Help installing a Adafruit touch screen

Kai Majere · 20 May 2018, 21:26

So I have Retropie installed on an SD card for my Raspberry Pi and I am trying to connect a 5" Adafruit screen but when I plug it in, the screen is all white and there are lines on the right side of the screen. I've seen some videos about having to configure the Raspberry Pi but how does one do that when Retropie is installed on the SD card? Please help! Thanks

mitu · 21 May 2018, 02:52

@kai-majere RetroPie is not an OS in itself, it's built using Raspbian Lite, so whatever instructions you have for configuring the screen in Raspbian should apply to RetroPie also.

Kai Majere · 21 May 2018, 02:54

@mitu

Hey there. Thanks for the info. So how do I change the settings for the Raspberry Pi itself? I tried taking the SD card out with the Retropie on it but when I plug it in, nothing comes on. I think I might be out of my league here. :-(

mitu · 21 May 2018, 02:56

@kai-majere Does the screen has some documentation on how to configure it with Raspbian ? Follow that documentation, not some random videos on the internet.

Kai Majere · 21 May 2018, 02:58

@mitu

Nope! Not a thing! It was just the screen and nothing else. I have been looking, unsuccessfully, for some information online to try and assist with not luck.

mitu · 21 May 2018, 03:00

@kai-majere Where did you buy it from, do you have a link ?

Kai Majere · 21 May 2018, 03:02

@mitu

I got it from Microcenter. Here's the link:

http://www.microcenter.com/product/451912/HDMI_5_800x480_Display_Backpack_-_With_Touchscreen

mitu · 21 May 2018, 03:03

@kai-majere I see it has some instructions at https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-5-800x480-tft-hdmi-monitor-touchscreen-backpack/raspberry-pi-config, try to follow those to configure the screen.

Kai Majere · 21 May 2018, 03:06

@mitu

I'm glad you found that too. So how do I get to the Config file? When I plug the SD card into my PC, it's obviously can't see it. I need to find out how I can reach that file.

And thanks for helping out. :-)

mitu · 21 May 2018, 03:11

@kai-majere Your PC should see a partition called boot when you insert the sd-card. The config.txt file is on that partition. If you don't see it, then the card is not detected by the PC and you'll have to modify it on the Pi - using the nano text editor. Once you're logged on the PI - press F4 to exit Emulationstation - run sudo nano /boot/config.txt and you'll be able to edit and save the file.

Kai Majere · 21 May 2018, 03:19

@mitu

Thank you SOOOO much. You're amazing! :-D