2423 - Adafruit Industries LLC - Datasheet.Directory

Adafruit 2.8" PiTFT - Capacitive Touch

Created by lady ada

Last updated on 2018-12-27 04:42:16 PM UTC

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Guide Contents
Guide Contents
Overview
Assembly
Easy Install
Install Raspbian on an SD Card
Installer script
PiTFT Selection
Rotation
Configuring what shows where
PiTFT as Text Console (best for Raspbian 'Lite')
PiTFT as HDMI Mirror (Best for Raspbian Full/PIXEL)
PiTFT as Raw Framebuffer Device
Unsupported Full Images
PiTFT 2.2" Images
PiTFT 2.4"/2.8"/3.2" Resistive Images
PiTFT 2.8" Capacitive
PiTFT 3.5" Images
Capacitive Touchscreen Configuration
If you are running EP0110M09 driver
If you are running FT6236 driver
If you are running FT6X06 driver
Event Testing
AutoMagic Calibration Script
TSLIB calibration
X11 Calibration
Console Configuration
Turn off Console Blanking
Raspbian Jessie
Raspbian Wheezy
Playing Videos
How To Play Videos
Converting/Resizing Videos
Displaying Images
Using FBCP
Backlight Control
Extras!
Making it easier to click icons in X
Right-click on a touchscreen
Gesture Input
Installation
Usage
PiTFT PyGame Tips
Install pip & pygame
© Adafruit Industries https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-2-8-pitft-capacitive-touch Page 2 of 45

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Ensure you are running SDL 1.2
Using the Capacitive touch screen in PyGame
F.A.Q.
The display works, but the capacitive touch part doesnt
Does this screen do multi-touch?
Hey...I was looking at the FT6206 datasheet and it looks like it can support multitouch (two points)!
How do I automatically boot to X windows on the PiTFT?
I have some more questions!
Downloads
Files
Schematic for Pi 1 Version
Schematic for PiTFT Plus (B+/Pi 2 shape)
Fabrication Print (Pi 1 Version)
Fabrication Print (B+/Pi 2 Version)
© Adafruit Industries https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-2-8-pitft-capacitive-touch Page 3 of 45

Overview

Our best-selling PiTFT just got a fancy upgrade, now we have a version with a capacitive touchscreen! That's right,

instead of a resistive touchscreen, which requires a fingernail or stylus, you can now use a fingerpad. The screen looks

much nicer, with a black bezel and glass overlay.

Featuring a 2.8" display with 320x240 16-bit color pixels and a capacitive touch overlay. The plate uses the high speed

SPI interface on the Pi and can use the mini display as a console, X window port, displaying images or video etc. Best

of all it plugs right in on top!

Uses the hardware I2C Pins (SDA & SCL), SPI pins (SCK, MOSI, MISO, CE0) as well as GPIO #25 and #24. All other

GPIO are unused. Since we had a tiny bit of space, there's 4 spots for optional slim tactile switches wired to four

GPIOs, that you can use if you want to make a basic user interface. For example, you can use one as a power on/off

button. See below for the link to get the optional tact switches, they're not included.

The screen is the same size as the resistive type so you can use this with the PiTFT PiBow or any other enclosure you

may already have. We also use the same SDL device and signals so PyGame and X11 based programs can be swapped

in with no changes in code.

It's designed to fit nicely onto the Pi Model A or B rev 2 but also works perfectly fine with the Model B+ as long as you

don't mind the PCB overhangs the USB ports by 5mm, see the photos above. Model B rev 1 have an older layout for

the I2C pins and won't be able to use the touch screen

This version comes as a mini-kit, with a 2x13 extra-tall female header (to connect the plate to the Pi) and a 2x13 male

header that can be used to connect an IDC cable or cobbler from the side. The photos above also show the optional

installed slim tactile buttons. The tactile buttons are not included, but you can pick up a pack of 20

here. (http://adafru.it/1489) Some basic soldering is required to install the headers. You can also pick up an extra-long

Pi stacking header if you want to install that instead of the 2x13 female header installed. (http://adafru.it/1112)

Assembly

This section is identical to the PiTFT Resistive 2.8" so please visit that page to complete assembly of this Pi Plate

https://adafru.it/dDQ

We are now selling these displays pre-assembled - skip this step if your PiTFT is not a mini-kit

Easy Install

The PiTFT requires some device tree support and a couple other things to make it a nice stand-alone display. If you

just want to get going, check out the following for easy-install instructions!

Install Raspbian on an SD Card

You'll need to start with Raspbian or Raspbian Lite.

The last known for-sure tested-and-working version is March 13, 2018

(https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/images/raspbian-2018-03-14/) (https://adafru.it/BFQ) from

https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/images/ (https://adafru.it/BFU)

Raspbian does often 'break' stuff when new versions come out so to be safe, if you are having problems try this

version!

Installer script

This script will do all the work for you, and install both device tree overlay support as well as configure rotation and any

HDMI mirroring. PiTFT no longer needs any custom kernels or modules, so you can continue to update/upgrade your

Pi and it will work with the most recent releases.

Here's the commands to run. Make sure your Pi has network access, it needs to download the software!

The same installer is used for all PiTFTs, you will pick and configure the setup during installation!

PiTFT Selection

Once you run it you will be presented with menus for configuration.

For the 2.4", 2.8" and 3.2" PiTFT with resistive

touchscreen overlay select #1

cd ~

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts/master/adafruit-pitft.sh

chmod +x adafruit-pitft.sh

sudo ./adafruit-pitft.sh

For the 2.2" PiTFT select #2

For the 2.8" Capacitive PiTFT select #3

For the 3.5" PiTFT select #4

Rotation

Next you will be asked for the rotation you want, don't worry if you're not 100% sure which you want, you can always

change this later by re-running the script

It will take a few minutes to install the software and download all the things...

Configuring what shows where

You have a few different ways to set up the PiTFT, we ask 2 questions to figure out what you want

PiTFT as Text Console (best for Raspbian 'Lite')

This is the simplest to set-up type of use. Its great if you have a simple text based or pygame/SDL based interface. If

you want the PiTFT to act as a text console you can expect:

HDMI will be 'deactivated' - nothing appears on the HDMI output but a black screen

The login prompt appears on the Pi

The Pi is all text, not a GUI (no PIXEL desktop)

Keyboard and mouse are used only by the PiTFT interface

Framebuffer-capable software (such as fbi for displaying images, mplayer for videos, or pygame software, etc)

appear on the PiTFT

OpenGL accelerated software

will not appear on the PiTFT

(it is unaccelerated framebuffer only)

But, non-OpenGL-accelerated graphics software is a bit faster than using HDMI mirroring (not tons faster but

you're not running fbcp which will always make it faster)

If you want that say Yes to the question Would you like the console to appear on the PiTFT display

Then simply reboot. Once rebooted you will not see anything on HDMI, but the console will appear on the PiTFT.

That's it!

PiTFT as HDMI Mirror (Best for Raspbian Full/PIXEL)

This option is the easiest to understand: whatever appears on the HDMI display will be 'mirrored' to the PiTFT. Note

that HDMI is much higher resolution so it's not like it turns the PiTFT into a 1080p display. This is great for when you

want to run OpenGL-optimized software, PIXEL desktop software, or really anything. The down-side is its a little slower

than drawing directly to the framebuffer. You may not notice it but it's worth us mentioning!

HDMI will be 'activated' but at a lower resolution - you can change this later but it looks best at 320x240 (PiTFT

2.2", 2.4", 2.8" and 3.2") or 480x320 (PiTFT 3.5")

The login prompt or GUI appears on both HDMI and PiTFT at the same time

Keyboard and mouse are shared, since the display is mirrored

All graphics appear on both HDMI and PiTFT, thanks to fbcp

If you want that say Yes to the question Would you like the HDMI display to mirror to the PiTFT display?

PiTFT as Raw Framebuffer Device

For advanced users who are comfortable using framebuffer devices, it is possible to have the PiTFT and HDMI

graphics be

both

active and display different data.

HDMI will be active and act like a normal Pi

The login prompt or GUI (PIXEL) appears on the HDMI
PiTFT appears black, nothing appears on it
Keyboard and mouse are used by the HDMI interface but can, in theory, be captured and used to change
graphics on PiTFT through programming
Framebuffer-capable software (such as fbi for displaying images, mplayer for videos, or pygame software,
etc) 
can
 appear on the PiTFT if you set it up to display to /dev/fb1
OpenGL accelerated software 
will never appear on the PiTFT
 (it is unaccelerated framebuffer only)
If you want that, say No to both of the configuration questions!
Unsupported Full Images
Historically, we provided full 'images' of Raspbian. This worked OK until Raspbian started doing releases every few
months. These are no longer supported, and won't even boot on Pi 3B+, so we recommend the script above.
There's the larger 'classic Jessie' image that will boot into X by default, and requires a 8G image, it has a lot more
software installed. There's also the smaller 'Jessie Lite' that will boot into the command line, and can be burned onto a
2G card! Click below to download and install into a new SD card. Unzip and follow the classic SD card burning tutorials
 (https://adafru.it/aMW)
PiTFT 2.2" Images
Raspbian Jessie 2016/10/23-based image (https://adafru.it/sbg)
Raspbian Jessie Lite 2016/10/23-based image (https://adafru.it/sbh)
Raspbian Jessie 2016/03/25-based image (https://adafru.it/mAe)
Raspbian Jessie Lite 2016/03/25-based image (https://adafru.it/mAf)
Raspbian Jessie 2015/09/24-based image (https://adafru.it/iDC)
Raspbian Wheezy 2015/09/09-based image (https://adafru.it/idt)
PiTFT 2.4"/2.8"/3.2" Resistive Images
Raspbian Jessie 2016/9/23-based image (https://adafru.it/s7f)
Raspbian Jessie Lite 2016/9/23-based image (https://adafru.it/s7A)
Raspbian Jessie 2016/03/25-based image (https://adafru.it/mA9)
Raspbian Jessie Lite 2016/03/25-based image (https://adafru.it/mAa)
Raspbian Jessie 2015/09/24-based image (https://adafru.it/iDA)
Raspbian Wheezy 2015/09/09-based image (https://adafru.it/idJ)
Raspbian 2014/06/20-based image (https://adafru.it/dSM)
Raspbian 2014/09/09-based image (https://adafru.it/e12)
PiTFT 2.8" Capacitive
Raspbian Jessie 2016-09-23-based image (https://adafru.it/saM)
Raspbian Jessie Lite 2016-09-23-based image (https://adafru.it/saN)
Raspbian Jessie 2016-03-25-based image (https://adafru.it/mAc)
Raspbian Jessie Lite 2016-03-25-based image (https://adafru.it/mAd)
Raspbian Jessie 2015/09/24-based image (https://adafru.it/iDy)
Raspbian Wheezy 2015/09/24-based image (https://adafru.it/idz)
Raspbian 2014/09/18-based image (https://adafru.it/e11)
You can always change your mind after setting up one of the configurations, depending on your needs! Just
re-run the script
© Adafruit Industries https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-2-8-pitft-capacitive-touch Page 14 of 45

Raspbian 2014/06/20-based image (https://adafru.it/dSO)

Raspbian image from 2015/03/03 (https://adafru.it/eUI)

PiTFT 3.5" Images

Raspbian Jessie 2016/9/23-based image (https://adafru.it/siF)

Raspbian Jessie Lite 2016/9/23-based image (https://adafru.it/sja)

Raspbian Jessie 2016/03/25-based image (https://adafru.it/mAb)

Raspbian Jessie 2016/03/25-based image (https://adafru.it/mAG)

Raspbian Jessie 2015/09/24-based image (https://adafru.it/iDD)

Raspbian Wheezy 2015/09/24-based image (https://adafru.it/idy)

Raspbian 2014/09/09-based image (https://adafru.it/e10)

Raspbian 2015/03/12 image (https://adafru.it/eUE)

Capacitive Touchscreen Configuration

The nifty thing about capacitive touch screens is that they do not require calibration! The calibration is done 'in chip'

on the screen itself. However, we still do need to tell the Pi how to read the capacitive chip.

Before we start, we'll make a udev rule for the touchscreen. That's because the eventX name of the device will change

a lot and its annoying to figure out what its called depending on whether you have a keyboard or other mouse

installed.

First up figure out if you have the FT62X6 driver or FT6236 driver by running dmesg | grep ft6 or dmesg | grep

EP0110M09

If you are running EP0110M09 driver

Run

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/95-ftcaptouch.rules

If you've grabbed our Easy Install image, or use the script, this step is not required, it's already done! This is

just for advanced users who are curious on how to configure and customize the touchscreen

The capacitive touch driver in Raspbian no longer works with "ts_test" because it doesn't emit 'proper'

touchscreen events. It works in LXDE though.

to create a new udev file and copy & paste the following line in:

SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{name}=="EP0110M09", ENV{DEVNAME}=="*event*", SYMLINK+="input/touchscreen"

If you are running FT6236 driver

Run

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/95-ft6236.rules

to create a new udev file and copy & paste the following line in:

SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{name}=="ft6236", ENV{DEVNAME}=="*event*", SYMLINK+="input/touchscreen"

If you are running FT6X06 driver

Run

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/95-ft6206.rules

to create a new udev file and copy & paste the following line in:

SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{name}=="ft6x06_ts", ENV{DEVNAME}=="*event*", SYMLINK+="input/touchscreen"

Reboot the Pi with sudo reboot

Then type ls -l /dev/input/touchscreen

It should point to eventX where X is some number, that number will be different on different setups since other

keyboards/mice/USB devices will take up an event slot

(https://adafru.it/dIX)

Event Testing

Even though capacitive touch screens don't require calibration, there are some useful tools we can use to debug the

touchscreen. Install the "event test" and "touchscreen library" packages with

sudo apt-get install evtest tslib libts-bin

Now you can use some tools such as

sudo evtest /dev/input/touchscreen

which will let you see touchscreen events in real time, press on the touchscreen to see the reports.

AutoMagic Calibration Script

If you rotate the display you need to recalibrate the touchscreen to work with the new screen orientation. You can

manually run the calibration processes in the next section, or you can re-run the installer script and select a new

rotation:

Try using this default calibration script to easily calibrate your touchscreen display. Note that the calibration values

might not be exactly right for your display, but they should be close enough for most needs. If you need the most

accurate touchscreen calibration, follow the steps in the next section to manually calibrate the touchscreen.

TSLIB calibration

In order to use TSLIB - basically, the touchscreen without X11 - you'll need to set the calibration for TSLIB in

/etc/pointercal

With a resistive touchscreen, you have to calibrate it. Since capacitive touchscreens don't require calibration you can

just input the numbers directly. Run

sudo nano /etc/pointercal

And enter in the following values (there's a single space between each number) and hit return afterwards. Then save

320 65536 0 -65536 0 15728640 65536

Next you can run

sudo TSLIB_FBDEVICE=/dev/fb1 TSLIB_TSDEVICE=/dev/input/touchscreen ts_test

X11 Calibration

X11 uses a

different

calibration system than TSLib/PyGame. You can see how to run xtcal here (https://adafru.it/BFX)

except use EP0110M09 as the name of the device

Console Configuration

One fun thing you can do with the display is have it as your main console instead of the HDMI/TV output. Even though

it is small, with a good font you can get 20 x 40 of text. For more details, check out

https://github.com/notro/fbtft/wiki/Boot-console (https://adafru.it/cXQ)

First up, we'll update the boot configuration file to use the TFT framebuffer /dev/fb1 instead of the HDMI/TV

framebuffer /dev/fb0

sudo nano /boot/cmdline.txt

you can also edit it by putting the SD card into a computer and opening the same file.

At the end of the line, find the text that says rootwait and right after that, enter in:

fbcon=map:10 fbcon=font:VGA8x8 then save the file.

On the next boot, it will bring up the console.

Note that the kernel has to load up the display driver module before it can display anything on it so you won't get the

rainbow screen, a NooBs prompt, or a big chunk of the kernel details since the module is loaded fairly late in the

boot process.

I think the VGA8x8 font is a bit chunky, you probably want 12x6 which is what is shown in the photo above. To change

the font, run sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup and go thru to select Terminus 6x12

If you've used our installer script, this step is not required, it's already done! This is just for advanced users

who are curious on how to configure and customize the console

Turn off Console Blanking

You may notice the console goes black after 30 minutes, this is a sort of 'power saving' or 'screensaver' feature.

Raspbian Jessie

Add the following line to /etc/rc.local

sudo sh -c "TERM=linux setterm -blank 0 >/dev/tty0"

on the line before the final exit 0

Raspbian Wheezy

You can disable this by editing /etc/kbd/config and looking for

BLANK_TIME=30

and setting the blank time to 0 (which turns it off)

BLANK_TIME=0

Playing Videos

How To Play Videos

You can play many types of videos on the screen, using mplayer you don't even need to run X and you can script the

movies to play using Python. We'll show you how to just play one video for now.

To demo, we'll use an mp4 of Big Buck Bunny for 320 pixel wide screens. Below we show you how to create/resize

videos, but to make it easy, just download our version with:

wget http://adafruit-download.s3.amazonaws.com/bigbuckbunny320p.mp4 (https://adafru.it/cXR)

If you don't have mplayer yet, run

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mplayer

to install it. It may take a few minutes to complete

The video is 30MB which is a lot if you haven't expanded your SD card yet. Before you do this, run sudo

raspi-config to expand the SD card so you don't run out of space!

OK now you just have to run:

sudo SDL_VIDEODRIVER=fbcon SDL_FBDEV=/dev/fb1 mplayer -vo sdl -framedrop bigbuckbunny320p.mp4

If your video is not sized for 320 wide, you may need to add a -zoom after -framedrop so that it will resize - note that

this is quite taxing for the Pi, so it may result in a choppy or mis-synced video!

Converting/Resizing Videos

It's possible to play full length videos on the TFT plate, but since the screen is small and the Pi cant use hardware

accelleration to play the videos its best to scale them down to 320x240 pixels. This will be easier for the Pi to play and

also save you tons of storage space. For this demo, we'll be using the famous Big Buck Bunny (https://adafru.it/cXS)

video, which is creative commons and also very funny!

You can download it from the link above, we'll be using the 720p AVI version.

To do the conversion itself, we suggest HandBrake (https://adafru.it/cXT) which works great and is open source so it

runs on all operating systems! Download and install from the link. Then run the installed application and open up the

AVI file from before. The app will pre-fill a bunch of information about it.

Under Destination click Browse... to select a new MP4 file to save. Then under Picture change the Width to 320 (the

height will be auto-calculated)

Click START to begin the conversion, it will take a minute or two.

That's it! You now have a smaller file. Don't forget to play it on your computer to make sure it plays right before

copying it to your Pi

Displaying Images

You can display every day images such as GIFs, JPGs, BMPs, etc on the screen. To do this we'll install fbi which is the

frame buffer image viewer (not to be confused with the FBI agency!)

sudo apt-get install fbi will install it

Grab our lovely wallpapers with

wget http://adafruit-download.s3.amazonaws.com/adapiluv320x240.jpg

wget http://adafruit-download.s3.amazonaws.com/adapiluv480x320.png (https://adafru.it/cXU)

For 320x240 PiTFTs (2.2", 2.4", 2.8" or 3.2") view it with

sudo fbi -T 2 -d /dev/fb1 -noverbose -a adapiluv320x240.jpg

or for 3.5" PiTFTs:

sudo fbi -T 2 -d /dev/fb1 -noverbose -a adapiluv 480x320 (https://adafru.it/cXU).png

That's it!

Using FBCP

The Ideal: Adafruit’s PiTFT displays are razor sharp. Whereas small composite screens on the Raspberry Pi usually

require some video scaling (resulting in blurriness), PiTFT uses the GPIO header, digitally controlled pixel-by-pixel for a

rock steady image. Though not a

lot

of pixels, it works great for retro gaming (and the display neatly stacks above the

board, no side protuberances for video cables).

The Downside: this GPIO link entirely bypasses the Pi’s video hardware, including the graphics accelerator. Many

games and emulators

depend

on the GPU for performance gains. So the PiTFT has traditionally been limited to just a

subset of specially-compiled emulators that can work and run well enough without the GPU.

The Solution: our latest PiTFT drivers, along with a tool called

fbcp

(framebuffer copy), careful system configuration,

and (optionally) the more potent Raspberry Pi 2 board open the doors to many more gaming options. Existing emulator

packages (such as RetroPie, with

dozens

of high-performance emulators and ports) — previously off-limits to the PiTFT

— can run quite effectively now!

https://adafru.it/fbe

Backlight Control

Unlike the resistive PiTFT, the capacitive version does not have a resistive touch controller chip that we can take

advantage of as an extra backlight control pin. Instead, you can set up GPIO #18 as an on/off or PWM control.

Note that if you are playing audio out the headphone jack, you can't use the PWM capabilities of GPIO #18 at the same

time, the PWM function is reassigned to do audio. However, you can use it as a simple on/off pin

To enable using GPIO #18 as a backlight, solder closed the #18 backlight jumper on the PiTFT capacitive PCB!

OK now you can use the PWM output on GPIO 18. There's python code available for controlling the PWM pin but you

can also just use the WiringPi shell commands.

With these basic shell commands, you can set the GPIO #18 pin to PWM mode, set the output to 100 (out of 1023, so

dim!), set the output to 1000 (out of 1023, nearly all the way on) and 0 (off)

Try other numbers, from 0 (off) to 1023 (all the way on)!

gpio -g mode 18 pwm

gpio -g pwm 18 100

gpio -g pwm 18 1000

gpio -g pwm 18 0

Extras!

Making it easier to click icons in X

If you want to double-click on icons to launch something in X you may find it annoying to get it to work right. In LXDE

you can simply set it up so that you only need to single click instead of double.

From LXDE launch the file manager (sorry these pix are grayscale, still figuring out how to screenshot the framebuffer!)

Then under the Edit menu, select Preferences

Then select Open files with single click and close the window (you'll need to drag it over to get to the X button

Right-click on a touchscreen

Obviously if you have a touchscreen, it cannot tell what finger you are pressing with. This means that all 'clicks' are left

clicks. But if you want a right-click, you

can

do it.

Just add the following lines into your InputClass of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-calibration.conf after the calibration section

Option "EmulateThirdButton" "1"

Option "EmulateThirdButtonTimeout" "750"

Option "EmulateThirdButtonMoveThreshold" "30"

So for example your file will look like:

Section "InputClass"

Identifier "calibration"

MatchProduct "stmpe-ts"

Option "Calibration" "3800 120 200 3900"

Option "SwapAxes" "1"

Option "EmulateThirdButton" "1"

Option "EmulateThirdButtonTimeout" "750"

Option "EmulateThirdButtonMoveThreshold" "30"

EndSection

This makes a right mouse click emulated when holding down the stylus for 750 ms.

(Thx adamaddin! (https://adafru.it/fH3))

Gesture Input

With the PiTFT touchscreen and xstroke (https://adafru.it/dD0) you can enter text in applications by drawing simple

character gestures on the screen! Check out the video below for a short demonstration and overview of gesture input

with xstroke:

Installation

Unfortunately xstroke hasn't been actively maintained for a few years so there isn't a binary package you can directly

install. However compiling the tool is straightforward and easy with the steps below. Credit for these installation steps

goes to mwilliams03 at ozzmaker.com (https://adafru.it/dD1).

First install a few dependencies by opening a command window on the Pi and executing:

Now download, compile, and install xstroke by executing:

If the commands above execute successfully xstroke should be installed. If you see an error message, carefully check

the dependencies above were installed and try again.

Once xstroke is installed you will want to add a couple menu shortcuts to start and stop xstroke. Execute the following

commands to install these shortcuts:

Usage

To use xstroke I highly recommend using a plastic stylus instead of your finger. Also calibrate the touchscreen for X-

Windows (https://adafru.it/dD2) so you have the best control over the cursor possible.

Start X-Windows on the PiTFT and open the LXDE menu by clicking the icon in the lower left corner. Scroll up to the

Accessories menu at the top and notice the new XStroke and XStroke Kill commands.

Click the XStroke menu option to start xstroke. You should see a small pencil icon appear on the bottom right side of

the screen. The pencil icon means xstroke is running, however by default it's not yet looking for gesture input.

sudo apt-get -y install build-essential libxft-dev libxpm-dev libxtst-dev

cd ~

wget http://mirror.egtvedt.no/avr32linux.org/twiki/pub/Main/XStroke/xstroke-0.6.tar.gz

tar xfv xstroke-0.6.tar.gz

cd xstroke-0.6

./configure

sed -i '/^X_LIBS = / s/$/ -lXrender -lX11 -lXext -ldl/' Makefile

make

sudo make install

wget https://github.com/adafruit/PiTFT_Extras/raw/master/xstroke.desktop

wget https://github.com/adafruit/PiTFT_Extras/raw/master/xstrokekill.desktop

sudo cp xstroke*.desktop /usr/share/applications/

Don't use a ballpoint pen or sharp metal stylus as it could scratch or damage the touchscreen!

Open an application that takes text input, such as LXTerminal. To enable gesture input click the xstroke pencil icon.

You should see the pencil turn green and the text 'abc' written over top of the icon. You might need to click the icon a

few times to get the click to register in the right spot.

When xstroke is looking for gesture input you can drag the mouse cursor in a gesture anywhere on the screen to send

specific key strokes. Here's a picture of the possible gestures you can send:

(credit to Carl Worth for the image above)

To draw a gesture from the above image, press anywhere on the screen, start from the circle in the gesture, and follow

the gesture pattern towards the arrow. As you draw a gesture you should see a blue line displayed that shows what

you've drawn. Lift up the stylus when you get to the end of the gesture at the arrow. If xstroke recognizes the gesture

it will send the appropriate key press to the active window. Try drawing a few characters from the image above to get

the hang of writing gestures.

A few very useful gestures are backspace (which deletes a character), return/enter, and space. To draw a backspace

gesture just draw a line going from the right side of the screen to the left side. The gesture for return/enter is a

diagonal line from the top right to bottom left. Finally a space is a straight line from the left to the right.

Note that when xstroke is looking for gestures you might not be able to click or control the cursor as you normally

would expect. To stop xstroke's gesture recognition carefully press the xstroke pencil icon again until the 'abc' text

disappears. I've found this process can be a little finicky as the icon is very small and any movement will be interpreted

as a gesture. Use a light touch and try a few times to click the icon.

If you get stuck completely and can't disable xstroke by clicking the icon, connect to the Raspberry Pi in a terminal/SSH

connection and run 'killall xstroke' (without quotes) to force xstroke to quit. The normal way to stop xstroke is to

navigate to the Accessories -> XStroke Kill command, but you might not be able to do that if xstroke is listening for

gesture input.

Have fun using xstroke to control your Pi by writing gestures on the PiTFT screen!

PiTFT PyGame Tips

Since the PiTFT screen is fairly small, you may need to write custom UI programs. Pygame is the easiest way by far to

do this.

Jeremy Blythe has an excellent tutorial here on getting started. (https://adafru.it/saw)

However,

before

you follow that link you'll want to set up pygame for the best compatibility:

Install pip & pygame

Install Pip: sudo apt-get install python-pip

Install Pygame: sudo apt-get install python-pygame

(this will take a while)

Ensure you are running SDL 1.2

SDL 2.x and SDL 1.2.15-10 have some serious incompatibilities with touchscreen. You can force SDL 1.2 by running a

script. (Thanks to heine in the forums! (https://adafru.it/sax))

Edit a new file with sudo nano installsdl.sh

and paste in the following text:

run

sudo chmod +x installsdl.sh

sudo ./installsdl.sh

#!/bin/bash

# enable wheezy package sources

echo "deb http://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian wheezy main

" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wheezy.list

# set stable as default package source (currently stretch)

echo "APT::Default-release \"stable\";

" > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10defaultRelease

# set the priority for libsdl from wheezy higher then the stretch package

echo "Package: libsdl1.2debian

Pin: release n=stretch

Pin-Priority: -10

Package: libsdl1.2debian

Pin: release n=wheezy

Pin-Priority: 900

" > /etc/apt/preferences.d/libsdl

# install

apt-get update

apt-get -y --allow-downgrades install libsdl1.2debian/wheezy

it will force install SDL 1.2

OK now you can continue with pygame

Using the Capacitive touch screen in PyGame

The 2.8" Capacitive touch screen driver may not work by default in pygame, but this handy script shows how you can

capture the device messages in python to create a UI

https://github.com/PrzemoF/pitft_touchscreen (https://adafru.it/C2d)

here's another option

https://github.com/nift4/pigame (https://adafru.it/CYv)

For examples:

https://github.com/nift4/Raspberry-Pi-Testing (https://adafru.it/CYy)

F.A.Q.

The display works, but the capacitive touch part doesnt

Check that you installed the right image, there's one for resistive and one for capacitive PiTFT's

If that doesn't help, you can verify your RasPi model number with the command cat /proc/cpuinfo, if it's revision #

0002 or 0003 that means it's a rev 1 Model B, and will not work due to the I2C pins changing.

Does this screen do multi-touch?

Nope! This capacitive touch screen is single-touch only.

Hey...I was looking at the FT6206 datasheet and it looks like it can support multitouch (two points)!

The chip does in fact support multitouch, but the screen layout itself is single-touch.

We'll keep looking for a low cost multitouch screen, but we found that at the small size of this screen, single-touch is

pretty good! Also, very few linux programs support MT.

How do I automatically boot to X windows on the PiTFT?

Check out the 2.8" resistive PiTFT FAQ for an answer to this common question.

I have some more questions!

Check out the 2.8" Resistive PiTFT FAQ page for some other questions you may want answered

https://adafru.it/dJ2

Downloads

Files

The latest kernel fork that adds all the TFT, touchscreen, and other addons is here on

github (https://adafru.it/aPa)

Datasheet for the 'raw' 2.8" TFT display (https://adafru.it/sEt)

FT6206 Datasheet (https://adafru.it/sEu) & App note (https://adafru.it/dRn) (capacitive chip)

EagleCAD PCB files on GitHub (https://adafru.it/oYC)

Schematic for Pi 1 Version

Schematic for PiTFT Plus (B+/Pi 2 shape)

Fabrication Print (Pi 1 Version)

Dimensions in Inches

Fabrication Print (B+/Pi 2 Version)

Dimensions in mm