3.2" TFT screen trouble

winnetouch

Hy. I got this generic TFT screen and I've been trying forever to get it working. I have no clue what to do anymore. I've followed this tutorial and I couldn't get it working because the X file isn't there to edit :P.

http://blog.whatgeek.com.pt/2015/10/raspberry-pi-3-2-tft-display-configuration/#comment-563

I'm no programmer... I would really appreciate some help setting up this screen. Thank you.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111987811850?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

glennlake

@winnetouch HI. Your right. The setup for RetroPie does not use X11. You should try following the step by step guide that Adafruit has. It should send you off in the right direction. We can help you thru the rough spots if you need it. Good luck :-}

winnetouch

But all those guides are written for 2.8 or 2.3" screens. Is the process the same for 3.2"? Also... I don't have a clue what to choose here:

Then, to enable the PiTFT device, add one of the following two lines…either:
Copy Code
dtoverlay=pitft28-resistive-overlay,rotate=90,speed=80000000,fps=60
or:
Copy Code
dtoverlay=pitft28-capacitive-overlay,rotate=90,speed=80000000,fps=60
…depending whether you have the resistive or capacitive PiTFT screen. For a 2.2" PiTFT, either one works since that screen doesn’t support touch.

glennlake

@winnetouch Sorry! Up to early with to little sleep. I forgot to add the link. https://learn.adafruit.com/running-opengl-based-games-and-emulators-on-adafruit-pitft-displays/retropie-setup This should help. Your on the right track but you will need to edit the line "dtoverlay=pitft28-capacitive-overlay,rotate=90,speed=80000000,fps=60" changing pitft28 to pitft32. Have you edited the config.txt file for the hdmi settings?

senkun

@winnetouch said in 3.2" TFT screen trouble:

Hy. I got this generic TFT screen and I've been trying forever to get it working. I have no clue what to do anymore. I've followed this tutorial and I couldn't get it working because the X file isn't there to edit :P.

http://blog.whatgeek.com.pt/2015/10/raspberry-pi-3-2-tft-display-configuration/#comment-563

I'm no programmer... I would really appreciate some help setting up this screen. Thank you.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111987811850?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

@winnetouch said in 3.2" TFT screen trouble:

But all those guides are written for 2.8 or 2.3" screens. Is the process the same for 3.2"? Also... I don't have a clue what to choose here:

Then, to enable the PiTFT device, add one of the following two lines…either:
Copy Code
dtoverlay=pitft28-resistive-overlay,rotate=90,speed=80000000,fps=60
or:
Copy Code
dtoverlay=pitft28-capacitive-overlay,rotate=90,speed=80000000,fps=60
…depending whether you have the resistive or capacitive PiTFT screen. For a 2.2" PiTFT, either one works since that screen doesn’t support touch.

OK. First things first. Forget that adafruit guide. As you have correctly deduced, it's largely irrelevant for your screen, and you don't want to be tied to their proprietary bootloader which kills your setup if you ever update/upgrade.

You're in luck that the screen you have is a copy/clone of the Waveshare 3.2" tft. There are many rip-off screens but if they have the same driver chip most should work the same.

So erase everything and then start off with a fresh clean install of Retropie and follow the steps in this post:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/295/retropie-and-waveshare-32b/

G'luck.

glennlake

@senkun Thanks. I shy away from the waveshare software myself as I had problems using it with a 5in screen I was setting up a wile back. I'll need to return to their site and try their info. Once I got my screen working I stopped looking. Thanks again brother. :-}

senkun

@glennlake

Just had a look at adafruit's guide, apparently they have updated it and they no longer ask you to use their "pitft helper" which installs their proprietary bootloader. The steps are correct for all 'modern' raspbian/retropie installs now, as they just use dt-overlays. Unfortunately only some overlays are included in the vanilla installs, most of the other popular tft screens (such as the OP's 3.2" screen) have overlays written for them but needs a lil hunting down.

winnetouch

Thank you, thank you, thank you :D It worked :D I have just one more question then I'll be out of your hair. Will this also work for a pi zero? I tested it on my pi2 and it worked but I'm still waiting for stacked headers for my pi zero so I have no way of testing it :P.

glennlake

@winnetouch I don't have a 3.2 but my 3.5 works fine on the pi zero.

P.S. Don't worry about getting in my hair. I don't have enough left that it matters. :-p

senkun

@winnetouch said in 3.2" TFT screen trouble:

Thank you, thank you, thank you :D It worked :D I have just one more question then I'll be out of your hair. Will this also work for a pi zero? I tested it on my pi2 and it worked but I'm still waiting for stacked headers for my pi zero so I have no way of testing it :P.

Hey glad it worked! There should be no reason why it would not work on a Zero. I have all flavours of Pi, unfortunately I don't have a Zero (due to the "bundlethezerowithoverpricedaccessories" conspiracy) so I never tried it. Try it out and report back whydoncha?

winnetouch

I'll be sure to do that when I get my headers. The zeros were back in stock a while back for their original price ($5) btw. That's when I got it at least...

glennlake

@senkun Yea.. That's the big problem with the zero. From what I was able to find out, the distributors pay $5 for each zero so they can't make any profit from them. That's why the bundle them with the extras or charge more for shippings. :-(

winnetouch

Hm... It seem that the screen can not be configured the same way as with the other raspberries. I tried 3 times and the method does not work. When I type in ls /dev/fb* I only keep getting

/dev/fb0 when I should also be getting /dev/fb1. Without that the screen won't work. I worked fine on pi2 but on the zero I can't seem to get fb1 to show up.