In this article, you will learn how to use TFT LCDs by Arduino boards. From basic commands to professional designs and technics are all explained here.
In electronic’s projects, creating an interface between user and system is very important. This interface could be created by displaying useful data, a menu, and ease of access. A beautiful design is also very important.
There are several components to achieve this. LEDs, 7-segments, Character and Graphic displays, and full-color TFT LCDs. The right component for your projects depends on the amount of data to be displayed, type of user interaction, and processor capacity.
TFT LCD is a variant of a liquid-crystal display (LCD) that uses thin-film-transistor (TFT) technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in contrast to passive matrix LCDs or simple, direct-driven LCDs with a few segments.
In Arduino-based projects, the processor frequency is low. So it is not possible to display complex, high definition images and high-speed motions. Therefore, full-color TFT LCDs can only be used to display simple data and commands.
In electronic’s projects, creating an interface between user and system is very important. This interface could be created by displaying useful data, a menu, and ease of access. A beautiful design is also very important.
There are several components to achieve this. LEDs, 7-segments, Character and Graphic displays, and full-color TFT LCDs. The right component for your projects depends on the amount of data to be displayed, type of user interaction, and processor capacity.
TFT LCD is a variant of a liquid-crystal display (LCD) that uses thin-film-transistor (TFT) technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in contrast to passive matrix LCDs or simple, direct-driven LCDs with a few segments.
In Arduino-based projects, the processor frequency is low. So it is not possible to display complex, high definition images and high-speed motions. Therefore, full-color TFT LCDs can only be used to display simple data and commands.
After choosing the right display, It’s time to choose the right controller. If you want to display characters, tests, numbers and static images and the speed of display is not important, the Atmega328 Arduino boards (such as Arduino UNO) are a proper choice. If the size of your code is big, The UNO board may not be enough. You can use Arduino Mega2560 instead. And if you want to show high resolution images and motions with high speed, you should use the ARM core Arduino boards such as Arduino DUE.
In electronics/computer hardware a display driver is usually a semiconductor integrated circuit (but may alternatively comprise a state machine made of discrete logic and other components) which provides an interface function between a microprocessor, microcontroller, ASIC or general-purpose peripheral interface and a particular type of display device, e.g. LCD, LED, OLED, ePaper, CRT, Vacuum fluorescent or Nixie.
The LCDs manufacturers use different drivers in their products. Some of them are more popular and some of them are very unknown. To run your display easily, you should use Arduino LCDs libraries and add them to your code. Otherwise running the display may be very difficult. There are many free libraries you can find on the internet but the important point about the libraries is their compatibility with the LCD’s driver. The driver of your LCD must be known by your library. In this article, we use the Adafruit GFX library and MCUFRIEND KBV library and example codes. You can download them from the following links.
You must add the library and then upload the code. If it is the first time you run an Arduino board, don’t worry. Just follow these steps:Go to www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software and download the software of your OS. Install the IDE software as instructed.
First you should convert your image to hex code. Download the software from the following link. if you don’t want to change the settings of the software, you must invert the color of the image and make the image horizontally mirrored and rotate it 90 degrees counterclockwise. Now add it to the software and convert it. Open the exported file and copy the hex code to Arduino IDE. x and y are locations of the image. sx and sy are sizes of image. you can change the color of the image in the last input.
Upload your image and download the converted file that the UTFT libraries can process. Now copy the hex code to Arduino IDE. x and y are locations of the image. sx and sy are size of the image.
In this template, We converted a .jpg image to .c file and added to the code, wrote a string and used the fade code to display. Then we used scroll code to move the screen left. Download the .h file and add it to the folder of the Arduino sketch.
In this template, We used sin(); and cos(); functions to draw Arcs with our desired thickness and displayed number by text printing function. Then we converted an image to hex code and added them to the code and displayed the image by bitmap function. Then we used draw lines function to change the style of the image. Download the .h file and add it to the folder of the Arduino sketch.
In this template, We added a converted image to code and then used two black and white arcs to create the pointer of volumes. Download the .h file and add it to the folder of the Arduino sketch.
In this template, We added a converted image and use the arc and print function to create this gauge. Download the .h file and add it to folder of the Arduino sketch.
while (a < b) { Serial.println(a); j = 80 * (sin(PI * a / 2000)); i = 80 * (cos(PI * a / 2000)); j2 = 50 * (sin(PI * a / 2000)); i2 = 50 * (cos(PI * a / 2000)); tft.drawLine(i2 + 235, j2 + 169, i + 235, j + 169, tft.color565(0, 255, 255)); tft.fillRect(200, 153, 75, 33, 0x0000); tft.setTextSize(3); tft.setTextColor(0xffff); if ((a/20)>99)
while (b < a) { j = 80 * (sin(PI * a / 2000)); i = 80 * (cos(PI * a / 2000)); j2 = 50 * (sin(PI * a / 2000)); i2 = 50 * (cos(PI * a / 2000)); tft.drawLine(i2 + 235, j2 + 169, i + 235, j + 169, tft.color565(0, 0, 0)); tft.fillRect(200, 153, 75, 33, 0x0000); tft.setTextSize(3); tft.setTextColor(0xffff); if ((a/20)>99)
In this template, We display simple images one after each other very fast by bitmap function. So you can make your animation by this trick. Download the .h file and add it to folder of the Arduino sketch.
In this template, We just display some images by RGBbitmap and bitmap functions. Just make a code for touchscreen and use this template. Download the .h file and add it to folder of the Arduino sketch.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to use and set up 2.4″ Touch LCD Shield for Arduino. First, you’ll see some general information about this shield. And after learning how to set the shield up, you’ll see 3 practical projects.
The role of screens in electronic projects is very important. Screens can be of very simple types such as 7 Segment or character LCDs or more advanced models like OLEDs and TFT LCDs.
One of the most important features of this LCD is including a touch panel. If you are about to use the LCD, you need to know the coordinates of the point you touch. To do so, you should upload the following code on your Arduino board and open the serial monitor. Then touch your desired location and write the coordinates displayed on the serial monitor. You can use this coordination in any other project./*TFT LCD - TFT Touch CoordinateBased on Librery Examplemodified on 21 Feb 2019by Saeed Hosseinihttps://electropeak.com/learn/*/#include #include "TouchScreen.h"#define YP A2#define XM A3#define YM 8#define XP 9// For better pressure precision, we need to know the resistance// between X+ and X- Use any multimeter to read it// For the one we"re using, its 300 ohms across the X plateTouchScreen ts = TouchScreen(XP, YP, XM, YM, 300);void setup(void) {Serial.begin(9600);}void loop(void) {TSPoint p = ts.getPoint();if (p.z > ts.pressureThreshhold) {Serial.print("X = "); Serial.print(p.x);Serial.print("\tY = "); Serial.print(p.y);Serial.print("\tPressure = "); Serial.println(p.z);}delay(100);}
Displaying Text and Shapes on Arduino 2.4 LCD/*TFT LCD - TFT Simple drivingmodified on 21 Feb 2019by Saeed Hosseinihttps://electropeak.com/learn/*/#include #include #define LCD_CS A3#define LCD_CD A2#define LCD_WR A1#define LCD_RD A0#define LCD_RESET A4#define BLACK 0x0000#define BLUE 0x001F#define RED 0xF800#define GREEN 0x07E0#define CYAN 0x07FF#define MAGENTA 0xF81F#define YELLOW 0xFFE0#define WHITE 0xFFFF#define ORANGE 0xFD20#define GREENYELLOW 0xAFE5#define NAVY 0x000F#define DARKGREEN 0x03E0#define DARKCYAN 0x03EF#define MAROON 0x7800#define PURPLE 0x780F#define OLIVE 0x7BE0#define LIGHTGREY 0xC618#define DARKGREY 0x7BEFAdafruit_TFTLCD tft(LCD_CS, LCD_CD, LCD_WR, LCD_RD, LCD_RESET);void setup() {Serial.begin(9600);Serial.println(F("TFT LCD test"));#ifdef USE_ADAFRUIT_SHIELD_PINOUTSerial.println(F("Using Adafruit 2.4\" TFT Arduino Shield Pinout"));#elseSerial.println(F("Using Adafruit 2.4\" TFT Breakout Board Pinout"));#endifSerial.print("TFT size is ");Serial.print(tft.width());Serial.print("x");Serial.println(tft.height());tft.reset();uint16_t identifier = tft.readID();if (identifier == 0x9325) {Serial.println(F("Found ILI9325 LCD driver"));} else if (identifier == 0x9328) {Serial.println(F("Found ILI9328 LCD driver"));} else if (identifier == 0x7575) {Serial.println(F("Found HX8347G LCD driver"));} else if (identifier == 0x9341) {Serial.println(F("Found ILI9341 LCD driver"));} else if (identifier == 0x8357) {Serial.println(F("Found HX8357D LCD driver"));} else {Serial.print(F("Unknown LCD driver chip: "));Serial.println(identifier, HEX);Serial.println(F("If using the Adafruit 2.4\" TFT Arduino shield, the line:"));Serial.println(F(" #define USE_ADAFRUIT_SHIELD_PINOUT"));Serial.println(F("should appear in the library header (Adafruit_TFT.h)."));Serial.println(F("If using the breakout board, it should NOT be #defined!"));Serial.println(F("Also if using the breakout, double-check that all wiring"));Serial.println(F("matches the tutorial."));return;}tft.begin(identifier);Serial.println(F("Benchmark Time (microseconds)"));Serial.print(F("Screen fill "));Serial.println(FillScreen());delay(500);tft.setTextColor(YELLOW);tft.setCursor(70, 180);tft.setTextSize(1);tft.println("Electropeak");delay(200);tft.fillScreen(PURPLE);tft.setCursor(50, 170);tft.setTextSize(2);tft.println("Electropeak");delay(200);tft.fillScreen(PURPLE);tft.setCursor(20, 160);tft.setTextSize(3);tft.println("Electropeak");delay(500);tft.fillScreen(PURPLE);for (int rotation = 0; rotation < 4; rotation++) { tft.setRotation(rotation); tft.setCursor(0, 0); tft.setTextSize(3); tft.println("Electropeak"); delay(700); } delay(500); Serial.print(F("Rectangles (filled) ")); Serial.println(testFilledRects(YELLOW, MAGENTA)); delay(500); } void loop() { } unsigned long FillScreen() { unsigned long start = micros(); tft.fillScreen(RED); delay(500); tft.fillScreen(GREEN); delay(500); tft.fillScreen(BLUE); delay(500); tft.fillScreen(WHITE); delay(500); tft.fillScreen(MAGENTA); delay(500); tft.fillScreen(PURPLE); delay(500); return micros() - start; } unsigned long testFilledRects(uint16_t color1, uint16_t color2) { unsigned long start, t = 0; int n, i, i2, cx = tft.width() / 2 - 1, cy = tft.height() / 2 - 1; tft.fillScreen(BLACK); n = min(tft.width(), tft.height()); for (i = n; i > 0; i -= 6) {i2 = i / 2;start = micros();tft.fillRect(cx - i2, cy - i2, i, i, color1);t += micros() - start;// Outlines are not included in timing resultstft.drawRect(cx - i2, cy - i2, i, i, color2);}return t;}
Displaying BMP pictures/*This code is TFTLCD Library Example*/#include #include #include #include #define LCD_CS A3#define LCD_CD A2#define LCD_WR A1#define LCD_RD A0#define SD_CS 10Adafruit_TFTLCD tft(LCD_CS, LCD_CD, LCD_WR, LCD_RD, A4);void setup(){Serial.begin(9600);tft.reset();uint16_t identifier = tft.readID();if (identifier == 0x9325) {Serial.println(F("Found ILI9325 LCD driver"));} else if (identifier == 0x9328) {Serial.println(F("Found ILI9328 LCD driver"));} else if (identifier == 0x7575) {Serial.println(F("Found HX8347G LCD driver"));} else if (identifier == 0x9341) {Serial.println(F("Found ILI9341 LCD driver"));} else if (identifier == 0x8357) {Serial.println(F("Found HX8357D LCD driver"));} else {Serial.print(F("Unknown LCD driver chip: "));Serial.println(identifier, HEX);Serial.println(F("If using the Adafruit 2.4\" TFT Arduino shield, the line:"));Serial.println(F(" #define USE_ADAFRUIT_SHIELD_PINOUT"));Serial.println(F("should appear in the library header (Adafruit_TFT.h)."));Serial.println(F("If using the breakout board, it should NOT be #defined!"));Serial.println(F("Also if using the breakout, double-check that all wiring"));Serial.println(F("matches the tutorial."));return;}tft.begin(identifier);Serial.print(F("Initializing SD card..."));if (!SD.begin(SD_CS)) {Serial.println(F("failed!"));return;}Serial.println(F("OK!"));bmpDraw("pic1.bmp", 0, 0);delay(1000);bmpDraw("pic2.bmp", 0, 0);delay(1000);bmpDraw("pic3.bmp", 0, 0);delay(1000);}void loop(){}#define BUFFPIXEL 20void bmpDraw(char *filename, int x, int y) {File bmpFile;int bmpWidth, bmpHeight; // W+H in pixelsuint8_t bmpDepth; // Bit depth (currently must be 24)uint32_t bmpImageoffset; // Start of image data in fileuint32_t rowSize; // Not always = bmpWidth; may have paddinguint8_t sdbuffer[3 * BUFFPIXEL]; // pixel in buffer (R+G+B per pixel)uint16_t lcdbuffer[BUFFPIXEL]; // pixel out buffer (16-bit per pixel)uint8_t buffidx = sizeof(sdbuffer); // Current position in sdbufferboolean goodBmp = false; // Set to true on valid header parseboolean flip = true; // BMP is stored bottom-to-topint w, h, row, col;uint8_t r, g, b;uint32_t pos = 0, startTime = millis();uint8_t lcdidx = 0;boolean first = true;if ((x >= tft.width()) || (y >= tft.height())) return;Serial.println();Serial.print(F("Loading image ""));Serial.print(filename);Serial.println("\"");// Open requested file on SD cardif ((bmpFile = SD.open(filename)) == NULL) {Serial.println(F("File not found"));return;}// Parse BMP headerif (read16(bmpFile) == 0x4D42) { // BMP signatureSerial.println(F("File size: ")); Serial.println(read32(bmpFile));(void)read32(bmpFile); // Read & ignore creator bytesbmpImageoffset = read32(bmpFile); // Start of image dataSerial.print(F("Image Offset: ")); Serial.println(bmpImageoffset, DEC);// Read DIB headerSerial.print(F("Header size: ")); Serial.println(read32(bmpFile));bmpWidth = read32(bmpFile);bmpHeight = read32(bmpFile);if (read16(bmpFile) == 1) { // # planes -- must be "1"bmpDepth = read16(bmpFile); // bits per pixelSerial.print(F("Bit Depth: ")); Serial.println(bmpDepth);if ((bmpDepth == 24) && (read32(bmpFile) == 0)) { // 0 = uncompressedgoodBmp = true; // Supported BMP format -- proceed!Serial.print(F("Image size: "));Serial.print(bmpWidth);Serial.print("x");Serial.println(bmpHeight);// BMP rows are padded (if needed) to 4-byte boundaryrowSize = (bmpWidth * 3 + 3) & ~3;// If bmpHeight is negative, image is in top-down order.// This is not canon but has been observed in the wild.if (bmpHeight < 0) { bmpHeight = -bmpHeight; flip = false; } // Crop area to be loaded w = bmpWidth; h = bmpHeight; if ((x + w - 1) >= tft.width()) w = tft.width() - x;if ((y + h - 1) >= tft.height()) h = tft.height() - y;// Set TFT address window to clipped image boundstft.setAddrWindow(x, y, x + w - 1, y + h - 1);for (row = 0; row < h; row++) { // For each scanline...// Seek to start of scan line. It might seem labor-// intensive to be doing this on every line, but this// method covers a lot of gritty details like cropping// and scanline padding. Also, the seek only takes// place if the file position actually needs to change// (avoids a lot of cluster math in SD library).if (flip) // Bitmap is stored bottom-to-top order (normal BMP)pos = bmpImageoffset + (bmpHeight - 1 - row) * rowSize;else // Bitmap is stored top-to-bottompos = bmpImageoffset + row * rowSize;if (bmpFile.position() != pos) { // Need seek?bmpFile.seek(pos);buffidx = sizeof(sdbuffer); // Force buffer reload}for (col = 0; col < w; col++) { // For each column... // Time to read more pixel data? if (buffidx >= sizeof(sdbuffer)) { // Indeed// Push LCD buffer to the display firstif (lcdidx > 0) {tft.pushColors(lcdbuffer, lcdidx, first);lcdidx = 0;first = false;}bmpFile.read(sdbuffer, sizeof(sdbuffer));buffidx = 0; // Set index to beginning}// Convert pixel from BMP to TFT formatb = sdbuffer[buffidx++];g = sdbuffer[buffidx++];r = sdbuffer[buffidx++];lcdbuffer[lcdidx++] = tft.color565(r, g, b);} // end pixel} // end scanline// Write any remaining data to LCDif (lcdidx > 0) {tft.pushColors(lcdbuffer, lcdidx, first);}Serial.print(F("Loaded in "));Serial.print(millis() - startTime);Serial.println(" ms");} // end goodBmp}}bmpFile.close();if (!goodBmp) Serial.println(F("BMP format not recognized."));}// These read 16- and 32-bit types from the SD card file.// BMP data is stored little-endian, Arduino is little-endian too.// May need to reverse subscript order if porting elsewhere.uint16_t read16(File f) {uint16_t result;((uint8_t *)&result)[0] = f.read(); // LSB((uint8_t *)&result)[1] = f.read(); // MSBreturn result;}uint32_t read32(File f) {uint32_t result;((uint8_t *)&result)[0] = f.read(); // LSB((uint8_t *)&result)[1] = f.read();((uint8_t *)&result)[2] = f.read();((uint8_t *)&result)[3] = f.read(); // MSBreturn result;}
To display pictures on this LCD you should save the picture in 24bit BMP colored format and size of 240*320. Then move them to SD card and put the SD card in the LCD shield. we use the following function to display pictures. This function has 3 arguments; the first one stands for the pictures name, and the second and third arguments are for length and width coordinates of the top left corner of the picture.bmpdraw(“filename.bmp”,x,y);
Create A Paint App w/ Arduino 2.4 Touchscreen/*This code is TFTLCD Library Example*/#include #include #include #if defined(__SAM3X8E__)#undef __FlashStringHelper::F(string_literal)#define F(string_literal) string_literal#endif#define YP A3#define XM A2#define YM 9#define XP 8#define TS_MINX 150#define TS_MINY 120#define TS_MAXX 920#define TS_MAXY 940TouchScreen ts = TouchScreen(XP, YP, XM, YM, 300);#define LCD_CS A3#define LCD_CD A2#define LCD_WR A1#define LCD_RD A0#define LCD_RESET A4#define BLACK 0x0000#define BLUE 0x001F#define RED 0xF800#define GREEN 0x07E0#define CYAN 0x07FF#define MAGENTA 0xF81F#define YELLOW 0xFFE0#define WHITE 0xFFFFAdafruit_TFTLCD tft(LCD_CS, LCD_CD, LCD_WR, LCD_RD, LCD_RESET);#define BOXSIZE 40#define PENRADIUS 3int oldcolor, currentcolor;void setup(void) {Serial.begin(9600);Serial.println(F("Paint!"));tft.reset();uint16_t identifier = tft.readID();if(identifier == 0x9325) {Serial.println(F("Found ILI9325 LCD driver"));} else if(identifier == 0x9328) {Serial.println(F("Found ILI9328 LCD driver"));} else if(identifier == 0x7575) {Serial.println(F("Found HX8347G LCD driver"));} else if(identifier == 0x9341) {Serial.println(F("Found ILI9341 LCD driver"));} else if(identifier == 0x8357) {Serial.println(F("Found HX8357D LCD driver"));} else {Serial.print(F("Unknown LCD driver chip: "));Serial.println(identifier, HEX);Serial.println(F("If using the Adafruit 2.4\" TFT Arduino shield, the line:"));Serial.println(F(" #define USE_ADAFRUIT_SHIELD_PINOUT"));Serial.println(F("should appear in the library header (Adafruit_TFT.h)."));Serial.println(F("If using the breakout board, it should NOT be #defined!"));Serial.println(F("Also if using the breakout, double-check that all wiring"));Serial.println(F("matches the tutorial."));return;}tft.begin(identifier);tft.fillScreen(BLACK);tft.fillRect(0, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, RED);tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, YELLOW);tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE*2, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, GREEN);tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE*3, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, CYAN);tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE*4, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, BLUE);tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE*5, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, MAGENTA);tft.drawRect(0, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, WHITE);currentcolor = RED;pinMode(13, OUTPUT);}#define MINPRESSURE 10#define MAXPRESSURE 1000void loop(){digitalWrite(13, HIGH);TSPoint p = ts.getPoint();digitalWrite(13, LOW);pinMode(XM, OUTPUT);pinMode(YP, OUTPUT);if (p.z > MINPRESSURE && p.z < MAXPRESSURE) {if (p.y < (TS_MINY-5)) {Serial.println("erase");tft.fillRect(0, BOXSIZE, tft.width(), tft.height()-BOXSIZE, BLACK);}p.x = map(p.x, TS_MINX, TS_MAXX, tft.width(), 0);p.y = map(p.y, TS_MINY, TS_MAXY, tft.height(), 0);if (p.y < BOXSIZE) {oldcolor = currentcolor;if (p.x < BOXSIZE) {currentcolor = RED;tft.drawRect(0, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, WHITE);} else if (p.x < BOXSIZE*2) {currentcolor = YELLOW;tft.drawRect(BOXSIZE, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, WHITE);} else if (p.x < BOXSIZE*3) {currentcolor = GREEN;tft.drawRect(BOXSIZE*2, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, WHITE);} else if (p.x < BOXSIZE*4) {currentcolor = CYAN;tft.drawRect(BOXSIZE*3, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, WHITE);} else if (p.x < BOXSIZE*5) {currentcolor = BLUE;tft.drawRect(BOXSIZE*4, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, WHITE);} else if (p.x < BOXSIZE*6) { currentcolor = MAGENTA; tft.drawRect(BOXSIZE*5, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, WHITE); } if (oldcolor != currentcolor) { if (oldcolor == RED) tft.fillRect(0, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, RED); if (oldcolor == YELLOW) tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, YELLOW); if (oldcolor == GREEN) tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE*2, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, GREEN); if (oldcolor == CYAN) tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE*3, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, CYAN); if (oldcolor == BLUE) tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE*4, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, BLUE); if (oldcolor == MAGENTA) tft.fillRect(BOXSIZE*5, 0, BOXSIZE, BOXSIZE, MAGENTA); } } if (((p.y-PENRADIUS) > BOXSIZE) && ((p.y+PENRADIUS) < tft.height())) {tft.fillCircle(p.x, p.y, PENRADIUS, currentcolor);}}}
Final NotesIf you want to display pictures without using an SD card, you can convert it to code and then display it. You can display even several photos sequentially without delay to create an animation. (Check this)But be aware that in this case, Arduino UNO may not be suitable (because of low processor speed). We recommend using the Arduino Mega or Arduino DUE.
Hi guys, welcome to today’s tutorial. Today, we will look on how to use the 1.8″ ST7735 colored TFT display with Arduino. The past few tutorials have been focused on how to use the Nokia 5110 LCD display extensively but there will be a time when we will need to use a colored display or something bigger with additional features, that’s where the 1.8″ ST7735 TFT display comes in.
The ST7735 TFT display is a 1.8″ display with a resolution of 128×160 pixels and can display a wide range of colors ( full 18-bit color, 262,144 shades!). The display uses the SPI protocol for communication and has its own pixel-addressable frame buffer which means it can be used with all kinds of microcontroller and you only need 4 i/o pins. To complement the display, it also comes with an SD card slot on which colored bitmaps can be loaded and easily displayed on the screen.
The schematics for this project is fairly easy as the only thing we will be connecting to the Arduino is the display. Connect the display to the Arduino as shown in the schematics below.
Due to variation in display pin out from different manufacturers and for clarity, the pin connection between the Arduino and the TFT display is mapped out below:
We will use two libraries from Adafruit to help us easily communicate with the LCD. The libraries include the Adafruit GFX library which can be downloaded here and the Adafruit ST7735 Library which can be downloaded here.
We will use two example sketches to demonstrate the use of the ST7735 TFT display. The first example is the lightweight TFT Display text example sketch from the Adafruit TFT examples. It can be accessed by going to examples -> TFT -> Arduino -> TFTDisplaytext. This example displays the analog value of pin A0 on the display. It is one of the easiest examples that can be used to demonstrate the ability of this display.
The second example is the graphics test example from the more capable and heavier Adafruit ST7735 Arduino library. I will explain this particular example as it features the use of the display for diverse purposes including the display of text and “animated” graphics. With the Adafruit ST7735 library installed, this example can be accessed by going to examples -> Adafruit ST7735 library -> graphics test.
The first thing, as usual, is to include the libraries to be used after which we declare the pins on the Arduino to which our LCD pins are connected to. We also make a slight change to the code setting reset pin as pin 8 and DC pin as pin 9 to match our schematics.
Next, we create an object of the library with the pins to which the LCD is connected on the Arduino as parameters. There are two options for this, feel free to choose the most preferred.
The complete code for this is available under the libraries example on the Arduino IDE. Don’t forget to change the DC and the RESET pin configuration in the code to match the schematics.
Uploading the code to the Arduino board brings a flash of different shapes and text with different colors on the display. I captured one and its shown in the image below.
Ms.Josey 
Ms.Josey