CrowPanel Pico Display-4.3 inch 320*240 HMI Module TFT LCD Touchscreen with RP2040

The Display from CrowPanel is combined with a Raspberry Pi Pico for a really good price (30-40$) and provides the following list of very usable features:

  • 4.3 inch Pico Display: 320*240 resolution, IPS Panel, capacitive touch and support multi-touch
  • RP2040 Microcontroller: Equipped with a 32-bit dual-core chip, it achieves a maximum clock frequency of 133 MHz.
  • Wireless connection: Support 4GHz IEEE 802.11b/g/n and 5GHz spectrum range, support Bluetooth 5.0 and BLE
  • Supports low-power sleep and hibernation modes, promoting energy conservation and environmental consciousness.
  • Interfaces, including I2C, UART, IO ports, USB, a lithium battery interface, and a buzzer alarm.
  • Arduino IDE
  • LVGL graphics library support
  • C/C++ programming language
  • Official CrowPanel site

I ordered 3 boards directly from CrowPanel to use them for my project-ideas.

This are the steps needed to get the development-environment in place and prepare the boards for implementation of my custom requirements:

  1. Setup development environment
  2. Run first Demo
  3. Setup own project
    – Add LVGL-library
  4. Tips & Tricks

Setup development environment

To setup the Arduino IDE please follow these instructions: Arduino Setup

Next we have to install the RP2040 Core in the Arduino IDE. In the Preferences Dialog go to the Settings Tab. At the bottom you will see “Additional boards manager URLs:”. Click on the button to the right to open the URL editor and add “https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico/releases/download/global/package_rp2040_index.json”.

Next we need to install the RP2040 Boards. Go to Tools -> Board -> Board Manager and search for pico using the search bar. Install the Raspberry Pi Pico/RP2040 boards. Be patient, the installation will take a while.

Once the installation of the RP2040 core is completed go the Board Manager and select the “Adafruit Feather RP2040 DVI” board.

Before we can draw or write anything on the Pico Display we need to install the PicoDVI library. Open the Library Manager, search for PicoDVI and install the PicoDVI – Adafruit Fork