ESP32-C6 with built-in TFT

[romainperea]

Hi everyone !

I've ordered this ESP32-C6 board: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005008084095266.html

I have successfully compiled a custom ESPEasy firmware (the 20241222 one), with the P116 plugin, to be able to activate the onboard TFT.
Unfortunatly, the embedded TFT is a 172 x 320 one, driven by a ST7789.

This "configuration" is not available into the included plugin, and to make it "work" a little, i have to access i as a ST7735, with 135 x 240 pixel display attached.

This way, it works but with just a part of the center of the display, and everywhere around, it's like an "old TV fog".

Do you think a "mod" of the P116 version can be made ?

The unit is really interesting, really cheap, integrated display and USB C power/data port.

Thanks in advance !

ps: my project is to make this a temperature sensor (with a DHT22), and the temperature and humidity live displayed on it... I already have a complete DomoticZ system running for years, thanks to you and multiple ESP8266 with DHT22 in 3D printed enclosures

[kniazio]

Share the compilation. Maybe someone will buy it and there will be more of us.

[TD-er]

Not sure if the DHTxx sensors are the best choice as they do have their own peculiarities.
For example I've seen those "lock up" when exposed to quite humid weather (e.g. like how it is now in the Netherlands, 200 - 300 m visibility for over 24h and quite cold)

Maybe a BME280 or some other of the many supported sensors is a better choice. See: https://espeasy.readthedocs.io/en/lates ... nvironment
Just make sure to stay away from the AHT1x sensors also... Those cannot be used with any other I2C device on the same bus...

I guess Ton (Ath) will probably reply about the display plugin questions you had..

[romainperea]

I can post my custom firmware here if you want, just tell me what plugin you want inside and i'll do it.

An thanks for the informations about the temperature sensors

[Ath]

Hi everyone !

I've ordered this ESP32-C6 board: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005008084095266.html

I have successfully compiled a custom ESPEasy firmware (the 20241222 one), with the P116 plugin, to be able to activate the onboard TFT.
Unfortunatly, the embedded TFT is a 172 x 320 one, driven by a ST7789.

This "configuration" is not available into the included plugin, and to make it "work" a little, i have to access i as a ST7735, with 135 x 240 pixel display attached.

This way, it works but with just a part of the center of the display, and everywhere around, it's like an "old TV fog".

Do you think a "mod" of the P116 version can be made ?

I've been thinking about switching from TFT library, and also to offer some standard display resolutions, along with an option to configure the desired resolution, as there are more and more slightly different TFT displays available, and it's nearly impossible to try and add all these displays in ESPEasy separately.

Have you tried one of the ST7789 configurations (you can also set the rotation to match the resolution somewhat better), to see if it works better than the ST7735 configuration? For the ST77xx series, the chip setup seems somewhat specific, while the resolution can be set at will, though also some far-east manufacturers seem to sometimes mount different chips then what's mentioned in the documentation.

The unit is really interesting, really cheap, integrated display and USB C power/data port.

There are so many 'interesting display units', it's nearly impossible to test them all, if only for the amount of money it would take to buy a sample of each...
And besides that, there are also ESP32-C6 units with 16MB Flash, so you could use the MAX build, thus not requiring a Custom build, but most likely not combined with this display.

[romainperea]

I totally agree, there are so many devices available, an it's not possible to test all of them... I'm gonna try all the possible configurations with the P116 plugin and let you know if one of them works better

[romainperea]

I'll wait for a "future build" for this device (for supporting the embedded display).

Is it possible to "donate" euros for the developpers to buy one of this device to "see" if something is possible ?

[Ath]

I'll wait for a "future build" for this device (for supporting the embedded display).

Is it possible to "donate" euros for the developpers to buy one of this device to "see" if something is possible ?

My signature has a PayPal.me link where you can donate for purchases like these

[Ath]

FYI: Aliexpress is charging me € 15.44 including shipping.

Screenshot - 02-02-2025 , 17_01_50.png (47.62 KiB) Viewed 6071 times

[romainperea]

Done

[Ath]

Thanks. Order has been finalized. Should ship soon.

[romainperea]

Thanks. Order has been finalized. Should ship soon.

I'm not sure you'll be able to do something, but it's an interesting device

[Ath]

@romainperea The unit arrived, so I can start configuring it.

[Ath]

@romainperea It took a bit of fiddling to get it just right, but I managed to add a display configuration matching the ST7735 172x320 display.

Code is available from this PR #5263.

Here's a test-build for the ESP32-C6 (Custom configuration with P038 (Neopixel to control the led on GPIO-8) P095 (TFT ILI93xx), P116 (TFT ST77xx) and P123 (I2C Touchpanels) added)

ESP_Easy_mega_20250220_custom_ESP32c6_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.zip

(2.04 MiB) Downloaded 41 times

Adding a user-defined resolution doesn't seem feasible, as it needs some offset fine-tuning, based on the resolution.

[romainperea]

Thanks !

i'm gonna try it this weekend !

[romainperea]

@romainperea It took a bit of fiddling to get it just right, but I managed to add a display configuration matching the ST7735 172x320 display.

Code is available from this PR #5263.

Here's a test-build for the ESP32-C6 (Custom configuration with P038 (Neopixel to control the led on GPIO-8) P095 (TFT ILI93xx), P116 (TFT ST77xx) and P123 (I2C Touchpanels) added)
ESP_Easy_mega_20250220_custom_ESP32c6_4M316k_LittleFS_CDC_ETH.zip

Adding a user-defined resolution doesn't seem feasible, as it needs some offset fine-tuning, based on the resolution.

Thanks !!!! it works great !!!! display works at it should, and the Neopixel LED work just fine too

But there is no touchscreen on this device (or am i missing something ?)

[Ath]

Great, thanks for the feedback

No, this device doesn't have a touchscreen installed, but possibly a similar unit has, so I include P123 by default, just in case

[romainperea]

Great, thanks for the feedback

No, this device doesn't have a touchscreen installed, but possibly a similar unit has, so I include P123 by default, just in case

Thank you very much for this hard work

[lollypop]

Thanks !!!! it works great !!!! display works at it should, and the Neopixel LED work just fine too

But there is no touchscreen on this device (or am i missing something ?)

Hey Romain,
can you tell me what settings did you use for your display?
I have the same board, installed the firmware from this thread, but have no success until now.
Greetings,
Lars

[Ath]

The Waveshare documentation has this overview in the Schematics:

Screenshot - 5-03-2025 , 13_11_11.png (19.97 KiB) Viewed 1628 times

[lollypop]

Thank you, Ath!
I will try it later!

[romainperea]

Sorry for the delay, here is the configuration that works for me:

In the hardware Tab, i have defined the SPI Interface as:

Init SPI: User defined
GPIO-CLK: GPIO-7
GPIO-MISO: GPIO-5
GPIO-MOSI: GPIO-6


In the device tab, i have defined the LCD Display as:

GPIO-CS: GPIO-14
GPIO-DC: GPIO-15
GPIO-RES: GPIO-21

GPIO-Backlight: GPIO-22

TFT Model Display: ST7735 172 x 320px