Add a 1.5 inch st7789 spi display

• This display is perfect, if you want to build a small device-like player or net radio showing the title or broadcast information.
• Together with a RPi Zero W and a HiFiBerry MiniAMP or small mono DAC/amp Audio Amp SHIM (pic below), you get a complete solution.

What we need

• Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or Zero WH
• 8GB Micro SD card
• Cheap 1.54 inch LCD display, 240x240
• Some jumper wires, female to female
• Powersupply, 5V, 2,5 A

Steps

Step 1 - Connect the display

• Connect the display to your RPi (see picture below).

• As I do not need backlight adjustment, I didn’t connect the BLK pin.

Step 2 - Prepare SD card

• Put a fresh pCP8 image on to the SD card—see Burn piCorePlayer onto a SD card.
• While the SD card is still in the laptop/pc, edit the following three files:

• Enter wifi access data in wpa_supplicant.conf.sample and “save as” wpa_supplicant.conf.

# This is the details about your Wireless network. Configure as needed.
# Most will just need to change the ssid and psk.

network={
        ssid="Your wifi"
        psk="some password"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        auth_alg=OPEN
}

• Open cmdline.txt file and add these parameters to the end. All of the parameters in cmdline.txt must be on one continuous line, with a space between each command.

fbcon=map:10 fbcon=font:VGA8x16

• Add the following lines to config.txt, in the Custom configuration area at the end of the file (between the Begin-Custom and End-Custom lines).

#---Begin-Custom-(Do not alter Begin or End Tags)-----
dtoverlay=st7789v-spi,dc_pin=9,reset_pin=25,cs=1,rotation=90
gpio=25=op,dh
#---End-Custom------------------------

• Unfortunately in pCP7 the overlay st7789v-spi.dtbo is not available, so you have to install it.
• Put the SD card in the RPi and boot the device.
• Login to your RPi via ssh (software=putty – user: tc, password: piCore) and enter the following commands:

m1
c1
cd overlays/
wget https://repo.picoreplayer.org/insitu/piCorePlayer7.0.0/st7789v-spi.dtbo
cd
u1

• Reboot the device.

Step 3 - Install additional extensions

• Put the SD card in your RPi and boot.
• Find the IP address of the RPi, and enter this in a browser—see Determine your piCorePlayer IP address.
• Once the RPi has booted up, this should bring up the pCP web interface.
  • On [Main Page] scroll down to “Additional functions” and click on “Extensions”. Wait for green ticks.

• Click on the [Available] tab. In the “Available extensions in the piCorePlayer repository” section.

• Load the nano.tcz extension.
• Load the pcp-jivelite_default-qvga240squareskin.tcz extension. Otherwise Jivelite will start the Joggler skin as default. This does not work at all with your display.
• Click on the [Tweaks] tab, find section Jivelite and set Framebuffer to /dev/fb1.

• Install Jivelite (this step includes an automatic backup, so accept the reboot prompt.)
• After a reboot you should see the boot information. It takes about 10 seconds until the display shows text.

Step 4 - Configure Jivelite

• Connect a mouse, a keyboard or an IR-remote to the device to configure jivelite.
• Set your language and configure the additional settings (time, background and so on).
• Save your changes in Jivelite Settings (Settings > piCorePlayer > Save Settings to SD card)
• This display has no touch function, you will need other hardware to control jivelite.
• You can control by Smartphone (Squeezer App), with LMS Web-GUI, Jivelite for Windows or IR-Receiver connected to the device.
• It is even possible, to control the jivelite by momentary buttons and/or rotary encoders—see Control Jivelite by rotary encoders and buttons.

Result

• All steps done? The result should look like this:

More information

• Download piCorePlayer
• Burn piCorePlayer onto a SD card
• Determine your piCorePlayer IP address
• Access piCorePlayer via ssh
• Edit config.txt
• piCorePlayer aliases
• piCorePlayer CLI
• Basic vi commands
• Raspberry Pi config.cfg
• Waveshare 4.1 TFT + piCorePlayer + Jivelite
• Documentation / fb / fbcon.txt