First Time Using Arduino Mega LCD Shield

Hello, I'm attempting to use a 3.5 Inch TFT Color Screen Module Shield (link below) on an arduino mega. I've only used common 16x2 lcd displays so far so I'm unfamiliar with this type of display. My questions are:

Is the code similar to the code for the 16x2 units?

Which library should I use?

Does anyone know where a tutorial for this unit might be?

I'm just learning this unit so I wanna make sure I'm doing everything the correct way.

Thanks for any help!

http://www.raspberrypiwiki.com/index.php/3.5_Inch_TFT_Color_Screen_Module

I forgot to mention that I'm just using this unit to display soil moisture levels for several different zones in my garden. I'm going to attach the sketch that this will be added to once I figure it out.

//First attempt at making a 4 zone auto watering system
//potPins values are just for setup purposes, must be calibrated once placed in soil
//potPins are to adjust the high and low moisture ranges for each zone
//must be used with Arduino Mega

const int zone1 = A0;
const int zone2 = A1;
const int zone3 = A2;
const int zone4 = A3;

const int potLow = A4;
const int potHigh = A5;

const int valve1 = 2;
const int valve2 = 3;
const int valve3 = 4;
const int valve4 = 5; 


void setup()
  {
   pinMode(valve1,OUTPUT);
   pinMode(valve2,OUTPUT);
   pinMode(valve3,OUTPUT);
   pinMode(valve4,OUTPUT);
  }

void loop()
  {
    if(analogRead(zone1) <= potLow){           //read the value from the soil moisture sensor
      digitalWrite(valve1,HIGH);}              //open the valve
      if(analogRead(zone1) >= potHigh){        //when value from soil moisture sensor reaches the upper limit
        digitalWrite(valve1,LOW);              //close the valve
      }
    }

I can help you with this part:

Hello, I'm attempting to use a 3.5 Inch TFT Color Screen Module Shield (link below) on an arduino mega. I've only used common 16x2 lcd displays so far so I'm unfamiliar with this type of display. My questions are:

Is the code similar to the code for the 16x2 units?

The 16x2 displays are classified as 'character mode' devices and they can only display alphanumeric characters as defined by the ASCII code.

The TFT display is a 'graphical mode' device which is capable of displaying almost anything that can be described in terms of a matrix of dots. With this added capability comes the associated complexity and hence these displays require an entirely different library.

Don

It appears that you just want to print data. It is easy to graduate from one to the other, the princpal differences are

  1. The cursor is positioned by pixels rather than by character and line
  2. You get to choose the size even perhaps the font.
    You can get smartyfarty with with graphs later, you can have both a once.

If you can use the Rinkydink/Henning Karlsen library, you will find his tutorial excellent.

HEy, thanks very much guys! I'm going to go get started right now.