Re: [PATCH v3 2/3] drm/st7571-i2c: add support for Sitronix ST7571 LCD controller

From: Marcus Folkesson
Date: Fri Apr 11 2025 - 02:05:03 EST


Hello,

On Wed, Apr 09, 2025 at 11:43:54AM +0200, Javier Martinez Canillas wrote:
> Marcus Folkesson <marcus.folkesson@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> Hello Marcus,
>
> [...]
>
> >>
> >> That's a god question, I don't really know...
> >>
> >> But fbdev does support XRGB8888, which may be another good reason to add
> >> it and make it the default format. Yes, it will cause an unnecessary pixel
> >> format conversion but the I2C transport is so slow anyways that compute is
> >> not the bottleneck when using these small displays.
> >
> > Hrm, I now realised that I have another issue.
> > Not all LCDs that will be attached to the ST7571 controller will be
> > grayscale.
> > The display I've attached to the ST7571 is a monochrome LCD for example.
> >
>
> Oh, that's very interesting. This means that vendors are using a more capable IC
> (i.e: ST7571) for display controllers + LCD panels board designs, even where they
> could had used a less capable one (i.e: ST7765). That is, using an IC that supports
> 2-bit grayscale when they could just used one that only supported monochrome pixels.
>
> From a quick search, I found for example this one from SinoCrystal:
>
> https://displaysino.com/product_details/SC128128012-V01.html
>
> > Maybe the right way to do it is to only support XRGB8888 and specify
> > if the display is monochrome or grayscale in the device tree.
> >
> > Or do you have any good suggestions?
> >
>
> I don't know the proper way to handle this, but what I would do is to include
> the actual boards as entries in the OF device ID table instead of just the ICs.
>
> And then for each entry you can specify what formats are supported, e.g:
>
> static const uint32_t monochrome_formats[] = {
> DRM_FORMAT_XRGB8888,
> DRM_FORMAT_R1
> };
>
> static const uint32_t grayscale_formats[] = {
> DRM_FORMAT_XRGB8888,
> DRM_FORMAT_R1
> DRM_FORMAT_R2
> };
>
> static const struct of_device_id st7571_of_match[] = {
> /* monochrome displays */
> {
> .compatible = "sinocrystal,sc128128012-v01",
> .data = monochrome_formats,
> },
> ...
> /* grayscale displays */
> {
> .compatible = "foo,bar",
> .data = grayscale_formats,
> },
> };

A comment for v4:

I think I will go for a property in the device tree. I've implemented
board entries as above, but I'm not satisfied for two reasons:

1. All other properties like display size and resolution are already
specified in the device tree. If I add entries for specific boards,
these properties will be somehow redundant and not as generic.

2. I could not find a ST7571 with a grayscale display as a off-the-shelf
product.
>
> --
> Best regards,
>
> Javier Martinez Canillas
> Core Platforms
> Red Hat

Best regards,
Marcus Folkesson

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