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Which touch screen displays?
#1
Hi,

What do I look for on Amazon for touch screen display that
is supported by Moode?

Thank you
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#2
Any tablet with a fairly current cpu that runs a web browser, a 10" tablet is fine. Alternatively a smartphone or a spare laptop?
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#3
@Taki8888

@vinnn's correct if you are asking about a remote device but I'm wondering if you mean specifically a touchscreen display that attaches to the RPi and serves as moOde's local display.

If so, then I'd suggest you stick with the official Raspberry Pi 7" touchscreen display. It looks great visually, performs very well as a touchscreen, is compatible with the RPi electronically, and is the "reference" design for moOde's local display function.

Anything bigger and you have wasted screen space; anything smaller and you may find yourself squinting at the screen. 

The Raspberry Pi Touchscreen uses the DSI interface. I suggest you look at assembly and connection guides available online before you buy so you'll know what to expect.

An HDMI display can also be pressed into service but it's hard to find a small one at a decent price. 

For another purpose I bought a bare 3.5" HDMI LCD touchscreen display. I've tried it with moOde. It works ok but the visual quality is noticeably worse than the official RPi display and IMHO the moOdeUI is too small in it to be usable in a bookshelf display.

Regards,
Kent
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#4
Everything @TheOldPresbyope said !!
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bob
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#5
Sorry I was not clear. Yes, the touch screen that attaches to the rpi.

Thanks for the great info, helps a lot. :-)

I looked at the photos. So the RPI will mount on the back of
the official touch screen? No issues with the DAC hat on it?

I have not checked yet. I’m using rpi4, not sure if it work with
the rpi4 connection wise?
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#6
(05-21-2020, 03:06 PM)Taki8888 Wrote: Sorry I was not clear. Yes, the touch screen that attaches to the rpi.

Thanks for the great info, helps a lot. :-)

I looked at the photos. So the RPI will mount on the back of
the official touch screen? No issues with the DAC hat on it?

I have not checked yet. I’m using rpi4, not sure if it work with
the rpi4 connection wise?

Yes, the RPi mounts on the back unless you cobble together some other arrangement (which might require a longer DSI flat cable). This doesn't interfere with adding an I2S DAC HAT on top of the RPi. (E.g., from front to back the full stack is the screen, then the screen control board, then the RPi, then the DAC.)

The Touchscreen display should work fine with an RPi4B ... BUT ... notice that there are two ways to feed +5V to the screen. 
  • You can use the included jumper wires to go between +5V and GND pins on the RPi and the related pins on the screen's control board. No problem here. 
  • On the other hand you may need to keep the GPIO clear for a DAC HAT and instead connect power to the screen via the micro-USB connector on the control board. The RPi4B has a USB-C connector, not micro-USB so a simple "splitter" cable will not suffice without an additional connector adapter somewhere. Of course, you could also use separate power supplies but that seems like overkill to me.
I don't think it matters which method you choose to power the screen--I've used it both ways---just be aware that choices have consequences. 

Recently, I bought a SmartPi Touch 2 case to house the screen and an RPi3B+, along with the optional, extra deep back to accommodate an I2S DAC. I did this after seeing a post from new_bloke and exchanging PMs with him. I'm quite happy with this case. Right now I'm using it with a USB DAC. At some point I'll want to modify the back as new_bloke did to accommodate RCA connectors for an I2S DAC HAT so I can have a neat finished appearance.

Why did I decide to use an RPi3B+ here when I have RPi4Bs in hand too?
  1. The RPi3B+ generates less heat so I may be able to do without active cooling in this little box. I still may end up trying to use the fan which came with the case (which will require some hackery with the deep back) depending on what kind of temperatures I reach in long-term usage in the summer.
  2. With everything stacked in this case, the uSD card is impossible to reach without partial disassembly. The RPi3B+ can boot moOde from an easily accessible USB thumb drive. The RPi4B cannot (at least not yet). I remember seeing somewhere long ago an extension cable for uSD but it would be awkward to fit it in and I'm not sure how it would affect the performance of the RPi.
Regards,
Kent
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#7
@TheOldPresbyope 
This extender..?
https://www.amazon.com/Electop-Extension...B07SV5ZFW4

My experience with the touchscreen was that it really benefited from a separate supply..or rather the Pi did.

Unless the Pi supply is very beefy the screen would display the low power lightning bolt when using other USB peripherals.
Of course, this could be improved using a powered USB hub but that sort of defeats the purpose of a small compact case without too many trailing wires.

bob
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bob
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#8
That adapter cable is sorta what I had in mind but, zowie, 48cm? I wonder if this isn't a problem both for read/write speed and for EMI, but that's just me.

Regards,
Kent
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#9
(05-21-2020, 09:41 PM)TheOldPresbyope Wrote: That adapter cable is sorta what I had in mind but, zowie, 48cm? I wonder if this isn't a problem both for read/write speed and for EMI, but that's just me.

Regards,
Kent

Plenty of short ones about...that was just the first amazon hit...

Pimoroni have this..
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/micro...sion-cable

or
https://www.tindie.com/products/TEMProdu...sion-cord/

even a solid with sniffer..
https://www.ebay.com/itm/micro-SD-card-s...2647257537
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bob
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#10
Late breaking news: 

I discovered that just yesterday, almost a year after the release of the model 4, the Raspberry Pi Foundation released a beta version of a new RPi4B eeprom which, among other things, enables USB Mass Storage Device (MSD) booting. 

From the posts I'm seeing on the RPFoundation forum, there's bugs to be worked out, but it shouldn't be long before this moves to general release.

That will be sweet. We'll be able to boot and run from a USB3.0 device, which should translate to much better performance. The need for a uSD extender cable may be overcome by events.

@DRONE7: Your Google-Fu is strong!

Regards,
Kent
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