Adafruit
Adafruit TSC2046 SPI Resistive Touch Screen Controller
The Adafruit TSC2046 is an SPI resistive touch screen controller that offloads touch reading from your microcontroller. Instead of tying up analog pins and c...
The Adafruit TSC2046 is an SPI resistive touch screen controller that offloads touch reading from your microcontroller. Instead of tying up analog pins and constantly polling, the TSC2046 handles all touch sensing over SPI and provides an interrupt pin that signals when a touch is detected.
The breakout board can be powered from 3V to 5V, making it safe for use with both 3.3V and 5V logic. An onboard 1mm pitch FPC connector accepts the flex cable from most medium and large resistive touch panels directly. For other touch screens, the four X/Y contacts are broken out on 0.1" pitch pads for hand soldering or wiring.
Key Features
- SPI Touch Controller – Reads X, Y, and Z (pressure) coordinates over SPI, no analog pins required
- Interrupt Pin (IRQ) – Drops low on touch detection to reduce SPI polling
- 1mm Pitch FPC Connector – Plug in most 4-wire resistive touch panel flex cables directly
- 0.1" Breakout Pads – Four X/Y contacts for touch panels with non-standard connectors
- 3V to 5V Operation – Compatible with a wide range of microcontrollers
- Fast and Precise – Stable readings with less latency than direct analog reading
- Busy Pin – Indicates when the chip is still processing a reading
- Vref Pin – Access or change the default 2.5V reference voltage
- Two Extra ADC Inputs – Aux (0V–Vref) and VBat (0V–2×Vref) channels for additional analog readings
Ideal For
- Adding touch input to TFT and LCD display projects
- SPI-based projects where I2C is already in use or unavailable
- Microcontrollers without analog inputs
- Projects needing interrupt-driven touch detection
Package Contents
- 1× Adafruit TSC2046 SPI Resistive Touch Screen Controller Breakout
Resources
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- ADC
- An analogue-to-digital converter reads a changing voltage and turns it into a number the microcontroller can use. It matters when connecting analogue sensors such as light, sound, or variable-resistor sensors.
- breakout
- A breakout is a small circuit board that makes a tiny or hard-to-solder component easier to connect to with standard pins. It matters because this OLED module can be wired into a microcontroller project without needing to solder directly to the display’s fine contacts.
- FPC
- FPC stands for flexible printed circuit, a flat flexible cable or connector style often used where space is tight. It matters because this breakout needs the correct pin count and pitch FPC cable to connect reliably to the display or high-speed interface.
- I2C
- I2C is a two-wire communication bus used by many sensors and small modules. It matters because several I2C devices can share the same two wires, but each device needs a compatible address and your controller must support I2C.
- IRQ
- Short for interrupt request, a signal pin a device uses to get a microcontroller’s attention when something needs handling. It matters here because I2C communication with the sensor requires connecting the IRQ pin to a suitable input pin.
- LCD
- LCD stands for liquid crystal display, a screen technology that uses a backlight and liquid crystals to show images or text. It matters because LCD modules usually need a display driver and enough controller pins or a bus interface to send image data.
- microcontroller
- A microcontroller is a small computer on a chip that runs your program and controls connected inputs and outputs. For this product, it is the part that reads buttons and sensors, drives the display and speaker, and communicates over Bluetooth.
- SPI
- A fast serial communication bus often used for displays, memory cards, and sensors. It matters because SPI devices need specific pins for clock and data, plus a separate chip-select line for each device.
- TFT
- A thin-film transistor display is a common type of colour LCD used for graphics screens. Knowing a product is for TFTs helps you check that the driver board matches the display’s connector, resolution, backlight, and signalling method.
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Sensors & Input
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