Get Started With 3.5” LCD for Raspberry Pi

The 3.5 inch LCD Display is directly pluggable into a Raspberry Pi and perfectly fits various Pi models from B+ to Raspberry Pi 3B+. It is a brilliant alternative for an HDMI monitor. When set up, it behaves as a human-machine interface enabling the user to prototype with the Raspberry Pi device anywhere at any time.

Features:

  1. 480x320 hardware resolution with 8:5 aspect ratio
  2. Typical current consumption within 110-150 mA with a 5V supply
  3. High-quality immersion gold plating
  4. Resistive touch control
  5. Simple installation procedure described below

Installation:

It is very easy to set up the display by installing an LCD driver on your Raspbian OS. It requires only 3 commands to be run on the terminal.

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After setting up your Raspberry Pi, connect the LCD Screen to your RPi as shown below

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1. Display works on SPI communication protocol so you have to enable SPI interface

Menu>Preferences>Raspberry Pi Configuration>Interfaces; click β€˜Enabled’ for SPI

Or

type sudo raspi-config in the terminal, go to Interfacing Options, select SPI and enable it, click on Finish Β to close the configuration menu

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2. Restart your RPi to make sure that the configuration changes have been updated

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3. Open the terminal by pressing Ctrl-Alt-T or by clicking on its icon located in the RPi taskbar at the top

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4. Update your libraries, just for good practice

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

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5. Download the drivers from Github

git clone https://github.com/goodtft/LCD-show

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6. Go inside the driver’s directory

cd LCD-show

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7. List all the files in this folder to find the LCD35-show file (Just for good practice)

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8. Convert the file into an executable using super-user

sudo chmod 755 ./LCD-show

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9. Run the executable

sudo ./LCD35-show

(if the command is not being executed, run Β sudo chmod 755 ./LCD-hdmi)

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10. RPi Β will restart after running the program and your LCD will display the desktop

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11. Switching back to HDMI Monitor:

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If you want to switch back to an HDMI monitor from the LCD screen, the process is also very simple.

1. Every library also includes a file to revert back to HDMI

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2. Go into the directory of the library

cd LCD-show

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3. List all the files to find LCD-hdmi fileΒ 

ls

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4. Convert this file into an executable

sudo chmod 755 ./LCD-hdmi

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5. Run the executable to view your Raspbian desktop from an HDMI monitor

sudo ./LCD35-hdmi

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Like the previous time, Raspberry Pi will restart to switch to HDMI

We hope that this helps you, explore more and learn more.

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