sudomod

Hello there fellow Sudo-Modians,

since i've seen a lot of people doing their wiring wrong,
i wanted to write a little guide on how to wire your LCD Display Board to the Raspberry Pi Zero for testing purposes.

With this following guide you can test
- if your display runs on 5v
- if your display works
- the quality of the display

It is for testing only, as you will change the wiring later, when you've implemented the Power Supply (PowerBoost or alternative).

Here is a little Picture Guide on what to solder where:


As you can see, your Display Board should have 4 wires. You will need to solder on 3 of them.
Those 4 wires are the following:
Red: V+ or 5v input. This is where your LCD gets its power from.
Black: GND or Ground. This is the ground or - if you will, of your LCD.
White: One of 2 Video Inputs. This is where it gets it's video signal from.
Yellow: The second Video Input. Most LCD Boards got 2 Inputs to change between 2 sources.

As wrote before, you will only need 1 of those Video Inputs to be wired onto the Pi0! NOT Both!
You have to find out which video input your display is using. Either use the usually included buttons to change the input,
or just solder on the other wire (Yellow/White) and test it with this one.

Your RPi0 should look as following, after soldering on the wires: OR I know a lot of you also solder the Red and Black wires onto the Pis USB Power Supply pads.
You should refrain from this. Sure, if works and it usually will not cause any problems in most setups.
But those are the pads for SUPPLYING the Pi with its needed power, not the pads that the PI has to supply modules and stuff.
Those are located in the GPIO Area and those are there for a reason.
You COULD starve the Pi from its needed power if your display needs too much power,
especially during the startup phase. This can cause your Pi to turn off during boot and corrupt your SD Card.

Again, this is unlikely but why take a risk if you can avoid this by simply using the Pins that are meant for this stuff?

-

Well, that's it. This is how you wire up your LCD Board to the Pi Zero for testing the Display.
As wrote before, this wiring will change, as you will solder the Red and Black wire to your Power supply later, in the final build.

Good luck!

Thanks for clarity, this is confusing to a lot of new comers. I do recommend though using GPIO 6 (two pins to the right of 5V) to run your ground though, just a lot closer to the power for tighter wire management. At least, it makes most sense in my head to run ground as close to power as possible, though I've been known to have some weird ideas

Either works though. Good work man.

[spoiler="GPIO Pins"][/spoiler]

I'd have to disagree. The closer your ground is to the video signal, the better.

Camble wrote:I'd have to disagree. The closer your ground is to the video signal, the better.

Why ?

@SidSilver Reduced video noise. I get noise on my LCD when the ground is connected elsewhere.

Good to know !

Thanks for this tip, Fleder. Temporarily wired my 5V mod Gearbest screen this way and it fired up like a champ.

What is the benefit of running the power from the Pi vs the power strip?

BigOlTexasBoy wrote:What is the benefit of running the power from the Pi vs the power strip?

This is, as I clearly wrote in the OP, only for testing the screen.
You will want to get the power from the power strip, in your final build.
But before you wire everything together, it is easier and faster to test your display with this method.
This wiring is not meant to be used in the final build!

Fleder wrote:

BigOlTexasBoy wrote:What is the benefit of running the power from the Pi vs the power strip?

This is, as I clearly wrote in the OP, only for testing the screen.
You will want to get the power from the power strip, in your final build.
But before you wire everything together, it is easier and faster to test your display with this method.
This wiring is not meant to be used in the final build!

Right, I saw the OP. I've seen people leave this configuration. So do you recommend powering the display from the power strip when I put it all together.

I only ask because I've read recommendations to not power things from the Pi and recommendations to keep the ground close to the video out. Just want to find out the best way to do it before I get started.