Can the RA8875 change Font? Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

[Forge]

So I have been trying to get a little prototype for a product going and I am running into a silly issue I can not solve. I have a Arduino Mega 2560 R3 hooked up to a 7" TFT LCD with a RA8875 chip. I am simply trying to change my font; specifically to any of the ones included with the adafruit_gfx library. I'll post some code here to see if anyone can spot anything wrong.

Note that everything compiles and uploads smoothly without error. The LCD touchscreen also works very well and visual stuff such as the adafruit graphics demo runs well too.
I just cant change font. I also noticed

Code: Select all | TOGGLE FULL SIZE

#include <SPI.h>
#include <Adafruit_GFX.h>
#include <Adafruit_RA8875.h>

#include <Fonts/FreeSansBold24pt7b.h>

#define RA8875_INT 4
#define RA8875_CS 10
#define RA8875_RESET 9

Adafruit_RA8875 tft = Adafruit_RA8875(RA8875_CS, RA8875_RESET);
uint16_t tx, ty;
float xScale = 1024.0F/850.0;
float yScale = 1024.0F/545.0;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  tft.begin(RA8875_800x480);
  tft.displayOn(true);
  tft.GPIOX(true);
  tft.PWM1config(true, RA8875_PWM_CLK_DIV1024);
  tft.PWM1out(255);

  tft.textMode();
  tft.setFont(&FreeSansBold24pt7b);
  tft.textSetCursor(80,200);
  tft.textEnlarge(8);
  tft.print("AXCDW0129314");
}

void loop() {

}

[adafruit_support_rick]

tft.textMode sets the RA8875 to use its internal font. Don't go into text mode if you want to use a GFX font

[Tim_wb0wuq]

I have the same issue. I have the Adafruit metro mini https://www.adafruit.com/product/2590 The Adafruit https://www.adafruit.com/?q=ra8875

The sketch compiles and loads, but does not render the fonts.

This same sketch compiles and loads with the 2.8" TFT LCD with touchscreen. https://www.adafruit.com/product/1770 and works great.

Please help!!

Tim

[Tim_wb0wuq]

I have the same issue. I have the Adafruit metro mini https://www.adafruit.com/product/2590 The Adafruit https://www.adafruit.com/?q=ra8875 with this screen https://www.adafruit.com/product/2354

All adafruit items.

The sketch compiles and loads, but does not render the fonts.

This same sketch compiles and loads with the 2.8" TFT LCD with touchscreen. https://www.adafruit.com/product/1770 and works great.

Please help!!

Tim

[DocS2]

So, how do we display text without doing tft.SetTextMode()??

[clayton]

Well, I can show you how to write one character.

Code: Select all | TOGGLE FULL SIZE

#include <SPI.h>
#include <Adafruit_GFX.h>
#include <Adafruit_RA8875.h>

#include <Fonts/FreeSansBold24pt7b.h>

#define RA8875_INT 4
#define RA8875_CS 10
#define RA8875_RESET 9

Adafruit_RA8875 tft = Adafruit_RA8875(RA8875_CS, RA8875_RESET);
uint16_t tx, ty;
float xScale = 1024.0F/850.0;
float yScale = 1024.0F/545.0;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  tft.begin(RA8875_800x480);
  tft.displayOn(true);
  tft.GPIOX(true);
  tft.PWM1config(true, RA8875_PWM_CLK_DIV1024);
  tft.PWM1out(255);
 
  tft.fillScreen(RA8875_BLUE);
  unsigned char c = 'D';
  tft.setFont(&FreeSansBold24pt7b);
  tft.drawChar(400, 240, c, RA8875_WHITE, RA8875_BLUE, 2);
}

void loop() { }


Change the last five statements of your program to the last four above. The " tft.setFont" and "tft.drawChar" methods are from Adafruit_GFX library. If you can show me how to write more than one character at a time I would appreciate it.

[rlgjr562]

The only way I have been able to print on my display is using the internal fonts. There are several examples out there for the RA8875 and GFX external fonts, that I have not been able to make work. I have been using the following bit of code and it seems to work.

The tft.textEnlarge(0) displays the internal font the number 0 in this case scales the font I have used 0 through 3. the internal font is crude but it is easier to get to work.

You would not need the first two lines they create a black box on a graphic I have displayed.

Code: Select all | TOGGLE FULL SIZE

  tft.graphicsMode();
  tft.fillRect(325, 15, 150, 200, RA8875_BLACK);
  tft.textMode();                 // go to text mode
  //
  tft.textSetCursor(338, 20);
  tft.textTransparent(WHITE);
  tft.textEnlarge(0);
  tft.textWrite("Humidity");

  tft.textSetCursor(256, 35);
  tft.textTransparent(WHITE);
  tft.textEnlarge(2);
  tft.textWrite(humidity);

  tft.textSetCursor(413, 40);
  tft.textTransparent(WHITE);
  tft.textEnlarge(0);
  tft.textWrite("% RH");

[DonKrapf]

I haven't done it but, according to the spec sheet (https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/RA8875_DS_V19_Eng.pdf), you can load a font into the RA8875 internal "CGRAM" (Character Generation RAM) and print with that just as you would with the internal ROM font. Once you have the font loaded, this is much faster and easier than drawing a character at a time.

The steps for loading and using your own font are on pages 113 and 114. Adafruit hasn't created a function to simplify this but, using Adafruit's low-level functions in the RA8875 library, you can can follow the steps in the spec sheet.