Pico-8 on Raspberry Pi with a ILI9341 2.2'' 320x240 SPI TFT
Here is a fast HOWTO get Pico-8 running on a 2.2'' TFT Display (ILI9341 board) and a Raspberry Pi.
I use a Raspi B+ here but it should work on all other versions too.
The display is a cheap one with 320x240 pixel. You should get one at ebay for about 5 bucks.
Setup your raspbian without connecting the TFT! I got strange errors at fistboot a fresh raspbian with the TFT connected. So at first:
Setup a fresh rasbian jessie(lite) SD card, boot up and setup the pi with "sudo raspi-config".
Enable the SPI-Interface under 'Advanced Options'.
(If you run Pico-8 on a GameBoy like keyboardless setup also enable the 'auto')
Setup your network.
Update raspian with 'sudo apt-get update' and 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade'. (reboot)
Update firmware with 'sudo apt-get install rpi-update' and 'sudo rpi-update' (reboot, shutdown)
Now let's wire up the TFT to your Raspi GPIO header.
The pin connections:
| GPIO | Pi | ILI9341 | ILI9341 | Pi | GPIO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3V3 | 1 | 1-VCC | 2 | 5V | |
| GPIO2 (SDA) | 3 | 4 | 5V | ||
| GPIO3 (SCL) | 5 | 2-GND | 6 | GND | |
| GPIO4 (GPCLK0) | 7 | 8 | GPIO14 (TXD) | ||
| GND | 9 | 10 | GPIO15 (RXD) | ||
| GPIO17 | 11 | 8-LED | 12 | GPIO18 (PCM-CLI) | |
| GPIO27 | 13 | 14 | GND | ||
| GPIO22 | 15 | 16 | GPIO23 | ||
| 3V3 | 17 | 5-D/C | 18 | GPIO24 | |
| GPIO10 (MOSI) | 19 | 6-SDI(MOSI) | 20 | GND | |
| GPIO9 (MISO) | 21 | 9-SDO (MISO) | 4-RESET | 22 | GPIO25 |
| GPIO11 (SCLK) | 23 | 7-SCK | 3-CS | 24 | GPIO8 (CE0) |
| GND | 25 | 26 | GPIO7 (CE1) |
(Note: It will run without it but just for the sake of savety add a 47..50 ohm resistor to the LED pin)
Edit the raspi config with 'sudo nano /boot/config.txt' and uncomment/change the framebuffer settings like this:
framebuffer_width=320
framebuffer_height=240
Check if SPI is enabled there. (dtparam=spi=on)
I also need to enable 'hdmi_drive' and fix the overscan to get sound and screen right over HDMI:
overscan_left=25
overscan_right=25
overscan_top=25
overscan_bottom=25
hdmi_drive=2
It' time to test the display.
Load the kernel module:
sudo modprobe fbtft_device custom name=fb_ili9341 gpios=reset:25,dc:24,led:18 speed=64000000 rotate=90 bgr=1
Turn on the console on TFT:
con2fbmap 1 1
BOOM! Now you should see something. If not... something went wrong (doubecheck config, wiring,...)
From here you can use console (and even GUI) on the TFT but if you start Pico-8 it will only comes up over HDMI. It's because Pico-8 is made with SDL2 that, unfortunately, does not support the frame buffer anymore.
Get over this:
Grab (or compile) 'rpi-fbcp' from Github and put it to your home directory. If TFT is still on, turn it off with 'con2fbmap 1 0'. Turn on 'rpi-fbcp':
./fbcp&
Now you should see the console on HDMI and TFT. (to turn it off again kill the process with the id you can see after fbcp started up like: 'sudo kill 810')
Now start up Pico-8 and have fun! But how to get Pico-8 start up at boot? First setup the module auto load:
Edit 'fttft.conf':
sudo nano /etc/modules-load.d/fbtft.conf
and add this:
spi-bcm2835
fbtft_device
save... and edit 'fbtft.conf':
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/fbtft.conf
and add:
options fbtft_device custom name=fb_ili9341 gpios=reset:25,dc:24,led:18 speed=64000000 rotate=90 bgr=1
(modify 'gpios', 'speed', 'rotate' settings to your needs, 'bgr=1' fixes a red/blue color issue)
Make 'fbcp' and 'pico-8' run at boot by editing 'rc.local':
sudo nano /etc/rc.local
and add this above 'exit 0':
cd /home/pi/
./fbcp &
cd /home/pi/pico8
./pico8 -splore
After reboot you should see Pico-8.
Note: Quitting Pico-8 from there doesn't work. I can't get console back after quit... So to change something on your setup you have to SSH into your raspi then.
Notes:
To get a smaller font in console run 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup' and select the smallest one you can find e.g. 'Terminus 6x12')