Small IPS Color Display with Arduino Nano

In this blog I will show how to connect a 0.96" IPS color display that is 80x160 pixels to Arduino Nano. Then I will try the new Arduino Web Editor to create and later to share this project.

Sometimes it is handy to have a small screen in your Arduino project. The 0.96 inch IPS color diplay is perfect for this. You can get the original Adafruit Color TFT display with SD card reader for this for $20 (excluding shipping costs), but you can also find a clone on Chinese reseller websites or eBay. Mine did not include a SD card reader, but it was $3 (including shipping).

Because everything happens now "In The Cloud". I have decided to try out the new Arduino Web Editor. Another reason you might want to create Arduino sketches online is if you want to share them.

What is also handy about the Web Editor is that you don't need to install any libraries. As you will see, in my project I use some Adafruit libraries, but did not have to do anything to call the extra library functions. I just compiled without any errors or warnings.

To get it working follow the "Getting Started" steps on this page of the Arduino website. The steps include creating an account and installing a plugin, which will detect COM ports where your Arduinos are connected. It also works with Arduino clones. As a test I had an old Arduino Nano clone connected and it detected it flawlessly.

To make your project better to understand, you can also add board diagrams. This can be done using Fritzing. Just download the version supported by your OS. I have used the Windows 64-bit version and just needed to unzip it and start Fritzing.exe.

In my case I also needed a part that was not in the Fritzing database. Luckily there is a community that submits parts. It is located on the forum page.  Adafruit also has parts on their Github page. To import the part just click the icon in the Parts frame and select Import...

You can also create your own parts. Sparkfun has created a great tutorial how on to do it.

I was now able to create the breadboard diagram. Below you see the breadboard diagram created with Fritzing app of how to connect the display to Arduino Nano.

The display part is Adafruit based, but I have created a table on how to translate the Original Adafruit 0.96" 160x80 Color TFT Display to Chinese Clone IPS 0.96 inch 7P SPI ST7735 module

As for the complete project the Arduino Web Editor lets you embed it, but also create a sharing link.