Arduino based project with a TFT touch Screen project idea + help - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: michalism
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2020, 11:42:06 am
content: Hello.First of all let me clarify that this topic is not a project presentation. I am still at the project draft phase, and I'm here to ask for help.For some time now I'm thinking to implement one of the numerous Arduino projects to build something as a learning exercise. I have not yet decided what to do, but I'm kind of inclined towards a function generator, a DC load or a soldering station.Last month, I bought an Arduino Uno together with a TFT touch screen, so I'm thinking to use it as the basis of the project, but I am not sure if it is a good idea since I have the impression that it will be too complicated for no good reason.If I got it right, I will need two Arduinos: one for the TFT screen and one to control whatever function I decide to implement.Since I am a beginner, does it make any sence to go down that path?Isn't it better to focus on a simpler project now (ie. ditch the touch screen), or two separate ones and later on undertake a more complicated mega project?I'm so confused that I haven't done anything waiting to make a decision, but this is getting rediculous.Any kind of ideas or suggestions will help!

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2020, 01:01:25 pm
content: Stay away from multiple cooperating MCUs for now - you *DON'T* need the grief the complexity will bring, and it can be a total PITA to debug a setup like that.It very much depends which touchscreen you've got as that determines how many I/O pins it needs. On an Arduino Uno, a parallel interface resistive touch screen using the Uno's ADC pins wouldn't leave you many free I/Os. The complexity of your application is also important as that will to a great extent determine how much RAM and program memory it needs, and therefore whether it will fit in the 31.5K user program memory and 2K RAM of a Uno at the same time as the GUI routines for the touchscreen.Unless your project is pretty simple, I'd strongly recommend using an Arduino Mega 2560 with your touch screen, as that gives you 248K user program memory 8K RAM, 54 digital IOs and 16 ADC input pins, so any touchscreen that works with a Uno would use an insignificant proportion of its resources.

author: MasterT
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2020, 09:48:58 pm
content: Alternative to AtMega2560 with TFT+touch interface could be arduino UNO with Nokia5110+ Rotary encoder as HMI. Or if you advanced yourself into stm32F3 / F4, there are nucleo-64 series produced by STM in arduino form factor, and has more pins on additional two pin headers. stm32 also re-draws screen much faster, having more than 10 times faster cpu clock.

author: michalism
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2020, 06:12:33 am
content: Thanks for the replies.I am aware of the Arduino Mega and the other options, but since I only have the Uno and Nano in my possession I will proceed with what I have.As I said, I am a beginner with Arduino, and I haven't done any programming since college (~20 years ago) and I just want to start learning.I've already wasted a lot of time looking for a nice project, fancy implementations, etc and I feel like I'm drifting away from the basics :pSo, I'll stick to a sinlge board (Uno or Nano) and a 16x2 LCD or 1.3" OLED display.