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LCD upgrade?

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Robert Mangano, Sep 21, 2018.

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  1. Robert Mangano

    Robert Mangano New Member

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    Hey guys. Anyone know if it’s possible to upgrade the TFT screen with a capacitive touch screen so it will actually respond to touch? I see a couple 5” options on Banggood, but I’m not savvy enough to know if they’ll work or brave enough to risk the money.
     
    #1 Robert Mangano, Sep 21, 2018
  2. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Last I heard it was in the works to implement in the next gen R2. I dont know what it will take to implement in the R2
     
    #2 Geof, Sep 21, 2018
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You can do it yourself, but you need to be able to work with the RaspberryPi (at a minimum to load/configure the drivers). The ones used stock have different drivers. As long as it works with a Pi you can get it to work on the printer.
     
    #3 mark tomlinson, Sep 21, 2018
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  4. Robert Mangano

    Robert Mangano New Member

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    The one I was looking at actually says driver-free plug & play. Just curious as to why no one seems to have attempted this yet, especially those who are replacing faulty units. If it’s price, that makes sense to me, but sometimes I’m tapping on that screen for 20-30 seconds before it responds.

    I just had my CD card die and I thought it might be the screen at first, so I was looking for replacements just in case. I fixed the issue by reflashing an SD card, so the touch screen is working, but it's unresponsive again. Make me really want to fix Robo's judgment call of using these cheap TFT touch screens.

    Here's the one I was looking at:

    https://www.banggood.com/5-Inch-800...berry-PI-3-Model-B2-Model-BBAB-p-1054289.html

    (MOD: fixed that for you)

    I'm willing to give it a shot...I don't know Pi at all, but I've been building PCs since the 486 DX2 66 days, so I'm sure I can work through it.
     
    #4 Robert Mangano, Sep 21, 2018
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 21, 2018
  5. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I replaced mine with a direct replacement and it is responsive to touch (I use my fingers) I'd make sure you dont have plastic bits touching the edges of the screen. It will read that as a touch. If its plug and play throw it in. Worse case is it isn't and the seller has to refund ya :D
     
    #5 Geof, Sep 21, 2018
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Drivers or not you will need to be able to reconfigure the Raspberry Pi to use it (set resolution, etc) and I'd take that "driver free" bit with a grain of salt :)

    If you are of a mind to then get one, test it standalone with your SD Card in a Pi (or a COPY or your SD Card -- you DO have a copy made -- right?) :)




    P.S. you do not want to have to go asking Robo for a new copy of your printers SD card...
     
    #6 mark tomlinson, Sep 21, 2018
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  7. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Just to make sure you know, that linked to Banggood screen is not capacitive, it is resistive and basically the same screen as what is already installed in the R2. It is a clone of the Waveshare 5" TFT screen.
     
    #7 WheresWaldo, Sep 21, 2018
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  8. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    #8 WheresWaldo, Sep 21, 2018
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  9. CdRsKuLL

    CdRsKuLL Member

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    I've ordered a screen off Amazon which will be here on Sunday. Although I haven't got an R2 (yet), I have found the Micro SD image so in theory, I should be able to run it on my PI and see if it's working. Even link it to my JGAurora A5 as that's Marlin based for testing.

    This is the one I bought. I got it as it seems to have the same fixing holes on the PCB as the one in the R2 (from photos). Also, the usb is on the other side so I can't see any immediate installation problems.

    Waveshare 5inch HDMI LCD (H) 800x480 Hardware Resolution Capacitive Touch Screen - £56.99 from Amazon
    screen.JPG

    I'll let you know when it turns up. Oh, the RoboOS PI image, are they all the same? I'm assuming all the data for the printer is held in the eeprom on the ramps board.

    Thanks,

    Steve
     
    #9 CdRsKuLL, Sep 28, 2018
  10. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Actually a lot of the data is stored on the rPi, as well as the network name. Shouldn't be a big deal either way. If you are familiar enough with Raspbian it isn't really insurmountable. The two things you will need to do is install the correct LCD driver, it is not driverless if you plan on using the touchscreen, and you will need to calibrate the touchscreen so that if you press a button it is in the correct part of the screen. It isn't simply plug and play. Then again, you might get lucky and all the pieces just drop in place. Document and start a thread in the Mods section if you are successful.
     
    #10 WheresWaldo, Sep 28, 2018
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  11. CdRsKuLL

    CdRsKuLL Member

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    Will do, and thanks for the info. Shouldn't be that hard to get it up and running. :) (famous last words)

    I'll let you know in a couple of days if it's all worked out.

    Thanks,

    Steve
     
    #11 CdRsKuLL, Sep 28, 2018
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yep, we used a screen very much like that with the BarBot we built on a Raspberry Pi. Not too difficult to get the drivers loaded and get it running. You should be able to tweak their image (make a backup before and after).
     
    #12 mark tomlinson, Sep 28, 2018
  13. CdRsKuLL

    CdRsKuLL Member

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    Thanks Mark :)

    Well, I downloaded the image and put it on a spare rPi.. it now boots and got it to display on my tv.. well the logo comes up but then it says connection interrupted which is no surprise as it's not connected to any printer. Still it's a start.. lol

    robo.jpg

    robo2.JPG

    Might try and find out the baud it's looking for to see if I can get it to run on one of my other printers.

    Steve
     
    #13 CdRsKuLL, Sep 28, 2018
  14. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    It is just a USB connection. Robo default 115200.
     
    #14 WheresWaldo, Sep 28, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2018
  15. CdRsKuLL

    CdRsKuLL Member

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    Thanks, It was late last night and I wasn't thinking straight.

    I've now got it connected to my printer, it says it's now ready to print :) but as I've no touchscreen yet I can't do anything. It then comes up with an update available message which I can't click. I've tried plugging in a mouse on the off chance a curser will appear but it doesn't.

    roboready.jpg

    O well, will need to play a little more.

    Thanks,
     
    #15 CdRsKuLL, Sep 29, 2018
  16. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    OctoPrint and Marlin both default to 250000. Why Robo chose 115200 I can only guess, their controller is cheap and doesn't work well at higher speeds (That's my guess). I also noticed that they just lowered some print speed parameters in their latest commits to GITHUB. Again, another guess, their printer just isn't as reliably fast as they thought it was.
     
    #16 WheresWaldo, Sep 29, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2018
  17. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    If you are missing the touch screen functionality then the drivers for the Pi are not loaded correctly (or not loaded at all)
     
    #17 mark tomlinson, Sep 29, 2018
  18. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    No TV I know has touch
     
    #18 WheresWaldo, Sep 29, 2018
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    #19 mark tomlinson, Sep 29, 2018
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2018
  20. CdRsKuLL

    CdRsKuLL Member

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    No, sadly my 65" screen isn't touch. :-(

    So, after a bit more looking and reading the current touchscreen connects via the GPIO pins, where this new one connects via USB. Now, I'm thinking it all depends on how it's coded and what's being monitored I guess. The current touchscreen is setup in the config.txt file in the root drive..

    dtoverlay=ads7846,cs=1,penirq=25,penirq_pull=2,speed=50000,keep_vref_on=0,swapxy=0,pmax=255,xohms=150,xmin=200,xmax=3900,ymin=200,ymax=3900

    But this won't be used in the new one. Should arrive in the morning so I'll play more then. Thanks,
     
    #20 CdRsKuLL, Sep 29, 2018
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