**What is the problem?**I installed a 2.8" Adafruit display and It is displaying, but I seem to just be stuck at pi@octopi:~$ reading on my display. I was hoping for it to have the Touch UI screen. Can I get there from here? Did I do something wrong? I followed the tutorial on Adafruit site.
Thanks, LTR
What did you already try to solve it?
Additional information about your setup (OctoPrint version, OctoPi version, printer, firmware, octoprint.log, serial.log or output on terminal tab, ...) Latest version of Octoprint Pi3b
Well, you technically CAN get a touch UI screen to work the way you're trying, but, I've done it on a 3.5" screen, and it's not fun nor is it the best way to utilize the power of the Octo
You have a screen that says pi@octopi, let's start there. Most people run octopi on a raspberry pi, and connect the printer via usb to the raspberry. Have you done that ?
The good news is that there is a plugin for that for octoprint called TouchUI, and the bad news is that running octopi as a server puts a load on the Pi, then you're going to be running a GUI on the Pi that's also running the server, which puts a load on the Pi. Then you're going to be actually pulling power from the Pi to power the screen, which puts a load on the Pi
So, all these things drag down the performance of the Pi, but, if you're okay with that, then the first thing you want to do is install the desktop (GUI) on the Pi that you've got the screen on
You've already gotten the screen to work, which is something that takes some effort, so, congratulations on that one
So, you want to install the actual desktop environment by following the instructions on the screen when you first log into the Pi from your 2.8" screen NOT the instructions in raspi-config
Oh, I forgot, yer gonna need something to touch that screen with. I installed a 3.5" screen, and had to use a stylus because my finger was too big (or a usb keyboard and mouse)
Okay, when you first logged in, you should have seen a bunch of stuff scroll up the screen, which you probably ignored. Directly above your "pi@octopi" you should see the version of octopi and octoprint, directly above that you should see something that looks like this
sudo /home/pi/scripts/install-desktop
Telling you to type that line to install the desktop environment. That loads the preprogrammed command to install the GUI, but, it leaves out the part about updating first, which you can do by typing
sudo apt-get update
When that's done, you should do
sudo apt-get upgrade
After all that's done, you can try
sudo /home/pi/scripts/install-desktop
That should run awhile, then ask if you want to boot directly to desktop, then it should reboot
My guess would be that you probably want to say yes to that, then reboot, and, if everything worked properly, you should see a GUI screen when it comes back from booting
One of these are handy instead of a full-sized keyboard and mouse.
The 2.8" TFT display requires a paragraph to be added to your /boot/config.txt on the Raspbian but I'm not at home so I don't have that reference here, unfortunately.
I would advise you to get either a Pi Zero W, a second RPi3, or something similar, and run your display on that, leaving the actual OctoPrint server itself to run headless. That way you get the best of both worlds. It should make virtually no difference to you from a UI perspective, but it'll make a difference to your OctoPrint instance and avoid problems that you're probably going to eventually run into due to resource constraints.
I am getting a 7" touchscreen later today along with a keyboard. I will see if that makes thins easier. I just need to get the desktop up so I can use the touchscreen to navigate. I am still figuring out the text line stuff and how to get where I need to go. Thank you for all the help, I appreciate it so much.
LTR
Here's an example /boot/config.txt which supports the 2.8" TFT as sold by Adafruit and others.
# For more options and information see
# http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md
# Some settings may impact device functionality. See link above for details
# uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode
#hdmi_safe=1
# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
#disable_overscan=1
# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
#overscan_left=16
#overscan_right=16
#overscan_top=16
#overscan_bottom=16
# uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus
# overscan.
#framebuffer_width=1280
#framebuffer_height=720
# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)
#hdmi_group=1
#hdmi_mode=1
# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
# DMT (computer monitor) modes
#hdmi_drive=2
# uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or
# no display
#config_hdmi_boost=4
# uncomment for composite PAL
#sdtv_mode=2
#uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.
#arm_freq=800
# Uncomment some or all of these to enable the optional hardware interfaces
dtparam=i2c_arm=on
#dtparam=i2s=on
dtparam=spi=on
enable_uart=1
# Uncomment this to enable the lirc-rpi module
#dtoverlay=lirc-rpi
dtparam=audio=on
dtoverlay=waveshare35a
dtoverlay=ads7846,penirq=17,penirq_pull=2,xohms=60,pmax=255,xmin=300,xmax=3932,ymin=294,ymax=3801
# Added by MB -----------------------
[pi1]
device_tree=bcm2708-rpi-b-plus.dtb
[pi2]
device_tree=bcm2709-rpi-2-b.dtb
[all]
dtparam=spi=on
dtparam=i2c1=on
dtparam=i2c_arm=on
dtoverlay=pitft28-resistive:rotate=90,speed=32000000,fps=20
# End of add -----------------------
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=87
hdmi_cvt=720 480 60 1 0 0 0
avoid_warnings=1
start_x=1
gpu_mem=128
Do you think it would be easier to install Raspbian first and the install octoprint from Raspbian? I could just start over with another SD card and keep my old one just in case??
LTR.. I really appreciate all the help, you guys are great.
Not really. I think it would be easiest to install OctoPi as an image burned to your microSD, edit the /boot/config.txt in your workstation and then get it going in the Pi.
OK, thank you for the answer. I am going to start over with a fresh card and install of octoprint. I have been hacking on this poor thing all week, and i am surprised it still prints. I am learning this so I don't mind at all. I do appreciate all the help, I just get stuck and need a push in the right direction.
LTR
Actually, getting the TFT screen to display is the easy part.
The hard part is getting the touch side of it to 1) be in the correct orientation (portrait/landscape) and 2) have the correct calibration. That part will be next after you get it displaying.