AZDelivery 2.4 inch TFT LCD Touch Screen Module XPT2046 PCB ILI9341 240x320 Pixels 8-bit SPI Serial Port Display 300mA 5V 3.3V compatible with Arduino Including E-Book! (Pack of 5)

The media could not be loaded.  UPDATED 11/12/2020DISCLOSURE: this product was supplied by AZ Delivery free of charge but without obligation. All opinion expressed here is my own.Raspberry Pi have HATs (Hardware Attached on Top) and Arduinos have shields, but they are broadly the same thing - a device intended to attach directly to the 2.54mm pitch sockets fitted to these development kits. The Pi and the Arduino, while broadly similar (both are ARM-based computers at heart), fit into very different markets. The Pi is much faster but also requires some sort of operating system to do anything useful whereas the Arduino (based on the ATMegas) and that makes it suitable for low-performance, low-power tasks.In many cases, the Arduino and its copies are driving little more than a simple 2-4 line LCD display or at best, an OLED display. OLEDs are low-power but they remain (as of this writing) expensive, usually quite small, and have fairly short working life: particularly in the blue. Full colour OLED are the rarity for now although they do exist and even appear in televisions now.LCDs however, being a much more mature and popular technology have a much longer working life and lower cost at the expense of greater power consumption from the necessary back lighting and more limited viewing angle.This particular shield comes by way of AZ Delivery, a German supplier and the quality is, as you might expect. The excellent design drops into the Arduino Uno with very little effort (I used an Elegoo clone, available from Amazon with the full-sized, socketed ATMega).And that’s when it dawned on me for the first time that (a) I didn’t have any instructions - AZ-Delivery produces its documentation via PDF but the English translations are slow and (b) this shield takes a LOT of the available I/O lines. How many? Almost all of them - in fact the only ones remaining are the i2C (SDA and SCK) and IOREF (+5v). Not even a ground is free. Strictly this isn’t true as there are ground pins available at the two ICSP programming headers o the UNO. More of this in a moment though.SPI isn’t available as that’s being used for the SD reader and it wired directly the board’s hardware interface. An essential piece of forethought as it means that that existing SD read/write libraries should work without modification.At its simplest, this shield will find use as part of a small digital picture frame project - particularly married to a 3D printed case and with the low cost of both parts, it’s a good starter project for anyone who has outgrown making an LED blink or some of the simpler Arduino demonstrations and something that is useful - if small.Naturally, without a display library to make it work, this is shield is going to look like a rather expensive piece of glass. Fortunately, such a library exists in the form of David Prentice’s MCUFriend - which can be directly installed from your Arduino library manager. I was able to get the examples going with no more effort than loading them to the board. This even included using the resistive touch screen and displaying some fairly complex graphics.ERRATA: An earlier version of this review suggested that the i2C bus was available (from Rev. 3 onwards) but in fact these pins are already in use and only duplicated which lead to my error. However, if you don't want (or need) to use the SPI interface to the microSD card reader it should possible to remove four pins on the header (carefully!) from 10 through to 13 without losing too much physical strength leaving room for some (albeit limited) communication with the outside world either through four digital pins or the hardware SPI interface.The Good:CheapBright and colourfulResistive touchscreens are robust and reliableEasy hardware SPI access to the SD reader/writerThe Bad:Lack of English language instructions. A deal-breaker for many.Restricts access to SPI even if you don’t use the SD cardResistive touchscreens usually need a stylus (supplied)Blocks most of the usable connection on the UNO limiting what you can do with it.Slow.UPDATE: After some experimentation, my student and I were able to create a really neat and fully functional thermohygrometer (temperature and humidity) based on the Elegoo Uno with a single extra component, the ubiquitous DHT22 (both available from Amazon Prime at pocket-money prices). The final result, called "HotStuff" is now described in detail on Instructables and pictured here in both the faux LCD mode an clock version which is under development. With just three wires to connect (plus power) this is an ideal project for a young person to make and it's something that won't just go sit in a drawer as it's actually useful in multiple scenariosA 3d-printed case is all that's needed to finish this project off and create something quite special that looks almost like a commercial offering costing... well, about the same really, but you'll have made this yourself and that's something money just can't buy! The video doesn't show the current version but will give some idea of what it looks like when it's running (the flashing symbol indicates that the air is too damp and could cause mould growth).

For me the screen was good - the form factor matches of course matches UNO and I use UNO wifi 2 for some projects I make however I mostly use ESP8266 these days and mega format with esp on board so for this it wasn’t so great however again I commonly design and laser etch circuit boards of my own for these projects.The downsides for me are the use of so many pins and the main reason I usually stray from shields in projects are both form factor and pin accessibility. As above this usually dictates the need to create an intermediary shield or PCB which means its better to go for a non shield based screen.The integrated card reader is a nice bonus, for me I commonly use Arduino devices for sensor logging and communications so logging locally is also a great benefit, the placement of the reader was ok for uno although it’s a little short on the recess meaning the card protrudes very slightly. Big bonus on the spring fit and eject mechanism, the usual push fit makes ejection a pain and necessitates tweezers so this was great not have this issue.Documentation was not so great. I think AZ need to have specific QR codes that link direct to the relevant “ebook”. For me I like to research and tinker but for some they want to get straight to the sample code and basic instructions, especially for more novice and younger students. My card was also in German, I know they are a German company but maybe include a double sided variant with English instead of the sensatesense advert (consider teaming with Blynk instead as a great product for easier use by novices too!).Eventually I got the screen working with touch input and it seems pretty accurate, I liked the package included a stylus too.Price to value is acceptable, the main drawbacks for me are pin accessibility and form factor but if I had a requirement to display metrics available from onboard devices or non realworld sensors then this would be a screen/sd card combo I’d purchase again

The screen arrived within 2 days from ordering on Amazon. Well packaged in its own box with no signs of rough handling or damage.The construction quality of the module is very good with SMD components properly aligned and soldered. Soldered joints are smooth and clean. Silkscreen and PCB is free from marks dust or scratches. The accompanying stylus is also of good quality it is made entirely from plastic but does not feel flimsy or cheap to the touch.Unfortunately, there is no specific support/ documentation for this exact module on so a google search may land you here in the relevant Arduino projects /project hub / electropeakk page.The libraries needed to operate the module are:Adafruit_GFX.h , Adafruit_TFTLCD.h , TouchScreen.hThe tutorial in the Arduino projects above contains all the information + code needed to get you started with this module.Once the code is compiled and uploaded the module can work for hours without a glitch.The colour display is vivid and has good contrast. The viewing angle is great on the vertical axis ( over +/-45 degrees) but is quite limited on the horizontal axis (+/- 15 degrees). No burnt out or stuck pixels either.The touch screen also works great with the accompanying stylus but also with just a finger although not so precise with the latter.