ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.54
The ESP32-S3-LCD-1.54 and ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.54 are low-cost, high-performance microcontroller development boards designed by Waveshare. Featuring a compact board design, they integrate large-capacity Flash and PSRAM, support 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth BLE 5, and come with onboard peripherals such as a 1.54inch capacitive LCD screen, a lithium battery charging chip, and a 6-axis sensor (3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope), facilitating rapid product prototyping and embedded application development for developers.
The main difference between the ESP32-S3-LCD-1.54 and ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.54 products is whether the screen has touch functionality; all other features are identical.
| SKU | Product |
|---|---|
| 33866 | ESP32-S3-LCD-1.54-EN |
| 33867 | ESP32-S3-LCD-1.54 |
| 33868 | ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.54-EN |
| 33869 | ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.54 |
Features
- Equipped with the high-performance ESP32-S3R8 featuring an Xtensa® 32-bit LX7 dual-core processor with a clock frequency up to 240 MHz
- 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 16MB Flash storage
- Features a Type-C interface, eliminating the hassle of plug orientation and enhancing user convenience and device compatibility
- Onboard 1.54inch capacitive LCD screen, 240 × 240 resolution, 262K colors, capable of displaying color images clearly
- Onboard ES7210 audio codec chip, supporting dual-microphone audio capture and echo cancellation
- Onboard ES8311 audio codec chip, NS4150B power amplifier chip, microphone, and speaker
- Onboard QMI8658 6-axis IMU (3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope) for detecting motion and posture in expanded applications
- Built-in ST7789 driver IC, communicating via SPI interface
- Built-in CST816 capacitive touch controller, communicating via I2C interface (touch version only)
- 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

- ESP32-S3R8 High-performance Xtensa® 32-bit LX7 dual-core processor, up to 240 MHz
- 16MB NOR-Flash
- NS4150B Audio power amplifier chip
- ES8311 Low-power audio codec chip
- ES7210 ADC chip for echo cancellation circuitry
- Battery charge/discharge management chip
- QMI8658 6-axis IMU includes a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer
- PLUS Button User-defined button
- PWR button
- BOOT Button Used for device startup and functional debugging
- Microphone Microphone input and echo cancellation
- TF Card Slot
- Onboard Chip Antenna Supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth 5 (LE)
- MX1.25 Lithium Battery Header MX1.25 2PIN connector for connecting a 3.7V lithium battery, supports charging and discharging
- Type-C Port
- MX1.25 Speaker Header Non-polarized
- 1.54inch Display Panel Connector
LCD and Its Controller
- The LCD uses the built-in controller ST7789, a 240 × RGB × 320 pixel LCD controller. Since the LCD itself has a resolution of 240(H) × RGB × 240(V), the internal RAM of the LCD is not fully utilized.
- The LCD supports input color formats of 12-bit, 16-bit, and 18-bit per pixel, i.e., RGB444, RGB565, and RGB666. The examples use the RGB565 color format, which is also the most common RGB format.
- The LCD uses a 4-wire SPI communication interface, significantly saving GPIO pins while maintaining relatively fast communication speeds.
SPI Communication Protocol:

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Note: Unlike the traditional SPI protocol, because only display functionality is needed, the data line from the slave to the master is omitted
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RESX is the Reset pin; it is pulled low during module power-up and is normally set to 1.
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CSX is the slave chip select pin; the chip is enabled only when CS is low
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D/CX is the data/command control pin of the chip. When DC = 0, commands are written; when DC = 1, data is written.
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SDA is the data transmission pin, specifically for RGB data.
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SCL is the SPI communication clock pin.
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For SPI communication, data transmission follows a specific timing sequence, which are determined by the combination of clock phase (CPHA) and clock polarity (CPOL):
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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;
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The level of CPOL determines the idle level of the serial synchronous clock. CPOL = 0 means the idle state is low level.
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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
When using the reserved GPIO terminals on the board, pay attention to the wiring colors and corresponding functions to avoid damaging the development board due to incorrect wiring habits.

Dimensions

Development Methods
The ESP32-S3-LCD-1.54 and ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.54 support two development frameworks: Arduino IDE and ESP-IDF, offering developers flexible choices. You can select the appropriate development tool based on project requirements and personal preferences.
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.
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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.
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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.
