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jwettroth

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Joined: 02/08/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 79

Posted: 02:49am 22 Jul 2025

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I added a Waveshare Pico LCD 1.8" LCD to my last Amazon order ($13.50) out of boredom. It lets you plug in a Pico (1 or 2) into the back to make sort of a "backpack", though it uses tall headers so it has 1/4" gap. Once I get it working, I'll rework it to make it thinner.

Format its a 160 x 128 TFT ala ST7735 (though they call it an 7735s which is 80x128)

Pins connected-
GP8 DATA/NOT COMMAND
GP9 NOT CS
GP10 SPI CLK
GP11 SPI DATA IN
GP12 NOT RESET
GP13 BACKLIGHT

note there is no SPI data out.

I configured as follows with latest firmware (6.0.03) on a PICO 2

OPTION SYSTEM SPI GP10,GP11,GP22 'HAD TO CONFIGURE A MISO EVEN THOUGH NOT USED?
OPTION LCD PANEL ST7735,P,GP8,GP22,GP9,GP13

I got console errors if I tried to leave off the MISO (GP12 Nominally) input in the SYSTEM command so just used an open GPIO.
I couldn't use GP12 for /rst, so reused GP22 as not to burn another pin- no complaints. I got an error that GP12 can't be used...

It is "sort of" working- I can run GUI test lcd panel, BUT at the far edge of the display (max x), I get a line of garbage that is not addressable.

In reading more about this display, its says that the display starts at 2nd pixel in H and First in V. Is there a way I can tweak this offset somehow without having to write a new display driver, etc.

Any help appreciated.
Edited 2025-07-22 12:51 by jwettroth

John Wettroth

Doktorn

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Joined: 09/07/2019
Location: Sweden
Posts: 13

Posted: 01:27pm 22 Jul 2025

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I had a similar issue with the Waveshare Pico-LCD-1.8

Try

POKE Display HRES 161
POKE Display VRES 130

/Lasse

N/A

Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8055

Posted: 01:56pm 22 Jul 2025

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These are pretty horrible. A lot of the GP pins are unused but there's no access to them. Goodness knows what they were thinking.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

jwettroth

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Joined: 02/08/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 79

Posted: 02:41pm 22 Jul 2025

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Thanks all, I may just send it back. I was sort of bored and sent myself a gift. Pretty dumb design overall. Lots of GPIO pins and the goofy mechanical design.

Thanks for the help learned something anyway.

John Wettroth

Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8055

Posted: 03:09pm 22 Jul 2025

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I designed a couple of little backpacks for it a while ago, so it is possible to do things with them. I never actually made either of these. :)

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

jwettroth

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Joined: 02/08/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 79

Posted: 03:09pm 22 Jul 2025

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Doktorn- your fix tweaking the HRES and VRES worked perfectly- thanks again.

Wave share is so prolific with boards! I went to their site and I'm amazed with the volume. I hope most are better thought out than this one. I think I'll just build a little one off gadget maybe. Beware if you buy this stuff. With JLPCB etc and KiCad, Waveshare's value added is hard to determine. Perhaps if I only need one or two but if need any more, I can put in a little effort and get something better with solid documentation (my own).

I notice that they support Micropython, C Arduino and the PICO SDK but no mention of MMBASIC. It seems that MMBASIC is a pretty legitimate option for the Pico. Perhaps the PICOcalc with its default use of MMBasic will spread the news more.

Regards,
John

John Wettroth

Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8055

Posted: 03:14pm 22 Jul 2025

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*Nothing* supports MMBasic officially apart from what you find in this forum. :( Probably because Raspberry Pi don't recognise MMBasic as one of the official languages for anything.

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

jwettroth

Regular Member

Joined: 02/08/2011
Location: United States
Posts: 79

Posted: 03:16pm 22 Jul 2025

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Nice job Mixtel! I really like the second one with extra I/O, RTC and data converters. Nice work. An amazing group here.

John Wettroth

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