help me with my screen for GBZ build

[king]

unfortunately it still doesnt work
im going to look for another screen.
any suggestions?

[rodocop]

I'd double and triple check your power/ground, and AV wiring. make sure there is enough solder etc... Before you buy a new screen. Also make sure the ribbon cable is seated properly into its connector. And finally, i'm assuming you are doing this, but make sure your pi has a proper memory card in it, with retropie or some other image on it, the screen won't turn on until it receives a signal from the pi, which means you need the SD card in there.

As for other screens, I have used 3 from gearbest (1 the same as yours, 2 which we slightly different) with no issues, I have also used 2 from alibaba (Listed in the wiki page). Lots of people have success with amazon screens too.

[king]

I think i will go and buy a new Gearbest screen.
I found this one.
https://gyazo.com/789805ae9db663d809fcb9126399cb05
https://gyazo.com/3d26bbadb1b0ce5b9cefe68239e7dade
Is this the same that you used that you dont need to mod?

thanks

[silentjames]

Hey @king!
With my screens (first from gerabest, second from Ali, and both are identical) I had some issues which could be similar to yours.
First of all, here is my wiring (not really neat, but the screen works). Power is connected to 5v and no modifications needed; unusual ground pin (20) is used because usual pins are already employed.

SpoilerShow

Secondly, did you edit your config file? In my case that was the reason of dark screen, even when wiring was correct. My config:

Code: Select all

# For more options and information see
# http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt.md
# Some settings may impact device functionality. See link above for details

# uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode
#hdmi_safe=1

# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
#disable_overscan=1

# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
#overscan_left=16
#overscan_right=16
#overscan_top=16
#overscan_bottom=16

# uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus
# overscan.
#framebuffer_width=1280
#framebuffer_height=720

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)
#hdmi_group=1
#hdmi_mode=1

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
# DMT (computer monitor) modes
#hdmi_drive=2

# uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or
# no display
#config_hdmi_boost=4

# uncomment for composite PAL
#sdtv_mode=2

#uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.
#arm_freq=800

# Uncomment some or all of these to enable the optional hardware interfaces
#dtparam=i2c_arm=on
#dtparam=i2s=on
#dtparam=spi=on

# Uncomment this to enable the lirc-rpi module
#dtoverlay=lirc-rpi

# Additional overlays and parameters are documented /boot/overlays/README

# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
dtparam=audio=on

gpu_mem_256=128
gpu_mem_512=256
gpu_mem_1024=256
overscan_scale=1
max_usb_current=1
dtoverlay=pwm-2chan,pin=18,func=2,pin2=13,func2=4
disable_audio_dither=1

And example with screen setting, found this lurking the forum for solution

Code: Select all

disable_overscan=0

sdtv_mode=2
hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=16

# Overclock
gpu_mem_256=128
gpu_mem_512=256
gpu_mem_1024=512

#hdmi_force_hotplug=1
temp_limit=65

kernel=zImage

disable_overscan=0
overscan_scale=1
arm_freq=1000
core_freq=250
sdram_freq=450
force_turbo=0
over_voltage=6
over_voltage_sdram=0
gpu_freq=250

[king]

hi
i didnt configure anything or change settings .

how do you go around doing that?

and i will try your wiring and update to see if it works

thanks

(even if my settings / configurations are off, shouldnt i see a backlight when booting it up?)

[silentjames]

how do you go around doing that?

I did it using ssh from my mac - you can just go to the folder and execute the command to open the config file via text editor, e.g. sudo nano config.txt

(even if my settings / configurations are off, shouldnt i see a backlight when booting it up?)

In my case the screen was totally off until I've edited the config and rebooted my pi. Don't know was it a bug or expected behaviour.

[king]

http://imgur.com/a/EUfLw
i changed the wiring to match yours. It still doesnt work. I dont really get where you set the configuration or the settings for the screen size.

if you could explain that, it'd be great

thanks

[rodocop]

http://imgur.com/a/EUfLw
i changed the wiring to match yours. It still doesnt work. I dont really get where you set the configuration or the settings for the screen size.

if you could explain that, it'd be great

thanks

Question, in this photo I see the green light on the pi, meaning it is on...But I see the usb cord plugged into the usb port, not the power in port. How exactly are you getting power to the pi?

Also, to edit the config file, you will need to enable SSH on the pi:

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/SSH

Then you can use a program like putty to remotely access your pi and edit the config.txt to edit this you will type this:

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

this will open a text editor and it will show the config.txt you can add or remove items, and save by hitting control + x and then y.

You can do this without SSH too, just hook the pi up to a TV and use a keyboard. Once in emulation station you can hit f4 to bring up the command line where you can edit the config.txt

[king]

i don't exactly know...
earlier i was using the power port. however when i changed the wires (the last time), it stopped lighting up. I tried putting it in the usb port and now it does.

[rodocop]

i don't exactly know...
earlier i was using the power port. however when i changed the wires (the last time), it stopped lighting up. I tried putting it in the usb port and now it does.

That is very odd....Never seen that before. Also I edited my above post to give a bit more info on editing the config.txt