Working with the E70GE1-RW820-N (2/2)
This application note will discuss the firmware requirements for driving the E70GE1-RW820-N TFT LCD Display Module. An ST Nucleo-F767ZI microcontroller (MCU) development board will interface with the display. In Part 1 (FAN4219) the hardware requirements were presented, and in Part 2 (this app note) the firmware will be developed.
1. Introduction
Following FAN4219, the MCU board is connected to the display. As noted previously, the Nucleo board has the IO pins and data bandwidth for the design but lacks the internal static RAM (SRAM) for a full frame buffer. Driving the display is the main purpose of this app note and a smaller frame buffer will be utilized.
When interfacing an RGB display, timing is critical and the information from the datasheet will be required to properly drive the LCD. The pixel clock (or DCLK) will be the fastest signal sent from the MCU to the display and is normally in a few MHz to tens of MHz. The color data and synchronization signals are not as high frequency compared to the pixel clock.
The synchronization signals might need adjustment depending on defects shown on the display. These defects could be horizontal stripping, vertical image scrolling, or patterns moving in either direction. These defects are best observed while driving the LCD black or in a zebra pattern and visually inspecting the display. If any defects are present, it is up to the user to adjust the SYNC, back porch, and front porch to remove these defects.
MCU’s with TFT LCD peripherals will have registers where the timing information is entered. Development tools that provide a graphical user interface for easily setting the peripheral registers make the process quicker. Tools that also generate the low-level initialization code can help reduce errors in bringing up the application. This application note will use the development tools provided by ST.
2. Hardware Connection
The schematic below shows the E70GE1-RW820-N connected to the ST Nucleo-F767ZI MCU board.
Figure 1. E70GE1-RW820-N to Nucleo Schematic
As shown, there are two different categories of pins:
- LTDC Interface Pins
- 24-bit RGB pins
- Timing signals: HSYNC, VSYNC, DCLK (LCD_CLK), and DE (LCD_DE)
- Control Interface Pins
- LCD_DISP to enable and disable the display standby mode
- LEDA and LEDK for powering and controlling the backlight
The traces between the display and the MCU should be kept as short as possible to reduce the amount of unwanted interference. The ground plane should not have discontinuities underneath any signals to keep out induced noise. Though not strictly necessary, high-speed signal routing best practices should be utilized in the PCB layout.
3. Development Tools
Developing the application will use STM32CubeMX for setting up peripheral initialization and STM32CubeIDE (integrated development environment) to code the application side. Download these tools from the ST website and install the applications. The first time setting up a project in STM32CubeMX will force a download of additional software components. The STM32CubeIDE will not require any additional downloads.
Figure 2. STM32CubeMX Configuration Tool
Figure 3. STM32CubeIDE Development Tool
4. Determine Framebuffer Size and Location
The Nucleo board has an STM32F767ZI MCU with 512KB of internal static RAM (SRAM). The SRAM is divided into 128KB of tightly coupled memory for data (DTCM), 16KB of tightly coupled memory for instructions (ITCM), 4KB of backup SRAM, and 364KB of user application SRAM. Framebuffer memory requirements are calculated by width (in pixels) × height (in lines) × internal color bit depth/bits per byte. Internal color bit depth can be represented in differing bit depths depending on selections made in the STM32 development tools.
Figure 4. LTDC Mode and Configuration
It is advisable to select an MCU with a large internal SRAM, a large internal dynamic RAM (DRAM), or an external memory controller to contain an entire frame buffer. The STM32 family of MCUs has a range of devices with flexible memory controllers (FMC). It is left to the end user to determine if external memories are applicable.
Figure 5. FMC Modes
In the case of this MCU the size and bit depth of the framebuffer has been chosen to be: (320 × 240 × 32) / 8, for a total buffer memory requirement of 307KB. The internal format of the color data is 24 bits with 8 bits of alpha information. This represents approximately 60% of the usable internal SRAM.
5. Configuration
Create a project in STM32CubeMX for the chosen MCU board. Select the LTDC peripheral in the Pinout tab and under Mode choose RGB888 (24-bit).
Figure 6. LTDC Mode Display Type
5.1 LTDC and GPIO Settings
The user can configure all the GPIO pins related to the LTDC from this tab. If the GPIOs used do not match the display panel connection to the MCU, the user can change the GPIO alternate pin functions. This app note will use the default GPIO configuration of the LTDC.
Figure 7. LTDC GPIO Pin Configuration
Once the LTDC GPIO is configured correctly the pins used are highlighted green.
To set the speed of the GPIO, select the GPIO Settings tab under Configuration. Highlight all the GPIOs and set the “Maximum Output Speed” to “Very High”.
Figure 8. LTDC GPIO Settings
Once all the RGB interface pins are configured, the user must configure display-specific pins from the GPIO section of the Pinout tab.
Figure 9. Display-Specific GPIO
PC10 on the MCU board is used for controlling the LCD_DISP functionality. The “GPIO Output Level” on PC10 should be set to High. Under User Label name the pin LCD_DISP. No other pins are needed for this display.
Figure 10. PC10 Configuration
5.2 LTDC Interrupts
Global LTDC interrupts need to be enabled for proper operation of the peripheral. To enable the interrupts, under LTDC Mode and Configuration select the NVIC Settings tab. Check the two boxes for LTDC global interrupts as shown in the image below.
Figure 11. LTDC Interrupt Settings
5.3 Clock and Timing Configuration
5.3.1 System Clock Configuration
The system clock configuration is setup with the following parameters:
- Use of external HSE oscillator with the main PLL used as the system source clock
- HCLK set to 200MHz (core MCU and LTDC peripheral clock)
To configure the system clock, select the Clock Configuration tab and set it as shown in the image below.
Figure 12. System Clock Settings
5.3.2 Pixel Clock Configuration
The Pixel clock, or DCLK, is provided in the display datasheet.
Figure 13. Pixel Clock (DCLK) Settings
To configure the DCLK to 33.3MHz, select the Clock Configuration tab, and set the PLLSAI 1 to the parameters shown below. Verify that “To LCD-TFT (MHz)” displays 33.333333.
Figure 14. Pixel Clock Settings
5.3.3 Display Timing
The user must refer to the display datasheet to configure the display timing. In the Pinout & Configuration tab, under the LTDC, click the Parameter Settings tab. Fill in the timing parameters from the datasheet data.
Figure 15. Datasheet Interface Timing Table
Some of the parameters on the table do not have typical values. Specifically, the pulse width and back porch on both horizontal and vertical. This application set the horizontal pulse width at 20 DCLKs and the vertical at 10 TH. There are no values given for the back porch on either axis. The back porch was calculated by taking the Period Time – (Display Period + Front Porch + Pulse Width). This resulted in 26 DCLKs for the horizontal back porch and 13 lines for the vertical back porch.
The figure below shows the settings for width and height.
Figure 16. Width and Height Settings
- Horizontal Synchronization Width is 20 pixels
- Horizontal Back Porch is 26 pixels
- Active Width is 800 pixels
- Horizontal Front Porch is 210 pixels
- Vertical Synchronization Height is 10 lines
- Vertical Back Porch is 13 lines
- Active Height is 480 lines
- Vertical Front Porch is 22 lines
The total width is 1055 (1056 from datasheet -1 due to MX tool calculation) and the total height is 524 (525 from datasheet -1 due to MX tool calculation).
5.4 Signal Polarity and Background Color
Referring to the display datasheet, the HSYNC and VSYNC must be active low, and the display enable (DE) signal must be active high. Since the DE signal is inverted in the output it must be set to active low. DCLK must be set to active high. See the image below.
Figure 17. Signal Polarity and Background Color Settings
The background color has been set to 100% green. This was done for testing the display so that black or white does not display. If the screen came up black it could mean the backlight was not powered correctly. If the display came up white it could mean that the screen is not working. Both are error conditions to be fixed.
5.5 LTDC Layer Parameters
All the LTDC clock and timing parameters have been configured at this stage. Now the user must configure the layer parameters according to the display size. Frame buffer size, and color depth. Under the LTDC Configuration window, select the Layer Settings tab and follow the figure below.
Figure 18. LTDC Layer Configuration
- Using only 1 layer configuration
- The window size is set to the same size as the frame buffer
- The pixel format is set to ARGB888 since there is a background and layer 1 to Alpha blend
- ARGB888 is set for 24-bit color format (bit depth)
- Setting the Alpha constant to 255 will display the background (green) with the frame buffer window (blue) over the background
- Setting the background layer color to blue is for testing that both the background and the layer are active and displaying correctly
5.6 Finalize the Configuration
There is one last setting to change before generating the source code. Under Project Manager click on the drop-down menu for Toolchain/IDE and set it for STM32CubeIDE.
Figure 19. Project Manager – Toolchain Selection
Now the Generate Code button can be clicked.
Figure 20. Code Generation
Once the process is complete the tool will ask if it should open the IDE. Select OK.
6. Firmware
Once the STM32CubeIDE (IDE) is open there is some code to add to the main.c file.
Figure 21. Includes, Defines, and Framebuffer Code
Include the stdint.h header file for the uint32_t data type. Next, the MAX_WIDTH and MAX_HEIGHT must be defined. Now the frame buffer array can be declared:
uint32_t framebuffer[MAX_WIDTH][MAX_HEIGHT];
The frame buffer can now be filled; in this instance, the chosen color was blue. It is filled with an inner for loop for the height and an outer for loop for the width. The final piece is to set the address of the LTDC pointer to the actual frame buffer with:
HAL_LTDC_SetAddress(&hltdc, (int)framebuffer, LTDC_LAYER_1);
Figure 22. Filling the Frame Buffer and Setting the Address
The finished code can be compiled and downloaded into the MCU board from the IDE.
The final display image is shown below.
Figure 23. Image Displayed on LCD
7. Summary
In this application note, the development of firmware for driving the display was presented. The development tools included a code generator and an IDE. The LTDC peripheral of the Nucleo board was configured to drive the display with the timings provided in the datasheet. A size-limited frame buffer was defined in the configuration tool. Once all the parameters were configured the IDE was opened to add application code. Minimal code was developed for demonstration purposes only. The code was then compiled and downloaded into the Nucleo board, and the resultant display was presented.
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