How to use X-NUCLEO-GFX02Z1 display expansion board with Nucleo-F746ZG board (STM32F746ZGT MCU)?

[HakanD1]

Hi. So I use the Nucleo-F746ZG board (STM32F746ZGT MCU) and got the display expansion board X-NUCLEO-GFX02Z1. As environment I normally use Keil uvision 5. STM offers a library only for XCube, so tried that out instead of using Keil but it gives me an incompatibility error. After having a look into the (deprecated?) library, I figured out that the expansion board uses a ILI9341 display controller and got the documentation for that and currently try communicating with the display controller without a library as of now. A first read command works, so I think the hardware should be ok. However, I would prefer using a library first of all, because it would be very time consuming to write a library myself. Also had a look in the internet, there are libraries on GitHub but mostly using SPI interface. Because of the pin mapping, I have to use the 8080 I MCU 8-bit parallel interface. Other ones using parallel interface are hard to adapt to STM32F746ZGT. So do you have any recommondations on how to deal with the problem? Thank you for your help.

[Karim BEN BELGACEM]

Hi @HakanD​ 

CortexM7 devices are now supported by the new X-CUBE-DISPLAY.3.0.0 release available from both STM32CubeMX-6.7.0 and https://www.st.com/en/embedded-software/x-cube-display.html

However, this new release does not support yet QuadSPI interfaces for the external flash memory devices. So please don't use the GFX02Z1 from the list of Extension Board DISPLAY otherwise you will not succeed to resolve all dependencies because there is no OctoSPI interface.

Instead of that, you can proceed with below configuration:

• Select your MCU STM32F746ZGTx
• Configure RCC and SYS
• Configure FMC for LCD Interface (copy configuration from any GFX02Z1 example)
• Go to Software Packs / Select Components
  • Open STMicroelectronics.X-CUBE-DISPLAY (3.0.0)
  • Select Board Part DISPLAY / LCD / ILI9341 / FMC
  • Select Device DISPLAY / Application / Custom_Application
  • Press OK
• Go to Software Packs
  • Click on the pack STMicroelectronics.X-CUBE-DISPLAY 3.0.0
  • Enable all Modes: Board Part DISPLAY and Device DISPLAY
  • Configure your Display (Parameter Settings)
    • You may copy the settings from any GFX02Z1 example
  • Configure the Platform Settings for DISPLAY pack
    • You just need a GPIO for the LCD_RESET Pin in case of FMC interfaces
    • You should have that GPIO already configured so you can select it here
• Generate Code
• Copy and adjust any app_display.c file from any GFX02Z1_Custom example and keep only code to display an image. No KEY no MEM for now.

Best Regards,

Karim

[kaamil1984]

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@Karim BEN BELGACEM wrote:

However, this new release does not support yet QuadSPI interfaces for the external flash memory devices. So please don't use the GFX02Z1 from the list of Extension Board DISPLAY otherwise you will not succeed to resolve all dependencies because there is no OctoSPI interface.

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Hi,

I just received GFX02Z1 and I can't make it work with my F746 Nucleo. It looks like the problem is as you explained (driver wants OctoSPI).

1. Anything changed in that matter, or should I follow your advices from 2023-01-27?

2. Is that flash memory just a storage for images?

regards
Kamil

[MM..1]

OFLASH is for any use, what you need, but if MCU internal FLASH is small footprint ...