Element14 and Adafruit have launched a 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 capacitive touchscreen for the BeagleBone Black at an unprecedented price of only $50. Adafruit has launched an Element14 made, 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen for only $50, making it the only cap touchscreen for the SBC we’ve seen that sells for under $100. The Element 14 LCD Display Cape, also referred to by Adafruit as the 4.3” LCD Capacitive Touchscreen Display Cape for BeagleBone, is a full-color, backlit TFT touchscreen with 480 x 272-pixel resolution. The “high luminance,” 105.5 x 67.25 x 4.75mm display comes with a 69 x 67.5 x 17mm Cape interface board. Element 14 LCD Display Cape with BeagleBone Black from two angles (click images to enlarge) The Element 14 LCD Display Cape joins a variety of touchscreen Capes for the community-backed BeagleBone Black SBC. Most, however, use resistive touch technology, with lesser responsiveness and speed than capacitive when using a finger rather than a stylus. While the relatively few capacitive displays for the BB Black cost well over $100, the Adafruit models comes in at about the same price as the SBC itself.
The Element 14 LCD Display Cape ships with an ID EEPROM for plug-and-play functionality with the default Debian OS, without requiring driver installation. It works on Black, Black Wireless, and White versions of the BeagleBone. Tft Display 7 Inch
Other major BeagleBone touchscreen Capes and add-ons, with product names linking to product or shopping pages, include:
Finally, DIYers looking for a cap-touch solution for the BB Black can turn to this open source project that integrates a variety of off-the-shelf components. The 800 x 480 touchscreen appears to be a work in progress.
Demo of Element 14 LCD Display Cape
Resistive Touch Screen The Element 14 LCD Display Cape is available now at Adafruit. More information and sales of the 4.3-inch touchscreen may be found at this Adafruit shopping page.