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Supporting of STM32F429 NUCLEO-144.

LACTIC
Associate II

I am using STM32F429 NUCLEO-144 (CM4 -STM32F429ZIT6 ) to interfacing of TFT , which have Himax HX8238 LCD controller ic with LTDC system peripheral . Is this possible it ?

10 REPLIES 10
Mon2
Senior III

Hi. Yes it should be possible.

First start with a working tool chain and get the display on this kit operational. Recommend for you to use IAR compiler if possible. That is the most mature compiler for these gui tools.

Once you have the default lcd display working, proceed to review the details of your display to customize.

Do post your results and solution to assist future readers.

To get started, click on my pic on this post and locate all the posts in this forum. You will find a very detailed document we wrote for this exact kit.

Hope this helps.

Kumar

Mon2
Senior III

Thanks to write . I will check this link .

Thank you.

As shown in document that STM32CUBEMX graphics icon is highlighted for stm32f429 ,in my cubemx it is also highlighted but for Nucleo-144 it is not highlighted . So , my question is this if I will copy the graphics related code of discovery into nucleo code which is also generated from CUBEMX , is it work properly.

Mon2
Senior III

Hi @LACTIC​ , only some quick comments:

1) the target CPU appears to be the same on both the STM32F429I-DISC1 and your Nucleo-144 kits. This is the CPU # STM32F429ZIT6.

2) However, from earlier reviews of these tools, fairly sure that the TouchGFX toolchain makes use of the onboard SDRAM that is present on the STM32F429I-DISC1 kit but is missing from your Nucleo-144 kit.

3) There is some work ahead of you but recommend that:

a) source 2 x these low cost STM32F429I-DISC1 kits. Test both to be fully operational before starting your custom design. One kit to tear apart to remove the supplied LCD display. The display's flex PCB cable is soldered under the display so you must carefully remove the relative wiring.

Then rewire the traces / connections for your new display.

b) The other kit is your golden sample to continue to use for debugging and verification of your customized s.w.

4) We are in a similar boat but have designed a custom PCB and also using STM32 compatible zero force sockets / break out boards. You can source them from Asia from:

Waveshare

https://www.waveshare.com/product/mcu-tools/stm32/adapters.htm

So the task here is to:

a) mimic most of the hardware present on the STM32F429I-DISC1 kit as the TouchGFX toolchain works with this official kit after following the posted document. ST has also now posted a similar document somewhere on this forum. Either way, you will be able to get the default kit and default factory supplied display based on the IL9341 controller working.

b) next, remove the factory supplied LCD display and customize the IP to support the new controller.

As a comment, I recently returned from Asia to discuss the use of next generation of LCD displays and highly recommend, if your budget permits is to review the STM32 CPU devices that support MIPI DSI interface. Source a kit that is known to be working - TouchGFX / Draupner / ST has a list of limited kits that use this style of interface and they are being slowly migrated to a working status which can be confirmed with the V2.0 template.

Do note that you must start with the V2.0 template and must launch TouchGFX tool FIRST. Build your GUI -> test with the simulator -> test on the target kit -> then launch CubeMX -> this step will most likely break the wizard code. To fix the broken code, follow their documentation and rinse & repeat as required. The fixes are based on the IAR compiler so this is the # 1 reason to stick with IAR. One day all of this will work without the pain.

Next, if you are following all of this, it is technically easier to switch to a new MIPI DSI interface rather than the display onboard the STM32F429I-DISC1 kit. At the very least, easier to wire up the MIPI wiring. From our knowledge, the registers from one MIPI DISPLAY to another remain the same - that is the spec. The values may be different but the registers and functions apparently remain the same.

Again, the MIPI DSI kit may feature some external memory device that is missing on your Nucleo so you must review the dependencies between the kits and related hardware before starting.

Good luck and do post your results and working solution if you get this working.

Hope this helps.

Hi @ Mon2 and others members

Now I can interface TFT with your support in LTDC, so much Thanks. Now I want show 4 or 5 images only on 1window means I want to show multi images at a time (images are stable at particular position ). There is some function to set window position but still only for one image not for many images and I don't want to go in "2 layer", I want to work with only 1layer(window). Please help me to insert multiple images in one window.

Mon2
Senior III

@LACTIC​ , that is really good news! Are you not using TouchGFX? If you are using TouchGFX, it is quite easy to create / insert multiple images onto the canvas that is shown by this tool.

Go to left menu -> select Scalable Image -> drag and drop the image of your choice into this place holder -> repeat as many times as you wish and resize as required.

Let me know if misunderstanding your request.

You are right I am not using TouchGFX. Actually we are using raw TFT display as know(means which have no touch other things like own ram own controller ) .

Can I use TouchGFX in raw TFT Displays?

TouchGFX is in c++ and by this language I am not so much familiar as much as familiar with c.