tft lcd display kmr-1.8 manufacturer

Recently, I had the idea to make a digital picture frame—one of these kinds which load images from SD cards and show each image for some time. I was remembering myself that I already own a small TFT display, the KMR-1.8 SPI, that works out of the box with an Arduino Uno. When I digged up my KMR-1.8 SPI, I realized that it has also an in-built SD card reader. Moreover, I looked up the Internet and found ready-to-use libraries for the in-built SD card reader as well as showing images on the TFT display. For these reasons, I thought making such an digital picture frame will turn out very easy.

When I started to implement my first lines of codes and started to connect my Arduino Uno to the KMR-1.8 SPI, I ran into two major problems. First, the colors of my image file did not match to the colors displayed by the KMR-1.8 (red and blue were interchanged). Second, my first prototypes stopped to work after about 5 minutes. The application started to freeze and showed the same image forever instead of displaying the next image after a chosen time.

There exists various versions of so-called “1.8 TFT displays” from different manufacturers. Not all of them are 100% compatible to each other. Therefore, if you own a TFT display and want to use my tutorial to make it work, please check if your TFT display really matches the version I used in this tutorial:

The source code relies on three header files (and libraries): SPI.h (Link), SD.h (Link) and TFT.h (Link). Please make sure that all of them are correctly installed before trying out my source code (In Arduino IDE: Tools -> Manage Libraries…).

I overcame the first problem by not using the default initialization method (“TFTscreen.begin();”) of the TFT library. Instead, I looked up whats inside the “begin”-method. I found a method called “initR” which has a parameter that allows to perform the initialization for a specific chip. Here, the parameter value “INITR_BLACKTAB” worked for me as the colors were then shown correctly. In addition, I call the method “setRotation” with parameter value “1” in order to be conform to the default initialization method. In the end, the code for the setting up the TFT library object looks like this:// ...

The code looks for image files (*.BMP) on the SD card and shows each image for 60 seconds. You can change the display time by setting “DELAY_IMAGE_SWAP” to a new value.

Specification:Driver IC: ST7735RResolution: 128 x 160 pixelsFeatures:- Can help you to get rid of the Arduino serial monitor.- Some tests and provide UTFT library, AdaFruit Library and instruction on DropBox.- Tested with Latest Arduino 1.6.5.IO interface:1. RESET --directly to the microcontroller IO2. CS --directly to the microcontroller IO3. A0 --IO control registers select4. SDA --IO control data transmission5. SCL --IO control SPI bus6. BL--High Level 3.3V backlight onNote:Please contact us for documents and driver if you need. Please noted this LCD is 3.3V, which can not receive 5V signals from the Arduino, so please use a 1k series resistors between GPIO lines on a 5V arduino and this LCD, power this LCD with 5V but drive it with "level shifted resistor" GPIO lines.Besides, you could use mcifriend 2.8 inch TFT LCD library to get it to work, it will work fine with the Mega or Uno.

An 1.8" 128 x 160 TFT LCD can be purchased for around $3. The one that I got has the marking of "KMR-1.8 SPI". It claims to be ST7735R based. ST7735R is a 262K 18-bit color TFT controller/driver by Sitronix. ST7735R is a chip with large aspect ratio (10 x 0.7 mm); it has 759 pads (including 396 source and 162 gate driver output pins) and supports a number of interfaces, parallel and serial.

LED+, SD_CS, MOSI and SCK have 4.7-Ohm series resistors. LED- is shorted to GND. The display is advertised to work with Arduino, but it appears to take only 3V input.

I used 1600-Ohm resistors in series for 5V to 3V conversion. I wonder if that might cause some problem. The display input pins do not cause the 5V signal level to drop as I expect with ESD protection diodes. Could the input be 5V tolerant? The I/O voltage is specified as 1.65 to 3.7V according to the data sheet and the operating voltage is 2.3 to 4.8V. 5V would be stressing it. I power the Arduino nano with the USB, so the actual voltage is 4.7V (after the diode). It is possible that the 3V from the regulator is not actually used by the display, but only for the SD card.

People have reported that the display can also run on Orange Pi. The device is supported by notro"s fbtft, with built-in support for Adafruit 1.8". The wiring is as follows,

The data sheet specifies the min serial clock cycle time is 66ns for write and 150ns for read. Even for just writing, the max clock frequency is 15MHz. Even though the driver seemed to load correctly, I was unable to display anything. Lowering the SPI clock rate did not help.

I powered both the arduino and the display with 3.3V. The hardware SPI worked. (I mistakenly used D12 as DC, which compounded the problem. D12 is MISO.) Even the software SPI behaved a little better (without the some flicking). So the hardware is fine running 3.3V (drawing about 55mA).

The next step is to run X windows on it. I created X11 config file and run startx as the second display. The X Window did run on the display; but the X Windows on the HDMI display disappears.

The DT018ATFT does not support 4-Wire SPI (also known as "4-line Serial Interface Protocol", 8-bit data, which includes a separate D/C signal line). DT018ATFT does not support this since the signal in ILI9163C datasheet called "SPI4" is hard coded to 0. However, a custom version of the FPC can be tooled to expose the proper 4-Wire SPI signals - please contact us for more details.

The provided display driver example code is designed to work with Microchip, however it is generic enough to work with other micro-controllers. The code includes display reset sequence, initialization and example PutPixel() function.

In this guide we’re going to show you how you can use the 1.8 TFT display with the Arduino. You’ll learn how to wire the display, write text, draw shapes and display images on the screen.

The 1.8 TFT is a colorful display with 128 x 160 color pixels. The display can load images from an SD card – it has an SD card slot at the back. The following figure shows the screen front and back view.

This module uses SPI communication – see the wiring below . To control the display we’ll use the TFT library, which is already included with Arduino IDE 1.0.5 and later.

The TFT display communicates with the Arduino via SPI communication, so you need to include the SPI library on your code. We also use the TFT library to write and draw on the display.

In which “Hello, World!” is the text you want to display and the (x, y) coordinate is the location where you want to start display text on the screen.

The 1.8 TFT display can load images from the SD card. To read from the SD card you use the SD library, already included in the Arduino IDE software. Follow the next steps to display an image on the display:

Note: some people find issues with this display when trying to read from the SD card. We don’t know why that happens. In fact, we tested a couple of times and it worked well, and then, when we were about to record to show you the final result, the display didn’t recognized the SD card anymore – we’re not sure if it’s a problem with the SD card holder that doesn’t establish a proper connection with the SD card. However, we are sure these instructions work, because we’ve tested them.

In this guide we’ve shown you how to use the 1.8 TFT display with the Arduino: display text, draw shapes and display images. You can easily add a nice visual interface to your projects using this display.

Only an small advice for those who want to rotate to rotate the text you have to use the instruction tft.setRotation (2); the number can be 0,1,2,3

//#define ILI9488_DRIVER // WARNING: Do not connect ILI9488 display SDO to MISO if other devices share the SPI bus (TFT SDO does NOT tristate when CS is high)

Only an small advice for those who want to rotate to rotate the text you have to use the instruction tft.setRotation (2); the number can be 0,1,2,3

//#define ILI9488_DRIVER // WARNING: Do not connect ILI9488 display SDO to MISO if other devices share the SPI bus (TFT SDO does NOT tristate when CS is high)

Features for the 1.8 Inch LCD TFT  Display 128X160 SPI Serial Port With SD Card Holder is the best way to add a small, colourful, and bright display to any project. Since the display uses 4-wire SPI to communicate and has its pixel-addressable frame buffer, you can use it with every kind of microcontroller.

Even a tiny one with low memory and few pins available! The 1.8″ display has 128×160 color pixels. Unlike the low-cost Nokia 6110 and similar LCDs, which are CSTN type and thus have poor colour and slow refresh, this display is a true TFT! The TFT driver (ST7735R) can display full 18-bit color (262,144 shades!). And the 4.6 cm (1.8 “) SPI 128×160 TFT LCD Display Module will always come with the same driver chip, so there are no worries that your code will not work from one to the other. The breakout has the TFT display soldered on (it uses a delicate flex-circuit connector), an ultra-low-dropout 3.3V regulator, and a 3/5V level shifter to use it with 3.3V or 5V power and logic. It features a microSD card holder so you can quickly load full-colour bitmaps from a FAT16/FAT32 formatted microSD card

@david_prentice: I meant Himax, well spotted! I remember seeing a 1.8" display with a HX---- driver advertised, but I am not sure where I saw it. Yes you are right, ILI9163/S6D02A1/ST7735 are all options often advertised for 1.8" displays.

Interestingly it reports my display as having an ILI9163 but I am using initialisation code from this library for a S6D02A1 and it works OK but that may just be by luck and a degree of initialisation address compatibility.

TFT displays are full color LCDs providing bright, vivid colors with the ability to show quick animations, complex graphics, and custom fonts with different touchscreen options. Available in industry standard sizes and resolutions. These displays come as standard, premium MVA, sunlight readable, or IPS display types with a variety of interface options including HDMI, SPI and LVDS. Our line of TFT modules include a custom PCB that support HDMI interface, audio support or HMI solutions with on-board FTDI Embedded Video Engine (EVE2).

I needed to install this library from Bodmer; then edit the User_Setup.h file ( in sketchbook/libraries/TFT_ESPI ) to match my display and the connections used.

This User_Setup.h works fine for the ESP32; except that in the UTFT_DEMO_FAST Example the final screen (orange rectangle on blue background) no text was displayed.