I am in search for a 1080p (Full HD) portable 15.6/16" capacitive IPS display for my barebone Raspi5 setup with Oram. Not very keen about having another pair of keyboard+mouse stealing space from my desk, I aim at getting closer to the (optimal) official kit operation.
Any recommendations from @zynthianers?
The market happens not to be exactly flooded with mid-size portable touchscreen solutions for Raspberry, and I am not really interested in anything under 14", preferring the 16" form factor definitely.
A while ago I tried an otherwise excellent Atlantis model available on Amazon Italy, but unfortunately I did not manage - for how hard I tried - to make it work with Raspi in touch mode (i.e. channelling the mixed display signal through both HDMI for image and USB-A for touch tracking). As it seems, Raspberry does not turn out to be very plug-and-play-ish, when it comes to external touchscreens.
Finding a compatible touchscreen that integrates seamlessly with the Pi can be challenging. Have you looked into the SunFounder 15.6" IPS Capacitive Touchscreen Display? It’s designed with Raspberry Pi compatibility in mind, supporting touch input via USB. Some forum users have successfully used it, although initial setup may require configuration.
Yes, from what I’ve seen now, most of the touch displays around that size use a full function USB-C port wich can handle video output.
Unfotunately RBPI 4 or 5 do not offer that feature, so you’re stuck on a HDMI + USB touch solution.
Thank you, for kindly pointing me at a possible 15.6 touchscreen solution for Raspi5. From here in Europe, I’ve not been able to find any sites offering that model for purchase.
It appears to be unavailable or sold-out even in the Sunfounder’s home page. Do you maybe have some references as to where to possibly order this item?
At the bottom of each vaweshare display product page, there is a table wich synthetise all their products. They have a really bunch of them, with various interface (SPI, DPI, HDMI or DSI as in v5) and in various size.
And a link to the Wiki’s product page <= have a look at it
Hey @ToFF, many thanks, this Waveshare touchscreen looks very promising, and pretty much what I am looking for.
It obviously requires some interesting CAD+3D printing, to evolve in a stable desktop enclosure.
I might also think at refashioning the whole thing into a slightly larger box, which hosts my Argon Neo 5 aluminium case in an open window, for heat dissipation.
This would make for a complete standalone Zynthian Rpi5 with Nvme, if I hooked a proper audio board to the GPIO connector. This is a project to which I could definitely give some consideration…
I have received and put into action on Pi5 with Oram a Waveshare 15.6 capacitive touchscreen.
It works perfectly and has a very high-quality LCD image. Navigating the UI is obviously not as fluid as with the official V5 kit, but overall feels smooth and intuitive, apart from a few functions which I have not yet been able to identify in touch mode.
On the downside:
it has a basic and rather light ABS enclosure, with a flimsy extendable support on the back, extremely unstable for desktop usage.
It is very sensitive to different micro USB cables for touch control. The provided micro USB to USB A adapter (with ferrite bead shielding) is definitely short and thus not very handy, while a host of my other similar wirings without ferrite cylinder seem not to work at all. EDIT: I have been able to transmit the touch operation through a micro-USB to USB A female adapter, which maybe includes some kind of protector/enhancer of the data flow.
Oram does not recognise the touch function at startup, but only if I disconnect and reconnect the cable thereafter. I pulled an issue notice on the github tracker.
I recently added yet another bare-bone Oram to my small collection of Zynths, this time to recycle a spare Pi4 (I’ll show you the small pleasant kit very soon).
Again, and with a different size and brand of external screen, the touch function does not work straight away at startup. More precisely, it reads only the first touch action, but thereafter I need to unplug-plug the USB-A transmitting cable.
I feel that I may have asked it before, but is there a way to auto-run some kind of command line instruction, for Zynthian to be forced to recognise the touch function of an the HDMI-hooked screen? This seems to work by default with Raspberry OS, but not with Oram.
Hi @tunagenes! Thank you for the kind and prompt feedback. I don’t really have such a deep expertise in setting up bootstrap scripts on Raspbian/Zynth, thus could you maybe expand a bit more, to the risk of being pedantic, on how to proceed, according to the info written in your linked post?
I can equally program the Zynthian operations through shell/terminal on Win or Mac, so no issues of sort on this end, and I would operate on Mac since it looks less prone to problems.
How do I exactly substitute the default configuration commands at startup? Where should they be written once made executable with chmod?
Sorry for asking probably menial questions, from the standpoint of a seasoned coder.
This line installs uhubctl, it’s only done once, the sudo (Super User Do) just allows the apt-get command to be done.
This line puts you in the directory zynthian/config - only done once, but Zynthian knows to look there duriing startup.
Remove (delete) the file zynthian_custom_config.sh so we can create it cleanly.
Create the file zynthian_custom_config.sh with the single line which invokes the nuhubctl command. This is the whole point - this command will be done at every startup, because the file we created is run at every startup.
Make the file we created executable. Just done once.
I’m not all that certain this will do what you want, but I thought it would point you in the right direction - you can put whatever commands you find work in zynthian_custom_config.sh and Zynthian will run them at every startup.
Some additional points, at the risk of being pedantic, or stating the obvous :
The line:
echo -e >zynthian_custom_config.sh ‘#!/bin/bash\nuhubctl -l 1 -a 0’
creates the file with the command in it. You could also use your editor of choice, subject to the complication re Linux-Unix line ends discussed in @fussl 's original post. The command looks a bit weird (#!) - those are ‘escape characters-sequences’.
You can either use SSH to get a Commnd Line Terminal or open one in webconf or probably dozens of other ways, those are the 2 I know.
What we’re dealing with here are BASH Shell Commands-Scripts.
Many thanks @tunagenes, for your comprehensive survey of the workflow, for implementing the automated touch detection on a custom Z build.
Will try it and get back to you! (I realised yesterday that I had become a bit rusty on the CLI stuff side, but I have also been very busy lately, so I definitely needed a welcome refresh on some operations).
Before you do all that complex resetting of the display, have you checked you are not being impacted by this bug or those linked to it? Check your log during or just after such an error, e.g. in webconf, INTERFACE->UI Log.
First of all, flash Last Stable, try to update to the latest Vangelis, because there are many bugfixes, including screen/touch rotation configurable in the advanced view of Webconf.
This actually creates a file with two lines looking like this:
#!/bin/bash
uhubctl -l 1 -a 0
The first line is to make the file recognisable as a shell script, the second line actuallly invokes uhubctl that deactivates USB hub at level 1, the USB 2.0 ports, to restart connected touch hardware.
Don’t worry, Zynthian will activate the hub and attached devices again as needed.
If that does not work, you may try the command uhubctl alone on the terminal and see on the output where the screen is connected and use the shown level number or as crapshot just try all in the range of
uhubctl -l 0 -a 0
uhubctl -l 1 -a 0
uhubctl -l 2 -a 0
uhubctl -l 3 -a 0
and see if one of them works.
If this all does not work, then the touch controller is likely affected by anothe bug or it just needs some driver installed as specified by manufacturer, which can be done as defined in their help/docs, because the Zynthian is based on RaspiOS.
First off, thanks for your extensive and coordinated feedback. I will check the potential bug pointed out by @riban, and will evaluate if the detailed procedure kindly explained by @tunagenes and @fussl is worth the objective effort of system customisation.
Sure, if it works it will give to any DIY tailored Zynthian system the professional feel of not having to disconnect and reconnect an USB cable. Moreover, it would enable to encase such custom kits inside an enclosure without visible connectors, which is unfeasible now, due to the need for activating the touch function manually.
Thank you again for all of your help: I will ponder my options, and possibly get back to you with some outcome of the suggested procedures.
Hi @fussl, I am already on the latest Oram Stable, freshly flashed and duly updated. I don’t plan to switch to Vangelis for this specific build. Thank you for the suggestion anyway!
Obviously, it’s your call. But I would think it’s worthwhile to see if Vangelis just works. You can always go back to Oram Stable for this build if you prefer. And a fix in Vangelis today just might make its way into Oram Stable tomorrow or the day after.
all their products. They have a really bunch of them, with various interface (