Discussion

What initialization steps are required when running the DT018ATFT in RGB mode?

For RGB, there is no initialization code to make this work out of the box, just pin configuration.

For MCU and RGB:

The IM[1:0] bits are used to set the MCU interface to either 16 or 18 bit (01 or 11). IM2 selects either Serial (0) or parallel (1) MCU interface. So for example, IM[2:0] = 011 would mean the MCU interface is running in 18-bit serial mode.

The RCM1 bit is used to select either the MCU (0) or RGB (1) interface modes (for writing display data to frame memory).

If the RGB interface mode is selected (RCM1 = 1), then RCM2 selects either RGB interface 1 (0) or RGB interface 2 (1). So to use RGB interface 1 you would set RCM[1:0] = 10.

The differences between the two are:

RGB Interface 1 (RCM [1:0] = 10) - Writing data to frame memory is done by PCLK and the data bus when DE is High. The controller must transfer the PCLK, VS, HS and DE signals to the driver.

RGB Interface 2 (RCM [1:0] = 11) - When the DE pin is High, display data is stored directly to frame memory. Blank porch setting is done using the B5h command (see page 152 of the display driver datasheet)

In the case of using the RGB interface (RCM1 = 1) with the Serial MCU interface (IM2 = 0), you can use the SDA pin for serial communication between your microcontroller and the display driver.

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Wojciech Bogal

2 years ago

Dears,

I'm trying to set up DT018ATFT in 16-bit RGB mode with parallel pixel data transfer.

Unfortunately, I cannot display any image. Depending on ILI9163C driver's registers settings we can see white screen or white screen with black vertical lines. If I don't set display driver registers (as described in the opening post) all screen is white.

As MCU I use Renesas S7 with built in RGB interface controller.

My display is connected as follows:

IM2 - 3V3

IM1 - GND

IM0 - 3V3

RCM1 - 3V3

RCM0 - both connections (3V3 and GND) were tested.

RGB data lines are connected to D[17:13] and D[11:1] and VIPF[3:0] was set to 0101 via serial interface.

I configured MCU RGB interface according to timing charts described in ILI9163C driver's manual (page 37).

I set back porch settings according to default values of ILI9163C driver:

10 cycles for horizontal,
3 lines for vertical.

Horizontal sync signal has 3 clock cycles which is defined minimum in driver's manual.

Clock frequency is set to 7,5 Mhz which gives PCLK period about 133 ns - much more than required minimum.

The oscilloscope waveforms of my RGB interface lines (attached to the post) seems to be correct according

to waveforms described in 6.8.2 chapter in Ilitek ILI9163 specification.

Data Enable pin level configuration is not clear for me. From timing charts - described in the Ilitek manual - I understood it should be low for valid data, but description and opening post say it should be high. I tested both settings - without result.

Is there any mistake in my configuration described above or should I check or configure anything else?

Maybe proper timing charts for 16-bit RGB interface mode for DT018ATFT are somewhere available?