Okay, so I wanted to get a little screen, a TFT display, working with my board. It wasn’t as straightforward as I hoped, but I figured it out, and I want to share how I did it, so that everyone can learn from my own experience.
Gathering My Stuff
First, I made sure I had everything I needed:
- My board: the board I was working with.
- The TFT display: Mine was a small, colorful one. There are different kinds, so make sure yours is compatible with your board.
- Jumper wires: To connect everything together. Female-to-female ones are usually what you need.
- The right software: This depends on your board and your display. I had to do some searching to find the right libraries.
Wiring It Up
This part was a little tricky. I had to find a good wiring diagram.
I searched and double-checked the connections, making sure I matched the pins on the display to the correct pins on my board.
Usually, you’ll need to connect pins like:
- VCC to the board’s power (like 3.3V or 5V)
- GND to the board’s ground
- SCK, MOSI, MISO These are for communication (SPI)
- CS Chip Select
- DC/RS Data/Command
- RST Reset (sometimes)
- LED Backlight control (sometimes)
I carefully connected each wire, one by one. It’s easy to mix them up, so I went slow.
Getting the Software Side Working
I needed some libraries to make the display work with my code. This is where the searching I mentioned earlier came in handy.
I had to find the library, so I used my board’s software to install it. Then I loaded up an example sketch that came with the library.
The example sketch usually shows how to draw basic shapes and text on the screen.
Tweaking and Testing
At first, the screen either didn’t work at all, or it showed garbage. So I went back and checked:
- My wiring:Yep, one of the wires had come loose.
- My code: Made sure I had the right display type selected in the example sketch.
- Power: Made sure the display was getting enough power.
After a bit of fiddling, I finally got it to show the example graphics! It was a pretty cool moment.
Making Something Cool
Once I got the basics working, I started experimenting. I changed the colors, drew different shapes, and displayed some text.
It takes some time to learn how to control everything, but it’s pretty fun to see your creations show up on the little screen.
Then I kept on testing and adjusting until I got the result I wanted,It’s not perfect, but it’s working!
