How To Control A LCD TFT Using Your FPGA (Or Someone Else´s)?

Not long ago, we published some articles about controlling different kinds of displays, using your FPGA. On a VGA screen, on a small LCD screen, on a PSP LCD or even for the old, but nasty-analog-signaled NTSC system.

And today, we share with you another great tutorial on how to control a LCD TFT, that takes advantage of the ability of a FPGA to fully control what happens on every single clock cycle.

You may think, well, another LCD tutorial, more on the same…And you will be wrong. There are no identical systems. Each one has its own features which make it unique, and we want you to know them.

This is a very well explained tutorial that gives you all the files you will need to successfully implement it: schematics, VHDL code files, Project files, datasheets of the display…Everything!

The schematics are required for a small LCD Breakout board that interfaces between the FPGA and the LCD screen. You may try to build your own…

In addition the author takes some extra time to explain what really matters about this project and what makes it different from any other “How to control your LCD screen with your FPGA”. To properly control a TFT display you need two specific timed signals: DCLK (Pixel Clock) and DE (Data Enable). Why the code lines that control these two signal are coded the way they are is carefully explained in the article so you don´t want to miss it. Understanding this will make you capable of playing with any other TFT screen you may find.

Now it´s your turn!

By T. Jespersen