Get Touchy – Nintendo DS Touch Screen + Arduino

It seems like touch screens are plastered on every consumer electronic device from your phone to your refrigerator. And why not right? Well, even though those beautiful multitouch hi-res screens are a little pricy and crazy hard to develop with, doesn’t mean we cant still add a touch panel to our project. The touch panel from the Nintendo DS provides a very simple, inexpensive solution to allow us to do just that.Get Touchy – Nintendo DS Touch Screen + Arduino

The Nintendo DS panel is a resistive panel making it very easy to hook it up to our Arduino, but it only recognizes a single input at a time and is a little imprecise.

Hooking It Up

If you are going to use this, I highly recommend using the breakout board with it because it is a little hard soldering directly to the ribbon cable. If you are using the breakout board: The ribbon from the panel it too thin to be used with the breakout board, and it will just fall out (weird I know). To fix this I stuck 2 layers of scotch tape over the back and cut off the excess with an x-acto blade – just make sure not to cut the ribbon. The brown plastic part of the breakout-board connector pulls out so you can slide the ribbon in it (pins side up). Once you have the ribbon in, and aligned nicely, make sure to slide the connector close to lock it into place.

Now that the panel is connected to the breakout, just note… the panel is actually now upside down (again… weird). I just flipped the panel over and to right so the ribbon was just bent at a 45º angle, but you can do whatever works best for you.

If you are wondering where the +/GND & resistors are… don’t worry about it. Just connect the 4 pins into the Arduino as shown and you are ready for the code. This really is how it goes, it gets power and ground from the pins based on how the code works.

For more detail: Get Touchy – Nintendo DS Touch Screen + Arduino


About The Author

Ibrar Ayyub

I am an experienced technical writer holding a Master's degree in computer science from BZU Multan, Pakistan University. With a background spanning various industries, particularly in home automation and engineering, I have honed my skills in crafting clear and concise content. Proficient in leveraging infographics and diagrams, I strive to simplify complex concepts for readers. My strength lies in thorough research and presenting information in a structured and logical format.

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