Touch Screen TFT LCD SPI Displays Blank Screen

garnoopy

I am using a 3.5 Inch 480x320 Touch Screen TFT LCD SPI Display Panel for my Pi Zero - yes, I know it’s a small screen but I have a specific purpose for it and MM would display exactly what I want just the way I want it.

When I start MM I can see it via a local browser, I can see it via VMC, and if I plug the raspberry pi into a HDMI monitor I can see it - but I cannot see it on the touchscreen display.

Everything else displays, but not on the touchscreen - it just shows a black screen when MM is opened. Anyone have any suggestions?

Here are the logs:

:~/MagicMirror $ npm run start

> magicmirror@2.31.0 start
> npm run start:x11


> magicmirror@2.31.0 start:x11
> DISPLAY="${DISPLAY:=:0}" ./node_modules/.bin/electron js/electron.js

[2025-05-21 14:46:46.677] [LOG]   Starting MagicMirror: v2.31.0
[2025-05-21 14:46:46.774] [LOG]   Loading config ...
[2025-05-21 14:46:46.782] [LOG]   config template file not exists, no envsubst
[2025-05-21 14:46:48.782] [INFO]  Checking config file /home/spenc/MagicMirror/config/config.js ...
[2025-05-21 14:46:48.937] [INFO]  Your configuration file doesn't contain syntax errors :)
[2025-05-21 14:46:48.939] [INFO]  Checking modules structure configuration ...
[2025-05-21 14:46:49.215] [INFO]  Your modules structure configuration doesn't contain errors :)
[2025-05-21 14:46:49.221] [LOG]   Loading module helpers ...
[2025-05-21 14:46:49.226] [LOG]   No helper found for module: clock.
[2025-05-21 14:46:49.227] [LOG]   All module helpers loaded.
[2025-05-21 14:46:49.249] [LOG]   Starting server on port 8081 ...
[2025-05-21 14:46:49.256] [WARN]  You're using a full whitelist configuration to allow for all IPs
[2025-05-21 14:46:50.377] [LOG]   Server started ...
[2025-05-21 14:46:50.378] [LOG]   Sockets connected & modules started ...
[2025-05-21 14:47:03.067] [LOG]   Launching application.
[2025-05-21 14:47:18.937] [INFO]  System information:
### SYSTEM:   manufacturer: Raspberry Pi Foundation; model: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Rev 1.0; virtual: false
### OS:       platform: linux; distro: Raspbian GNU/Linux; release: 12; arch: arm; kernel: 6.12.28-v7+
### VERSIONS: electron: 35.1.2; used node: 23.11.0; installed node: 23.11.0; npm: 10.9.2; pm2: 5.4.3
### OTHER:    timeZone: America/Chicago; ELECTRON_ENABLE_GPU: undefined

sdetweil

@garnoopy what is on the display before MagicMirror starts?
it it part of the desktop? does the display appear in the display configuration panel?

what os version, bookworm, 64 bit. hard on pi02w due to small memory size

garnoopy

@sdetweil the standard desktop is on the screen. Bookworm 64 bit.

I’ll have to look to see if the display is listed… but since the desktop shows seems like it will be. The screen just goes black (not off) when I start MM.

rkorell

@garnoopy Do you have enabled SPI on your pi?
And: Do you have configured the correct overlays for running the 3,5‘‘ Display?

Regards,
Ralf

sdetweil

@garnoopy can you open a browser and make it display on that screen, may have to drag it

garnoopy

Yes, I enabled SPI.

I had to follow these instructions to get the screen to work, specifically these config updates:


Add a "#" in front of the line "dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d"

add this line at the end of the file " dtoverlay=piscreen,speed=18000000,drm "

(remove the double inverted commas "")

https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/1bnav0y/i_finally_have_the_35inch_gpio_spi_lcd_working/

I will check the browser when I get home from work. But file manager, terminal, settings, everything else pulls up just fine.

garnoopy

@rkorell said in Touch Screen TFT LCD SPI Displays Blank Screen:

@garnoopy Do you have enabled SPI on your pi?
And: Do you have configured the correct overlays for running the 3,5‘‘ Display?

Regards,
Ralf

Browser does open and I can load web pages.