Radxa Display 8 HD Usage

Introduction

Radxa Display 8 HD now supports the following radxa products:

Applicable to products	FPC cable types	Photos
4C+/5A/5B	39 pin to 40 pin FPC cable
3A/3C/4SE	15 pin to 40 pin FPC cable

The 15-pin to 40-pin FPC cable has an additional 7-pin holder that needs to be connected as defined below:

Tutorials

4C+/5A/5B

Preparations

• ROCK 4C+/5A/5B SBC

note

The ROCK 5A is used here as a demonstration, and other boards operate in a similar way.

• Radxa Display 8 HD
• 39 pin to 40 pin FPC cable
• Power supply

tip

Recommended Radxa PD 30W Adapter.

• Storage media with the latest official software of the corresponding product.
• USB to TTL serial cable or HDMI monitor and cable.

Procedures

1. Install the system disc storage media on the SBC

2. Connect the SBC and the display panel via the FPC cable. The 40 pin terminal is connected to the display panel: lift up the black tab on the FPC connector, insert the FPC cable into the connector, and press the black tab to secure the FPC cable. To connect the 39-pin end to the product's DSI connector: swivel up the black tab on the FPC connector, insert the FPC cable into the connector, and press down on the black tab to secure the FPC cable.

3. Connect the monitor or USB serial port debugging, power into the system

4. Enable the Radxa Display 8 HD overlay via the terminal. For the board-specific overlay steps, refer to:

   • ROCK 5A MIPI DSI
   • ROCK 5B / 5B+ MIPI DSI

5. Reboot the SBC to apply overlay and the display will output a screen.

3A/3C/4SE

Ppreparations

• ROCK 3A/3C/4SE SBC

note

The ROCK 3C is used here as a demonstration, and other products operate in a similar manner.

• Radxa Display 8 HD
• 15 pin to 40 pin FPC cable
• Power supply

tip

Recommended Radxa PD 30W Adapter.

• Storage media with the latest official software of the corresponding product.
• USB to TTL serial cable or HDMI monitor and cable.

Procedures

1. Install the system disc storage media on the SBC

2. Connect the SBC and the display panel via the FPC cable. The 40 pin terminal is connected to the display panel: pull up the black module of the FPC connector on SBC, insert the FPC cable into the slot, and then press the black module to fix the FPC cable.

The 15 pin terminal is connected to the DSI connector on the SBC: Step 1: lift up the white tab on the FPC connector Step 2: Cable Gold Finger Back to White Snap Insert Connector Step 3: Press the snap down firmly to fix the wires

3. The pins are connected to the GPIO socket of the SBC through the Dupont cable as follows:

ROCK 3C

FPC cable header pin		SBC GPIO pin
VCC_5V	<-->	+5.0V
GND	<-->	GND
PWM	<-->	PWM14_M0(GPIO Pin 7)
TP-RST	<-->	GPIO3_B2(GPIO Pin 18)
YP-INT	<-->	GPIO3_B1(GPIO Pin 16)
LCD-RST	<-->	+3.3V
GINT	<-->	None

The physical connection diagram is referenced below:

ROCK 3A

FPC cable header pin		SBC GPIO pin
VCC_5V	<-->	+5.0V
GND	<-->	GND
PWM	<-->	PWM14_M0(GPIO Pin 11)
TP-RST	<-->	GPIO3_B2(GPIO Pin 18)
YP-INT	<-->	GPIO0_B6(GPIO Pin 16)
LCD-RST	<-->	+3.3V
GINT	<-->	None

The physical connection diagram is referenced below:

ROCK 4SE

FPC cable header pin		SBC GPIO pin
VCC_5V	<-->	+5.0V
GND	<-->	GND
PWM	<-->	PWM1(GPIO Pin 13)
TP-RST	<-->	GPIO4_D2(GPIO Pin 16)
YP-INT	<-->	GPIO4_D4(GPIO Pin 18)
LCD-RST	<-->	+3.3V
GINT	<-->	None

The physical connection diagram is referenced below:

4. Connect the monitor or USB serial port debugging, power into the system

5. Enable the Radxa Display 8 HD overlay via the terminal. For the board-specific overlay steps, refer to:

   • ROCK 3A display guide
   • ROCK 3C display configuration
   • ROCK 4SE DSI guide

6. Reboot the SBC to apply overlay and the display will output a screen.

Raspberry Pi

Radxa Display 8 HD also works with Raspberry Pi 4B. The full guide is maintained in the radxa-displays-on-raspberry-pi repository.

Preparations

• Raspberry Pi 4B
• Radxa Display 8 HD panel
• 15-pin to 40-pin FPC cable

Hardware connection

Use the 15-pin to 40-pin FPC cable and connect the 7-pin holder to the Raspberry Pi 4B 40-pin GPIO as follows:

Radxa Display 8 HD	Raspberry Pi 4B
VCC-5V	PIN 2: 5V Power
GND	PIN 6: GND
BL-PWM	PIN 1: 3V3 Power
TP-RST	PIN 11: GPIO 17
TP-INT	PIN 7: GPIO 4
LCD-RESET	PIN 17: 3V3 Power

The seventh pin is currently unused.

Software settings

1. Install the required packages:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install dkms raspberrypi-kernel-headers

2. Install the kernel driver (download from the releases page or use wget):

   wget https://github.com/radxa/radxa-displays-on-raspberry-pi/releases/download/1.0.0/panel-radxa-dsi-dkms_1.0.0_all.deb
   sudo dpkg -i panel-radxa-dsi-dkms_1.0.0_all.deb

3. Modify the configuration file /boot/firmware/config.txt and add the following lines after [all]:

   [all]
   display_auto_detect=0
   dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
   dtoverlay=vc4-kms-dsi-radxa-panel

4. Save and reboot:

   sync
   sudo reboot

After restarting, the display should work normally.

note

For the latest instructions, please refer to the radxa-displays-on-raspberry-pi repository.