Tufty 2040

A hackable, programmable badge with a 2.4" (320 x 240) TFT LCD colour display, powered by Raspberry Pi RP2040. We've had a lot of requests for an LCD version of Badger 2040 so tada - meet our pal Tufty. In a nutshell, we've combined an RP2040 microcontroller with a nice, crisp LCD screen to make a snazzy, colourful programmable badge - perfect for identifying/expressing yourself at cybernetic conferences, illicit undersea research facilities or dodgy space station bars. Don't limit yourself to hanging it around your neck (or tail) though, use it as a sleek display/control panel for sensor readouts, a photo frame for digitally generated art or for making/playing small games. Perhaps you could even have a crack at making it play Doom? Tufty comes fully loaded with a quintet of buttons so you can easily change what's displayed on the screen, a slot so you can clip it onto a lanyard and a light-sensing phototransistor, which can be used to adjust the brightness of the screen automatically. On the back, you'll find a majestic cyberpunk squirrel, a battery connector (with a nice wide input voltage) and the usual RP2040 old chestnuts - boot and power on/off buttons and a Qw/ST connector for attaching breakouts. You can pick up a Tufty on its own, or for a bit more cashew can get a handy Tufty + Accessory Kit with a lanyard, AAA battery pack and USB cable. Select your desired option before adding it to your cart! Features

* 2.4" colour IPS LCD display (320 x 240 pixels)

* Driver IC: ST7789v

* Connected via parallel

* Dimmable backlight (adjustable via PWM)

* Powered by RP2040 (Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM)

* 8MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP

* Phototransistor for light sensing

* Five front user buttons

* Power and boot buttons (the boot button can also be used as a user button)

* White LED

* USB-C connector for power and programming

* JST-PH connector for attaching a battery (input range 3V - 5.5V)

* High-precision voltage reference for battery level monitoring.

* Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connector

* Fully assembled (no soldering required)

* Schematic

* Dimensional drawing

* C++/MicroPython libraries

Tufty + Accessory Kit includes

* Tufty 2040

* 3 x AAA battery holder

* 3 x AAA batteries

* Velcro square

* Black lanyard (made from recycled plastic bottles!)

* USB-C to USB-A cable

Software You can program Tufty with C/C++ or MicroPython. You'll get the best performance using C++, but if you're a beginner we'd recommend using our batteries included MicroPython build for ease of getting started. We've preloaded Tufty with a demo reel of fun examples to show you what it can do!

* Download Pirate brand MicroPython (special Tufty edition)

* Getting Started with Tufty 2040

* C++ examples

* MicroPython examples

* PicoGraphics function reference

The display functions in our new improved PicoGraphics library have been given a glow up - be sure to check them out! You can now:

* render JPEGs

* display QR codes

* draw weird polygonal shapes

* import sprites from a spritesheet

* use custom colour palettes (saving valuable RAM)

CircuitPython support is coming soon!

Connecting Breakouts The Qw/ST connector on Tufty 2040 makes it super easy to connect up Qwiic or STEMMA QT breakouts. If your breakout has a QW/ST connector on board, you can plug it straight in with a JST-SH to JST-SH cable. Breakout Garden breakouts that don't have a Qw/ST connector can be connected using a JST-SH to JST-SH cable plus a Qw/ST to Breakout Garden adaptor. Want to use multiple breakouts at the same time? Try this adaptor!

* List of breakouts currently compatible with our C++/MicroPython build.

Notes

* Measurements: 65.2mm x 52.7mm x 9.6mm (L x W x H, including connectors). The mounting holes are M2 and 2.9mm in from each edge. The corner radius is 3mm.

* We've designed Tufty 2040 to be accommodating about input voltage (3V - 5.5V), so it's possible to use a variety of different batteries and battery packs. We'd recommend using a 3x AAA battery pack which should give you maximum juice whilst still fitting behind Tufty nicely.

* A 2x AAA battery pack will only work well if you use non-rechargeable batteries - the voltage from 2 rechargeable (NiMH) batteries (2.4V) is just not enough for the screen.

* Tuftys are hungrier than Badgers! Power consumption is around 80mA for the screen (at full brightness) and 20mA for the RP2040 - so 100 mA total. Tufty has a toggle power on/off button (instead of a reset button) to make it easy to turn it off to preserve power, and setting the backlight to dim/turn off automatically will also make your batteries last much longer.

* Alternatively, you can plug a LiPo/LiIon battery into the battery connector, with the following caveats. Please only consider this if the person wearing the badge is an adult and knows what they're doing with LiPos!

* A solid enclosure or backplate to protect the battery from damage whilst being worn is a very good idea

* There's no battery protection included on Tufty 2040, so you should only use it with LiPo batteries that include internal protection.

* Unlike some of our other boards, Tufty 2040 doesn't have battery charging circuitry onboard. You'll need an external LiPo charger to charge the battery (like a LiPo Amigo).

* Sciurus Cybernetics employees should be careful when eating their last nut, in order to avoid kernel panic.