UART TFT LCD is a fully customizable color LCD for users to create their application

Transcription

1 UART TFT LCD is a fully customizable color LCD for users to create their application with zero TFT LCD programming. Controlling the LCD is simple and straightforward. It use only UART serial communication from host to control the LCD. The host can be any system, eg. Arduino, PC, Raspberry Pi, microcontroller etc. UART TFT LCD also support advance features like drawing images and bitmap characters directly through UART. Lets follow this quick start guide step by step to get familiar with the LCD. This quickstart guide requires arduino board (UNO, nano, mega etc) and the second part requires a PC with serial port (5V/3.3V TTL) or a USB to serial converter (5V/3.3V TTL) UART TFT LCD Package Content UART TFT LCD module 2. 70cm USB2.0 cable 3. 1x8pin 2.54mm dupont cable Downloadable content: Arduino demo application video: Page 1

2 Arduino Demo application: 1. Copy the UARTLCD folder in the arduino library package to your arduino s libraries folder. 2. Open arduino main application. 3. Select File>Examples>UARTLCD>Demo 4. Select your arduino board and COM port and upload the sketch. Then, connect the LCD to arduino with four wires. 1. Arduino 5V and GND to LCD s 5V and GND 2. Arduino Tx (Pin 1) to LCD s Rx. 3. ARduino Tx (Pin 2) to LCD s Tx Then, supply your arduino with power (either USB or DC jack), the demo application will run and LCD will display the demo application. Whenever the screen is touched, its coordinate (in 8bit) will be displayed in the LCD. Page 2

3 Uploading images to the LCD s flash: Now, you can try to upload image to the LCD and display it as a splash screen in the demo application. Disconnect the LCD from arduino and plug it into a computer s USB port using a USB cable. After connection, a new hardware UART TFT LCD will be found and install the drivers in the windows driver folder. After the driver is installed, the main application Image loader can be launched. The application requires Microsoft.NET framework 3.5 or above..net framework is already included in Windows Vista and 7. For Windows XP, if you don t have.net framework installed, it can be downloaded here: After the software is launched, it will detect the LCD and the connected status will be displayed in the status bar. You can test the LCD by pressing Display text, the text will be displayed on the LCD. Page 3

4 Now, you can now upload image to the LCD. Press Load image and select a 320x240 image in the images folder in the Image loader folder. Leave the destination address 257. (Remember this destination number, it is used to identify this image when you edit the arduino sketch later). Then press Write. After a while, the image will be written to the LCD s flash. After the image is written, you can test the image to be displayed by double clicking the 257 in the image list. The image just uploaded will be displayed to the LCD Now, you can save the image list information to the device which can be retrieved later by pressing Save imagelist. PS: Do not adjust other settings yet at this moment. It is done and now you can unplug the LCD from the USB port. Now, turn back to your arduino demo application. Uncomment Line 22 and 23 //uartlcd.draw_image(257,0,0); delay(1000); //display splash screen //uartlcd.clr_screen(black); delay(300); //clear screen This two line will load the image at startup as a splash screen at the location 257 and then display it for 1 sec and then clear it for subsequent demo application. Upload Page 4

5 the sketch and connect the LCD to arduino and power it up. The new sketch will include a splash screen of the image you just upload before the demo application runs. A snap from the arduino demo application: Page 5

6 The next step of the guide is to control the LCD using PC running in windows. This application can demonstrate some advanced functions of the LCD. To connect the LCD to PC, you need a USB to serial adapter, or a serial port in a PC. Note: A USB to serial adapter with 5V or 3V TTL level, but not 12,+12 RS232 level! Connect 4 wires Tx Rx Power+ and GND. This demo operate in single wire mode. After connection, launch the UART TFT LCD demo application in the UART TFT LCD demo folder. After that, select your COM port, baudrate to 38400, check one wire mode and uncheck enable checksum and press Open. If everything is OK, it will show LCD OK and all the buttons will be enabled. Now, you can check the functions by clicking the button. 1. Clear screen with random color, the LCD will be filled with random color Page 6

7 2. Draw Text, the text in the text box will be drawn to the LCD 3. Get Touchpad information, This will show the Touch coordinates on the LCD. Press once more to cancel the operation 4. Press TEST, this will show some random numbers to the LCD. When the LCD is touched, the coordinates will be retrieved be the application and displayed in the application window. Press once more to cancel this demo. 5. Press Display image and select a 320x240 in the application s image folder. The image will be drawn directly to the LCD. ( Yes, it is slow, because the baud rate is only 38400). 6. Wait after the image is completely shown, then press display time. This will create a clock. This demonstrate drawing bitmap character to the LCD. (with this, you can display text of any language, fonts, size to the LCD in a much faster rate when compared to drawing a text image). using these information provided). 7. Demo is finished, have Fun! ( The application and the C# driver is open sourced, feel free to create your own application using the LCD Page 7

8 Snaps from PC demo application: For more functions of the LCD, please see the main user manual. Have fun! UART TFT LCD Quickstart Guide rev.a Copyright coldtears electronics, 2012 Page 8