Install Mini PiTFT

Brent Rubell

We've updated our popular PiOLED script for use with the Mini PiTFT, a 135x240 Color TFT add-on for your Raspberry Pi. This cute little display has two tactile buttons on GPIO pins that we'll use to make a simple user-interface display for your Pi-Hole.

Install 2x20 Header

If you are using a Pi Zero, you'll need to solder on or somehow attach a 2x20 header so you can plug in the Pi OLED. Use either a plain 2x20 header and solder it in using an iron + some solder...

Break-away 0.1" 2x20-pin Strip Dual Male Header

Break-away 0.1" 2x20-pin Strip Dual Male Header

PRODUCT ID: 2822
If we could eat headers, we'd have them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  But we can't :( So we're making the best of it and selling them!This...
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Or you can use Hammer headers which do not need soldering.

GPIO Hammer Headers - Solderless Raspberry Pi Connectors

GPIO Hammer Headers - Solderless Raspberry Pi Connectors

PRODUCT ID: 3413
If your soldering isn't quite up to scratch, or you just don't own a soldering iron yet, then these nifty hammer headers from
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Either way, you'll want to end up with something like this:

adafruit_products_raspberry_pi_2822-03.jpg

Python Setup

This guide assumes that you've gotten your Raspberry Pi up and running, have CircuitPython installed, and have installed CircuitPython libraries for the Mini PiTFT. If not, follow the steps in the guide below and come back to this page when you've completed them.

Update the stats.py program

Here's the new stats.py code which uses the Mini PiTFT. 

Create a new file using nano ~pi/stats.py and paste the code below in. Then, save the code.

Download: Project Zip or mini_pitft_stats.py | View on Github 
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Import Python System Libraries
import time
import json
import subprocess

# Import Requests Library
import requests

#Import Blinka
import digitalio
import board

# Import Python Imaging Library
from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFont
import adafruit_rgb_display.st7789 as st7789

api_url = 'http://localhost/admin/api.php'

# Configuration for CS and DC pins (these are FeatherWing defaults on M0/M4):
cs_pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.CE0)
dc_pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D25)
reset_pin = None

# Config for display baudrate (default max is 24mhz):
BAUDRATE = 64000000

# Setup SPI bus using hardware SPI:
spi = board.SPI()

# Create the ST7789 display:
disp = st7789.ST7789(spi, cs=cs_pin, dc=dc_pin, rst=reset_pin, baudrate=BAUDRATE,
                     width=135, height=240, x_offset=53, y_offset=40)

# Create blank image for drawing.
# Make sure to create image with mode 'RGB' for full color.
height = disp.width   # we swap height/width to rotate it to landscape!
width = disp.height
image = Image.new('RGB', (width, height))
rotation = 90

# Get drawing object to draw on image.
draw = ImageDraw.Draw(image)

# Draw a black filled box to clear the image.
draw.rectangle((0, 0, width, height), outline=0, fill=(0, 0, 0))
disp.image(image, rotation)
# Draw some shapes.
# First define some constants to allow easy resizing of shapes.
padding = -2
top = padding
bottom = height-padding
# Move left to right keeping track of the current x position for drawing shapes.
x = 0


# Alternatively load a TTF font.  Make sure the .ttf font file is in the
# same directory as the python script!
# Some other nice fonts to try: http://www.dafont.com/bitmap.php
font = ImageFont.truetype('/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf', 24)

# Turn on the backlight
backlight = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D22)
backlight.switch_to_output()
backlight.value = True

# Add buttons as inputs
buttonA = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D23)
buttonA.switch_to_input()

while True:
    # Draw a black filled box to clear the image.
    draw.rectangle((0, 0, width, height), outline=0, fill=0)

    # Shell scripts for system monitoring from here:
    # https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/119126/command-to-display-memory-usage-disk-usage-and-cpu-load
    cmd = "hostname -I | cut -d\' \' -f1"
    IP = "IP: "+subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True).decode("utf-8")
    cmd = "hostname | tr -d \'\\n\'"
    HOST = subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True).decode("utf-8")
    cmd = "top -bn1 | grep load | awk '{printf \"CPU Load: %.2f\", $(NF-2)}'"
    CPU = subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True).decode("utf-8")
    cmd = "free -m | awk 'NR==2{printf \"Mem: %s/%s MB  %.2f%%\", $3,$2,$3*100/$2 }'"
    MemUsage = subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True).decode("utf-8")
    cmd = "df -h | awk '$NF==\"/\"{printf \"Disk: %d/%d GB  %s\", $3,$2,$5}'"
    Disk = subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True).decode("utf-8")
    cmd = "cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp |  awk \'{printf \"CPU Temp: %.1f C\", $(NF-0) / 1000}\'" # pylint: disable=line-too-long

    # Pi Hole data!
    try:
        r = requests.get(api_url)
        data = json.loads(r.text)
        DNSQUERIES = data['dns_queries_today']
        ADSBLOCKED = data['ads_blocked_today']
        CLIENTS = data['unique_clients']
    except KeyError:
        time.sleep(1)
        continue

    y = top
    if not buttonA.value:  # just button A pressed
        draw.text((x, y), IP, font=font, fill="#FFFF00")
        y += font.getsize(IP)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), CPU, font=font, fill="#FFFF00")
        y += font.getsize(CPU)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), MemUsage, font=font, fill="#00FF00")
        y += font.getsize(MemUsage)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), Disk, font=font, fill="#0000FF")
        y += font.getsize(Disk)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), "DNS Queries: {}".format(DNSQUERIES), font=font, fill="#FF00FF")
    else:
        draw.text((x, y), IP, font=font, fill="#FFFF00")
        y += font.getsize(IP)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), HOST, font=font, fill="#FFFF00")
        y += font.getsize(HOST)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), "Ads Blocked: {}".format(str(ADSBLOCKED)), font=font, fill="#00FF00")
        y += font.getsize(str(ADSBLOCKED))[1]
        draw.text((x, y), "Clients: {}".format(str(CLIENTS)), font=font, fill="#0000FF")
        y += font.getsize(str(CLIENTS))[1]
        draw.text((x, y), "DNS Queries: {}".format(str(DNSQUERIES)), font=font, fill="#FF00FF")
        y += font.getsize(str(DNSQUERIES))[1]

    # Display image.
    disp.image(image, rotation)
    time.sleep(.1)

You'll notice it's very similar to the original stats.py, but we've added PiHole API support. Here's how we did that:

First up, Pi Hole stats are available through the web server, in JSON format, so we need to add web requests and JSON parsing to Python. Then set the URL for the API access, which is localhost (the same computer) and through the admin page:

Download: file 
# Import Python System Libraries
import time
import json
import subprocess

# Import Requests Library
import requests

api_url = 'http://localhost/admin/api.php'

We load up the nice DejaVuSans font here. Note that we have to have the full path of the file.

Download: file 
# Alternatively load a TTF font.  Make sure the .ttf font file is in the
# same directory as the python script!
# Some other nice fonts to try: http://www.dafont.com/bitmap.php
font = ImageFont.truetype('/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf', 24)

This is where we grab the API data. I put it in a try block, so it would retry in case the API access failed for some reason

Download: file 
# Pi Hole data!
    try:
        r = requests.get(api_url)
        data = json.loads(r.text)
        DNSQUERIES = data['dns_queries_today']
        ADSBLOCKED = data['ads_blocked_today']
        CLIENTS = data['unique_clients']
    except KeyError:
        time.sleep(1)
        continue

If you want to print out different info, run this small script in python to see what is available:

Download: file 
import json
import requests

api_url = 'http://localhost/admin/api.php'
r = requests.get(api_url)
data = json.loads(r.text)
print(data)
adafruit_products_Screenshot_from_2019-03-28_10-11-21.png

Since the MiniTFT has two tactile push-buttons, we modified the script to print out extra information from the Raspberry Pi when you press the top button.

Download: file 
if not buttonA.value:  # just button A pressed
        draw.text((x, y), IP, font=font, fill="#FFFF00")
        y += font.getsize(IP)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), CPU, font=font, fill="#FFFF00")
        y += font.getsize(CPU)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), MemUsage, font=font, fill="#00FF00")
        y += font.getsize(MemUsage)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), Disk, font=font, fill="#0000FF")
        y += font.getsize(Disk)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), "DNS Queries: {}".format(DNSQUERIES), font=font, fill="#FF00FF")
    else:
        draw.text((x, y), IP, font=font, fill="#FFFF00")
        y += font.getsize(IP)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), HOST, font=font, fill="#FFFF00")
        y += font.getsize(HOST)[1]
        draw.text((x, y), "Ads Blocked: {}".format(str(ADSBLOCKED)), font=font, fill="#00FF00")
        y += font.getsize(str(ADSBLOCKED))[1]
        draw.text((x, y), "Clients: {}".format(str(CLIENTS)), font=font, fill="#0000FF")
        y += font.getsize(str(CLIENTS))[1]
        draw.text((x, y), "DNS Queries: {}".format(str(DNSQUERIES)), font=font, fill="#FF00FF")
        y += font.getsize(str(DNSQUERIES))[1]

Test & Stats at Startup

Once you have the script saved, you can run it with sudo python3 ~pi/stats.py

Look on the Mini PiTFT to make sure you see your IP address along with some statistics from Pi-Hole.

Pushing the top button should display extra statistics about the Pi such as its hostname, CPU load, memory utilization, disk usage, and DNS queries.

Lastly we just want to make this run at boot. We'll do that the easy way by editing /etc/rc.local with sudo nano /etc/rc.local and adding sudo python3 ~pi/stats.py & before exit 0

adafruit_products_Screenshot_from_2019-03-28_10-19-07.png

Then save and you can reboot to test it out

adafruit_products_pi_hole_crop_1.png
INSTALL PIOLED
This guide was first published on Aug 15, 2017. It was last updated on Aug 15, 2017. This page (Install Mini PiTFT) was last updated on Feb 23, 2020.