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ESP32-S3-LCD-0.85

ESP32-S3-LCD-0.85

ESP32-S3-LCD-0.85 is a low-cost, high-performance MCU board designed by Waveshare. It features a compact form factor and is equipped with onboard peripherals such as a 0.85inch capacitive LCD screen, a lithium battery charging chip, and an audio codec chip, making it convenient for developers to quickly prototype products and develop embedded applications.

SKUProduct
33878ESP32-S3-LCD-0.85
33877ESP32-S3-LCD-0.85-EN

Features​

  • Equipped with the ESP32-S3-PICO-1-N8R8 chip, which integrates a high-performance Xtensa® 32-bit LX7 dual-core processor, an ultra-low-power co-processor, Wi-Fi baseband, Bluetooth baseband, RF module, and rich peripherals
  • Supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth® 5 (LE) with an integrated onboard antenna
  • Built-in 512KB SRAM and 384KB ROM, with stacked 8MB PSRAM and external 8MB Flash storage
  • Features a Type-C interface, enhancing user convenience and device compatibility
  • Onboard 0.85inch capacitive LCD screen with 128 × 128 resolution
  • Built-in GC9107 driver IC, communicating via SPI interface, minimizing GPIO pin usage
  • Onboard PLUS and BOOT buttons, both customizable for function development
  • Onboard 3.7V 1.2mm lithium battery charging/discharging interface
  • Exposes 1-ch I2C, 1-ch USB and 1-ch UART pads for external devices connection and debugging, enabling flexible peripheral configuration
  • Onboard TF card slot supporting storage expansion and high-speed data transfer, facilitating functions like data logging and media playback while simplifying circuit design

Onboard Resources​

  1. ESP32-S3-PICO-1-N8R8 High-performance Xtensa® 32-bit LX7 dual-core processor, up to 240 MHz
  2. NS4150 Audio power amplifier chip
  3. ES8311 Audio codec chip
  4. Battery charge/discharge management chip
  5. ES7210
  6. PLUS Button
  7. PWR Power Button Controls power on/off and supports custom functions
  8. BOOT Button used for device startup and functional debugging
  9. Microphone
  10. TF Card Slot
  11. Onboard Antenna Supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth 5 (LE)
  12. Battery Header MX1.25 2PIN connector for 3.7V lithium battery, supports charging and discharging
  13. USB Type-C Interface ESP32-S3 USB interface for program flashing and log printing
  14. Speaker Interface

LCD and Its Controller​

  • The built-in controller used for this LCD is the GC9107, an LCD controller with 128 x RGB x 160 pixels, while the LCD itself has a resolution of 128(H)RGB x 128(V). Since the initialization can be set to both landscape and portrait modes, the internal RAM of the LCD is not fully utilized
  • This LCD supports 8-bit, 9-bit, and 16-bit input color formats, namely RGB444 and RGB565. This example uses the RGB565 color format, which is a common RGB format
  • The LCD uses a 4-wire SPI communication interface, which significantly saves GPIO pins while maintaining relatively fast communication speeds

SPI Communication Protocol:

  • Note: Unlike the traditional SPI protocol, because only display functionality is needed, the data line from the slave to the master is omitted

  • RESX is the Reset pin; it is pulled low during module power-up and is normally set to 1.

  • CSX is the slave chip select pin; the chip is enabled only when CS is low

  • D/CX is the data/command control pin of the chip. When DC = 0, commands are written; when DC = 1, data is written.

  • SDA is the data transmission pin, specifically for RGB data.

  • SCL is the SPI communication clock pin.

  • For SPI communication, data transmission follows a specific timing sequence, which are determined by the combination of clock phase (CPHA) and clock polarity (CPOL):

  • The level of CPHA determines whether data is captured on the first or second clock transition edge of the serial synchronous clock. When CPHA = 0, data is captured on the first transition edge;

  • The level of CPOL determines the idle level of the serial synchronous clock. CPOL = 0 means the idle state is low level.

  • As shown in the diagram, data transmission begins on the first falling edge of SCLK, with 8 bits of data transferred per clock cycle using SPI mode 0, transmitting bits from MSB to LSB

Pinout Definition​

warning

When using the reserved GPIO pads on the ESP32-S3-LCD-0.85 board, pay attention to the wiring and corresponding functions to avoid damaging the development board due to incorrect connections.

Dimensions​

Development Methods​

The ESP32-S3-LCD-0.85 supports two development frameworks: Arduino IDE and ESP-IDF, offering flexibility for developers. You can choose the appropriate development tool based on project requirements and personal preference.

Each method has its advantages, and developers can choose based on their needs and skill level. Arduino is simple to learn and easy to get started with, suitable for beginners and non-professionals; ESP-IDF provides more advanced development tools and stronger control capabilities, suitable for developers with professional backgrounds or those with higher performance requirements, and is more suitable for complex project development.

  • Arduino IDE is a convenient, flexible, and easy-to-use open-source electronics prototyping platform. It requires minimal foundational knowledge, allowing for rapid development after a short learning period. Arduino has a vast global community that provides a wealth of open-source code, project examples, tutorials, and rich libraries that encapsulate complex functionalities, enabling developers to implement various features quickly. You can refer to the Working with Arduino to complete the initial setup, and the tutorial also provides related demos for reference.

  • ESP-IDF (Espressif IoT Development Framework) is a professional development framework released by Espressif for its ESP series chips. It is developed based on the C language, including a compiler, debugger, and flashing tool, etc. It supports development via command line or an Integrated Development Environment (such as Visual Studio Code with the Espressif IDF plugin), which provides features like code navigation, project management, and debugging, etc. We recommend using VS Code for development. For the specific configuration process, please refer to the Working with ESP-IDF. The tutorial also provides relevant demos for reference.