WIO Terminal display issues

I’ve had 2 WIO terms fail on me - both in the same way. The first was out of the box - grey screen. I could program it and sent a simple turn the screen on/off with the face button. Screen went on/off but when on was only grey. The second failed with the same mode after running a color change routine (red - green - blue with 10 second delay between).

Anybody else seeing this problem?

An Update on this display issue. I loaded the WIO Terminal version of Circuit Python onto all three of these and the display works under CPy.

Now all I have to do is figure out the nuances between regular python and CPy.

This is definitely a software/library/firmware issue. I can’t believe I’m the only one seeing this…

Hello, can you copy the code that you showed to be problematic? I take the time to check for you.

#include"TFT_eSPI.h"
TFT_eSPI tft;

void setup() {
tft.begin();
tft.setRotation(3);

tft.fillScreen(TFT_RED); // fills entire the screen with colour red

}

void loop() {

}

This is a correct example of a realistic red screen

I need an example of your problem

Upload that sketch and nothing happens.

Forgive me asking this, but, just so it can be ruled out…

You have the most up to date Board file? And most up to date version of “tft.eSPI”?

===
Post your code as text that I can copy/paste, and I’ll try it in my Wio Terminal, if you like.

Tom

Board version 1.8.2. TFT_eSPI version 2.3.70

#include"TFT_eSPI.h"
TFT_eSPI tft;

void setup() {
tft.begin();
tft.setRotation(3);

tft.fillScreen(TFT_RED); // fills entire the screen with colour red

}

void loop() {

}

Display works with Circuit Python and the LovyanGFX library

Here is the output of the programmer:

Sketch uses 57336 bytes (11%) of program storage space. Maximum is 507904 bytes.
Device : ATSAMD51x19
Version : v1.1 [Arduino:XYZ] Mar 12 2020 17:43:33
Address : 0x0
Pages : 1024
Page Size : 512 bytes
Total Size : 512KB
Planes : 1
Lock Regions : 32
Locked : none
Security : false
BOD : false
BOR : true
Write 57960 bytes to flash (114 pages)
[==============================] 100% (114/114 pages)
Done in 0.959 seconds
Verify 57960 bytes of flash
[==============================] 100% (114/114 pages)
Verify successful
Done in 0.337 seconds

Happy to tell you that the code works fine in my Wio Terminal… your code seems fine. Sorry about your specific Wio Terminal. I hope I don’t “do something” to my Terminal*, to change what it is doing today!

(* Ha! Web nanny doesn’t allow the word M-I-N-E! (^_^)

Yes, I have tried this code, and it runs smoothly and there is no problem. At present, it may be that there is a problem with your Wio Terminal. You can contact our technical support email and send this forum post and details to [email protected], they will help you exchange goods or solve problems.

First, thank you for your input.

Just to be clear. I have been programming arduinos since 2014, and use them regularly in products I sell. I have 3 projects running on WIO terminals, 2 LED controllers and one environmental sensor array. I don’t have ONE board with this problem I now have three, all showing the same issue - no display with TFT_eSPI. In all cases when originally plugged in the game appeared and when I pressed a button - disappeared and the screen went dark. The only TFT_eSPI function that gets any response is the set brightness function which gives either a black screen at LOW or a grey screen at HIGH.

It is possible I did something that corrupted the devices source code on the first 2, but the third was not connected to a computer when the game disappeared, so I’m thinking low probability on that. It is also possible that I have the only 3 devices SEEED has ever sold with this problem, but the statistical probability of that is indistinguishable from ZERO.

They are working fine with the LovyanGFX library, as well as with CircuitPY, so there is something going on here about compatibility that is not obviously hardware related.

I’ll buy another one and test it out, but if I were running SEEED, I’d want these boards back in my shop to find out what is going on…

Thanks again for all your help.

1 Like

I’m having this same issue – none of the examples change the TFT on my Wio Terminal.

I have found that if I do

digitalWrite(LCD_BACKLIGHT, HIGH);

Then I can at least get the LCD to turn on. (Without that, it is always completely off.) However, the screen only displays what was last written to it.

If I add something like a Serial.println() to the setup, I can see that in the serial console. But no changes to the screen ever show up.

If I load up the CircuitPython bootloader, though, that works fine, as the original poster had mentioned.

Here is a full example:

#include "TFT_eSPI.h"
TFT_eSPI tft(320, 240);
#define LCD_BACKLIGHT (72Ul)

void setup() {
    Serial.begin(115200);
    while(!Serial); // Wait for Serial to be ready
    tft.begin();
    tft.setRotation(3);
    digitalWrite(LCD_BACKLIGHT, HIGH);
    tft.fillScreen(TFT_BLACK);
}
 
void loop() {
    Serial.println("Filling black");
    tft.fillScreen(TFT_BLACK);
    delay(1000);
    Serial.println("Filling green");
    tft.fillScreen(TFT_GREEN);
    delay(1000);
    Serial.println("Turn off backlight");
    digitalWrite(LCD_BACKLIGHT, LOW);
    delay(1000);
    Serial.println("Turn on backlight");
    digitalWrite(LCD_BACKLIGHT, HIGH);
    delay(1000);
}

Uploading output:

Sketch uses 57712 bytes (11%) of program storage space. Maximum is 507904 bytes.
Device       : ATSAMD51x19
Version      : v1.1 [Arduino:XYZ] Mar 12 2020 17:43:33
Address      : 0x0
Pages        : 1024
Page Size    : 512 bytes
Total Size   : 512KB
Planes       : 1
Lock Regions : 32
Locked       : none
Security     : false
BOD          : false
BOR          : true
Write 58336 bytes to flash (114 pages)
[==============================] 100% (114/114 pages)
Done in 0.703 seconds
Verify 58336 bytes of flash
[==============================] 100% (114/114 pages)
Verify successful
Done in 0.140 seconds

Here is a video of it running with the serial monitor in the background: Dropbox - IMG_4540.MOV - Simplify your life

(It has some stuff from CircuitPython still on the screen, which never goes away.)

I ran your program and tried it, and it is possible to turn on and off the screen to display green. In this case, I suggest you to burn the wio terminal initialization program and try again.
https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/Wio-Terminal-Firmware/

Loading the jumper firmware simply displayed a blank screen as well.

However, I was finally able to fix it by deleting all of the downloaded libraries and reloading just the ones I needed to compile my code.

I think there was a conflict between some of the libraries or installed versions that was causing the issue.