# Pirate Audio Display error

**URL:** <https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [January 18, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897 "2021-01-18T12:36:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jordes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@jordes](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/jordes)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 12:36pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/1 "2021-01-18T12:36:19Z")

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Maybe someone can help me I bought Pimoroni Pirate Audio hat a year ago and a couple of times tried and it worked. then it was lying a year and I tried again to install different programs but all the time the display badly worked only showed stripes as in the picture. may someone know what the problem may be or what is broken and what to change

 ![IMG_1951](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/pimoroni/original/2X/a/a1b68fbdd2c665960cad925223e08f1e4cd9003c.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 1:14pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/2 "2021-01-18T13:14:41Z")

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Have you started over with a fresh PiOS image?  
If no I would.  
If yes do any of the examples like rainbow.py work?

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**Author:** ![jordes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@jordes](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/jordes)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/3 "2021-01-18T14:25:02Z")

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same issue but in color

 ![IMG_1952](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/pimoroni/original/2X/8/89c6fe95e24f3f9cbe1b8fadf207f332811a0b4c.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 2:30pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/4 "2021-01-18T14:30:38Z")

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Kind of looks like its broken?  
Make sure its firmly attached to the GPIO, and plugged in correctly.  
Also make sure nothing on the Pi, like a heatsink, is touching the backside of the Pirate Audio board.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jordes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@jordes](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/jordes)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 3:06pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/5 "2021-01-18T15:06:08Z")

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maybe it is broken, but I don’t know how to check it. It doesn’t touch anything and plugged correctly. I test it on two raspberrys with the same result.

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**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 4:57pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/6 "2021-01-18T16:57:49Z")

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I have several of the 0.96 160 x 80 LCD breakouts and one of the 1.3 240 x 240 LCD breakouts. The 1.3 240 x 240 is the same screen used in the Pirate Audio.  
I test all of them with the scrolling-text.py example.  
I edited this one to work on the Pirate Audio screen.

```auto
from PIL import Image
from PIL import ImageDraw
from PIL import ImageFont
import time

import ST7789

MESSAGE = "Hello World! How are you today?"

# Create ST7789 LCD display class.
st7789 = ST7789(
    rotation=90, # Needed to display the right way up on Pirate Audio
    port=0, # SPI port
    cs=1, # SPI port Chip-select channel
    dc=9, # BCM pin used for data/command
    backlight=13,
    spi_speed_hz=SPI_SPEED_MHZ * 1000 * 1000
)

# Initialize display.
disp.begin()

WIDTH = disp.width
HEIGHT = disp.height

img = Image.new('RGB', (WIDTH, HEIGHT), color=(0, 0, 0))

draw = ImageDraw.Draw(img)

font = ImageFont.truetype("/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf", 30)

size_x, size_y = draw.textsize(MESSAGE, font)

text_x = disp.width
text_y = (80 - size_y) // 2

t_start = time.time()

while True:
    x = (time.time() - t_start) * 100
    x %= (size_x + disp.width)
    draw.rectangle((0, 0, disp.width, 80), (0, 0, 0))
    draw.text((int(text_x - x), text_y), MESSAGE, font=font, fill=(255, 255, 255))
    disp.display(img)

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jordes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@jordes](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/jordes)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/7 "2021-01-18T21:45:17Z")

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your code is not working for me but this one yes [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pimoroni/st7789-python/fa6195dcb7d12e3969f047ce2b71b2a5b3ee417c/examples/scrolling-text.py](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pimoroni/st7789-python/fa6195dcb7d12e3969f047ce2b71b2a5b3ee417c/examples/scrolling-text.py)

but nothing has worked properly

 ![IMG_1956.HEIC](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/pimoroni/original/2X/8/8d40641887a27b5adcd7ff4d1d554d820c80a701.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 9:21am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/8 "2021-01-19T09:21:29Z")

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That’s the file I “modified” to work on a Pirate Audio. It’s written for the Breakout garden which uses different pins for the display than the Pirate Audio does. I must have made a clip and past error?  
Either way I think your display has failed.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@joop](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/joop)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 10:15pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/9 "2026-06-28T22:15:19Z")

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This has happened to me. Luckely I had a spare Pirate Audio lying around and the machine is able to continue it’s duties. Just curious if you found a solution, is it worthwhile replacing the screen?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@joop](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/joop)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/pirate-audio-display-error/15897/10 "2026-07-14T12:16:41Z")

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Solved by ordering the right part and replacing, was less then 1 min work. Awesome product!

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/pimoroni/original/2X/9/991eb84c85a83e35f9fa09a7ed3ad13729ed0f12.jpeg)