7-inch Touchscreen from Element 14

[KenW6HHC]

Hi Roger VK5YYY,

Thanks for confirming that there are only two steps to adding the 7-in touchscreen LCD from Element14 to the Portsdown setup:

• (1) update to the latest Portsdown software
  (2) configure display for Tontech35 on console menu

My 7-in touchscreen LCD from Element14 unit is scheduled to be delivered on May 31. It was ordered via the distributor MCM Electronics and shipped same day.

I like the photo of your set-up. Very nice. I had not yet thought of putting the LCD/RPi-3/DATV-Express into a small case as you show. Makes it easy to carry the set-up into the field for portable transmissions.

73...de Ken W6HHC

[VK5YYY]

Thanks for your kind words Ken

The Ports Down-Under was demonstrated at our National Ham get together last weekend, hence the case
I'm not sure the HF crew actually knew what they were looking at (not for want of telling them) HF won't keep our hobby alive in my opinion
The case was left over from a hand held CB twin pack with the foam on the inside turned upside down with cut outs to hold everything in place
Overall it's it's quite cutting edge, the double conversion technique is common in commercial equipment and gives a couple of stabs at filtering
The 7" screen was born out of necessity as that was in the cupboard, it doesn't actually suck much current
It runs on 5V from Orico 10400mAhr power bank $36AUD, it's powered by the micro USB and the GPIO which is more stable (red light doesn't flick)
The power bank has a internal limit at 2.3A which is similar to the Pi on board resetable polyswitch fuse
Next job to figure out how to get a watt or two out of it with 5V, I'm guessing will have to employ a buck to get up to 12V, which will be noisey
Has anyone got any suggestions for a 5V, 1 or 2 watt 23cm amplifier?

Cheers Roger VK5YYY

[vk5bd]

Hello Ken,

Yes I was able to get the 7 inch screen from Element14 (order code 2473872) to work with the Portsdown Project, I did not have to download any drivers so yes they must be part of the latest Jessie builds. The 7 inch screen connected to the Pi's Display port not HDMI using a 400mm flexible flat ribbon cable (the one supplied with the screen was quite short as the Pi is expected to be mounted on the back of the display, A Pi camera ribbon cable is a bit longer that may help get you started), and the touch screen data connected to the GPIO port pins 3 and 5 (along with power pins 4,6). Dave has made a modification to the Portsdown Project that corrects the rotation of the Touch screen with respect to the Display orientation.

A couple of changes I am thinking about, that would be nice:
-To have a shutdown button on the Touch Screen (Keep TX to the left, shift RX towards middle and put a smaller Shutdown to the right on the top row of buttons), maybe with optional hide (remove button function) for those using smaller screens they don't lose real-estate or accidently shut down the Pi when the buttons are behind the video display.
-Touching the screen anywhere when in transmit mode could end transmission and return to the menu display, which would also "lock out" accidental parameter changes when trying to stop a transmission.

Good luck with your display, although in my experience it was pretty straight forward with no real problems getting it to work.

Regards,
Bevan (VK5BD)

[G8GKQ]

Bevan, Roger

Really pleased to see the Ports Down-Under. The 7 inch screen must make quite a difference.

As for your suggestions, the shutdown button on the screen is already in the works. What I have planned is that a smaller button (exactly where you suggest) selects a second screen. One of the buttons on that screen will be "Shutdown". However, there is quite a lot a coding to do before I even have a development version of this working.

On a 3.5 inch screen, touching it anywhere does bring it out of transmit without changing parameters. Accidental second touches do induce a parameter change though. Please could you try this again on the 7" screen?

Dave

[vk5bd]

Hello Dave,

I just checked, once you go into TX mode you have to remember where the TX button is to get back out of TX mode, I can confirm the touch screen is working as I was able to change FEC, SR, Freq and mode while they were hidden under the pattern screen during TX mode.

Regards,
Bevan

[G8GKQ]

Hi Bevan

I've just discovered that this hidden button problem only occurs in Pattern mode (I think) and I was testing in Camera mode. It should be fixed in the next release!

Dave

[G4WIM]

I'm in the process of ordering all the bits for a Portsdown, final item is the display - any reason not to use the larger display as mentioned above along with its capacitive touch ?

Great work on this project guys, looking forward to trying RBW on 2 mtrs

Regards Tim

[G8GKQ]

Hi Tim

The only formally supported screen is the 3.5 inch Waveshare.

I will try to keep the software compatible with the 7 inch screen described, but without one here to test, there is every chance that a future update could break this compatibility.

I also worry that at some point in the future I might reach a decision point where I am unable to continue to retain compatibility with the 7 inch.

Dave

[G4WIM]

Hi Dave,

good points re the display - I'll stick with the 3.5" device.

Final question - if you don't mind me asking where's the best place to buy one ? I only ask as there seems to be some noise about suppliers, quality and versions etc.

Suspect this might be the one from Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Makibes-Screen ... ME26JW198E

BTW I was originally G8GIW so good chance we've worked in the dim and distant past - will have to scan thru' some of my old log books.

73 Tim

[M0SKM]

Hi Tim,

You will find a link to the correct display in the wiki. Loads of good info you'll need to digest.

https://wiki.batc.tv/Portsdown_hardware

This is the correct display.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waveshare-Rasp ... B00OZLG2YS

73
Steve