RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi Zero at 50FPS on an SPI LCD Screen With ILI9341 Driver

Running RetroPie on an SPI LCD screen can be slow. 5 to 10 FPS is common. But with a bit of work we can get a smooth 50+ FPS using only a cheap, generic, SPI panel.

In this video I'll show you how to set up RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi Zero, connect the LCD screen and then install and tune the FBCP-ILI9341 driver code. With just a small amount of tinkering you'll soon have a great start for your handheld retro games console.

Make sure you check out my main website for full project details. View the circuit diagrams and get all the code used in the video.

If you want to pick up an SPI LCD to make this project yourself go to...

Amazon

eBay

[beardedgitgaming]

just got into the world of rasberry pi, bought a zero w. this helped me quickly set up the screen and its running great. thank you

[freddycisneros]

Great video. Im glad I subscribed to your channel. I have watched a few of your videos so far and look forward to watch all of them. I have learned a lot by watching your videos. Thank you for making these videos. Keep them coming.

[johnbillings]

That is pretty crazy. I have many of those screens and I have never seen performance like that!

[criminalinfluencer]

Thanks friend, it helped me a lot, I used your video as a basis to use this display to display PC statistics with MoBro, in an image customized for the RPI.

Hugs from Brazil/Portugal!

[MarkMiller-wjym]

i was trying to get hdmi and the screen working together ..after much tweaking i have managed to get both working at same time ...excellent video ..

[Sodwmistis]

the best explanation for use this screens. thanks a lot for this great guild. work fine with adafruit 2.8 tft and zero 2 w. thanks againe mate.

[GorkaLarrazabal]

THANKS, THIS IS THE GREATEST EXPLANATION I HAVE SEEN.

[SycoSpartan]

thank you. i had just chalked up my crappy frame rate to buying a cheap screen. now shes running a smooth 60fps !!!! since switching to this driver however my screensaver doesn't work in emulation station (playing game vids) i switched it off for now

[RoamingAdhocrat]

This is inspiring. I was up all night trying to get an ESP8266 to speak to a GC9A01-driven 240x240 screen over SPI and the results are… slideshow animation. I need smooth fullscreen updates for my application!

[alanturner]

Absolutely made up Bob with your instructions on here and your web page took a few attempt's as I made mistakes then conflict with HMDI which got grey matter working. Only been playing with raspberry pi for a couple of months with grandson now have my eye on few more projects then maybe move up to Space Invaders a trip down memory lane lol. Thanks again all the best

[stephenelliott]

SSH or just access the Raspberry Pi running Retro Pie over wifi (on Windows 10) by clicking on the File Explorer Icon, scroll down to Network and typing \\ and the ip address (use show ip from the Retro Pie Menu). Certainly for adding ROMs quickly. Cool project btw.

[Fachher]

I really like the content you are producing. How can I support your great work? Do you have Patreon

[HitAndMissLab]

Fantastic video!
How can one use this same SPI screen but with touch pen in order to manage an electronically driven project?

[duanefreeman]

Thank you so much friend I owe you my sanity!

[dodzy]

Great video thank you, is there any way to add backlight control to switch off the screen LED on shutdown?

[pinobarbareschi]

wow great but is the procedure the same with 3.5 inches? and with raspberry pi zero 2w?

[EvanLandry]

I tried to follow all the instructions but got stuck at actually running the drivers, my screen just stays white. I think everything is connected properly so idk what it could be

[awd-]

what if my display is inverted ? so its not showing from left to right but from right to left

[thetrufflegouda]

The repo mentions fbcp is deprecated - any updates on how to get the 9341 working?

[CHIKKOAJ]

Can I order one of these cheap displays off of aliexpress? I found a 5$ one that looks the exact same. I am also using a pi 4.