Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.54 inch

What do you need for this?

• Arduino IDE (free) — board: ESP32S3 Dev Module, with "USB CDC On Boot" enabled
• Waveshare ESP32-S3-LCD-1.54 — from Waveshare (version without battery and touch is sufficient)
• LovyanGFX library — fast graphics library for sprites on the screen

Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.54inch

Waveshare offers several beautiful development boards, including this one. I bought the version without battery and without touch control. It features a 240 × 240 pixel display, and there are three buttons on the board: GPIO 0 (flash), GPIO 5 (pwr) and GPIO 4 (key). All three buttons can be used in a sketch.

As you can see in the photo, I created a relatively complex sketch for this circuit board (home energy management). The LovyanGFX.hpp graphics library is well suited for rendering fast sprites on screen. However, figuring out the correct display settings turned out to be quite a journey. That's why we'll stick to a simple "Hello World" sketch here.

/*
 * Hello World – Waveshare ESP32-S3-LCD-1.54 (240×240, ST7789, IPS)
 * Library     : LovyanGFX
 * Board       : ESP32S3 Dev Module
 * USB CDC On Boot: Enabled
 *
 * Confirmed pins:
 *   MOSI → 39 | SCLK → 38 | DC → 45 | CS → 21 | RST → 40 | BL → 46
 */

#define LGFX_USE_V1
#include <LovyanGFX.hpp>

class LGFX : public lgfx::LGFX_Device {
  lgfx::Panel_ST7789  _panel;
  lgfx::Bus_SPI       _bus;
  lgfx::Light_PWM     _light;

public:
  LGFX(void) {
    {
      auto cfg = _bus.config();
      cfg.spi_host    = SPI2_HOST;
      cfg.spi_mode    = 0;
      cfg.freq_write  = 40000000;
      cfg.freq_read   = 16000000;
      cfg.spi_3wire   = true;
      cfg.use_lock    = true;
      cfg.dma_channel = SPI_DMA_CH_AUTO;
      cfg.pin_sclk    = 38;
      cfg.pin_mosi    = 39;
      cfg.pin_miso    = -1;
      cfg.pin_dc      = 45;
      _bus.config(cfg);
      _panel.setBus(&_bus);
    }
    {
      auto cfg = _panel.config();
      cfg.pin_cs           = 21;
      cfg.pin_rst          = 40;
      cfg.pin_busy         = -1;
      cfg.panel_width      = 240;
      cfg.panel_height     = 240;
      cfg.offset_x         = 0;
      cfg.offset_y         = 0;
      cfg.offset_rotation  = 0;
      cfg.dummy_read_pixel = 8;
      cfg.dummy_read_bits  = 1;
      cfg.readable         = false;
      cfg.invert           = true;   // IPS panel
      cfg.rgb_order        = false;
      cfg.dlen_16bit       = false;
      cfg.bus_shared       = false;
      _panel.config(cfg);
    }
    {
      auto cfg = _light.config();
      cfg.pin_bl      = 46;
      cfg.invert      = false;
      cfg.freq        = 44100;
      cfg.pwm_channel = 7;
      _light.config(cfg);
      _panel.setLight(&_light);
    }
    setPanel(&_panel);
  }
};

LGFX display;

void setup(void) {
  Serial.begin(115200);

  display.init();
  display.setRotation(0);
  display.setBrightness(255);

  display.fillScreen(TFT_BLACK);

  display.setTextDatum(MC_DATUM);

  display.setFont(&fonts::FreeSansBold12pt7b);
  display.setTextColor(TFT_YELLOW);
  display.drawString("ESP32-S3", display.width() / 2, 55);

  display.setFont(&fonts::FreeSansBold18pt7b);
  display.setTextColor(TFT_CYAN);
  display.drawString("Hello", display.width() / 2, 110);

  display.setFont(&fonts::FreeSansBold18pt7b);
  display.setTextColor(TFT_GREEN);
  display.drawString("World!", display.width() / 2, 150);

  display.setFont(&fonts::Font2);
  display.setTextColor(TFT_LIGHTGREY);
  display.drawString("LovyanGFX  240x240", display.width() / 2, 200);

  display.drawRoundRect(10, 10, display.width() - 20, display.height() - 20, 12, TFT_DARKGREY);

  Serial.println("Ready.");
}

void loop(void) {}

More displays with the ESP8266 / ESP32

Curious about other displays? Check out the full overview, including TM1637, SSD1306, SH1106, ST7735, ST7789, e-paper, the Lilygo TTGO T-Display and T-Display S3. See also the more elaborate energy management project on this Waveshare board, with live P1 meter data.