GCBASIC documentation
GLCD Overview

This section covers GLCD devices that use the ILI9488 graphics controller.

ILI9488 is a 262k-color single-chip SoC driver for a-TFT liquid crystal display with resolution of 320 x 240 resolution, 16.7M-color and with internal GRAM .

GCBASIC supports 65K-color mode operations.

The GCBASIC constants shown below control the configuration of the ILI9488 controller.    The GCBASIC constants for control and data line connections are shown in the table below. Only SPI is available for connectivity:

To use the ILI9488 driver simply include the following in your user code. This will initialise the driver.

SPI mode

    'Pin mappings for SPI

    #include <glcd.h>
    #DEFINE GLCD_TYPE GLCD_TYPE_ILI9488

    #DEFINE GLCD_DC       PORTB.3           ' Data command line
    #DEFINE GLCD_CS       PORTB.5           ' Chip select line
    #DEFINE GLCD_RST      PORTB.4           ' Reset line

    #DEFINE GLCD_DI       PORTB.2          ' Data in | MISO
    #DEFINE GLCD_DO       PORTB.0          ' Data out | MOSI
    #DEFINE GLCD_SCK      PORTB.1          ' Clock Line

The GCBASIC constants for the interface to the controller are shown in the table below.

The GCBASIC constants for control display characteristics are shown in the table below.

The GCBASIC commands supported for this GLCD are shown in the table below.  Always review the appropiate library for the latest full set of supported commands.

    ILI9488_TFT_BLACK       //0x000000
    ILI9488_TFT_RED         //0xFC0000
    ILI9488_TFT_GREEN       //0x00FC00
    ILI9488_TFT_BLUE        //0x0000FC
    ILI9488_TFT_WHITE       //0xFFFFFF

    ILI9488_TFT_CYAN        //0x003F3F
    ILI9488_TFT_DARKCYAN    //0x00AFAF
    ILI9488_TFT_DARKGREEN   //0x002100
    ILI9488_TFT_DARKGREY    //0xAAAAAA
    ILI9488_TFT_GREENYELLOW //0x93FC33
    ILI9488_TFT_LIGHTGREY   //0xC9C9C9
    ILI9488_TFT_MAGENTA     //0xCC00CC
    ILI9488_TFT_MAROON      //0x7E007E
    ILI9488_TFT_NAVY        //0x00003E
    ILI9488_TFT_OLIVE       //0x783E00
    ILI9488_TFT_ORANGE      //0xFC2900
    ILI9488_TFT_PINK        //0xFC000F
    ILI9488_TFT_PURPLE      //0xF01F9E
    ILI9488_TFT_YELLOW      //0xFC7E00

These examples show how to drive a ILI9488 based Graphic LCD module with the built in commands of GCBASIC.

Examples - PPS Enabled

    #chip 18F26K83, 64
    #option Explicit

    'Generated by PIC PPS Tool for GCBASIC
    #startup InitPPS, 85
    #DEFINE PPSToolPart 18f26k83

    Sub InitPPS
        'Module: UART pin directions
        Dir PORTC.7 Out    ' Make TX1 pin an output
        'Module: UART1
        RC7PPS = 0x0013    'TX1 > RC7

        #IFDEF ILI9488_HardwareSPI
            UNLOCKPPS
            'Module: SPI1
            RB0PPS = 0x001F    'SDO1 > RB0
            RB1PPS = 0x001E    'SCK1 > RB1
            SPI1SCKPPS = 0x0009    'RB1 > SCK1 (bi-directional)
            SPI1SDIPPS = 0x000A    'RB2 > SDI1
        #ELSE
            RB0PPS = 0
            RB1PPS = 0
        #ENDIF
    End Sub
    // Template comment at the end of the config file

    #include <glcd.h>
    #DEFINE GLCD_TYPE GLCD_TYPE_ILI9488
    #DEFINE ILI9488_HARDWARESPI
    #DEFINE HWSPIMODE MASTERFAST
    #DEFINE GLCD_DC       PORTB.3           ' Data command line
    #DEFINE GLCD_CS       PORTB.5           ' Chip select line
    #DEFINE GLCD_RST      PORTB.4           ' Reset line

    #DEFINE GLCD_DI       PORTB.2          ' Data in | MISO
    #DEFINE GLCD_DO       PORTB.0          ' Data out | MOSI
    #DEFINE GLCD_SCK      PORTB.1          ' Clock Line

    '''********************************************************************************

    'main program start here

    // Set the background
    #DEFINE DEFAULT_GLCDBACKGROUND TFT_WHITE


    GLCDPrint 0, 0, "Test of the ILI9488 Device", TFT_BLACK
    end

Examples - Legacy non PPS microcontroller

    #chip 16F1939
    #option Explicit



    #include <glcd.h>
    #DEFINE GLCD_TYPE GLCD_TYPE_ILI9488
    #DEFINE GLCD_DC       PORTB.3           ' Data command line
    #DEFINE GLCD_CS       PORTB.5           ' Chip select line
    #DEFINE GLCD_RST      PORTB.4           ' Reset line

    #DEFINE GLCD_DI       PORTB.2          ' Data in | MISO
    #DEFINE GLCD_DO       PORTB.0          ' Data out | MOSI
    #DEFINE GLCD_SCK      PORTB.1          ' Clock Line

    '''********************************************************************************

    'main program start here

    // Set the background
    #DEFINE DEFAULT_GLCDBACKGROUND TFT_WHITE


    GLCDPrint 0, 0, "Test of the ILI9488 Device", TFT_BLACK
    end

For more help, see GLCDCLS, GLCDDrawChar, GLCDPrint, GLCDReadByte, GLCDWriteByte or Pset

Supported in <GLCD.H>

Developer Notes

The ILI9488 library implemented uses BRG color scheme which is different from other GLCD libraries.

The ILI9488 library implemented also uses 18bits for color definition where the color scheme is defined as shown below:

The ILI9488 library implemented there has the following differences from a typical GLCD library.