The Raspberry Pi Touch Display is an LCD display that connects to the Raspberry Pi using the DSI connector. You can use both the Touch Display and an HDMI display output at the same time.

The Touch Display is compatible with all models of Raspberry Pi except the Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero 2 W, which lack a DSI connector. The earliest Raspberry Pi models lack appropriate mounting holes, requiring additional mounting hardware to fit the stand-offs on the display PCB.

The display has the following key features:

• 800×480 RGB LCD display
• 24-bit colour
• Industrial quality: 140 degree viewing angle horizontal, 120 degree viewing angle vertical
• 10-point multi-touch touchscreen
• PWM backlight control and power control over I2C interface
• Metal-framed back with mounting points for Raspberry Pi display conversion board and Raspberry Pi
• Backlight lifetime: 20000 hours
• Operating temperature: -20 to +70 degrees centigrade
• Storage temperature: -30 to +80 degrees centigrade
• Contrast ratio: 500
• Average brightness: 250 cd/m²
• Viewing angle (degrees):
  • Top – 50
  • Bottom – 70
  • Left – 70
  • Right – 70
• Power requirements: 200mA at 5V typical, at maximum brightness.
• Outer dimensions: 192.96 × 110.76mm
• Viewable area: 154.08 × 85.92mm

Mount the Touch Display

You can mount a Raspberry Pi to the back of the Touch Display using its stand-offs and then connect the appropriate cables. You can also mount the Touch Display in a separate chassis if you have one available. The connections remain the same, though you may need longer cables depending on the chassis.

Connect one end of the Flat Flexible Cable (FFC) to the RPI-DISPLAY port on the Touch Display PCB. The silver or gold contacts should face away from the display. Then connect the other end of the FFC to the DISPLAY port on the Raspberry Pi. The contacts on this end should face inward, towards the Raspberry Pi.

If the FFC is not fully inserted or positioned correctly, you will experience issues with the display. You should always double check this connection when troubleshooting, especially if you don’t see anything on your display, or the display shows only a single colour.

A mechanical drawing of the Touch Display is available for download.

Power the Touch Display

We recommend using the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO to provide power to the Touch Display. Alternatively, you can power the display directly with a separate micro USB power supply.

Power from a Raspberry Pi

To power the Touch Display using a Raspberry Pi, you need to connect two jumper wires between the 5V and GND pins on Raspberry Pi’s GPIO and the 5V and GND pins on the display, as shown in the following illustration.

Before you begin, make sure the Raspberry Pi is powered off and not connected to any power source. Connect one end of the black jumper wire to pin six (GND) on the Raspberry Pi and one end of the red jumper wire to pin four (5V). If pin six isn’t available, you can use any other open GND pin to connect the black wire. If pin four isn’t available, you can use any other 5V pin to connect the red wire, such as pin two.

Next, connect the other end of the black wire to the GND pin on the display and the other end of the red wire to the 5V pin on the display. Once all the connections are made, you should see the Touch Display turn on the next time you turn on your Raspberry Pi.

Use the other three pins on the Touch Display to connect the display to an original Raspberry Pi 1 Model A or B. Refer to our documentation on legacy support for more information.

Power from a micro USB supply

If you don’t want to use a Raspberry Pi to provide power to the Touch Display, you can use a micro USB power supply instead. We recommend using the Raspberry Pi 12.5W power supply to make sure the display runs as intended.

Do not connect the GPIO pins on your Raspberry Pi to the display if you choose to use micro USB for power. The only connection between the two boards should be the Flat Flexible Cable.

Warning: When using a micro USB cable to power the display, mount it inside a chassis that blocks access to the display’s PCB during usage.

Use an on-screen keyboard

In Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm and later, you can use the wvkbd on-screen keyboard as an input device. To install wvkbd, run the following command:

sudo apt install wvkbd

Tip: In Raspberry Pi OS releases prior to Bookworm, you can use matchbox-keyboard instead.

Change screen orientation

If you want to physically rotate the display, or mount it in a specific position, you can use software to adjust the orientation of the screen to better match your setup.

Rotate screen from the desktop

To set the screen orientation from the desktop environment, select Screen Configuration from the Preferences menu. Right-click on the DSI-1 display rectangle in the layout editor, select Orientation, then pick the best option to fit your needs. You can also ensure that the touch overlay is assigned to the correct display with the Touchscreen option.

Rotate screen without a desktop

To set the screen orientation on a device that lacks a desktop environment, edit the /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt configuration file to pass an orientation to the system. Add the following line to cmdline.txt:

video=DSI-1:800x480@60,rotate=<rotation-value>

Replace the <rotation-value> placeholder with one of the following values, which correspond to the degree of rotation relative to the default on your display:

• 0
• 90
• 180
• 270

For example, a rotation value of 90 rotates the display 90 degrees to the right. 180 rotates the display 180 degrees, or upside-down.

Note: It is not possible to rotate the DSI display separately from the HDMI display with cmdline.txt. When you use DSI and HDMI simultaneously, they share the same rotation value.

Rotate touch input

Warning: Rotating touch input via device tree can cause conflicts with your input library. Whenever possible, configure touch event rotation in your input library or desktop.

Rotation of touch input is independent of the orientation of the display itself. To change this you need to manually add a dtoverlay instruction in /boot/firmware/config.txt. Add the following line in config.txt:

dtoverlay=vc4-kms-dsi-7inch,invx,invy

Then, disable automatic display detection by removing the following line from config.txt, if it exists:

display_auto_detect=1

Note: In Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm, a bug in Wayfire currently prevents cursor movement rotation when using WayVNC. There is no workaround for this bug in Wayfire. Instead, you can use labwc (currently in beta).First install labwc:$ sudo apt install labwcThen, use the Raspberry Pi Configuration CLI to switch to the labwc window compositor. Run the following command to open raspi-config:$ sudo raspi-configGo to Advanced Options. Select Wayland, then select labwc. Exit raspi-config and reboot with sudo reboot. Switching to labwc may reset some configuration, including keyboard layout and rotation settings.

Touch Display device tree option reference

The vc4-kms-dsi-7inch overlay supports the following options:

DT parameter	Action
sizex	Sets X resolution (default 800)
sizey	Sets Y resolution (default 480)
invx	Invert X coordinates
invy	Invert Y coordinates
swapxy	Swap X and Y coordinates
disable_touch	Disables the touch overlay totally

To specify these options, add them, separated by commas, to your dtoverlay line in /boot/firmware/config.txt. Boolean values default to true when present, but you can set them to false with the suffix “=0”. Integer values require a value, e.g. sizey=240. For instance, to set the X resolution to 400 pixels and invert both X and Y coordinates, use the following line:

dtoverlay=vc4-kms-dsi-7inch,sizex=400,invx,invy

Legacy Support

Warning: These instructions are for the original Raspberry Pi, Model A, and B, boards only. To identify an original Raspberry Pi, check the GPIO header connector. Only the original model has a 26-pin GPIO header connector; subsequent models have 40 pins.

The DSI connector on both the Raspberry Pi 1 Model A and B boards does not have the I2C connections required to talk to the touchscreen controller and DSI controller. To work around this, use the additional set of jumper cables provided with the display kit. Connect SCL/SDA on the GPIO header to the horizontal pins marked SCL/SDA on the display board. Power the Model A/B via the GPIO pins using the jumper cables.

DSI display autodetection is disabled by default on these boards. To enable detection, add the following line to the /boot/firmware/config.txt file:

ignore_lcd=0

Power the setup via the PWR IN micro-USB connector on the display board. Do not power the setup via the Raspberry Pi’s micro-USB port. This will exceed the input polyfuse’s maximum current rating, since the display consumes approximately 400mA.