Waveshare 128x128 pixel LCD display with controller is perfect for Pico-8

Sat, 03 Aug 2019 11:33:01 UTC

At 128 x 128 pixels, the Waveshare 1.44 inch display with controller is a perfect fit for Pico-8.

The screen Driver being installed, requires a Waveshare 1.44" 128x128 pixel colour LCD display, with joystick & 3 buttons which utilises an ST7735S controller.

Amazon UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B077YK8161
Amazon US link: https://www.amazon.com/waveshare-1-44inch-LCD-HAT-Interface/dp/B0781BNC9L/

Built, tested and confirmed working with both Raspbian Stretch lite and Buster lite-based images.

Begin by writing a fresh Raspbian Stretch or Buster Lite image to a 4GB or larger MicroSD card using your favoured image writing tool.

Caution:

Raspbian Buster appears to generate more heat after short periods on a Pi ZeroWH than Stretch does.

Whichever image you begin your build with, please monitor CPU temperature during use. I won't be held responsible for a baked Pi!

A Pi ZeroW can be set-up headless if a properly configured "wpa_supplicant.conf" and a blank file named "ssh" are copied to the root of the MicroSD card, after writing the image but before unplugging and inserting into the Pi.

ON FIRST BOOT

SSH into the Pi or plug-in a keyboard and monitor. Login with username "pi" and password "raspberry"

sudo raspi-config

Expand the filesystem
Set boot to CLI with auto-login
enable SPI
disable VNC
disable serial

I recommend changing the default password from "raspberry" to something more secure while you're still in raspi-config.

You may also wish to change the hostname while you're in here. I named mine pico8, so I can ssh to pico8.local from other machines for maintenance.

Exit raspi-config and reboot with

sudo reboot

Once rebooted, login as pi, then update and upgrade the OS and programs:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Reboot once again and re-login if recommended by the upgrade process

Let's begin by getting Pico8 running on the Pi

sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev wiringpi
wget https://t.co/jZy96cDeCC?amp=1 -O sndio-1.2.0.tar.gz
tar -xf sndio-1.2.0.tar.gz
cd sndio-1.2.0
./configure
make
sudo make install
cd ~

Use SFTP (or USB) to transfer your personal Pico download zip file into /home/pi folder

Unzip your Pico8 Raspberry Pi zip file into /home/pi.
This should create a /home/pi/pico-8 folder, which will contain all of the files required to run Pico8.

Now we’ll get the Waveshare 1.44" 128x128 pixel LCD display hat working on the Pi

cd ~
sudo apt-get install git cmake
git clone https://github.com/tasanakorn/rpi-fbcp
cd rpi-fbcp/
mkdir build
cd build/
cmake ..
make
sudo install fbcp /usr/local/bin/fbcp

cd ~

wget http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/bcm2835/bcm2835-1.59.tar.gz
tar zxvf bcm2835-1.59.tar.gz
cd bcm2835-1.59/
./configure
make
sudo make check
sudo make install

Open and edit the modules file to enable the additional modules required to make the LCD function.

sudo nano /etc/modules

Append the two lines below to the end of the file, save and exit.

spi-bcm2835
fbtft_device

We need to create a new file for the fbtft configuration

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/fbtft.conf

Add the following lines to the empty file and save it.

# /etc/modprobe.d/fbtft.conf
options fbtft_device name=adafruit18_green gpios=reset:27,dc:25,cs:8,led:24 speed=40000000 bgr=1 fps=60 custom=1 height=128 width=128 rotate=180

Fortunately for us, Adafruit created a GPIO controller driver, so let's use this to make the Waveshare hat's controller and buttons work in pico-8.

cd ~
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts/master/retrogame.sh >retrogame.sh
sudo bash retrogame.sh

On the option screen, Select “6 buttons + joystick”. We’ll edit the resulting config file a little later to fit the 3 button and joystick layout of our hat.

Once installed; at the reboot prompt, type “N” so as NOT to reboot your Pi.

Now we’ll edit the configuration file installed and used by Adafruit’s retrogamer driver, to configure the correct number of buttons for the Waveshare hat.

sudo nano /boot/retrogame.cfg

Use CTRL-K to remove all lines from the file and paste the following lines into the now empty file before saving it and exiting nano.

LEFT    5   # Joypad left
RIGHT   26  # Joypad right
UP      6   # Joypad up
DOWN    19  # Joypad down
Z       20  # Button 3
X       16  # Button 2
ESC     21  # Button 1

Please ensure each entry is on a separate line as displayed above.

At this stage, we can set the correct display settings for the Waveshare 128x128 LCD within the file config.txt

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add to the end of the file and beginning on a new/empty line, the following lines:

display_rotate=1
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=87
hdmi_cvt=128 128 60 1 0 0 0
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

Save the file and exit nano.

Now let's put this all together and have Pico-8 run in "splore" mode at boot.

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

This file should should be as below. (All we're adding to the file are three lines near the end, each beginning with sudo):

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

# Print the IP address
_IP=$(hostname -I) || true
if [ "$_IP" ]; then
  printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"
fi

sudo /usr/local/bin/fbcp &
sudo /usr/local/bin/retrogame &
sudo /home/pi/pico-8/pico8 -splore &

exit 0

Save this file and exit nano.

Shutdown and power-off the pi with

sudo shutdown now

Wait for the pi to shutdown, unplug the power-cable and connect the Waveshare LCD hat onto the GPIO connectors.

Be careful to connect the hat in the correct orientation, onto all 40 GPIO pins.

Plug-in, power-up and enjoy all colourful 128x128 pixels of Pico-8 glory on a tiny, square display and in complete silence!

Connect the Pi to the Internet via Wi-Fi (ZeroW), then use the joystick and KEY2 to update and download Pico-8 programs directly to the Pi.