Dual Display

[bonkers.lol]

Hi,

I hope I have posted this in the right category (MODS: please move if not )

Is it possible to have 2 displays on a Pi showing different things? I've searched everywhere and haven't found a clear solution yet.

What I'm trying to achieve is the following:

(a) Display data from a QT script on a 7" touchscreen regarding a PWM programme I am running.

(b) Play media (a film for example) parallel to that on a different monitor during the time the PWM programme is running.

When the PWM app stops, the media stops (via the QT script of course).

It's been suggested to me that simply connecting a Pi Zero for example to the Pi3 and using that as a "graphics card" of sorts would do the job. e,g, let the PWM data display on the 7" and "point" the media programme to the Zero.

In the Forum's infinite wisdom - would this work, and has anybody tried this? Perhaps there's an easier solution ?

Many thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

[kusti8]

It would be easier to have two and communicate.

Or

You could get the official touchscreen and certain applications like omxplayer or kivy can run while normal GUI is running on the other.

I've never tried GPIO screens, but I imagine not.

[rpdom]

You could use the VGA666 board (available as a kit) to drive a second screen with a VGA connection, but it would use up most of the GPIO pins. Using that you can have your normal programs using the HDMI screen and play HD videos with omxplayer on the VGA screen. I have done this, as well as having different videos playing on each screen at the same time. I'm not sure about audio, it might be possible to have normal audio running on HDMI and tell omxplayer to use the A/V jack at the same time. I haven't tried that.

[flasan]

You could use the VGA666 board (available as a kit) to drive a second screen with a VGA connection, but it would use up most of the GPIO pins. Using that you can have your normal programs using the HDMI screen and play HD videos with omxplayer on the VGA screen. I have done this, as well as having different videos playing on each screen at the same time. I'm not sure about audio, it might be possible to have normal audio running on HDMI and tell omxplayer to use the A/V jack at the same time. I haven't tried that.

Hello,
On the monitor that plays video, can I run a browser?
Thank you

[rpdom]

On the monitor that plays video, can I run a browser?

Currently, I don't think you can. There is some work in progress that might provide full support for two screens at some point.