Adafruit 1.3 Color TFT Bonnet for Raspberry Pi - 240x240 TFT + Joystick Add-on (ADA4506)

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If you’d like a compact color display, with buttons and a joystick - Adafruit have got what you’re looking for. The Adafruit 1.3" Color TFT Bonnet for Raspberry Pi is the…

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We’ve had some suggestions from a customer that had problems setting up their TFT bonnet which I’ve included below. This guide is meant to serve as a possible fix if you struggle to get your TFT display working.

I recommend you try the main Adafruit guide first to get a basic understanding of how things work and only resort to this if the main guide and their own compatibility instructions fail to work for you:

Steps:

  1. Install Legacy version of Raspberry Pi OS, Buster. Bullseye may cause issues, the guaranteed tested version is buster.

  2. Upgrade your OS fully to ensure its ready:

sudo apt update -y 
sudo apt-get update -y 
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
  1. Install the following dependencies to ensure the installer script runs without fail:
sudo apt-get install python3-pip 
sudo pip3 install --upgrade click 
sudo pip3 install --upgrade setuptools 
sudo pip3 install --upgrade adafruit-pyt

(Listed on the adafruit main github page: GitHub - adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts)

  1. Clone the following github repo (this repo is an older version, prior to any bullseye patches that adafruit made to their installer script, you can try the latest repo as suggested on their product page if you want.):

Older github fork of the installer scripts:
https://github.com/BasdeWinter/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts

Latest installer scripts/main branch:
https://github.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts

  1. Navigate to the installer scripts folder (eg: cd Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Script) and run the installer script without feeding in any prompts:

sudo python3 adafruit-pitft.py

  1. Select option 5 for the screen type, option 4 for rotation and then near the end of the Install script answer the final questions if you wish to see the console or you wish to copy the hdmi output.

  2. Reboot when prompted, the display should work after reboot.

  3. Install retrogame and follow the instructions on the retrogame page for easy customisation of your buttons and joystick on the TFT:

https://learn.adafruit.com/retro-gaming-with-raspberry-pi/adding-controls-software

All done! Your display should be working and the buttons should also be working.

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