A hackable, programmable badge with a 2.4″ (320 x 240) TFT LCD colour display, powered by

Raspberry Pi RP2040

We’ve had a lot of requests for an LCD version of

Badger 2040

so tada – meet our pal Tufty. In a nutshell, we’ve combined an RP2040 microcontroller with a nice, crisp LCD screen to make a snazzy, colourful programmable badge – perfect for identifying/expressing yourself at cybernetic conferences,

illicit undersea research facilities

or dodgy space station bars. Don’t limit yourself to hanging it around your neck (or tail) though, use it as a sleek display/control panel for sensor readouts, a photo frame for digitally generated art or for making/playing small games. Perhaps you could even have a crack at making it

play Doom

Tufty comes fully loaded with a quintet of buttons so you can easily change what’s displayed on the screen, a slot so you can clip it onto a lanyard and a light-sensing phototransistor, which can be used to adjust the brightness of the screen automatically. On the back, you’ll find a majestic cyberpunk squirrel, a battery connector (with a nice wide input voltage) and the usual RP2040 old chestnuts – boot and power on/off buttons and a Qw/ST connector for attaching breakouts.

You can pick up a Tufty on its own, or for a bit more cashew can get a handy Tufty + Accessory Kit with a lanyard, AAA battery pack and USB cable. Select your desired option before adding it to your cart!

Features

2.4″ colour IPS LCD display (320 x 240 pixels)
- Driver IC: ST7789v
- Connected via parallel
- Dimmable backlight (adjustable via PWM)
Powered by RP2040 (Dual Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133Mhz with 264kB of SRAM)
8MB of QSPI flash supporting XiP
Phototransistor for light sensing
Five front user buttons
Power and boot buttons (the boot button can also be used as a user button)
White LED
USB-C connector for power and programming
JST-PH connector for attaching a battery (input range 3V – 5.5V)
High-precision voltage reference for battery level monitoring.
Qw/ST (Qwiic/STEMMA QT) connector
Fully assembled (no soldering required)
Schematic
Dimensional drawing
C++/MicroPython libraries

Tufty + Accessory Kit includes

Tufty 2040
3 x AAA battery holder
3 x AAA batteries
Velcro square
Black lanyard (made from recycled plastic bottles!)
USB-C to USB-A cable

Software

You can program Tufty with C/C++ or MicroPython. You’ll get the best performance using C++, but if you’re a beginner we’d recommend using our batteries included MicroPython build for ease of getting started. We’ve preloaded Tufty with a demo reel of fun examples to show you what it can do!

Download Pirate brand MicroPython

(special Tufty edition)
Getting Started with Tufty 2040
C++ examples
MicroPython examples
PicoGraphics function reference

The display functions in our new improved PicoGraphics library have been given a glow up – be sure to check them out! You can now:

render JPEGs
display QR codes
draw weird polygonal shapes
import sprites from a spritesheet
use custom colour palettes (saving valuable RAM)

CircuitPython support is coming soon!

Connecting Breakouts

The Qw/ST connector on Tufty 2040 makes it super easy to connect up

Qwiic

STEMMA QT

breakouts. If your breakout has a QW/ST connector on board, you can plug it straight in with a

JST-SH to JST-SH cable

Breakout Garden breakouts

that don’t have a Qw/ST connector can be connected using a

JST-SH to JST-SH cable

plus a

Qw/ST to Breakout Garden adaptor

. Want to use multiple breakouts at the same time? Try

this adaptor

List of breakouts

currently compatible with our C++/MicroPython build.

Notes

Measurements: 65.2mm x 52.7mm x 9.6mm (L x W x H, including connectors). The mounting holes are M2 and 2.9mm in from each edge. The corner radius is 3mm.
We’ve designed Tufty 2040 to be accommodating about input voltage (3V – 5.5V), so it’s possible to use a variety of different batteries and battery packs. We’d recommend using a 3x AAA battery pack which should give you maximum juice whilst still fitting behind Tufty nicely.
A 2x AAA battery pack will only work well if you use non-rechargeable batteries – the voltage from 2 rechargeable (NiMH) batteries (2.4V) is just not enough for the screen.
Tuftys are hungrier than Badgers! Power consumption is around 80mA for the screen (at full brightness) and 20mA for the RP2040 – so 100 mA total. Tufty has a toggle power on/off button (instead of a reset button) to make it easy to turn it off to preserve power, and setting the backlight to dim/turn off automatically will also make your batteries last much longer.
Alternatively, you can plug a LiPo/LiIon battery into the battery connector, with the following caveats. Please only consider this if the person wearing the badge is an adult and knows what they’re doing with LiPos!
- A solid enclosure or backplate to protect the battery from damage whilst being worn is a very good idea
- There’s no battery protection included on Tufty 2040, so you should only use it with LiPo batteries that include internal protection.
- Unlike some of our other boards, Tufty 2040 doesn’t have battery charging circuitry onboard. You’ll need an external LiPo charger to charge the battery (like a
  LiPo Amigo
  
  ).
Sciurus Cybernetics employees should be careful when eating their last nut, in order to avoid kernel panic.