How to connect components when pins are used by TFT?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello all,

I'm knew to Arduino and this forum...

Though I searched for an answer (my friend Google and this forum) for an answer, I'm maybe just too much a beginner to understand what's evident for you. Here's my problem.

I'm building a weather station with my Arduino Due with few components (DS3231 for the real time clock), DHT11 for the temperature and also a DS18B20 for the temperature of the pool. Things are going great, one component at a time, adjusting sample code for my needs.

The next step is (obviously) to display my readings. I bought a 3.5" TFT ( 3.5" TFT LCD 480x320 Touch Screen HD Color Screen Module for UNO & MEGA 2560 Board with/Without Touch Panel with Touch pane : Amazon.ca: Industrial & Scientific) that works fine and I'm able to adjust the code to my needs... but connecting the TFT over the Arduino Due use practically all the pins, so how am I going to connect the DHT11, DS18B20 and DS3231?

I've bought a Screw Shield and I've been able to find a couple of pins available, but I wonder if this is the way to do things properly... I can hardly find info (or understand it!) on which pins are used by the TFT (the connectors almost use all of them).

Do you guys use a Mega instead of a Due in projects with a TFT and a few components?

2

Please be more specific, best to post a wiring diagram (hand drawn is preferred).

Which pins are you using for the display, and which are still available? The DS18B20 needs only one pin.

There are other displays that use SPI, and hence far fewer pins. Example (a bit smaller, out of stock at the moment).

1 Like
3

I guess this is where my knowledge about components is mainly lacking (I'm a programmer & a Linux system administrator). I tought that all TFT were equals or so, beside the width...

Now I understand that there are different types and the SPI type require less pins than the model I have...

I'll give it a check, as I do not have much info to display and a smaller TFT wouldn't be a problem.

Anything a noobie as me should look at or be aware of?

4

Adafruit is a good part resource for hobby projects, because their parts are guaranteed to be authentic (there are lots of low quality counterfeits and clones on eBay/Amazon), they provide on line product support from professional engineers, good introductory tutorials and useful device libraries, although the quality and/or completeness of the latter varies widely. Sparkfun and Pololu are also good.

5

Take a look at using a I2C adapter with the display, it uses SCL and SCA plus power and ground.

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