The 2.8" HY28A LCD Screen

This HY28A from T-Haoyu features a 2,8" 320 x 240 pixels screen with 256K colours and touch. Connection is done through two SPI ports, one for the screen and another for the touch.

It works easily on the LaunchPad MSP430 and Stellaris with the LCD_screen Library Suite.

This screen features the reading of the colour of one given pixel. This is a key requirement for any GUI library.

At USD12, this screen provides incredible value.

The screen includes a 3,3V regulator and can be powered with 3,3V or 5V. But I/Os are not 5V tolerant and work at 3,3V only.

Two separate SPI ports are required:

one for the screen, high speed-capable, but in mode 2 or 3,
another for the touch controller, low speed, in standard 0 or 1 mode.

The pins of the screen are 2mm-spaced, so specific connectors are needed. I'm using 2mm to 2,54mm = 0.1" cables. They are now widely available, for example at Adafruit.

Optionally, backlight can be controlled through a PWM input.

The minimum number of I/Os is 9, with 3 for screen SPI (SCK, MOSI, MISO), 3 for the touch controller (SCK, MOSI, MISO), 2 for power and one for RESET, provided the two CS pins are shunt to ground.

One pin can be saved by connecting the RESET pin of the screen directly to the RESET pin of the LaunchPad.

Pros

Easy to use LCD panel with Energia library
Great colours
Precise touch
Read pixel colour feature

Cons

Not so immediate to use, especially because of the two SPI ports and the 2mm-spaced pins
Not a BoosterPack

Wrap-Up

Incredible value for a large, bright and responsive colour screen with touch
High versatility with pixel colour reading