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Edouard Lafargue avatar image
Edouard Lafargue asked

Found a Raspberry Pi LCD touchscreen that needs no drivers or configuration

I haven't seen this on this forum before, so I thought I'd share: it is surprisingly easy to install a LCD on a raspberry Pi that needs absolutely zero configuration or calibration, either for the screen or touch.

Just search for "DSI" screens on Amazon or others, those are the screens that use the flat ribbon connection on the Pi instead of GPIOs, otherwise they look pretty much identical.

Those DSI screens are similarly priced as the small GPIO-based screens, but usually have a higher resolution (800x400 or higher), capacitive touch that requires no calibration, and of course they use no GPIO.

The nicest part is that once you connect the screen, that's it, no further action needed, it works. Just power up your Pi, remove `/etc/venus/headless`, reboot and you're in business!

I bought a "Waveshare" brand 4" screen on Amazon (perfect size for a Pi), but many other sizes/brands exist, I suspect they all behave the same. "Raspberry Pi DSI Screen" is a good search query.

Hope this is useful to others!

Raspberry Pi
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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi @Edouard Lafargue,

do you have adaptive brightness and display off time working (just like on a GX 50 touch)?
I think that's the only thing which is not working, at least not without modifications.

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Kevin Windrem avatar image Kevin Windrem commented ·

I have updated my script based on discussions here.

It now asks the installer whether display brightness control should be installed rather than trying to guess.

I also switched to /sys/class/graphics/fb0/blank to control blanking (aka screen saver). The worst case is the display will switch to a black screen with backlight on. This happens if the display doesn't support backlight control (many HDMI displays).

These changes should support a wider range of displays.

A reboot may be required if installing the overlay or modifying config.txt but other changes only require a GUI restart.

To apply these changes, download the repo run setup again.

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rmaddy avatar image rmaddy commented ·

Thanks for the screen suggestion and the details on getting the brightness and screen blank to work.

But how are people mounting these Waveshare DSI screens to a wall with the RPi?

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kurtinge avatar image kurtinge commented ·
Hi and thanks for the tip!


I have the RPi installed in a quite hidden place, near the batteries, and it is really working well. But I would like to have a screen installed near the chart table. As the distance is about 10m from the RPi I guess it will be quite problematic to extende the cable that far.

Anyone with a tip in this matter? Maybe installing a secondary RPi and open the console from there is the only choice? I was also thinkin of putting a old Iphone or tablet, but that will not be as nice

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2 Answers
alan avatar image
alan answered ·

Thanks, I grabbed a 5" one.

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christophlaib avatar image
christophlaib answered ·

Waveshare 4.3 display off:
has anyone succeed to get backlit turned off after defined time " display-off time "
thx for sharing in advance !

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