Adafruit 1.44 Color TFT User manual

Adafruit 1.44" Color TFT with Micro SD Socket

Created by lady ada

Last updated on 2020-10-19 10:58:59 AM EDT

Overview

This lovely little display breakout is the best way to add a small, colorful and bright display to any project. Since the

display uses 4-wire SPI to communicate and has its own pixel-addressable frame buffer, it can be used with every kind

of microcontroller. Even a very small one with low memory and few pins available!

The 1.44" display has 128x128 color pixels. Unlike the low cost "Nokia 6110" and similar LCD displays, which are CSTN

type and thus have poor color and slow refresh, this display is a true TFT! The TFT driver (ST7735R) can display full 16-

bit color using our library code.

The breakout has the TFT display soldered on (it uses a delicate flex-circuit connector) as well as a ultra-low-dropout

3.3V regulator and a 3/5V level shifter so you can use it with 3.3V or 5V power and logic. We also had a little space so

we placed a microSD card holder so you can easily load full color bitmaps from a FAT16/FAT32 formatted microSD

card. The microSD card is not included, but you can pick one up here (http://adafru.it/102).

Of course, we wouldn't just leave you with a datasheet and a "good luck!" - we've written a full open source graphics

library that can draw pixels, lines, rectangles, circles, text and bitmaps as well as example code and a wiring

tutorial (https://adafru.it/ckK). The code is written for Arduino but can be easily ported to your favorite microcontroller!

Pinouts

This color display uses SPI to receive image data. That means you need at least 4 pins - clock, data in, tft cs and d/c. If

you'd like to have SD card usage too, add another 2 pins - data out and card cs. However, there's a couple other pins

you may want to use, lets go thru them all!

3-5V / Vin - this is the power pin, connect to 3-5VDC - it has reverse polarity protection but try to wire it right!

3.3Vout - this is the 3.3V output from the onboard regulator GND - this is the power and signal ground pin CLK - this is the SPI clock input pin MISO - this is the SPI Microcontroller In Serial Out pin, its used for the SD card. It isn't used for the TFT display

which is write-only MOSI - this is the SPI Microcontroller Out Serial In pin, it is used to send data from the microcontroller to the SD

card and/or TFT

TFT_CS - this is the TFT SPI chip select pin RST - this is the TFT reset pin. Connect to ground to reset the TFT! Its best to have this pin controlled by the

library so the display is reset cleanly, but you can also connect it to the Arduino Reset pin, which works for most

cases.

D/C - this is the TFT SPI data or command selector pin Card CS / CCS - this is the SD card chip select, used if you want to read from the SD card. Lite - this is the PWM input for the backlight control. It is by default pulled high (backlight on) you can PWM at any

frequency or pull down to turn the backlight off

Assembly

Prepare the header strip:

Cut the strip to length if necessary. It will be easier to

solder if you insert it into a breadboard - long pins down

Add the breakout board:

Place the breakout board over the pins so that the short

pins poke through the breakout pads

And Solder!

Be sure to solder all pins for reliable electrical contact.

(For tips on soldering, be sure to check out our Guide to

Excellent Soldering

(https://adafru.it/aTk)

).

You're done! Check your solder joints visually and

continue onto the next steps

Wiring & Test

Wiring

Wiring up the display in SPI mode is pretty easy as there's not that many pins! We'll be using hardware SPI, but you can

also use software SPI (any pins) later. Start by connecting the power pins

3-5V Vin connects to the Arduino 5V pin GND connects to Arduino ground CLK connects to SPI clock. On Arduino Uno/Duemilanove/328-based, thats Digital 13. On Mega's, its Digital 52 and on Leonardo/Due its ICSP-3 (See SPI Connections for more details (https://adafru.it/d5h)) MOSI connects to SPI MOSI. On Arduino Uno/Duemilanove/328-based, thats Digital 11. On Mega's, its Digital 51 and on Leonardo/Due its ICSP-4 (See SPI Connections for more details (https://adafru.it/d5h)) CS connects to our SPI Chip Select pin. We'll be using Digital 10 but you can later change this to any pin RST connects to our TFT reset pin. We'll be using Digital 9 but you can later change this pin too. D/C connects to our SPI data/command select pin. We'll be using Digital 8 but you can later change this pin too.

Install Arduino Libraries

We have example code ready to go for use with these TFTs. It's written for Arduino, which should be portable to any

microcontroller by adapting the C++ source.

Three

libraries need to be installed using the Arduino Library Manager…this is the preferred and modern way. From the

Arduino “Sketch” menu, select “Include Library” then “Manage Libraries…”

Type “gfx” in the search field to quickly find the first library — Adafruit_GFX:

Repeat the search and install steps, looking for the Adafruit_ST7735 library. If using an older Arduino IDE (pre-1.8.10), also locate and install Adafruit_BusIO.

After restarting the Arduino software, you should see a new example folder called Adafruit_ST7735 and inside, an example called graphicstest.

In the graphicstest source code, you need to changes some code for this to work. Start by looking for the lines as

follows:

// Use this initializer if you're using a 1.8" TFT tft.initR(INITR_BLACKTAB); // initialize a ST7735S chip, black tab

// Use this initializer (uncomment) if you're using a 1.44" TFT //tft.initR(INITR_144GREENTAB); // initialize a ST7735S chip, black tab

Comment out the line that initializes the Black Tab, and uncomment the second so it initializes with Green Tab, so it

looks like:

// Use this initializer if you're using a 1.8" TFT //tft.initR(INITR_BLACKTAB); // initialize a ST7735S chip, black tab

// Use this initializer (uncomment) if you're using a 1.44" TFT tft.initR(INITR_144GREENTAB); // initialize a ST7735S chip, black tab

Now upload the sketch to your Arduino. You may need to press the Reset button to reset the arduino and TFT. You

should see a collection of graphical tests draw out on the TFT.

Changing Pins

Now that you have it working, there's a few things you can do to change around the pins.

If you're using Hardware SPI, the CLOCK and MOSI pins are 'fixed' and cant be changed. But you can change to

software SPI, which is a bit slower, and that lets you pick any pins you like. Find these lines:

// Option 1 (recommended): must use the hardware SPI pins // (for UNO thats sclk = 13 and sid = 11) and pin 10 must be // an output. This is much faster - also required if you want // to use the microSD card (see the image drawing example) Adafruit_ST7735 tft = Adafruit_ST7735(TFT_CS, TFT_DC, TFT_RST);

// Option 2: use any pins but a little slower! #define TFT_SCLK 13 // set these to be whatever pins you like! #define TFT_MOSI 11 // set these to be whatever pins you like! //Adafruit_ST7735 tft = Adafruit_ST7735(TFT_CS, TFT_DC, TFT_MOSI, TFT_SCLK, TFT_RST);

Comment out option 1, and uncomment option 2. Then you can change the TFT_ pins to whatever pins you'd like!

You can also save a pin by setting

#define TFT_RST 9

to

#define TFT_RST 0

and connecting the RST line to the Arduino Reset pin. That way the Arduino will auto-reset the TFT as well.

Adafruit GFX library

The Adafruit_GFX library for Arduino provides a common syntax and set of graphics functions for all of our TFT, LCD

and OLED displays. This allows Arduino sketches to easily be adapted between display types with minimal fuss…and

any new features, performance improvements and bug fixes will immediately apply across our complete offering of

color displays.

The GFX library is what lets you draw points, lines, rectangles, round-rects, triangles, text, etc.

Check out our detailed tutorial here http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-gfx-graphics-library (https://adafru.it/aPx) It covers

the latest and greatest of the GFX library!

Drawing Bitmaps

There is a built in microSD card slot into the breakout, and we can use that to load bitmap images! You will need a microSD card formatted FAT16 or FAT32 (they almost always are by default).

It's really easy to draw bitmaps. We have a library for it, Adafruit_ImageReader, which can be installed through the Arduino Library Manager (Sketch→Include Library→Manage Libraries…). Enter “imageread” in the search field and the

library is easy to spot:

Let's start by downloading this image of a lily:

Copy lily128.bmp into the base directory of a microSD card and insert it into the microSD socket in the breakout.

Two more wires are required to interface with the onboard SD card.

You'll need to connect up the MISO pin to the SPI MISO line on your microcontroller. On Arduino Uno/Duemilanove/328-based, thats Digital 12. On Mega's, its Digital 50 and on Leonardo/Due its ICSP-1 (See SPI

Connections for more details (https://adafru.it/d5h))

Also, CCS pin to Digital 4 on your Arduino as well. You can change this pin later, but stick with this for now.

You may want to try the SD library examples before continuing, especially one that lists all the files on the SD card

Open the File→examples→Adafruit ImageReader Library→BreakoutST7735 - 128x128 example

In the example, find the following section of code:

Adafruit 1.44 Color TFT User manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual