Is this not the cutest, little display for the Raspberry Pi? It features a 3.5″ display with 480 x 320 16-bit colour pixels and a resistive touch overlay so is slightly larger than our popular original. The plate uses the high-speed SPI interface on the Pi and can use the mini display as a console, X window port, displaying images or video etc. Best of all it plugs right in on top!

This PiTFT 3.5″ is designed to fit nicely onto the original Pi 1 Model A or B but also works OK with the Raspberry Pi Zero, 5, 4, 3, 2 Model B or Pi Model A+ or B+ as long as you don’t mind the PCB overhangs the USB ports by 5mm.

Chances are you don’t have the original Pi, its been many years since they’re sold so if you’d like a version that is designed for the Pi Zero, 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / A+ / B+ check out the PiTFT Plus 3.5″

Uses the hardware SPI pins (SCK, MOSI, MISO, CE0, CE1) as well as GPIO #25 and #24. GPIO #18 can be used to PWM dim the backlight if you like. All other GPIO are unused. There’s a 2 x 13 header on the bottom, you can connect a standard Pi GPIO cable to it to use any of the other pins you like.

Best of all, it comes fully assembled and ready to plug into your Pi! You can use this as a display for running the X interface, or pygame. You can also have an HDMI display separately connected. There are four mounting ears that can be used to attach the display & Pi to a bezel or snap them off with pliers (they’re perforated) for a slick exactly the same-size-as-a-Pi look.

We’ve created a custom kernel package based on Notro’s awesome framebuffer work, so you can install it over your existing Raspbian (or derivative) images in just a few commands. Our tutorial shows you how to install the software, as well as calibrate the touchscreen, display images such as from your PiCam and more!

Note: Display current draw is mostly based on the backlight, with full-on backlight the current draw is ~100mA

Resources

• Tutorial and Downloads