hello arduino's,
i just joined the forum. looking forward to the day when i can contribute. but, today's not that day. today i have questions.
i bought the subject display from buydisplays.com. came with the 8876 shield. chip on the display itself is labeled ra8876l4n. i attached an uno.
here's a link to the product:
http://www.buydisplay.com/default/serial-spi-arduino-10-1-tft-lcd-touch-shield-ra8876-for-mega-due-uno
can't get anything but a black/white/black screen at startup.
i'm hoping that all i need is the 8876 library, but i can't find one. tried installing the 8875. it didn't help.
i realize that the vendor supplies a library. tried to install the zip to no avail. ide wouldn't cooperate (probably my fault). to be honest, i wasn't comfortable doing this in the first place for 2 reasons. i'd rather not pollute the arduino libs, and i wasn't impressed with the vendor api. would much rather use the arduino tft api.
anybody out there have any luck with this/these larger displays? what do i need to do?
thank you,
lee
btw, at the moment, i'm not interested in the touch capability. just need to display graphics and stuff.
Download the Ra8876_Lite library for arduino from this link
1 Go to Arduino\libraries
2 Create this folder: Ra8876_Lite
3 Unzip the content of the libraries folder into Ra8876_Lite folder
4 Copy the Examples folder into Ra8876_Lite folder
5 Restart the arduino IDE
6 The examples of the library Ra8876_Lite must be showed into the libraries list
thanks. i'll give it a try.
i have Arduino/libraries directories in /lee/Documents/... and C:/Program Files/...
which path should i unzip in?
lee
i decided to install off of lee\documents... doesn't work. i keep getting "invalid library" from the ide. examples are not in the list of examples. libraries are not in the library list, nor can i find them through the ide manage libraries... tried many variations of directories and content.
==> what exactly is the directory hierarchy and data content i should expect to see after the install???
thanks
I am glad I read this forum post. I actually bought an "SPI" integrated 16x2 display from buydisplay.com. They actually have a interesting collection.
Anyway. I struggled for about 3 days trying to figure WHAT was going on. I made a severe mistake by ordering "SPI", confused with the I2C I was used to using that worked perfect for all the rest of my inexpensive 16x2 displays, with the add-on I2C interface solder module.
I started to examine the SPI protocol, and the manual is too elaborate. My time is not worth learning that whole thing just to buy another $4.00 display that can do I2C.
I was curious if that same SPI library should work for a 1602, or what one I should be using. Tried the one from adafruit, and that did not work - mine also just showed BLACK, and eventually had some scrambled garbadge mixed with upside down text.
a little off topic, but what the hey.
i have successfully interfaced with both the 16x2 and the 20x4 lcd's. but, not through the spi or i2c interfaces. i simply used the 16 pin-outs directly - pin-out descriptions are readily available online. down side is it'll eat up 12 pins on your board (4 of the lcd data pins are not used). you'll want to include a potentiometer to control backlighting (included in the 12 pin count).
then use the arduino liquid crystal api. it includes a fairly robust set of functions for controlling the lcd.
here's a fritz - unfinished, but it does show the lcd wiring. btw, doesn't matter whether it's a 16x2 or 20x4.
oops, fritz was too big to attach.
I did the straight attach the first time. It's too many wires for any of my projects I need to use my I/O channels. The i2c boards are like 5 for $1.00 and use 2 i/o pins, a ground and positive. I have trouble seeing the displays at angles, is my problem - I want to test oLED 16X2 except I cant find them or the ones I find are too expensive.
I am trying to test the high contrast black on white or white on black, if I can get one delivered to me THIS MONTH that ISN'T fractured on delivery or I order the wrong one with the wrong interface due to a confusing detail in the shopping dialog.
TFTLCDCyg,
i'm still having trouble with this. in your reply you showed the Ra8876_Lite dir in your list. would you please show that dir expanded so i can see exactly what the sub-dirs and content look like?
i would truly appreciate it, thank you,
lee
btw, can get around "header not found" and "invalid library" message.
oops ... that should've read "CAN'T get around ..."
Hi All!
I'm intresting to create the RA8876 driver for UTFT library.
Anyone can cooperate?
TFTLCDCyg,
thank you. i'm up and running. whenever i extracted the libraries files they ended up in a libraries directory under Ra8876 - that dog don't hunt. to match your directory structure i had to extract to a "tmp" directory and then copy each library file, one-by-one to Ra8876.
thanks again.
btw, i do see one anomaly. in the ide i don't get the examples themselves directly off of the Ra8876 pulldown tab like you show. i have an intermediate tab called Examples. i simply mention it for posterity and other forum members. i could personally care less.
elpapais,
i have to admit that i think a arduino tft lib for ra8876 would be a blessing. you may have noticed in a previous post that i finally got the supplied libs installed. i think that was the devil in disguise. i've been spending most of my time trying to encapsulate the methods into something a little more coherent and usable.
so ... ain't volunteering yet, but what do specifically you have in mind? do you have the hardware interface spec for 10.1" display? if yes, and it's public domain, include a link in a post.
lee
Hi Leepalmer. Into the the zip file is one folder called libraries and one folder called example. You must put the folder called libraries into the arduino libraries and rename it like RA8876_Lite then copy the folder example into the renamed folder calle RA8876_Lite.
Today i have read all driver files from UTFT and the RA8876 specification and API'S.
I think is not possible to create a driver for some reasons.
for example UTFT function for drawrectangle is:
void UTFT::drawRect(int x1, int y1, int x2, int y2)
the same routine for RA8876 are: drawSquare
void drawSquare(ru16 x0, ru16 y0, ru16 x1, ru16 y1, ru16 color);
The color management in UTFT library is much different..
Orientation in RA8876 is not present
and much more difference.
All documentation for the RA8876 you can find Here and Here in the Raio sites if you registrate you can access to reserved documentation.
thanks for the link to the users guide!! i didn't know that one existed. i've been looking in the header files to figure out how to use the library - not fun - the interface is not intuitive.
