Pico GFX Pack

by Pimoroni

A retro 2.15" (128x64) mono LCD display for Raspberry Pi Pico with RGBW backlight, buttons and a Qw/ST breakout connector.

This fun 1-bit illuminated display plugs into the back of a Raspberry Pi Pico (or Pico W) and gives you a tasty 128x64 grid of individually controllable pixels to play with, plus an uber-bright RGBW LED backlight that you can set to any colour. The extra white LED element improves contrast and means the backlight can display nicer whites and delicious pastels.

It also features five useful buttons for inputs and a Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connector to make it easy to connect it up to sensors and other breakouts.

GFX Pack goes very nicely with the pixelly text and shapes generated by our easy to use PicoGraphics library. You could use it for:

👾 Coding up tiny retro games or animations

🌈 Showing colour coded notifications and alerts from online APIs

📈 Displaying sensor readouts and graphs

⌚ Making yourself a giant 80s digital watch

A Raspberry Pi Pico / Pico W is not included so make sure to grab one!

Your Pico will need to have pin headers soldered to it (with the pins pointing downwards) to attach to our add-on boards.

Features

  • 128x64 pixel, 2.15" mono LCD display
  • Integrated diffuser/reflector assembly
  • Single-zone RGBW LED backlight
  • Five user buttons
  • Reset button
  • Pre-soldered socket headers for attaching to Pico
  • Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connector for attaching breakouts
  • Compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico/Pico W.
  • Comes fully assembled
  • No soldering required (as long as your Pico has header pins attached).
  • C/C++ and MicroPython libraries
  • Schematic


Software

Our C++/MicroPython libraries include support for the GFX Pack display, buttons and backlight. You'll get best performance using C++, but if you're a beginner we'd recommend using our batteries included MicroPython build for ease of getting started.

You can draw on the screen using our lightweight PicoGraphics library, which includes functions for displaying text, shapes and images (plus individual pixels of course), and we've provided some examples to get you started.

MicroPython

C/C++

Connecting Breakouts

The Qw/ST connector on Pico GFX Pack 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 >2 breakouts at the same time? Try this adaptor!

Notes

  • Measurements: 60.8 x 56.8 x 12.2 mm (L x W x D, approx)
  • The backlight LEDs on our first batch of GFX Pack were wired up to VBUS (aka USB power), meaning the backlight wouldn't work if your Pico was being powered through the VSYS pin (with a battery connected via Pico LiPo SHIM, for example). We've fixed this on subsequent batches - boards purchased from March 2023 onwards will be fully functional when VSYS powered.
  • GFX Pack is our widest pack yet! This means it will only fit in the left hand slot of a Pico Omnibus and will take up two slots on a Pico Decker. Real unicorns have curves 🦏.

About Raspberry Pi Pico

Raspberry Pi Pico is a flexible, low cost microcontroller development board from the folks at Raspberry Pi, based on their very own chip - the RP2040. It's easily programmable over USB with C/C++ or MicroPython, and ideal for using in all sorts of physical computing projects, devices and inventions - we're so excited to see what you make with it! As of June 2022, you can also buy a Raspberry Pi Pico W which has wireless connectivity.

We've called our Pico-sized add-ons packs, as they're designed to attach to the back of your Pico as if it were wearing a very stylish back pack (or a miniature jet pack, if you prefer). We've also got Pico bases (larger add-on boards with a space to mount your Pico on top) and some other boards that let you do interesting hackerly things like using multiple packs at once - click here to view them all!