UCTRONICS LCD35 RPI (SPI interface)

UCTRONICS 3.5 Inches 480 x 320 TFT LCD Touch Screen Display

Model: U4703

Introduction

UCTRONICS 3.5" TFT LCD display module is designed for Raspberry Pi zero/Pi 2 /Pi 3 Model B / B+ and can also be used on other hardware platforms with have SPI interface. The 3.5" screen is the same size as the standard Raspberry Pi model B/B+, and well mate with the Raspberry Pi boards. With its touch screen, it is suitable for portable devices and projects, and it is a replacement for a heavy and bulky HDMI monitor, keyboard and mice. The highlight of this display module, it supports plug and play without reboot the Pi, and SPI speed runs as fast as 32MHz to support games and videos.

Specification

Support Kernel from 4.1 to 4.9	Support plug and play
Resolution: 480 x 320 pixels	Support touch screen
Interface: SPI	Support game and video
SPI speed: 32MHz	Automatic driver installation script
Dimension: 55.98 x 85.60 mm	Well mate with Pi Zero, Pi B+, Pi2 and Pi3

Hardware installation

                     
                Figure1                                       Figure2
        

The Figure 1 shows the display module pin out and dimension. Connect the 3.5inch LCD to the Raspberry Pi board like the Figure 2 shows. Power on the Raspberry Pi board and make sure the internet is connected properly. Note: LCD module pin1 should be aligned to Raspberry Pi board Pin1, misalign might cause damage.

Download and install driver

The LCD driver has been already installed in the Micro SD card shipped only with the kit that includes a Micro SD card. The following steps are for install the driver on a clean system. All the installation steps are also available from our github: https://github.com/UCTRONICS/UCTRONICS_LCD35_RPI/

• Step1 Expand the Micro SD card
  • sudo raspi-config then Select Advanced Operations ->Expand Filesystem and hit YES, then go to Finish and you need to run sudo reboot to reboot your Raspberry Pi.
• Step2 Update your Raspberry Pi system
  • sudo apt-get update
• Step3 Download the driver package
  • sudo git clone https://github.com/UCTRONICS/UCTRONICS_LCD35_RPI.git
• Step4 Go to the UCTRONICS_LCD35_RPI
  • cd UCTRONICS_LCD35_RPI
• Step5 Change the file permission
  • sudo chmod 777 UCTRONICS_LCD_backup
  • sudo chmod 777 UCTRONICS_LCD35_install
  • sudo chmod 777 UCTRONICS_LCD_restore
  • sudo chmod 777 UCTRONICS_LCD_hdmi
• Step6 Backup original system data
  • sudo ./UCTRONICS_LCD_backup
• Step7 Install the LCD35 driver
  • sudo ./UCTRONICS_LCD35_installWait for a while the system will be installed and restarted automatically.

If you want to reuse the original system, you can use the below command sudo ./UCTRONICS_LCD_restore If you want to display on HDMI instead of LCD, just use the below command sudo ./UCTRONICS_LCD_hdmi.....

If you don’t want to run those command to install the LCD driver, we also provide ready to use system image file “UCTRONICS_LCD35_RPI.img". Please click the following link to download the system image file: http://uctronics.oss-us-west-1.aliyuncs.com/LCD35/image/UCTRONICS_LCD35_RPI.img Check the following link to install the win32diskimager tool in your computer. Then write the image file into the Micro SD card. https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

Add more functions to the LCD

Install calibration software for calibration

• • cd UCTRONICS_LCD35_RPI
  • sudo unzip Xinput-calibrator_0.7.5-1_armhf.zip
  • cd xinput-calibrator_0.7.5-1_armhf/
  • sudo dpkg -i -B xinput-calibrator_0.7.5-1_armhf.deb

Install virtual keyboard

• Step 1 Execute the following commands to install the corresponding software
  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt-get install matchbox-keyboard
  • sudo nano /usr/bin/toggle-matchbox-keyboard.sh
• Step 2 Copy the following contents to toggle box - keyboard. Sh, save the exit

1. !/bin/bash

1. This script toggle the virtual keyboard

PID=pidof matchbox-keyboard

if [ ! -e $PID ]; then

killall matchbox-keyboard

else

matchbox-keyboard -s 50 extended&

fi