PiTFT Plus 480x320 3.5" TFT screen and a Raspberry PI 3 cannot run RetroPie

babybunny

Hello I am trying to build a PIGRRL 2 but without using the exact same hardware as the Adafruit tutorial.
The hardware im using is a follows,

PiTFT Plus 480x320 3.5" TFT+Touchscreen
Raspberry Pi 3 - Model B - ARMv8 with 1G RAM
Breadboard-friendly SPDT Slide Switch
PowerBoost 1000 Charger - Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost @ 1A - 1000C
Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 2500mAh
GPIO Ribbon Cable for Raspberry Pi Model A+/B+/Pi 2/Pi 3 - (26 pins)
A SNES CONTROLLER
The case shall be an old GAME GEAR

My issue is getting RetroPie to run on the 3.5 inch screen. I am pretty sure that it is a driver/kernel issue. The Pitft helper will not install correctly.
The screen runs perfectly with the latest Jessie Raspbian image, but does not run with RetroPie, just a white or black screen. RetroPie will show up on my HDMI monitor just fine, but it will not show on the 3.5 Pitft. I have tried all sorts of answers from the different forums I read, but none have worked. One almost worked but ended showing RetroPie on half the screen because it was set for 2.8 inch screen. It seems like no matter which tutorial or Rasp image I use it just wont run RetroPie natively on the 3.5 inch Pitft.
I understand that the 2.8 inch Pitft works just fine with PIGRRL2 and RetroPIe, but I really want a 3.5 inch instead and I don't want to buy a different screen, not yet anyway.
I have heard that Adafruit does not have a fix for running RetroPie on the 3.5 inch Pitft and Raspberry Pi 3.
But if RetroPie is not running, then does that mean that RetroPie is the issue? I just don't know? Until I get this to work, I can't continue my project.
On a side note: Does anyone know of any emulation software besides RetroPie that does work with my setup? For example Cupcade or Recall Box?

Thanks in advance for reading my post.

senkun

@babybunny said:

The screen runs perfectly with the latest Jessie Raspbian image, but does not run with RetroPie, just a white or black screen.
RetroPie will show up on my HDMI monitor just fine, but it will not show on the 3.5 Pitft.

OK. if you've got that far, it should mean the overlay is installed. Can you check your /boot/config.txt and see if this line or part thereof is in there?

dtoverlay=pitft35r,rotate=90,speed=64000000,fps=30

senkun

@babybunny said:

but I really want a 3.5 inch instead and I don't want to buy a different screen, not yet anyway.

320x480 SPI screens like your 3.5" or 4" IMHO are no good for gaming. So much slower and with tearing as they are pushing twice as many pixels as 240x320 screens. That's why most people who want anything larger than 3.2" screens opt for composite.

But if RetroPie is not running, then does that mean that RetroPie is the issue? I just don't know?

Retropie is not the issue here.

babybunny

@senkun
Yes I have the same boot/config.txt but im trying to run retropie not Jessie Raspbian. I also tryed a tutorial that installs retropie over a raspbian installation but it hangs at a black screen with a blinking cursor at the top left like its shutdown. https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/manual-installation. At the end of this tutorial it says run retropie by typing in emulationstation at the cmd line and thats when i get the black screen.

@senkun said in PiTFT Plus 480x320 3.5" TFT screen and a Raspberry PI 3 cannot run RetroPie:

@babybunny said:

The screen runs perfectly with the latest Jessie Raspbian image, but does not run with RetroPie, just a white or black screen.
RetroPie will show up on my HDMI monitor just fine, but it will not show on the 3.5 Pitft.

OK. if you've got that far, it should mean the overlay is installed. Can you check your /boot/config.txt and see if this line or part thereof is in there?

dtoverlay=pitft35r,rotate=90,speed=64000000,fps=30

senkun

@babybunny said :

Yes I have the same boot/config.txt but im trying to run retropie not Jessie Raspbian.

Yes, I understand that. Whichever way you ended up with Retropie, either by an install over Jessie or from a direct image, I had assumed you meant retropie.

When you said;

The screen runs perfectly with the latest Jessie Raspbian image, but does not run with RetroPie, just a white or black screen.
RetroPie will show up on my HDMI monitor just fine, but it will not show on the 3.5 Pitft.

I had assumed you meant your retropie install shows up on hdmi but not on the TFT. Is this not the case?

babybunny

@senkun said in PiTFT Plus 480x320 3.5" TFT screen and a Raspberry PI 3 cannot run RetroPie:

@babybunny said :

Yes I have the same boot/config.txt but im trying to run retropie not Jessie Raspbian.

Yes, I understand that. Whichever way you ended up with Retropie, either by an install over Jessie or from a direct image, I had assumed you meant retropie.

When you said;

The screen runs perfectly with the latest Jessie Raspbian image, but does not run with RetroPie, just a white or black screen.
RetroPie will show up on my HDMI monitor just fine, but it will not show on the 3.5 Pitft.

I had assumed you meant your retropie install shows up on hdmi but not on the TFT. Is this not the case?

Retropie will display on my HDMI monitor but not on the TFT, yes this is the case. I have decided to give up on the PiTFT Plus 480x320 3.5" TFT+Touchscreen and will try the PiTFT Plus 320x240 3.2" TFT + Resistive Touchscreen when it arrives in the mail. I am glad all these parts don't cost too much money. Adafruit has stated that this 3.2 inch PITFT is exactly like the 2.8 PITFT in all regards; same driver, same resolution, the only difference is that its a little bigger, and the raspberry pi itself wont know the difference either, which leads me to believe that it will work with Retropie natively. I will let you know if it doesn't. Thank you for your support.
Thread can be closed for now. Bye.