Gamepi20 screen and controller not working

xdman21

Hi one month ago i've bought a GamePi20 to wire to my raspberry pi zero W

the main issue is that i've tried to install it by the two methods from the official website (with retropie preconfigured image and manually).

Always is showing a blank screen and when I try to use the controller doesn't works too.

alt text

(link to the image of gamepi blank screen) https://ibb.co/gVzXmhW

this test was made with the prebuild image given inside this webpage https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/GamePi20

more concretely this image https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p0ZP9lnxIu-2mvGVU91y_Z_Z0VdJC7oV/view

and I should add too that the battery works correctly with the led and my raspberry works too.

as there's not so much info about that it's a bit difficult to solve it by yourself

Any idea? Thanks.

mitu

We don't support 3rd party images - if the image provided by the vendor doesn't work, then you should contact them and ask for support.

DelsArcade

I am having the same exact issue. And I'm using the official Retropie Image on this site. ( https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/releases/download/4.5.1/retropie-4.5.1-rpi1_zero.img.gz )

I've also gone so far as ordered another Gamepi20 (thinking my first one was defective) and the new one that just came in does the exact same thing.

If I hook it up to an external TV, it does display everything properly, but the LCD screen does not mirror or seem to display anything on the Gamepi20, when it should.

It seems to work fine for ETA prime here in this video:

What do you guys think? I'm about to return both of them if it doesn't work.

mitu

@DelsArcade said in Gamepi20 screen and controller not working:

What do you guys think? I'm about to return both of them if it doesn't work.

Did you follow the steps from https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/GamePi20#Method_2:_Install_driver for installation over the RetroPie's image ?

e654562

has anyone got this working.. I tried the image from waveshare and it works.. but not latest retropie. i tried to install using the retropie official image and that one gives blank screen.

h2805270

have you managed to fix it?

vaypinD4D

@DelsArcade hello..i am wondering the best way to change the size of the image...the text and gameplay are extremely small

whisperrs

@h2805270 et all, there is a step missing on the waveshare wiki, you need to uncomment the dtparam=spi=on line in /boot/config.txt

gneeman

@mitu Thanks for your suggestion. I had the same problem as the original poster. Ah yes ... read the instructions.

jpe230

In case anyone is wondering why the newer builds don't work with the GamePi20 is because the wiki uses fbtft_device and fbflex both retired from the linux kernel starting from 5.4.

Possible solutions:

Make a Device Tree Overlay targeting this display (according to my research it uses a ST7789(v) LCD Controller), the driver is included in the linux kernel so no need to add it..
Use fbcp-ili9341 as it seems to support this controller.
Downgrade the kernel to <5.4 (not sure if possible) and use the installation method given in the wiki.

None of this method have been tested by me since my GamePi20 is yet to arrive, but theoretically it should work.

Update: My gamepi20 arrived and it works beautifully.

I downloaded the lastest Raspbian Lite and downgraded the kernel to 4.9.118.
Made a FBTFT_Device using the steps listed in the wiki and installed FBCP.
Downloaded an old version of raspberry-kernel and raspberry-kernel-headers of around the same time the kernel was build.
Installed DKMS
Build and installed mk_arcade_joystick_rpi from source and apply configurations. If DKMS fails try other versions of raspberry-kernel and raspberry-kernel-headers that includes your kernel.
Added fbtft and mk_arcade_joystick_rpi as modules
Modified config.txt according to the wiki
Installed Retropie using Retropie-Setup

If done correctly you should have the lastest Retropie + RaspberryOS but with an old kernel

Shahrier16

@jpe230 Can you assist me in this case.. I am really hopeless about the screen issue..