I am able to display some testing text and it seems to be working as expected.
However, as soon as I try to pass data from PC to Arduino Uno3m using the Serial.begin(9600) function, the display freezes, and no new text is put out to the display.
I suspect that the setup of my UFTF object is not setup correclty as 'UTFT myGLCD(ITDB24,19,18,17,16)'
Any help appreciated !
#include <UTFT.h>
// Declare which fonts we will be using
extern uint8_t SmallFont[];
extern uint8_t BigFont[];
extern uint8_t SevenSegNumFont[];
UTFT myGLCD(ITDB24,19,18,17,16);
void setup()
{
//Debug
//Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println("setup");
//LCD Start
myGLCD.InitLCD(LANDSCAPE);
myGLCD.clrScr();
myGLCD.setFont(BigFont);
myGLCD.setColor(0, 0, 255);
myGLCD.print("PLEASE WAIT", CENTER, 85);
myGLCD.print("LOADING....", CENTER, 110);
Serial.println("done with setup");
}
void loop()
{
Serial.println("looping...");
myGLCD.setColor(34, 255, 34);
myGLCD.setBackColor(0, 0, 0);
myGLCD.print("4500", CENTER, 190);
delay(1000);
myGLCD.print("4501", CENTER, 190);
delay(1000);
}
If the device was capable of displaying text then (I assume from the Arduino) your connections to the GLCD are likely ok... and your issues are somewhere else.
Hi! I'm having troubles aswell with the exact same tft module and an arduino Leonardo, except i've had no luck at all to display anything..
I couldn't help but notice that you used ITDB24 as device name for UTFT initializer,
The one we're using , isn't that an ITDB28?
Tried both names on my device, still staring at a blank white screen
Hi,
Would like to know if you got sorted with your Leonardo board ?
The UTFT library was update about a month ago to support the Leonardo.
See link here: GitHub - telamon/utft: UTFT Library - TFT controller library for Arduino/Chipkit
and different startup parameter is now : UTFT myGLCD(ITDB28,A5,A4,A3,A2); // Arduino Leonardo
Anyways I would like to know if the Leonardo sorts out the original problem of doing a serial.read from usb while, also displaying info on the display ?
The issue with an Uno is that the display takes all the available pins including the two used for communications with the PC including d0 and d1 (RX and TX data) the immediate answer is to use a Mega or a Pro Mini. I know the Mega will work, I have 2 of them right in front of me with the UTFT demo sketch running, a 2.4 and a 3.2. There is a variant on the Pro Mini that has 2 extra pins but I have no Idea of their support both in the forum as this board is different than the Arduino reference design for a Pro Mini (I bought mine for radio controllers to add additional SPI ability for the Nordic radio's they were $10.00 Ea on Ebay) a Mega R3 can be purchased for $24 - $25.00 at several different places. Electrodragon is one of many but they seem to be more reasonable than most. I've enclosed a link to the product
Here: [price-up] Arduino-Compatible Mega2560 R3, EDArduino – ElectroDragon. The cost is $24.40.
There are several things that need to be done to make the display work properly. The first is the board
// Uncomment the next line for Arduino 2009/Uno
UTFT myGLCD(ITDB32S,19,18,17,16); // Remember to change the model parameter to suit your display module!
The second is the display model
// Uncomment the next line for Arduino Mega
//UTFT myGLCD(ITDB32S,38,39,40,41); // Remember to change the model parameter to suit your display module!
I had white screen issues with both and tossed them back in the drawer... thinking that I had some big issue with a shield that didn't look "Exactly" like the pictures. Later in reading here I saw a reference to the displays again with a snippet of a sketch and noticed the Uno comment which put me back doing what I should have done in the first place and that was to RTFM. (Read That Fine Manual)...
There is a Lot of documentation that comes with the UTFT Libraries... Read it. Most displays don't have anything like that.
You have to figure out how to use them from the example code.
Read the Doc's and choose the board that has enough I/O for the task.
I might mention that there is a display that takes 2 pins for control... Pricey at ~$85.00 but 2 pins for a rather very complete display with a small speaker, full graphics, Extra serial and IIC I/O and 16 data lines that can be an 8 Bit data bus with flow control with 5 extra I/O or just 16 separate I/O pins. It also has touch (resistive) and an SD card slot. All in all a very nice board. There is a breakout board to connect this functionality to your project for an extra $20.00 - $30.00 depending on the source and I recommend it If you really wish to use "all" of the display. Initial baud is 9600 and can be changed with a simple serial commend... Nuff said?
I was experiencing the same Serial issue with Itead TFT shield (2.8") on Arduino UNO. I was also going to display bitmap sent from PC via USB but it was totally stucked.
I was thinking whether leonardo would work as its D0 and D1 is seaparte from USB serial unlike UNO. And it worked! I use following to declare:
A tragedy after switching to Leonardo is that the SD card on the shield can no longer work as the SPI lines changes and the shield does not use ICSP pins.
the problem is still that an Uno or any other 32 or 328 chip doesn't have enough pins to do much more than drive the LCD. I have a Mega sitting in front of me that shows time, RH, barometric pressure and temperature in both C and F and I still have 190K+ of free memory + 10 free pins to use after the other devices. Sure you can use it for display but nothing else of any substance..
