from a game called Transistor, I have a “byte array” of that image stored in a file named transistor.h. You can find this file in the link below. Then, I draw each pixel from the image to the LCD by adding the code in the Display_Picture() function in the Display folder.void Display_Picture()

In this past two weeks I spent some time learning how to create a simple graphic application for my STM32F429I-DISCOVERY board. Since it has a QVGA display with a ILI9341 display controller on board and a STM32F429ZI microcontroller I thought I should give it a try. I’ve been interfacing displays with SPI and 8080 parallel interfaces but since the ILI9341 offers the opportunity to drive the panel using a parallel RGB interface I felt that was the way to go. The STM32 micro has a LTDC display controller that provides all the signals needed to use the RGB interface. I wrote a post on how to configure and use it. It has its own DMA and manages to send all RGB data from a framebuffer in memory to the TFT display generating all the necessary signals to refresh correctly the LCD, leaving the CPU free to do other jobs (for example updating the back buffer). Since I wanted to animate sprites I used double buffering and a single LTDC layer so I needed some extra RAM.  Luckyly the board has a 64Mbit (8MB) external SDRAM and the micro has a Flexible Memory Controller that makes accessing the external memory a breeze. So I implemented a little graphic library with some functions to draw on the framebuffer and to swap the buffers once finished:

You may notice some flickering that happens because we start modifying a buffer without waiting for the LCD controller to finish the previous frame and actually switch the frame buffer. To wait for the end of frame add the following line at the end of SwitchBuffer():

The STM32F429 Discovery helps you to discover the high-performance microcontrollers of the STM32 F4 series and to develop your applications easily. It offers everything required for beginners and experienced users to get started quickly.

Based on the STM32F429ZIT6, it includes an ST-LINK/V2 embedded debug tool, a 2.4" QVGA TFT LCD, an external SDRAM of 64 Mbits, a gyroscope ST MEMs, a USB OTG micro-AB connector, LEDs and pushbuttons.

A large number of free ready-to-run application firmware examples are available on www.st.com/stm32f4-discovery to support quick evaluation and development.

Seems interesting UGUI. However for example for the controller ST7586S have any examples of LCD functions to associate with UGUI? If you have made and canst send to me …

AchimAs we"re already talking Microchip, what would be necessary to get a Pic32MZ2048ECH144 and HX8238-A based display to use µGUI?First of all you have to connect the TFT DPI Interface to the PIC. Then initialize the internal DPI Interface of the PIC. After that you only have to write a Pset-function to use uGUI. Hope this helps! By the way: which hardware platform do you use? BR Achim

At first i would like to congratulate you for this great library/project. I tested it in the STM32F429 Discovery and liked a lot. So, I would ask if you are interested in creating an adaptation layer for an event manager based on RTOS services. I beleive that through RTOS semaphores, queues and timers it is possible to better manage the CPU resources. I started myself a GUI event handler, as you can see here:

Starting with your example of uGFX 3.0 on Stm32f429-Discovery (embd LCD removed) i have changed only screen dimensions to the ltdc.h in order to make it all work and so on it"s a really good result.

Can I use ugui with STM32F4-Discovery + ssd1963 fsmc module? I have ssd1963 library. I can run the screen but do not know how I could combine seamlessly with ugui. Can you help with this?Hi Mehmet,

Nice job on the uGUI! I"m currently experimenting with it, I had an stm32f429 discovery board so could start right away with your example project in CoIDE.

i really wonder about your gui. it is very simple to use. i want to draw a image on my lcd. i also done by using your library with given example image. now i want to convert image to header file. can you suggest any software to do that.Hi Arun, I think there is a conversion utility on the ST microelectronics page. I can’t remember the name, but I’m sure there is one. BR Achim

I tried, but I can not force to work my 240×128 display with T6963C controller . Could you please send me the code to this: 240×128 LCD | Driver: T6963C | Interface: 8080

Is there a sample project for STM32f7xx-Discovery also available?Hi, yes I’m going to write an example for the STM32F7. Unfortunately I’m very busy right now, so please be patient…

well, this is my first time using STM. i"m using stm32f407 by the way. i really want to use ugui with my stm and ssd1289. do you have any project example that i can use as refrence? it would be really helpful. thanks!Please have a look at the forum. Have you already downloaded my example projects? BR Achim

I"ve set it up on an STM32L100RCT6 with an 128×64 glcd, and everything works like a charm, except the UG_DrawLine() function, which seems to always draw a falling line, no matter how the arguments are arranged