Hi, I just received a brand new Hyperpixel 4 (Rectangular and no touchscreen), to use with my Cyberdeck HAT and Pi 400 (both also brand new) but I can’t get anything to display on the Hyperpixel. I followed the instructions for setting it up on the most recent update and have tried to use the legacy installer and a few other ways. I briefly managed to get the screen to show by using the line for the square version but it was completely unusable. I tried to get help in a Pi server and with the help of someone in there, we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s blindly enabling the screen even when it’s unplugged. I have cut the trace on the Cyberdeck and some fresh installs to try and get this to work.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
are there any errors displayed?
The usual problem is that the drivers (PIMORONI installation scripts) are not installed properly in the right DEV environment…
…have you checked this out already?
There’s no errors that I can see on the Pi itself and there’s nothing but a black screen on the Hyperpixel. How would I check if they were installed in the right DEV environment?
You usually get a permissions warning that the installation is not in the right ENV…
Which RaspberryOS is running underneath? Did you already tried the lastest one?
To which RaspberryPI do you connect the HypePixel Display?
Did you already wrote an email to the Pimoroni support team?
It’s the latest update of whatever the normal Pi OS is called and it’s on a Pi 400. I’ve not yet emailed the support team, didn’t know if it’d be an easy fix or not.
The thing is that Pimoroni should be aware of the fact that many users complain with the use of the display since the new RaspberryPiOS‘ change (I think it was 2023 or 2024).
The more users mail-in the more it gets attention…
This is a users‘ forum and most likely this is not a problem users can solve, so you need to bring this to the manufacturers attention…
@hel are you aware the fact that the hyperpixel displays cause a lot of trouble during operation with modern Raspberry installations…I find many threads talking about the same issues…
I can‘t remember exactly the parameters, but have you enabled the interfaces (sudo raspi-config) and set up the boot config files accordingly…?
I wasn’t aware there was anything I had to do in raspi-config. The instructions just said you had to add a line to the config.txt and it should work. I will send an email soon but I wonder if it’d be worth just using an older update for now, assuming that’s something I can do.
no, afaik the older installers don’t work anymore as the handling of the ENVs changed…
All installations now need to go into virtual environments, which the old installers do not support.
You now need to manually install this stuff into the right environment.
Also see here in MagPi…
Also interesting is the first comment…
I haven’t tried it, though…
This seems to be a doable, but dangerous (no recommended) workaroud during installation:
I think you’re trying to fix something completely different, @m1cr0py7h0n - the Hyperpixel stuff has absolutely nothing to do with python, so all this talk of venv and random pipx stuff is irrelevant.
The latest RaspberryOS handles Hyperpixels pretty smoothly - the latest and greatest information is probably here; you shouldn’t run any (legacy) installers, just add the appropriate line into your config.txt.
I’ve tried just adding the line to my config and it didn’t work.
You are probably right, I read this in another thread also…
Maybe you should restart with a new image and add the necessary steps manually again…
I’ve done that a few times already and nothing changed.
Just to sanity check; I think the latest OS have shifted /boot/config.txt to /boot/firmware/config.txt, so it might be worth checking you’ve added the relevant line to the right one.
Other than that… double check that the trace on the Cyberdeck is properly cut (and is the right one!); I can’t quite remember the physical arrangement of the Pi400 - I take it it’s not practical to (for testing anyway) remove the Cyberdeck from the equation?
I am adding the line to /boot/firmware/config.txt (I have also tried putting it in /boot/config.txt instead). I’m pretty sure the trace is cut properly, there’s nothing left of it and it’s definitely the right one.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the means of testing the Hyperpixel without the Cyberdeck but I do know that the Cyberdeck works with my 2.8 TFT.
The only other thing(s) I can think of is to ensure that everything is seated fully (but I’m certain you’ve triple checked that by now!), and that you don’t have another display plugged in - or indeed any other hardware, for the purposes of testing at least.
I know I’ve seen some vague talk of connecting the Hyperpixel direct to a pi400 which is … fairly useless because it’s not actually visible, being the wrong way around and everything but might be a path to determining whether the issue is with the display or the cyberdeck.
There are lots of folk who have this combination working, so I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of it eventually :-)
…which “wrong way” are you talking about, physically or logically?
I use this Pi400 GPIO adapter and the orientation is just reversed, so you can rotate (by command line) by 180 ° and everything is fine again…