You can also connect your Raspberry Pi to your laptop to use it as a display. And there are certain methods that you can use to connect Raspberry Pi to an external monitor.
Raspberry Pi can be easily connected to a monitor using HDMI-HDMI or HDMI to VGA cable. Alternatively, you can also use the RCA connector to get the job done. Not only monitor, but you can also connect Raspberry Pi to TV with HDMI ports.
This article primarily focuses on different methods to connect your Raspberry Pi to Monitor. Let’s start:
How to Connect Raspberry Pi To Monitor?
To connect Raspberry pi to a monitor, you will need the following peripherals
- HDMI Cables
- A display monitor
- A keyboard and a mouse
All the latest raspberry pi models have HDMI connectors that you can use to connect a monitor or a TV that supports HDMI.
It is very to connect your Raspberry Pi to a monitor. Insert the SD into your Raspberry Pi turn on the power supply. Simply connect the HDMI cable to your Raspberry Pi on one end and PC monitor to another end. After the connection has been established, you will see the booting options with the usual graphical interface.
If your PC monitor doesn’t support HDMI, you can use the alternate option of HDMI to VGA adapter. Almost every PC monitor has a VGA port.
To begin with, you will have to make some changes to the config.txt file that Raspberry uses at the time of booting.
Insert your Pi’s SD card into your computer using the card reader and open the config.text file. You will find it in the root directory. Once you have opened the file, Check out the following there
#hdmi_drive=2
Simply remove the “#” symbol and save the file. This will enable both VGA to HDMI output and fix screen resolution to 640×480. Respectively, You can change the values from 1,2, to 2,16 for higher resolution.
Now connect the HDMI to VGA adapter to Raspberry Pi and Monitor Respectively and boot your RPi.
And You are done.
Similar methods apply to your smart TVs too.
If you think of connecting it to your laptop, it is a long process involving installing a VNC server. We have already published an article on connecting the laptop to your Raspberry Pi.
Can I Use Two Monitor Setup With Raspberry Pi? How?
If you are a computer geek and find a dual monitor set with Raspberry Pi, then I have good news for you. You can set up two monitors using Raspberry pi.
Since Raspberry is a credit card-sized device and was never designed to run with two display monitors. Here are pre-requisites for a two-monitor setup with Raspberry Pi:
- Two micro HDMI-HDMI cables
Take One HDMI cable and insert one end to the left monitor. The other end should be plugged in the left micro HDMI port of the Pi board labeled as HDMI0. Now take the second cable to connect one end to the right monitor and another end to the micro HDMI port of the Pi board labeled as HDMI1.
Attach other peripherals such as mouse and keyboard. Insert your SD card into the Raspberry Pi and turn on the power supply. Wait for your PC to boot, and once you are done, you are ready to use your two-monitor setup.
If you face aligning issues with your displays, you can turn off your Raspberry Pi and swap the micro HDMI cables. Alternatively, you can also fix the issue using screen configuration.
Navigate to preferences and then head to screen configuration. The layout editor will show you two displays named HDMI-1 and HDMI-2, and you can fix them by dragging them one by one to their right positions.
How Can I Connect My Smartphone To Raspberry Pi 400 As A Display?
Yes, you can connect your Android smartphone to connect your Raspberry Pi 400. This is not going to be wireless as you will have some cable connections.
Here are some Pre-requisites for the setup
- Female USB A to Male USB-C adapter
- HDMI to USB A video card capture
Install a USB camera app on your Android device and connect your Raspberry Pi 400 to your Android phone using video card capture. Once done, choose the suitable resolution and tap once on the screen to succeed.
Wrapping Up
Running your raspberry Pi with larger displays is a kind of cool stuff that every one of us would like to have. Multiple strings come attached with these setups that you need to take care of as Raspberry Pis are made for such setups. You should ensure you have quality and long enough wires to cope up with the setup, and other things include keeping it away from dust and direct sunlight.
This was a brief guide on connecting raspberry pi to an external monitor. Luckily, the steps for connecting a monitor and a smart tv to a display are almost the same. So you can connect any of these using this guide. If you wish to have an extended two monitor set-up with your raspberry pi, then too, I have got you covered. I hope you loved reading this article.
