Help with Micro SD Card and ILI9341 TFT Display

[Mark25A]

Hi, I've been struggling to combine an External Micro SD Card with the ILI9341 TFT display.

I am working on a project for my college project, I needed 5 components along with the ESP32 dev kit on MicroPyhton. All my components work well, and in fact, my project is finished. But only recently I got my hands on the micro sd card. For a few days I tried to combine it with the display, but it didn't work.

For testing I got some help from ChatGPT, which helped, but we are stuck in a loop, and I can't even get help from my teachers, because they have no clue either...

My final exam is in less than a month away.

I tried running the code that finally allowed me to read a text file. But the tft screen is loading a black image, and when I press the push button to communicate with the sd card, it reads the text, and along with it it seems to fill a very small portion of the screen with the color white.
I tried turning the TFT's Chip Select high, and the SD's low, and only accessible when pressing the button. I even tried disabling the microsd card for 6 seconds, and still the same issue.

If I remove the initialization of the sd card, the image loads without any issues, but of course I can't access the sd card that way.

Also, for some reason I need to reformat my sd card sometimes after running one of the codes.

Below is one of the codes in Thonny I had saved, I'll appreciate some help.

import machine
from time import sleep
from ili9341 import Display, color565
from machine import Pin, SPI, SoftSPI
import os
from sdcard import SDCard

Initialize TFT display

spi_display = SPI(2, baudrate=40000000, sck=Pin(18), mosi=Pin(23))
display_cs = Pin(19, Pin.OUT)
display = Display(spi_display, dc=Pin(5), cs=display_cs, rst=Pin(17))

Initialize SD card (pins)

spisd = SoftSPI(-1, miso=Pin(19), mosi=Pin(23), sck=Pin(18))
sd_cs = Pin(22, Pin.OUT)

Button setup

button = Pin(33, Pin.IN, Pin.PULL_UP)

#Function to display the intro image
def intro():
image_path = 'Intro.raw' # Adjust the path as needed
try:
with open(image_path, 'rb') as f:
display.draw_image(image_path, 0, 0, 240, 320)
except OSError:
print("Error: Image file not found")

def intro():

display.draw_image('Intro.raw', 0,0,240,320)

Function to read the text file from SD card

def read_sd_text_file():
try:
sd = SDCard(spisd, sd_cs)
vfs = os.VfsFat(sd)
os.mount(vfs, '/sd')
print('Mounted SD card. Root directory:', os.listdir('/sd'))

    os.chdir('/sd/templates')
    with open('test.txt', 'r') as f:
        content = f.read()
        print("Content of the file:")
        print(content)
except OSError as e:
    print("Error:", e)
finally:
    os.umount('/sd')  # Unmount SD card
    print('Unmounted SD card.')

Button interrupt handler

def button_pressed(pin):
# Deselect TFT display
display_cs.value(1)
sleep(0.1) # Small delay to ensure proper deselection

# Read from SD card
read_sd_text_file()

# Re-select TFT display
display_cs.value(0)
sleep(0.1)  # Small delay to ensure proper selection

Set up button interrupt

button.irq(trigger=Pin.IRQ_FALLING, handler=button_pressed)

if name == "main":
# Select TFT display
display_cs.value(0)
# Display the intro image
intro()
print("Intro image displayed. Waiting for button press to read SD card...")

[Mark25A]

I noticed that it posted the code badly, so I'll post it as a text file.
SDCard_And_TFT_TEST.txt

[Mark25A]

Forgot to add, the libraries I use are:

TFT Display: https://github.com/rdagger/micropython-ili9341
MicroSD: https://github.com/micropython/micropython-lib/blob/master/micropython/drivers/storage/sdcard/sdcard.py
Video about SD Card: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL2g5YIVick

[GitHubsSilverBullet]

For testing I got some help from ChatGPT, which helped, but we are stuck in a loop, and I can't even get help from my teachers, because they have no clue either...
My final exam is in less than a month away.

If your exam is a month away and you're depending on – dare I say it – ChatGPT aka. A.S.
then you have far more problems than you can imagine.

Proper formatting: triple backticks followed by py or python.

[Mark25A]

Well I figured it might help me in that case but it seems like chatgpt isn't all that good as they say. I thought maybe trying to handle interrupt it, but before I could do that the sd card stopped working. I think the sd card itself was already problematic because it is no longer recognizable on any device, so that might as well have been the issue all along.

[ricksorensen]

You have two different SPI drivers defined using same SCK and MOSI- the SoftSPI and the hardware SPI. Even though they use different CS pins it seems like this could be a conflict. To test either use two completely different SPI definitions (different SCK, MOSI, MISO, ... baudrate) or use as single SPI and just set the different CS for use.

[peterhinch]

@Mark25A It is also bad practice to have sleep commands in an interrupt handler. Your teachers will explain the reason.

[Mark25A]

Yup, I know the difference now and I'm changing to timers. I didn't know that it delays everything, in fact, the teachers weren't those that told me about it, it was my Father.

Also, I figured my issue out, although still not perfect. But I used an interrupt that will initialize the microsd only when i need to.

So my problem is solved. Thanks for the replies.

[Mark25A]

@Mark25A It is also bad practice to have sleep commands in an interrupt handler. Your teachers will explain the reason.