5″ 800×480 capacitive touch LCD with built-in ft811 graphics controller

In a previous post  I used a 7″ capacitive touch display together with a ft810 graphics controller (using FTDI VM810C development board) and ESP8266 processor. This time I’ll try to run the same software using a 5″ LCD from Thaoyu (cost $38 + shipping) with a built-in FT811 graphics controller. While it’s a smaller display it cheaper and less complex to put together. You only need the display and a main processor.

ESP8266/NodeMCU with FT81x based 7″ display

I want my weatherstation to be connected wirelessly to internet to fetch weather data, time info, symbols etc. One of the cheapest option these days is to use a ESP8266. Originally I planned to use it only as a serial wifi device for Arduino. Moving small abouts of (structured) data such as forecast, time etc. from ESP8266 to Arduino is easy. But what about images? It seems to be easy to download images using ESP8266, such as Daniel Eichhorn have done in his ESP8266 Weather Station Color. But how to transfer images from 8622 to the Arduino? Common external flash or SDcard ? Serial ? I really don’t know. So, what if I can use the ESP8266 for everything and just ditch the Arduino? After all, the ESP8266 is a capable processor.

Can ESP8266 be used for more that wifi ?

More news on the ESP8266. A SDK is now available, read more in this Hackaday article. This might turn the ESP8266 into something more than just a UART to WiFi module. Maybe this cheap thing can act as the main processor in my weatherstation as well as wifi module ?

Display with built-in arduino

I’ve been searching for a display with built-in processor. Today I found this thing with an built-in Arduino!

I don’t know anything about its panel quality. Wish it was IPS or something similar.

Gameduino2 + Arduino mini pro

I just got three Arduino pro mini’s but have problems uploading sketches to it using a USB->TTL device. Some googling suggests that I have a converter that is not ideal. It lacks a RST pin. This makes it hard to use. There seems to be a number of different variants of these devices, ref i.e. this post. I gave up on my device and used by Arduino UNO board to program the Pro Mini instead. It’s easy, just removing the processor from the UNO, connection TX/RX/5v/Gnd and reset. I uploaded the sketch without problems.  I the hooked it up to the Gameduino2 and it worked ! I’ve ordered another converter that hopefully works…