Introduction: RUNNING Arduino IDE on RPi @ 800 X 480 Resolution

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Running Arduino IDE on Raspberry Pi (Jessie - Pixel) using a 5" HDMI display at a resolution of 800 X 480 presents some real issues for me. These issues needed to be resolved before I could move on to finishing off a build that required use of a HDMI 5" 800 X 480 display. Using a 1280 X 800 7" HDMI display was not an option for me at this point.

ISSUE ONE:

When Jessie was released late 2016 the 5" HDMI 800 X 480 display was unusable for me. I have since resolved this issue and wrote an Instructable to identify the problem and changes needed to fix it for me. The Instructable can be found at the link below for those interested in this issues and how to resolve it:

800 X 480 - 5" HDMI display resolution issue

ISSUE TWO:

Once ISSUE ONE was solved. My Arduino IDE was now to large for me to use it effectively. Both top and bottom ends were bleeding off the 5" display. I could not move the window around on the display and get access to the menu selections. So no changes could be made nor could I check my settings. Major pain!

This Instructable is being created to let others know how I resolved this issue and documented them for my use on future development should I forget at sometime on how this was accomplished.

Step 1: ARDUINO IDE on 1280 X 800 7" Display -- Before Moving to a 800 X 480 Resolution 5" Display

Here is what Arduino IDE running on a 1280 X 800 7" HDMI display looks like. Very nice and have access to all options the the IDE provides. Looks and works perfectly in this situation.

Step 2: Arduino IDE on 800 X 480 Issue - Bleeding Off Edges of Dispaly

The issue is that when running a 800 X 480 resolution 5" HDMI display the Arduino IDE does not format correctly. Because of this it is impossible to open files or have access to settings that are needed to configure the Arduino IDE to the equipment being used. Adding libraries and making sure the correct parameters are used cannot be done when the Arduino IDE starts up. The ardunio window can not be re-sized or moved around to get access to the menu selections. See photo above to understand the situation.

Step 3: SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM -- "$ Sudo Nano /boot/config.txt"

While researching out the problem with ISSUE ONE (800 X 480 - 5" HDMI display resolution problem) I found additional information regarding the sizing issue with Arduino IDE and Raspberry Pi running at resolution of 800X480.

Here is the link to my findings and solution being talked about:

Windows Larger than Display Height - raspberry pi org

As always I have found that most of the solutions talked about and recommended only give basic solutions to fixing the problem and the reader almost needs to be a computer engineer or programmer to know what some of these people are talking about. Understanding exactly what is needed to make the changes and what the changes should look like when actually being implemented by the ordinary non-technical person are hard to in vision. So this is my attempt at trying to produce a document that can be understood and useful by a non-technical person. It helps me to have a full understanding of the problem and a clear path as to what is required step by step to get to the end result. The end result in this situation is an Arduino IDE that is functional on a 800 X 480 5" HDMI display.

The solution is to remove the ( #) from two lines of code in the "config.txt" file.

What you are looking for is the area of code that looks like this:

# framebuffer_width=1280

#framebuffer_height=720

Just un-comment the lines (remove the # symbol)

framebuffer_width=1280
framebuffer_height=720

Save the correction and reboot.

You can check out see the difference in photo above.

At this point you can now play with "PREFERENCES" in both Raspberry Pi and Arduino IDE to optimize the look and feel of the two programs to your preferred preference.

I set my Rpi to 8pt and Arduino to 12pt and like the look.