Arduino with ST7789 TFT Display and DS1307 RTC

This Arduino tutorial shows how to build a simple real time clock & calendar (RTCC) using the UNO board and DS1307 RTC integrated circuit where time and date are printed on ST7789 TFT display module.
The ST7789 TFT module contains a display controller with the same name: ST7789. It’s a color display that uses SPI interface protocol and requires 3, 4 or 5 control pins, it’s low cost and easy to use. This display is an IPS display, it comes in different sizes (1.3″, 1.54″ …) but all of them should have the same resolution of 240×240 pixel, this means it has 57600 pixels. This module works with 3.3V only and it doesn’t support 5V (not 5V tolerant).

TFT: Thin-Film Transistor.
SPI: Serial Peripheral Interface.
IPS: In-Plane Switching.
IIC (or I2C): Inter-Integrated Circuit.

To see how to interface Arduino with ST7789 TFT display, visit this post:
Interfacing Arduino with ST7789 TFT Display – Graphics Test Example

Hardware Required:

  • Arduino board
  • ST7789 TFT display module (1.3″, 1.54″ …)
  • DS1307 RTC              —->    datasheet
  • 4 x 3.3k ohm resistor (+1 if the display module has CS pin)
  • 4 x 2.2k ohm resistor (+1 if the display module has CS pin)
  • 32.768 kHz crystal oscillator
  • 2 x 10k ohm resistor
  • 2 x push button
  • 3V coin cell battery
  • Breadboard
  • Jumper wires

Arduino with ST7789 TFT and DS1307 circuit:
Project circuit schematic diagram is shown below.

The ST7789 display module shown in project circuit diagram has 7 pins: (from right to left): GND (ground), VCC, SCL (serial clock), SDA (serial data), RES (reset), DC (or D/C: data/command) and BLK (back light).
Connecting the BLK pin is optional. The back light turns off when the BLK pin connected to the ground (GND).

Arduino ST7789 TFT DS1307 RTC circuit

As mentioned above, the ST7789 TFT display controller works with 3.3V only (power supply and control lines). The display module is supplied with 3.3V (between VCC and GND) which comes from the Arduino board.

All Arduino UNO board output pins are 5V, connecting a 5V pin to the ST7789 TFT display may damage its controller.
To connect the Arduino to the display module, I used voltage divider for each line which means there are 4 voltage dividers. Each voltage divider consists of 2.2k and 3.3k resistors, this drops the 5V into 3V which is sufficient.

If the display module has a CS pin (Chip Select) then it should be connected to Arduino digital pin 10 through another voltage divider.

So, the ST7789 TFT display is connected to the Arduino board as follows (each one through voltage divider):
RST pin is connected to Arduino digital pin 8,
DC pin is connected to Arduino digital pin 9,
SDA pin is connected to Arduino digital pin 11,
SCL pin is connected to Arduino digital pin 13.

Other pins are connected as follows:
VCC pin is connected to Arduino 3V3 pin,
GND pin is connected to Arduino GND pin,
BL (LED) pin is connected to Arduino 3V3 pin (optional).

The DS1307 RTC SDA (serial data) and SCL (serial clock) pins are respectively connected to Arduino A4 and A5 pins (ATmega328P hardware I2C module pins).

In the circuit there are 2 push buttons connected to Arduino pin 7 and pin 6, they are used to set time and date.

Arduino with ST7789 TFT and DS1307 code:
The following Arduino code requires 3 libraries from Adafruit Industries:
The first library is a driver for the ST7789 TFT display which can be installed from Arduino IDE library manager (Sketch —> Include Library —> Manage Libraries …, in the search box write “st7789” and install the one from Adafruit).

The second library is Adafruit graphics library which can be installed also from Arduino IDE library manager.
The 3rd library is for the DS1307 RTC, it may be installed using library manager (in the search box write “rtclib” and install the one from Adafruit).

The 3 libraries can be installed manually, first download them from the following 2 links:
Adafruit ST7789 TFT library    —->  direct link
Adafruit graphics library        —->  direct link
Adafruit RTC library              —->  direct link

After the download, go to Arduino IDE —> Sketch —> Include Library —> Add .ZIP Library … and browse for the .zip file (previously downloaded).
The same thing for other library files.

Hints:
The 3 libraries are included in the main code as follows:

The ST7789 TFT module pins (CS, RST and DC) connections are defined as shown below (even the display module has no CS pin but its definition is required by the Adafruit ST7789 library):

The other display pins (SDA and SCL) are connected to Arduino hardware SPI module pins (digital pin 11 and digital pin 13 respectively for MOSI and SCLK).

The Adafruit ST7789 library is initialized with this line:

And the TFT display is initialized using the following command:

The two push buttons are defined in the code as:

Functions used in the code:
bool debounce (): this function is for button B1 debounce, returns 1 if button is debounced.

void RTC_display(): displays day of the week, date and time on the display.

byte edit(byte parameter): this function is for setting the real time clock, returns the edited parameter.

Rest of code is described through comments.

Full Arduino code:

Arduino RTC with DS1307 and ST7789 TFT


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