Product Details
This charming little display breakout is the ideal solution for adding a small, vivid, and super-bright display to any project. It uses 4-wire SPI for communication and has its own pixel-addressable frame buffer, making it compatible with all kinds of microcontrollers, even those with limited memory and few pins. The 1.9-inch display boasts 320x170 16-bit full-color pixels and is an IPS display, showing great colors up to 80 degrees off-axis in any direction. The TFT driver (ST7789) is similar to the well - known ST7735, and our Arduino library offers excellent support.
The breakout comes with the TFT display soldered on via a delicate flex - circuit connector. It also features an ultra - low - dropout 3.3V regulator, auto - reset circuitry, and a 3/5V level shifter, allowing you to use it with 3.3V or 5V power and logic. There's a microSD card holder on board, so you can easily load full - color bitmaps from a FAT16/FAT32 formatted microSD card (not included).
We've written a comprehensive open - source graphics library that can draw pixels, lines, rectangles, circles, text, and bitmaps, along with example code. The code is for Arduino but can be easily adapted to your preferred microcontroller. Wiring is a breeze; we recommend using the hardware SPI pins of your Arduino as software SPI is slower with this size display.
This display breakout has an 18 - pin 'EYE SPI' standard FPC connector with a flip - top connector. You can use an 18 - pin 0.5mm pitch FPC cable to connect to all GPIO pins and skip soldering.
Please note that this display was originally designed for smartwatches with a glass over the screen. Without something holding the screen down, the backlight may peel away from the TFT. You can prevent this by adding a plastic or glass cover, or using a bit of E6000 glue on the thin edges or a thin piece of tape to keep the TFT attached to the backlight.
Using this Adafruit display is straightforward. First, connect it to your microcontroller. You can use the hardware SPI pins on your Arduino for faster performance. If you don't want to solder, use the 18 - pin 0.5mm pitch FPC cable with the 'EYE SPI' standard FPC connector. To display images, insert a FAT16/FAT32 formatted microSD card into the card holder.
When using the display, be aware that it was initially designed for smartwatches with a glass cover. Without a cover, the backlight might peel away from the TFT. To avoid this, add a plastic or glass overlay. If you're using it without a cover, put a bit of E6000 glue on the thin edges or use a thin piece of tape.
For maintenance, keep the display clean. You can use a soft, dry cloth to wipe it. Also, make sure to handle it gently as the flex - circuit connector is delicate. If you're using the Arduino code, you can easily modify it to fit your project needs, as it can be ported to other microcontrollers.
