Thanks for your help, and the lengthy reply. Nice to get genuine interest in helping, I do so on several other forums (AVR and Flight Sim stuff), and I always help as much as I can. God knows enough people had aided me when I need it. The guys over on AVR Freaks are always extremely helpful, much like you.
I am using the libs I downloaded from the Henning website, see code below.
I have no original code involved in my problems with this touch screen, just the demo code, see code below.
I am running IDE Version 1.5.8
The LCD display itself seems to be very solid.
I have 2 different Mega 2560 boards, 1 is a Funduino and the other is a generic Mega 2560, no brand on it anywhere. Both behave in identical manners.
I am ordering another shield and TFT to help try and figure this out.
The thing that makes me sort of doubt the touch controller or resistive pad being bad, is that the failure mode is not random. If it fails or works correctly seems to be random, but the symptom itself is always the same. After compiling and uploading, the sketch may behave as expected, or not, it's a 50 / 50 chance at this point. If the board behaves as expected, all buttons work perfectly. But, regardless of when the board decides not behave properly, the errant behavior is always the same. All of the buttons drawn on the display are where they should be, but when the failure occurs, all buttons don't work. By trial and error I found that if I press in the general area of butx, it detects but2. I say in the general area of butx, because the area that responds is not in the exact area defined for butx. If I repeat this process 50 times, however many of those times the board fails to behave as expected, each of those times fail in exactly the same manner. Mind you that it either works or doesn't, following a reboot. If it works as expected, it does so until reboot. It never works and then stops working properly in the middle of execution. It's only following a reboot that it either fails or works.
/ UTFT_Buttons_Demo_320x240 (C)2013 Henning Karlsen
// web: Electronics - Henning Karlsen
//
// A small demo to demonstrate the use of some of the
// functions of the UTFT_Buttons add-on library.
//
// This demo was made for modules with a screen resolution
// of 320x240 pixels, but should work on larger screens as
// well.
//
// This program requires both the UTFT and UTouch libraries
// in addition to the UTFT_Buttons add-on library.
//
#include <UTFT.h>
#include <UTouch.h>
#include <UTFT_Buttons.h>
// Declare which fonts we will be using
extern uint8_t SmallFont[];
extern uint8_t BigFont[];
extern uint8_t Dingbats1_XL[];
// Set up UTFT...
// Set the pins to the correct ones for your development board
// -----------------------------------------------------------
// Standard Arduino 2009/Uno/Leonardo shield : ,19,18,17,16
// Standard Arduino Mega/Due shield : ,38,39,40,41
// CTE TFT LCD/SD Shield for Arduino Due : ,25,26,27,28
// Standard chipKit Uno32/uC32 : ,34,35,36,37
// Standard chipKit Max32 : ,82,83,84,85
// AquaLEDSource All in One Super Screw Shield : ,82,83,84,85
//
// Remember to change the model parameter to suit your display module!
UTFT myGLCD(ITDB32S,38,39,40,41);
// Set up UTouch...
// Set the pins to the correct ones for your development board
// -----------------------------------------------------------
// Standard Arduino 2009/Uno/Leonardo shield : 15,10,14,9,8
// Standard Arduino Mega/Due shield : 6,5,4,3,2
// CTE TFT LCD/SD Shield for Arduino Due : 6,5,4,3,2
// Standard chipKit Uno32/uC32 : 20,21,22,23,24
// Standard chipKit Max32 : 62,63,64,65,66
// AquaLEDSource All in One Super Screw Shield : 62,63,64,65,66
UTouch myTouch(6,5,4,3,2);
// Finally we set up UTFT_Buttons 
UTFT_Buttons myButtons(&myGLCD, &myTouch);
void setup()
{
myGLCD.InitLCD();
myGLCD.clrScr();
myGLCD.setFont(SmallFont);
myTouch.InitTouch();
myTouch.setPrecision(PREC_LOW);
myButtons.setTextFont(BigFont);
myButtons.setSymbolFont(Dingbats1_XL);
}
void loop()
{
int but1, but2, but3, but4, butX, butY, pressed_button;
boolean default_colors = true;
but1 = myButtons.addButton( 10, 20, 300, 30, "Button 1");
but2 = myButtons.addButton( 10, 60, 300, 30, "Button 2");
but3 = myButtons.addButton( 10, 100, 300, 30, "Button 3");
but4 = myButtons.addButton( 10, 140, 300, 30, "Button 4", BUTTON_DISABLED);
butX = myButtons.addButton(279, 199, 40, 40, "a", BUTTON_SYMBOL);
butY = myButtons.addButton( 0, 199, 100, 40, "I", BUTTON_SYMBOL | BUTTON_SYMBOL_REP_3X);
myButtons.drawButtons();
myGLCD.print("You pressed:", 110, 205);
myGLCD.setColor(VGA_BLACK);
myGLCD.setBackColor(VGA_WHITE);
myGLCD.print("None ", 110, 220);
while(1)
{
if (myTouch.dataAvailable() == true)
{
pressed_button = myButtons.checkButtons();
if (pressed_button==butX)
{
if (myButtons.buttonEnabled(but4))
myButtons.disableButton(but4, true);
else
myButtons.enableButton(but4, true);
}
else if (pressed_button==butY)
{
if (default_colors)
{
myButtons.setButtonColors(VGA_YELLOW, VGA_RED, VGA_YELLOW, VGA_BLUE, VGA_GRAY);
myButtons.relabelButton(butY, "_");
myButtons.drawButtons();
default_colors=false;
}
else
{
myButtons.setButtonColors(VGA_WHITE, VGA_GRAY, VGA_WHITE, VGA_RED, VGA_BLUE);
myButtons.relabelButton(butY, "I");
myButtons.drawButtons();
default_colors=true;
}
}
if (pressed_button==but1)
myGLCD.print("Button 1", 110, 220);
if (pressed_button==but2)
myGLCD.print("Button 2", 110, 220);
if (pressed_button==but3)
myGLCD.print("Button 3", 110, 220);
if (pressed_button==but4)
myGLCD.print("Button 4", 110, 220);
if (pressed_button==-1)
myGLCD.print("None ", 110, 220);
}
}
}
You are doing a grand job of talking to yourself :P. I thought I would just chip in to say hi, and you deserve credit for persevering alone and doing all the things that you should do, well done!
), on the pins of the shield, just to help pad them out a bit, and that seems to have done the trick.
Sadly, Henning will not entertain ANY issues that go like this............ blah blah yadah yadah Sainsmart.....