[GUIDE] Retropie + 3.5 inch RPi LCD v3.0 (no brand)

tidus291

Ciao Taft mi sono registrato al sito per chiedere il tuo aiuto inerente un LCD 3.2 TFT.
ho eseguito la tua guida ma senza esito positivo. Il prodotto in questione è uguale al tuo.
Mi potresti aiutare per una corretta installazione del prodotto ?
La mia mail è: tidus291@hotmail.com

zuendy

This:

dtoverlay=waveshare35a,fps=50,speed=48000000,debug=32

Not perfect, but better than yours.

Anybody else

Thanks for your tutorial!

Best regards
zuendy

ray1618

@Taft
Awesome thanks to your guild I finely got something to display from RetroPie @ my ebay 3.5" nameless display! thx!

@zuendy
This indeed seems to respons a lot quicker, but for me it messes up the colors and also adds some noise in the screen.

moosepr

@ray1618 try adding bgr=1 to the end of your screen command

dtoverlay=waveshare35a,fps=50,speed=48000000,debug=32,bgr=1

see if that helps. some of the screens do colours red/green/blue and others to blue/green/red. not sure it will work on the dtoverlay command, but its worth a shot.

Also have a play with the speed value. I have been tweaking my ili9341 screen, and managed to get the speed all the way up to 90000000 with success (although this does of course depend on the screen)

edmaul69

@Taft the speed is a problem with only the 3.5" models. They have some stupid resolution that keeps them from being able to do 60fps. I think their max is like 30fps. You are better off getting a 3.2" or a backup camera 3.5"

tonyrocks

@edmaul69 Do you have a suggestion of which screen to get (3.2") maybe something from ebay?

edmaul69

@tonyrocks the waveshare 3.2" screens are fine. its what i am putting in my gameboy zero.

ray1618

I couldn't get my GPIO screen to work without problems, I ordered another 3.5" from spotpear on ebay WITH Hdmi connection. And like the support guy of spotpear promissed me: The screen works Without drivers as it just uses HDMI for the screen Yay!.

So far it works just as I hoped it would! and it also has an 3.5mm jack for audio (wich workes without noise, UNLIKE my original pi audio out)

You still can connect it to the GPIO for touch support (does need drivers) and power (just works when pugged in), but it's also possible to power it with another micro USB cable.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/332082341660?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

IF I ever receive my aftermarked gameboy case I'll let you know how it fits :)

@moosepr
I'll check out if the bgr=1 and speed change works out for my other GPIO screen

chip

@Taft sorry I am new to linux or retropie. Could you tell me where should I enter the command in retropie. Many thanks T.T

chip

@Taft hi I have successfully installed the driver after following your guidance. Yet the 3.5 showed white screen then turn black. Is there any error in the settings? Thank you.

chip

Finally The LCD is able to show pictures but like your situation it is too slow. And the colour isn't stable. I am really frustrated....

harrycool25

I've done all the steps flawlessly, even though the screen is upside down for me, which I got it fixed later on. But now it is SO SLOWWWWW. Adding the lines suggested above into /boot/config.txt won't fix it at all, and even distort the colors. URGENT HELP SINCE I WANT TO COMPLETE MY PORTABLE RETROPIE SETUP!

juj

I have recently been hacking on writing a new display driver for a WaveShare 3.5" (B) display and some other small Pi TFT displays, and also found out that the ILI9486 controller based WaveShare 3.5" inch screen is indeed quite slow. My copy of the display maxes out at 31.88MHz. I made a video about the best results I could reach at

Other 480x320 Raspberry Pi SPI screens with different controller chips such as HX8357D and MZ61581 are much faster than ILI9486 (at least as present on the WaveShare). A table of SPI speeds of the different displays I have experimented with can be found at https://github.com/juj/fbcp-ili9341#which-spi-display-should-i-buy-to-make-sure-it-works-best-with-fbcp-ili9341 . The smaller 320x240 ILI9341 displays are also much faster, not just because of half the resolution, but also due to a 2.5x faster SPI bandwidth that ILI9341 controllers are able to provide, compared to the ILI9486. As result, ILI9341 are about 5x faster than ILI9486.

Given the differences, for anyone considering the purchase of a 3.5" 480x320 display, I'd recommend those in the order MZ61581 > HX8357D > ILI9486; or if the serial connectivity is not a requirement, then save the trouble and pick up a DPI or HDMI connected display.

jitencraiglist

@Taft Thanks for this guide..
i was able to get it to work with retropie well.. and dont see a screen lag..
however i see a weird issue..and wondering if anyone can help..
when hdmi cable is plugged / connected to monitor..i see dual display and the games run in correct resolution as in the whole game screen can be seen on the monitor as well as the 3.5 screen..
however if i remove hdmi connection and reboot.. i see lcd screen resolution is fine but when i start a game..that game doesn't fit correctly on the screen. it's resolution is much larger so i can only see partial screen of the game.

any idea how i can fix this issue?

shredderbenjamin

Hi, looks like a good guide and people are having good outcomes from your advice but unfortunately for me it's not working! Using a Pi Zero W/retropie 4.4 - in the command "sudo cp waveshare-dtoverlays/waveshare35a-overlay.dtb /boot/overlays/waveshare35a.dtbo" It can't find the resource...

Any advice you could offer a newcomer like me? The screen is lighting up and that's all!

Thanks

Arzach

Still works great with 4.5, thanks for the guide! Probably too late for @shredderbenjamin , but the filename isn't correct in that command. it's "waveshare35a.dtbo" not "waveshare35a-overlay.dtb". Once I figured that out it worked like a charm!

sword_sea

Hello fellow humans. Ive gotten mine to work, though the colors are a bit wonky. can someone tell me the code for rotating the screen 180 degrees? I would like to use it on it's side for convenience reasons.

Bio_C

@sword_sea You should change the string in the /boot/config.txt file
from: dtoverlay=waveshare35a
to: dtoverlay=waveshare35a:rotate=180
Didn't try it myself, but that's what is says in the waveshare readme file.

dkajan

Hello I have only black screen...please help me

SeaFlurry02

That sudo cp waveshare-dtoverlays/waveshare35a-overlay.dtb /boot/overlays/waveshare35a.dtbo command wont work for me! All i get is the command prompt yelling "cp: missing destination file operand after {former command here}"! Anyone know how to resolve?