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Help with KeDei 3.5 480x320 SPI TFT v6.3 (non-HDMI)

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 9:48 pm
by Dividion
Hi all,

I picked up a few of these KeDei screens from AliExpress when they were on sale for about $10 each: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/High-en ... 20356.html

On the back it says they're version 6.3. So I grabbed the files from here: http://kedei.net/raspberry/raspberry.html

Using brand new SD cards, I've tried both of the following:
a) Installing the KeDei drivers into a fresh Retropie image, and
b) Using the Raspbian image from KeDei and installing RetroPie on top.
In both cases I've been able to get the screens working, up until Emulation Station starts to run. At that point, emulationstation only outputs to HDMI, and the RetroPie logo on the TFT fades to black. If I kill emulationstation, focus switches back to the TFT.

Apparently that behavior's been around for years, but I've been googling and trying various "possible solutions" I've found (like fbcp) for a couple of weeks now, and I just haven't been able to get it working. And of course there's the possibility that even when (if?) I get it rendering to that screen the performance might be so pathetic that it'll be unusable for gaming.

So, as much as I was hoping to avoid presenting you guys with this, I don't think I've got any other choice than to ask for your expertise.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Help with KeDei 3.5 480x320 SPI TFT v6.3 (non-HDMI)

Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 8:54 am
by VeteranGamer
apologies, but this really isnt any help.....
just confirmation.....



Those screens aren’t really suitable for Retropie (this has been discussed a few times on here)....

Even if/when you can get the screens working (why waste time trying to get them to work on Retropie)...

They just perform really poorly...
Even the 240x320 ili9341 screens don’t perform to some ppl expectations (I’m actually comfortable with them)
But 480x320 Just performs really poorly (even compared against the 240x320) and you’d be hard pushed to achieve any decent frame rates with it...


However they are good screens, and can be used in other projects...
Just not for game emulation...



.

Re: Help with KeDei 3.5 480x320 SPI TFT v6.3 (non-HDMI)

Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 11:08 am
by Dividion
Thanks VeteranGamer. I had a feeling you'd be able to chime in on this. And though it's not the answer I was hoping for, I knew it was a possibility.

They are nice little screens, and that price was really good. I'll figure out a use for them.

Re: Help with KeDei 3.5 480x320 SPI TFT v6.3 (non-HDMI)

Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 11:21 pm
by Helder
Check this Github for some decent performance on the screens, better with a pi 3 than a pi0.

https://github.com/juj/fbcp-ili9341

Re: Help with KeDei 3.5 480x320 SPI TFT v6.3 (non-HDMI)

Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 2:45 pm
by Dividion
Helder wrote:
Sun Jul 01, 2018 11:21 pm
Check this Github for some decent performance on the screens, better with a pi 3 than a pi0.

https://github.com/juj/fbcp-ili9341
It looks like they added a new 480x320 controller to the fbcp source code. Still not sure which controller the screens I got are using, but they don't seem to match any of the pictures linked by the URLs in the source. I guess I'll keep an eye on it though. Maybe I'll get lucky.