Displays can significantly enhance your DIY projects. This section will guide you through physically connecting displays to your microcontroller and programming firmware to display text, animations, and even videos.
Overview
Displays simplify DIY devices and projects by replacing multiple indicators and controls:
- Instead of managing numerous LEDs, you can design an interactive dashboard on a display.
- Sensor readings can be shown as text, gauges, or other visual elements instead of being sent to a terminal.
- With a touch screen, you can eliminate the need for physical buttons.
Using displays involves two main steps:
1. Wiring
Physically connect the display to your microcontroller. The wiring process depends on the display’s interface type:
- Some displays require as few as four wires (e.g., I2C interface).
- Others may need up to eight wires or even more (e.g., SPI or Parallel interfaces).
- Adding touch functionality typically requires an additional set of wires (up to five).
2. Programming
After wiring, program the firmware to control what the display shows. Fortunately, prebuilt libraries and components are available to handle most of the technical complexities, making it straightforward to display text, animations, and more.
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(content created Jan 22, 2025)