Arduino UNO with TFT Display and free pins.

[Athanasis]

Hi guys. I was looking for a way to connect a TFT display to my Arduino and still have free analogue PINS to control in and out. From what I see all such displays come with a shield and they close all the arduino UNO pins.

Any solutions out there?

Thanks !

[tszaboo]

Get a Mega.

[Athanasis]

Get a Mega.

Isn't there any solution with the arduino UNO? In which way does a TFT display make use of analogue ins / outs anyway?

[Athanasis]

What about this shit guys. Please throw some light. I am sure I can do fucking something with it !  + They call it "Nokia 5110 LCD Module with White Backlight " in ebay... Something with bigger size and resolution would be ok ! Any ideas?

[tszaboo]

What about this shit guys. Please throw some light. I am sure I can do fucking something with it !

Language!
The LCD shield not necessarily uses all the pins, but it has it connected on the shield, because that is how a connector work.
You need to post the LCD you want to use. And learn to express yourself nicely.

[FreddyVictor]

go for one of the cheap TFT LCD screens: 128x128 or 128 x 160
they use SPI and only need 5 pins for Write-only (+1 for Read)
lots of code available on the web

later you can move on up to the bigger ones with minimal changes to your code

[Ian.M]

Touchscreen display shields tend to use analog pins for the touchscreen,  A typical resistive touchscreen needs four I/Os capable of digital output and analog input.
You also get idiots who bundle stuff like micro-SD card readers on their display shields without providing an easy way to disable them to regain the pins  they use.

[dferyance]

The LCD shield not necessarily uses all the pins, but it has it connected on the shield, because that is how a connector work.

I've used a bunch of LCD shields and I don't know of any that used all the pins. Yeah, many connect them all but that is just for stacking. I like the https://www.adafruit.com/products/1651 screen but of course it depends on what you want to do with it. If you get something SPI like this, it doesn't use too many pins. This one has a touchscreen controller so you don't need to use any analog pins. I even did some hardware modifications on mine - cutting traces, adding wires - to re-map pins for better use on the Intel Galileo. So if you don't like the connections it makes, you might be able to re-route some of them.

[Athanasis]

Wowwww. I didn't expect that much help  ! Thank you people. Lots of suggestions given. I really appreciate it.

....You also get idiots who bundle stuff like micro-SD card readers on their display shields without providing an easy way to disable them to regain the pins  they use.

Right. I really don't need the micro-SD card reader at this point. An average screen for some lines and circles is enough for me. I don't even need the "touch" part.

Also the adafruit suggestion by dferyance above is a bit expensive. Its not the price, but if you plan to resell your final project you need something really really cheap like the suggestions given by FreddyVictor. Thanks Ian for the info which is good news for me. Come on NANDBlog aboiut the language. We are not kids. Give 1-2 fucks wouldn't harm anyone !!!  These forums are liberal enough I think.

Thank you friends again !

[westfw]

From what I see all such displays come with a shield and they close all the arduino UNO pins.

Can you be more specific about which displays you are looking at, and what "close" means?

Most displays are designed to be "on top" of a stack of shields, so they don't use stacking connectors, but that doesn't mean that they are actually using all of the pins.  You have to connect your other signals to some shield "underneath" the display, and no longer have the luxury of just sticking wires into the connectors.  I mean, it's a DISPLAY and it's supposed to look nice!   For example, the Adafruit TFT display specifically says:

The display uses digital pins 13-9. Touchscreen controller requires digital pin 8. microSD pin requires digital #4. That means you can use digital pins 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and analog 0-5. Pin 4 is available if not using the microSD

[Mechatrommer]

Hi guys. I was looking for a way to connect a TFT display to my Arduino and still have free analogue PINS to control in and out. From what I see all such displays come with a shield and they close all the arduino UNO pins.
Any solutions out there?
Thanks !

get SPI tft instead of parallel...
http://www.ebay.com.my/itm/2-2-inch-2-2-SPI-TFT-LCD-Display-module-240x320-ILI9341-51-AVR-STM32-ARM-PIC-/311569442127?hash=item488afc654f:g:B2oAAOSwT5tWPHt7

[Athanasis]

Like said I prefer cheaper generic $3 staff rather than adafruit.