Support for ST77916

[utopiaeh]

Hi, guys, I’m literally new to microcontrollers. I just got my Pico 2 W and this display. I’m trying to figure out how to connect and use it, but I haven’t gotten any results—so far, the only thing I managed is making the backlight blink. I would really appreciate any help to get this display working. After some research, I couldn’t find any MicroPython library for it. Maybe someone has already made it work using this builder. Thanks!

Images

MCU: Pico2 W
Display: ST77916

[kdschlosser]

If you were using an ESP32 it would be easy to get up and running. The Pico MCU is the issue. You should consider picking up an ESP32-S3 with at 8MB of PSRAM and 8MB of Flash. You can use one that has less flash and ram but you are only talking a dollar or 2 difference in the price of the board.

https://www.amazon.com/Espressif-ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1-N32R16V-Development-Board/dp/B0FDG3WJDX?crid=1EO2FFP9USOUF&sprefix=esp32-s3-wroom-2-n32r8v%2Caps%2C116&sr=8-3

that devkit in the link has 32mb of flash and 16mb of ram. both the flash and the ram are octal SPI so it's pretty quick. Built in blueteeth and wifi and an ample number of GPIO's. at 17 bucks it's not all that expensive. I know it's not as cheap as the Pico which is in the 13 dollar area but you get the added memory and flash which is an important thing to have when you are working with a GUI.

as far as a display driver goes. because of the way I wrote the binding code adding display drivers is a snap to do. But again there is no support for the pico and not using quad SPI. I could get it working if using single lane SPI but not quad.

[utopiaeh]

Thanks for the reply. I understand what you meant. The main issue is Amazon doesn’t work in my region and shipping can cost up to $100, which is a lot. I found my Pico 2 W on AliExpress so shipping was cheaper. I will try to find another MCU. I want to build a dashboard controller for my car. The MCU’s sole purpose is to display a board info like temperature, etc. This display fits perfectly in the dashboard instead of the logo. 😅

[utopiaeh]

Holy moly! I’m a lucky man — I found an ESP32-WROVER-B LilyGO in my box of electronics. :D

[kdschlosser]

If you use an S3 you can attach a CAN transceiver to it as it has built in CAN capabilities. otherwise you will need to use an SPI CAN interface. IDK if the vehicle you are connecting it to has a CAN network to collect data or if you are going to read raw sensor input.

Take a look at these videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35j4p78OJAs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiq3RKSpnZo

That is a controller I made for my vehicle. It controls an electric water pump and the radiator fan. It is tied into the HCAV system and there are 3 temperature sensors that monitor engine coolant temperature. I use PWM to control the speed of the pump so I was able to remove the thermostat using the pump to do the work of the thermostat. It works quite well. Another thing I also did was I added a transparent OLED HUD to my car. That is tied into the CAN network in the car to collect things like speed, engine RPM TPMS pressures etc...

You are using a small display so you won't have too much of an issue using an ESP32 because you can keep the frame buffers small enough so that they will fit in the internal memory in DMA space. When you use larger displays you will really want to have an S3 because the S3 you can get so the RAM is connected to the ESP32 using an octal SPI interface. and if you get one that has enough RAM (> 4mb) you can turn on a feature that will load the entire firmware into RAM on boot so the execution times of the code will
be faster. the SPI RAM is also DMA addressable on the S3 as well.

[kdschlosser]

I will look into your display driver and see what is needed to get that up and running for ya.

[utopiaeh]

I will look into your display driver and see what is needed to get that up and running for ya.

Did some research and bought an ESP32-S3 😄. Waiting for delivery to try it 😅

[kdschlosser]

ok the driver is done.

[kdschlosser]

I didn't notice if your display has a touchscreen, If it does what is the model of the IC for that? If I don't have one already I will add it.

[kdschlosser]

Now when you use quad SPI on the S3 there are specific pins you want to connect it to in order to get the best performance. we have to wait until you get the board so I can tell you what pins to connect to because sometimes the numbering gets jumbled up between pin numbers and actual GPIO numbers.

[utopiaeh]

I didn't notice if your display has a touchscreen, If it does what is the model of the IC for that? If I don't have one already I will add it.

According specification id does not have a touch