Purchases After Kickstarter

We will make PiScreen available for back order on www.tindie.com.

If you are to purchase from tindie.com, your order will be placed on back order and your credit card will not be charged. You will be notified when PiScreen will be available which is near the end of may.

Assembled PiScreen; https://www.tindie.com/

Kit PiScreen; https://www.tindie.com/

It is our priority to fulfill our Kickstarter backers before we do anything thing else.

Instructions and Support

All instructions and support for PiScreen can be found at;

PiScreen is designed to give everyone the opportunity of adding a small 3.5" TFT (480x320) display with touchscreen control to their Raspberry Pi.

PiScreen - Front

PiScreen - Side

PiScreen includes a 3.5" TFT with touchscreen control, PCB and components needed to add this display to a Raspberry Pi.

PiScreen - Kit - 2nd Reward, requires some assembling

Once assembled (or you can receive one pre-assembled), PiScreen connects right on top of the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins or via a ribbon cable. 9 GPIO pins are unused and made available elsewhere on



We have done research on a number of different LCD panels and the two manufactures we have selected are the best quality we have seen so far.

Specifications of the these panels are;

Touch Screen Resistive

Display construction 480 * 320 DOTS

LCD Controller ILI9481

Touch Screen Controller XPT2046

Display Color Multicolor, 65536 colors

### UPDATE 19th March###

All rewards from $55 and above will now receive a stylus with their reward, hopefully we can include a spare as well. We have yet to find the exact model, but we do know what we need. Small and slim with a hard point. Similar to what is used for the Nintendo 3ds or the model used for the old Palm Pilot. A stylus isn’t really needed, but it can help with some of the small buttons on the screen within X. And sometimes it is easier to draw with a stylus rather than your finger.

Stretch Goals

$22,000 - Surface-Mount Technology (SMT) for the pre-assembled PiScreens.

(PiScreens that come as a kit will stay as they are, through hole). SMT will allow for a smarter looking product and allow for better airflow and it will assist with the manfacture process for the PCB.

$25,000 - PiScreen Case A laser cut case designed for PiScreen + Raspberry Pi. At this stage we are not sure how a case would affect postage or if a pledge increase is required. E.g $5. More details as we get closer to the goal



There are a large number of different TFT models available.

All come in different sizes and different controllers. Some require extra components and others do not. If this is all new to you, there is a very steep learning curve with getting these up and running.

For some of use, this can be a bit overwhelming. The aim of this Kickstarter is to remove of this complexity and make a small touchscreen available to all.

PiScreen is also very handy for users that run their Raspberry Pi headless (No monitor). You can easily shutdown the power without having to log in.

History

We have done some extensive work with different types of displays on the Raspberry PI and I also assist others, a lot of it can bee seen here www.marks-space.com.

There are others out there also helping, Notro and Texy ( www.raspberrypi.org). And thanks to Notro for his work on FBTFT, where he has made drivers available for multiple TFT screens.



A number of prototypes were created before we came up with the final product.

Why Kickstarter?

In order to get PiScreen in the hands of Raspberry Pi users at a reasonable price, 100+ boards need to be produced.

First Prototype

First Prototype

The above image shows the very first prototype. Using a breadboard was not a good idea as the breadboard generated a lot of noise and wires would always become loose

Second Prototype

Top of Second Prototype

Back of prototype 3

Front of prototype 3

PCB Prototype

We will also have some tutorials on what can be done with PiScreen, most will be outside of the box and what you normally wouldn't use a LCD for, some of these are already available at www.marks-space.com

E.g

Virtual buttons to control the GPIO of the Pi

Kiosk style windows system

How to use a more streamlined windows manager designed for embedded devices

Write you own programs

PiScreen and Raspberry Pi Camera module

Use PiScreen for MAME.

Here is the current version of the PCB, which will be black with white printing.

PiScreen PCB

Schema

Time-Line

16th Mach;

Launch Kickstarter Campaign

16th April:

End Kickstarter campaign

Procure a small batch of PCBs (10) to confirm quality and functionality.

We will use current supplier whom is based in Hong Kong and which we have already had good experience with, this includes quality and turn around.

Procure a small batch of TFTs and components to confirm quality and functionality.

30th April;

Assemble the first batch of PiScreens and perform necessary testing.

7th May;

Procure final hardware

30th May:

Package PiScreen kits.

Assemble the required amount of PiScreen

Fulfillment to backers

PiScreen and Camera Module

Instructions and Support

All instructions and support for PiScreen can be found at www.OzzMaker.com.