How the US$60 Raspberry Pi 7” Touchscreen can be used as a Touchscreen Controller

The Raspberry Pi has just stepped up their game with a new addition to their peripherals for the US$35 Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

This latest peripheral is a US$60 Raspberry Pi 7” Touchscreen interface from Element14, company behind the Raspberry Pi Model B as reported in the article “Raspberry Pi gets an official 7-inch touchscreen”, published September 8, 2015 by Rich Trenholm, CNET News.

From September 3, 2015

This peripheral is for the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B that was launched earlier in the year on Monday February 2nd 2015 as reported in my blog article entitled “US$35 Raspberry Pi 2 Model B to run Windows 10 - Why Windows Developer Program for IoT is Microsoft 's IoT Push”. 

The 7” touchscreen can work with the older Raspberry Pi Model A and B models as described in the article “Two years in the making, an official touchscreen for the tiny board has gone on sale”, published September 8, 2015 by Steve Ranger, ZDNet.  

These older models were launched almost two (2) years ago back in 2011 and was upgraded in 2012 as explained in my blog article entitled “The Evolution of the Raspberry Pi Computer into a Mainstream Wearable Computer - How to teach Computer Programming using Flying Sword of Dragon Gate”, but the mounting fixtures are really made for Raspberry Pi 2 Model B.

It measures 194 mm by 110 mm by 20mm and has a resolution of only 800x480 pixels. It’s made with a Perspex frame that comes in the following colours:

1.      Red

2.      Blue

3.      Green

4.      Black

5.      Purple

6.      Orange

It however, supports 10 figure gesture touch commands and has an onscreen keyboard. So this isn’t a toy Tablet but more of a basic display for touch screen control typical of what you’d find in a factory setting e.g. to monitor a biscuit bagging line a Food Processing Plant!

Interestingly, you can connect both the 7” touchscreen and a HDMI Display simultaneously and use the Touchscreen as a kind of controller for the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B to control the display on the HDMI HDTV set.  

From September 3, 2015

Quite conveniently, the 7” touchscreen connects screen connects via the GPIO or DSI display connector through an adapter board that handles signalling and is also powered by a single USB power source as explained in “Raspberry Pi gets £48 touchscreen”, published 08 SEPTEMBER 15 by James Temperton, Wired.

Combined, this makes the Raspberry Pi's latest additional peripheral a great addition to the budding App and device developer for IoT (Internet of Things) applications!

Here's the link:

Raspberry Pi 7” Touchscreen Display in the Raspberry Pi Swag Store