Top pHat For Raspberry Pi Problems

Development Boards Raspberry Pi
1

I just received my Top pHat for Raspberry Pi and I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to get the 2.4" TFT display setup as per the instructions at https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/sp … -guide/all.

I’m using the hat with a new Pi4 4GB running Raspbian Buster. I followed all the steps as laid out in the instructions, including enabling I2C and SPI, and disabling Overscan. I’ve rebooted the pi several times after completing all the steps, but still the display does not work; the backlight comes on, but I have never seen the screen display anything. I’ve also tried disconnecting and reconnecting the ribbon cable from the display to the hat, but it didn’t make a difference.

The model I have is DEV-16301, so I followed the special instructions for that version, including copy/pasting the multi-line version of the /etc/modprobe.d/fbtft.conf file. When I run

cat /proc/fb

there is no results (unless I attach the pi to a monitor, in which case only the monitor’s framebuffer is listed). If I just try running

con2fbmap 1 1

I get the message

open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory

I’ve also been unable to get the LEDs on the hat to light up; I’m able to run the code sample with the NeoPixel python API, but the lights never come on, and there is no error message. I’ve tried with and without the auto_write flag, calling the show() method, different values for the RGBs, all six of the lights… but nothing happens.

At first I thought the entire hat was faulty, but I have been able to get the buttons to work, and I’m able to talk to a sensor connected to the hat’s Qwiic port. I would like to test the microphone and speaker on the hat, but when I run the install script for the audio codec driver, I get an error:

make -j4 KERNELRELEASE=5.4.51-v7l+ -C /lib/modules/5.4.51-v7l+/build M=/var/lib/dkms/wm8960-soundcard/1.0/build…(bad exit status: 2)

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.4.51-v7l+ (armv7l)

Consult /var/lib/dkms/wm8960-soundcard/1.0/build/make.log for more information.

mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/etc/wm8960-soundcard’: File exists

Job for wm8960-soundcard.service failed because the control process exited with error code.

See “systemctl status wm8960-soundcard.service” and “journalctl -xe” for details.

I’ve attached the file /var/lib/dkms/wm8960-soundcard/1.0/build/make.log in case that is of any interest.

2

I have a bit of an update; after spending a couple days tweaking things and still having zero success, I gave up. A few days later, I booted up the Pi and the screen was working perfectly. I hadn’t changed anything, but it just worked. I used the Pi for a week or so, rebooting several times during the process. This morning, I noticed the display was blank even thought the Pi was still up and running. Just as it started working for no apparent reason, it has stopped again. I’ve checked and re-checked the ribbon connection to the screen, but still nothing. Anybody have any suggestions?

When the screen was working, I was not using the con2fbmap command at all, and I didn’t have any other display hooked up to the Pi.

3

Sorry to hear you’re having trouble! It seems you may have a bad board and we will be in touch with you.