Description
I’m not currently shipping this board. This board has been replaced with the New Topper
The design files are available here if you want to make your own.
The board uses the DPI feature on the Raspberry Pi, which drives an LCD using just the GPIO pins. It uses RGB565 Mode 4 which leaves a few GPIO pins available for various other uses, and these pins are accessible on the left and right sides of the board. GPIO 27 is used to drive the backlight circuit, which allows the LCD to be dimmed.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/dpi/README.md
This uses substantially less power than a comparable composite or HDMI board, mostly because an external IC doesn’t have to convert the video signal. The maximum power consumption is about 0.25A with a 4.3″ LCD, and is much lower when dimmed. Composite LCDs can easily pull half an amp, and sometimes more due to inefficient power regulation. The other benefit over a composite LCD is the image quality, which matches HDMI.
The topper is configured to drive a 4.3″ LCD, but has capability to drive up to a 7″ LCD as long as the pinout matches and you can figure out timings from the datasheet. The backlight power is set using resistors on the board, and it’s pre-set to 20mA. This is the maximum amperage for nearly all 4.3″ LCDs. You can change the backlight to anywhere from 40mA to 120mA by bridging the solder pads in the labeled areas.
Installation instructions and code can be found at:
The following LCDs are compatible with the Topper (more to come as I test them):
- http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/bqnimQB
- 4.3″ good quality and powerful 2-strip backlight (40mA)
- 480×272 resolution
- Work’s with Github 480×272 settings
- https://ebay.us/gEtCYu
- 4.3″ good quality. The colors aren’t as vivid as the 480×272, but the resolution is higher.
- 800×480 resolution
- Works with Github 800×480 settings
- http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/uzf2RJE
- 5.0″ LCD, great image
- 480×272 resolution
- Work’s with Github 480×272 settings
- http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/rf6yNvR
- 5.0″ LCD, great image, same LCD Adafruit sells here
- 800×480 resolution
- Works with Github 800×480 settings
- https://ebay.us/noXL9f
- 7.0″ LCD, great image
- This LCD is huge
- 800×480 resolution
- Works with Github 800×480 settings
- http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/brBQjFEg
- 7.0″ LCD, looks great and is super cheap (this is the best-looking 7″ I’ve tested)
- 800×480 resolution
- Works with Github 800×480 settings
The following LCDs are being tested for compatibility with the Topper:
- http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/7eiYJEi
- 5″ 800×480 without touch panel
- http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/IMbmamY
- 5″ 800×480 without touch panel
