Getting Started with 320 x 240 TFT Touchscreen Module

Getting Started with 320 x 240 TFT Touchscreen Module

PiTFT 2.8″ Touchscreen Display is a mini display for Raspberry Pi designed by Adafruit. It features a 2.8″ display with 320×240 16-bit color pixels and a resistive 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. Today, I will share the basic steps to start using PiTFT. You can explore more at the resources linked below.

STEPS

1. Prepare your Raspberry Pi, 320 x 240 TFT Touchscreen Module, SD card (8Gb or more), 5V 2A USB adapter and USB Micro B Cable.
2. Download and install Win32DiskImager from Sourceforge. This software is used to write Raspberry Pi OS image into the SD card.

Win32DiskImager

3. Download modified Raspbian OS by Adafruit and extract it. You should get the image file. This OS is specially modified for this type of PiTFT.

PiTFTOS

4. Insert your SD card into laptop. Make sure it is empty, or you can format it.
5. Open Win32DiskImager. Make sure the Device list is your SD card path. Click on the folder icon, open modified Raspbian OS by Adafruit that you have download before.

open

6. Click Write button, it will popup confirmation message, just proceed with Yes. It will take about 10 minutes to finish.

confirm

7. After that, safely eject your SD card from laptop and insert into Raspberry Pi.
8. Stack PiTFT on top of Raspberry Pi and power it up using 5V 2A USB adapter and USB micro B cable.

 

Congratulations, your PiTFT touchscreen display is now set up!

3

*You still need to connect a keyboard to Raspberry Pi for configuration purpose.

RESOURCES

If you want to explore more about PiTFT, please visit Adafruit Learning Page.