Feature request/question: PicoGraphics for ILI9341

[taylor-giles]

Hello,
I am interested in using the PicoGraphics library to drive my ILI9341 display on a RP2040-based Pico. I've tried the following:

display_spi = SPIBus(cs=10, dc=8, sck=6, mosi=7)
display = PicoGraphics(display=DISPLAY_PICO_DISPLAY_2, bus=display_spi, pen_type=PEN_RGB565)
display_width, display_height = display.get_bounds()
while True:
  display.set_pen(display.create_pen(random.randint(0, 255), random.randint(0, 255), random.randint(0, 255)))
  for x in range(0, display_width):
    for y in range(0, display_height):
      display.pixel(x, y)
  display.update()

Unsurprisingly, nothing happened - I assume these drivers are not compatible with ILI9341.
I see #596 is open, intended to add support for ILI9341. My questions are:

1. Is there a known existing way to use PicoGraphics with a ILI9341?
2. If not, is there a goal to add ILI9341 support?
3. Is there a guide on building the custom Pico firmware from source, so I could try out the branch on Ili9341 xpt2046 drivers #596 ?

Thank you for your help and all the great work on this library!

[Gadgetoid]

If you have Python code to get pixels onto an ILI9341 then you can get at the raw PicoGraphics data using memoryview(display) and just blast that over.

Note that memoryview(display) returns the raw pixel data, so it will depend entirely on what display format you request from PicoGraphics.

We don't ship any boards with an ILI9341 display, so there are no plans to support it with baked-in drivers. We do have support for generic displays lurking somewhere, though, which will enable you to create a PicoGraphics buffer of any size and any format without it being tied to any specific display hardware, making the memoryview(display) trick more useful.