Hi everyone. My TFT eSPI ILI9341 display does not work. I have tried literally EVERYTHING to fix it.
I started by attaching the board to a Arduino ESP32-S3. The wiring pictures are attached below:
VCC -> 3.3V
GND -> GND
CS -> D10
RESET -> D8
DC -> D9
SDI(MOSI) -> D11
SCK -> D12
LED -> 3.3V
I then downloaded the Arduino ESP32 Boards by Arduino [2.0.18-arduino.5] board package from the Arduino IDE 2.3.6 Boards Manager.
I have also tried esp32 by Espressif Systems [3.2.1] and no luck either.
I then installed the TFT_eSPI by Bodmer [2.5.43] library. I then navigated to the User_Setup_Select.h file in the library directory and commented out the include statement that points to the default setup file (#include <User_Setup.h>). I then wrote underneath #include <User_Setups/Setup_Arduino_Nano_ESP32_S3_ILI9341.h> and that file had the content:
// Setup for Arduino Nano ESP32-S3 with ILI9341 TFT
#define ILI9341_DRIVER
#define TFT_WIDTH 240
#define TFT_HEIGHT 320
// Define the pins used
#define TFT_CS 10 // Chip select control pin
#define TFT_DC 9 // Data Command control pin
#define TFT_RST 8 // Reset pin (could connect to EN or 3.3V if not used)
#define TFT_MOSI 11 // SPI MOSI
#define TFT_SCLK 12 // SPI Clock
#define TFT_MISO -1 // Not used
#define LOAD_GLCD
#define LOAD_FONT2
#define LOAD_FONT4
#define LOAD_FONT6
#define LOAD_FONT7
#define LOAD_FONT8
#define LOAD_GFXFF
#define SMOOTH_FONT
#define SPI_FREQUENCY 40000000
#define SPI_READ_FREQUENCY 20000000
#define SPI_TOUCH_FREQUENCY 2500000
I then decided to run an example sketch which is:
// Diagnostic test for the displayed colour order
//
// Written by Bodmer 17/2/19 for the TFT_eSPI library:
// https://github.com/Bodmer/TFT_eSPI
/*
Different hardware manufacturers use different colour order
configurations at the hardware level. This may result in
incorrect colours being displayed.
Incorrectly displayed colours could also be the result of
using the wrong display driver in the library setup file.
Typically displays have a control register (MADCTL) that can
be used to set the Red Green Blue (RGB) colour order to RGB
or BRG so that red and blue are swapped on the display.
This control register is also used to manage the display
rotation and coordinate mirroring. The control register
typically has 8 bits, for the ILI9341 these are:
Bit Function
7 Mirror Y coordinate (row address order)
6 Mirror X coordinate (column address order)
5 Row/column exchange (for rotation)
4 Refresh direction (top to bottom or bottom to top in portrait orientation)
3 RGB order (swaps red and blue)
2 Refresh direction (top to bottom or bottom to top in landscape orientation)
1 Not used
0 Not used
The control register bits can be written with this example command sequence:
tft.writecommand(TFT_MADCTL);
tft.writedata(0x48); // Bits 6 and 3 set
0x48 is the default value for ILI9341 (0xA8 for ESP32 M5STACK)
in rotation 0 orientation.
Another control register can be used to "invert" colours,
this swaps black and white as well as other colours (e.g.
green to magenta, red to cyan, blue to yellow).
To invert colours insert this line after tft.init() or tft.begin():
tft.invertDisplay( invert ); // Where invert is true or false
*/
#include <SPI.h>
#include <TFT_eSPI.h> // Hardware-specific library
TFT_eSPI tft = TFT_eSPI(); // Invoke custom library
void setup(void) {
tft.init();
tft.fillScreen(TFT_BLACK);
tft.drawRect(0, 0, tft.width(), tft.height(), TFT_GREEN);
// Set "cursor" at top left corner of display (0,0) and select font 4
tft.setCursor(0, 4, 4);
// Set the font colour to be white with a black background
tft.setTextColor(TFT_WHITE);
// We can now plot text on screen using the "print" class
tft.println(" Initialised default\n");
tft.println(" White text");
tft.setTextColor(TFT_RED);
tft.println(" Red text");
tft.setTextColor(TFT_GREEN);
tft.println(" Green text");
tft.setTextColor(TFT_BLUE);
tft.println(" Blue text");
delay(5000);
}
void loop() {
tft.invertDisplay( false ); // Where i is true or false
tft.fillScreen(TFT_BLACK);
tft.drawRect(0, 0, tft.width(), tft.height(), TFT_GREEN);
tft.setCursor(0, 4, 4);
tft.setTextColor(TFT_WHITE);
tft.println(" Invert OFF\n");
tft.println(" White text");
tft.setTextColor(TFT_RED);
tft.println(" Red text");
tft.setTextColor(TFT_GREEN);
tft.println(" Green text");
tft.setTextColor(TFT_BLUE);
tft.println(" Blue text");
delay(5000);
// Binary inversion of colours
tft.invertDisplay( true ); // Where i is true or false
tft.fillScreen(TFT_BLACK);
tft.drawRect(0, 0, tft.width(), tft.height(), TFT_GREEN);
tft.setCursor(0, 4, 4);
tft.setTextColor(TFT_WHITE);
tft.println(" Invert ON\n");
tft.println(" White text");
tft.setTextColor(TFT_RED);
tft.println(" Red text");
tft.setTextColor(TFT_GREEN);
tft.println(" Green text");
tft.setTextColor(TFT_BLUE);
tft.println(" Blue text");
delay(5000);
}
The IDE complies the sketch and then starts downloading it. The output reads:
Sketch uses 327393 bytes (10%) of program storage space. Maximum is 3145728 bytes.
Global variables use 30904 bytes (9%) of dynamic memory, leaving 296776 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 327680 bytes.
dfu-util 0.11-arduino4
Copyright 2005-2009 Weston Schmidt, Harald Welte and OpenMoko Inc.
Copyright 2010-2021 Tormod Volden and Stefan Schmidt
This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
Please report bugs to http://sourceforge.net/p/dfu-util/tickets/
Opening DFU capable USB device...
Device ID 2341:0070
Device DFU version 0101
Claiming USB DFU Interface...
Setting Alternate Interface #0 ...
Determining device status...
DFU state(2) = dfuIDLE, status(0) = No error condition is present
DFU mode device DFU version 0101
Device returned transfer size 4096
Copying data from PC to DFU device
Download[ ] 0% 0 bytes
Download[ ] 3% 12288 bytes
Download[= ] 4% 16384 bytes
Download[== ] 8% 28672 bytes
Download[=== ] 12% 40960 bytes
Download[==== ] 16% 53248 bytes
Download[==== ] 17% 57344 bytes
Download[===== ] 20% 69632 bytes
Download[====== ] 24% 81920 bytes
Download[======= ] 28% 94208 bytes
Download[======= ] 29% 98304 bytes
Download[======== ] 32% 106496 bytes
Download[========= ] 37% 122880 bytes
Download[========== ] 40% 135168 bytes
Download[========== ] 41% 139264 bytes
Download[=========== ] 44% 147456 bytes
Download[============ ] 48% 159744 bytes
Download[============= ] 53% 176128 bytes
Download[============= ] 54% 180224 bytes
Download[============== ] 56% 188416 bytes
Download[=============== ] 60% 200704 bytes
Download[================ ] 64% 212992 bytes
Download[================ ] 65% 217088 bytes
Download[================= ] 69% 229376 bytes
Download[================== ] 72% 241664 bytes
Download[=================== ] 76% 253952 bytes
Download[=================== ] 77% 258048 bytes
Download[==================== ] 80% 266240 bytes
Download[===================== ] 85% 282624 bytes
Download[====================== ] 88% 294912 bytes
Download[====================== ] 90% 299008 bytes
Download[======================= ] 92% 307200 bytes
Download[======================== ] 96% 319488 bytes
Download[=========================] 100% 327760 bytes
Download done.
DFU state(7) = dfuMANIFEST, status(0) = No error condition is present
DFU state(2) = dfuIDLE, status(0) = No error condition is present
Done!
At the point in which the output says "done", the board seems to disconnect from my computer. It is no longer listed in the ports section and is not listed in my device manager. In order to get it to connect again I have to press the RST button twice in quick succession in order to enter bootloader mode and the LED fades green.
The display just stays white with a tiny little flickering at the start.
I have brought another display - same result, tried everything again with an Arduino UNO R3, tested every wire to check they work, used different libraries (Adafruit ILI9341 by Adafruit [1.6.2]), and swapped the USB wire. I have tried the exact same thing on two separate machines.
I have also tried completing resetting the bootloader based on: https://support.arduino.cc/hc/en-us/articles/9810414060188-Reset-the-Arduino-bootloader-on-the-Nano-ESP32
I have noticed that the board disconnects as soon as tft.init();
This code works and the serial response is given:
#include <SPI.h>
#include <TFT_eSPI.h>
TFT_eSPI tft = TFT_eSPI();
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
delay(1000);
// tft.init();
Serial.println("Serial started");
}
void loop() {
Serial.println("Loop running...");
delay(1000);
}
Uncommenting the tft.init(); causes the board to disconnect and reconnect constantly. As far as I can tell it is only this specific sketch that causes the board to constantly connect and reconnect. With example sketches (provided by the library) it just disconnects entirely.
For the record, the board, and original display was provided to me for a work experience placement, and using their computers it worked. It is only when I uploaded a sketch from my computer that the board started acting completely unresponsive. This leads me to believe that it may be a configuration on my side but I am completely clueless as to what to do moving forward.
Any ideas on what to do next or perhaps if anyone has had this issue knows how to fix it, I would really appreciate advice.
Thanks in advanced.