Cheap and Easy to Use ESP32 Screen!

There is an ESP32 with a built in 320 x 240 LCD display with a touch screen called the "ESP32-2432S028R", since this doesn't roll of the tongue, I propose it should be renamed the "Cheap Yellow Display" or CYD for short. This display is only about $15 delivered so I think it's really good value. It's my favorite device to build projects with at the moment!
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Links:
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CYD Github Page (inc links to buy) : github.com/witnessmenow/ESP32...
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My Discord:
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Come hang out and talk about the CYD or any project you are working on!
/ discord
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Github Sponsorship:
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I have set up a Github Sponsorship page, it's similar style thing to patreon. Github sponsorships help support videos like these plus the open source projects I create.
github.com/sponsors/witnessme...
Some people have said they would prefer a once off way of supporting the channel, here is a Paypal link if you would prefer that!
www.paypal.me/bloughyt

[@richardphillips1891]

I received my ESP32 CYD and have been going through many of the samples you provided. Everything has been great. I look forward to further exploring this exciting little board. I like that the ESP32 is included on the display, SD, and will be experimenting with the various connections. I be checking out the progress on Discord. Thank you!

[@justineschauzier9790]

I bought a CYD on a whim after Great Scott showed it in one of his Aliexpress videos. And then I find this! Perfect! Thanks for kicking this off! 🎉

[@NyneIX9]

Same here! I fall into the first group Brian mentioned, as someone who really is barely getting into hardware for fun.

[@sdr_print3d887]

Finally! Almost two years since I bought this display and has been collecting dust because I couldn't find proper information about it. Thank you! I'll be joining the discord right away too!

[@amdadulhaque4625]

Me too

[@zeddpilsner4]

thank you so much for putting out this video. I bought this thing on aliexpress with high expectations but was very let down when the software download package didn't work out and it's been sitting on my shelf collecting dust ever since. You've rekindled my project ideas with this little guy. You've earned yourself a subscriber👍

[@mrsynical8725]

it's worth pursuing. I used the temperature example on github, but changed the sensor to my daughters blood sugar levels, now I have a cheap BSL monitor I can place throughout the house and keep an eye on important data, easily.

[@DigicoolThings]

Nice find, and awesome work making it more usable for the many! It's great to see you back on another video. Hopefully more to come! 🤓

[@BrianLough]

Thanks! I hope so too, I just need to find a good balance to juggle everything!

[@dad2979]

Ran out and bought three immediately. Was so happy to see the new video.

[@BrianLough]

Awesome, please feel free to share on the discord when they arrive!

[@jimlynch9390]

I just found your channel and have viewed a number of your videos. I hope you are able to post more frequently, since they have been mostly in areas I'm interested in and would encourage you to bring us more! Thanks.

[@Vexelius]

I watched your video some weeks ago, and it really sparked up my curiosity. I just have received mine today... Thanks for the heads up! I'm looking forward to try this piece.

[@fouroakfarm]

Just ordered one. Seems like a great complement to Home Assistant. Thank you for spearheading this project

[@stevesfascinations1516]

Love your videos and projects Brian! I just bought a couple of these and I am looking forward to using them. These look ideal for FreeRTOS projects. Thanks for sharing, and greetings from Canada.

[@VincentdeKoning]

Amazing! I'm happy to find your video. I happened to be discussing 'where to start' yesterday.

[@DirtyEngineer]

Great to see a video from you! You're looking healthy and happy!

[@PerfectionHunter]

Thank you for this video! PLEASE make a step-by-step tutorial on how you put videos and other fun stuff in it! ❤

[@mrroobarb]

Great stuff Brian - nice to see you back!

[@GeorgeKaranikos]

Im option 4. Those who are new to hardware and software. But my copy paste skills are pretty good! Thanks heaps and i really look forward to seeing what this amazing community can do!

[@BrianLough]

Thanks so much George! I'm a professional software developer for 14 years and copy and pasting is my best attribute 😅

[@AllAroundTube50]

These same displays are also being used to upgrade the control panels on the Bambu P1S to the Bambu X1 3D printer. Makes a huge improvement!

[@jerril42]

Thank you Brian. Great stuff! Take care.

[@FirstTry379]

I know almost nothing about code and have a difficult time following the file modification and structure necessary to be successful with these types of projects. Your video is encouraging and the projects you have made look like fun to build. I have ordered 2 of these boards because of your video. Thank you!

[@Hasitier]

Nice to see a video from you after a long time. The board looks interesting so I ordered one. Let’s get into tinkering again.

[@gregbushta3086]

Awesome video Brian. I watched it to the end. Working on a couple of other things now and want to do some things with this CYD.

[@FrankGraffagnino]

this is so great... truly god's work to take things like this and document them and share examples!!! this is the most important feature of any hardware device! community!

[@user-lo1cl8de1s]

No. This isn't God's work. It's Brian Lough's work. But yeah I understand what you're trying to say.

[@swannschilling474]

I just pulled my hair for two days to get one of these to work!!! 😅 Thanks a lot!! This is great!! 😊

[@afipdjh]

The noise you hear at the end of the sound clips with the "Yes/No" machine is likely caused by cutting the audio abruptly when the waveform's amplitude isn't at zero. In simpler terms, if the sound wave is stopped suddenly instead of naturally trailing off to silence, it creates a sharp, unnatural 'click' sound. This happens because the speaker is forced to abruptly stop vibrating. To avoid this, audio clips should ideally end at a point where the sound naturally fades to silence, or 'zero amplitude'. You can fade clips with audio software and most software does this automatically too. You could even fix it on the software side too when playing clips.

[@BrianLough]

Good suggestion but I've already padded the files with some silence at the end and the same issue happens

[@atomic14]

Fantastic video! And thanks for the shoutout - I can now tick off "mentioned by a famous KZbinr" from my bucket list ;)

[@BrianLough]

You're a bigger youtuber than me :) The only reason you aren't mentioned in any of the audio is I recorded that footage before your videos :D

[@WagonLoads]

I hope you guys don't forget me when (if ever) I get something noteworthy to mention on KZbin.. Something may be coming, but I don't know how soon. Everything seems to need a million tweaks before I am happy with it.

[@georgeanderson7180]

Amazing I’ve been looking for exactly this!

[@andymouse]

Awesome work Brian !....cheers.

[@kd4pba]

Really appreciate this I have had one of these laying around for a while and have not been able to get anywhere with it.

[@ChrisHalden007]

Great initiative. Thanks 👍

[@heartvalleysprings2431]

This is great! I would love to see some of this integrated with Home Assistant

[@RoborobsComputers]

I wonder if you could run esphome on this?....

[@jamesvillalpando6157]

I would love to see this integrated with esphome. So many possibilities for controlling your whole home with this!

[@mrsynical8725]

I'm using it with HA to display sensor data currently

[@iiianydayiii]

I bought one of these based on this video but never got around to doing anything w/ it. Recently, I got a Bambu Lab P1S and found there was a screen upgrade that uses this very hardware. Thanks :).

[@IanScottJohnston]

Nice display...and nice work!

[@BrianLough]

Thanks!

[@betokatri]

Awesome video! feels like porting ESP-32 Wifi Marauder project from call me coco would be a perfect match for this hardware

[@Colin_Ames]

Good video. I suspect it will generate lots of interest in the CYD, and we’ll see more projects.

[@BrianLough]

Hopefully!

[@bornach]

Might send the price up like when some cheap electronics gets featured by Bigclive or EEVBlog -- wait! Wasn't this CYD already featured by Great Scott in one of his AliExpress hauls? Is anyone in the UK ordering them in bulk for resale locally?

[@jonnyblake6225]

It was, almost, that one is slightly different, in that it has no R at the end of the designation. Seems to also have a usb C, and be cheaper...@@bornach

[@NyneIX9]

Thank you, Brian!

[@davetreadwell]

ordered two of these off the back of someone mentioning *your* mentioning it on a podcast. Not had a huge amount of luck with it trying to use the ESPhome set up from the git

[@markgreco1962]

New subscriber. My friend Craig loaned me 2 of the CYD so here I am.

[@xperiments]

Hi Brian , good video ... I have made xtouch bambulab screen with this small screen. Bad I have not seen your resources before . Great information there!!

[@FilmFactry]

I'd like to see more on breaking out I2C and other pins. This would be great for CHAT GPT coding experiments.

[@Fahnder99]

Thanks for the hint! The ali pricing is confusing. but I got it delivered for 10.22€. Pretty happy with it.

[@YigalBZ]

That is a cool video about a useful solution of controlling projects. Do you plan on doing a video about the graphic design for the CYD? How to place the buttons and how to use??

[@natejack2292]

Here's my current project: It's an Esp32 (Adafruit Matrixportal S3) board driving a 64x64 LED matrix. It connects to WIFI and BLTE, so I can control it with an app I built on my android using MIT app inventor. I plan to put it on my desk at work to tell me the weather, time, sports, etc. It will also have a few games (maybe multiplayer) that I can play if I am bored and need a quick break. Overall it cost nearly $100. This "Cheap Yellow Display" seems to have all the same capabilities with no wiring or loose parts, at a fraction of the cost. The matrixportal board seems to really have trouble booting properly, so I may switch to the CYD! Even if I don't, I may use it to make a version I can give to friends. Great recommendation

[@aaro_n]

I bought one for xtouch for a bambu lab printer. It's amazing. I bought 2 more just to play with it.

[@TheArtmin]

thanks al lot.I was in desperation about the pin configuration of the display...

[@sonphandinh2053]

thank you!! you save my life!!

[@Bianchi77]

Creative video, thanks :)

[@davetreadwell]

definitely interested in a galago instruction video!

[@AndyTanguay]

Too cool! I grabbed one for a 3D printer project and grabbed an extra one since they seem so cool. Looks like it’s going to turn into a little arcade machine. Is there a difference if mine doesn’t have an R at the end.

[@markrgreenlane]

Great video, I’ve been struggling to find info on this display/controller combo. I’m hoping to make “simple” touch screen thermostats for my UFH in each room of my house and connected using ESP-NOW. Hope to see more videos on this CYD 👍🏻

[@BrianLough]

Someone on my discord posted his yaml for a thermostat the other day, I'm sure it would be a good nudge in the right direction! I have my central heating zoned and recently set up HA to try to be a bit smarter about it. So this type of device is on my to-do list too! Edit: sorry you said esp-now, not esp-home! Still haven't woken up I guess 😅

[@markrgreenlane]

@@BrianLough thanks for that, I’ll have a look and read a bit more about ESP-Home as well.

[@taylorsapp8195]

Orgy B LED man that’s a fun board😂 I couldn’t help myself lol

[@user-ko5gk3ym4y]

Hi Brian, Thanks for this amazing piece of work. One evening with your material and up and running. Could you please tell me if the code is available for the program loaded on the CYD when you first start it up? I think it would have some great code to see how to develop nice buttons switches etc on screen.

[@ashirtu]

Awesome!!! Thanks!

[@OwenMyhill]

Thanks for sharing your CYD info. I'm looking to use one for a lathe electronic leadscrew/pseudo CNC controller so I don't need to worry about buttons etc. What I'll need is a lot more available IO, preferably at 5V (stepper driver interface, 0-5V spindle speed controller, 5V NPN rotary encoder inputs etc). Is there a 5VDC IO expansion board that anyone has used? Thinking the SPI interface should be quick enough (encoder max frequency is 100kHz). The other option would be to use this as the interface and use a serial connection to an another MCU to do the realtime control, but that seems quite a waste when the ESP32 should be more than powerful enough.

[@ashkenaze]

00:30 320x240 is CGA display. That's our common CRT display monitor resolution back in 90s.

[@SaettaJ]

Hi, first of all I would like to thank you for the video and all the documentation you put online, thank you. I would like to ask you since I have only been programming for a few months, can I use this display connected to Arduino? If so, how is it configured? do I have to upload a sketch to Arduino and one to esp32? Is it possible to just sketch on the Arduino and use the display like you do for the LCD? Thank you

[@adamdewolfe]

How useable would this be for playing video dynamically? I want something I can throw outside a 3D printer as a secondary screen for context sensitive animations to play. Could I stream video over wifi, or would having everything stored on the SD card be better? Was looking at a Knomi, but this is a better price point, and slightly more functional.

[@JamesCotter-be4se]

This is great, I would like to build one into a little clock which should not be hard to do NTP style.

[@BrianLough]

Oh yeah for sure, A clock would be great!

[@Tech-Relief]

Bought one and was surprised to see a new USB-C port right next to the old USB micro port. Not sure yet if this port has any benefits other than the convenience.

[@slickrick3518]

Thank you. All I gotta say

[@techgiga2259]

Love this. Is the link to your discord still active on your KZbin profile?

[@klausnielsen1537]

Subbed!!😮

[@WagonLoads]

I am always looking for a way to integrate wifi into lab equipment.. Like using one of these as a front panel for a bench power supply or DVM..

[@SuperGreekone]

Might I ask a quick question as I can't seem to find a a way to power this properly with battery/lipo/18650. Any insight would be awesome, and thanks in advance.

[@altitude1039]

Thanks 😊

[@BrianLough]

You're welcome!

[@fcosantos]

I found this MCP23017 controller and that permit to use 16 buttons usind just 2 pins, who know we can do something using this both to create a cheap handheld. Or use it in many projects with this display.

[@Macs]

Please add the video on to add the a few retro games as you show in this one

[@adjgamer]

I just ordered one of these and some sensors, hoping to display current room temp/humidity with a button to turn on and off our wifi enabled window ac unit. Still 3 weeks out for me from aliexpress.

[@gkjester]

I just bought the type C capacitive touch version of this. Hopefully it is compatible with this. This is my first experience with ESP32, so it could be a wild ride or a terrible disaster.

[@vvhitevvizard_]

Could you share a link pls?

[@ArnaudMEURET]

😑 “I’m actually _really_ excited” 😳 - Thanks Brian, great way of thinking though. Great project. I’m in. 👍

[@BrianLough]

I'm no actor, that's for sure 😅

[@jerryrials2973]

THANK YOU!!!!!!

[@hytekbio]

I bought an ESP32-EYE but did not get the display panel that I thought came with it. Can I use this display in place of the one that works with the ESP32-EYE?

[@ItSolutionRiteshSaini]

Good morning 🌞

[@holdupmaster]

is there a project that I can push to the board just to make sure I've got my IDE environment set up correctly?

[@PeetHobby]

I've been testing one, and it seems the display doesn't offer the best viewing angles. While it's an improvement from the cheap ILI9341 TFTs of 10 years ago, it still falls short compared to the cheap IPS displays we're accustomed to nowadays. I'd venture to guess it's a TFT TN panel. The touchscreen isn't as responsive or accurate as other cheap displays.

[@AfterHoursEngineering]

Curious, what are the connectors? 4-pin SH or HZ JST type? 🤔

[@RyanLegge8-P]

Would be great if it could be used for a CAN Display for EV projects, or additional information Display in your car!

[@paranoidzkitszo]

My guy- you try the esp32 2 antenna chip? It kinda looks like a svg of a tshirt graphic...with 1 pcb antenna angled 1 way and another angled the other.... Send receive data at the same time? Wish the pcb style antennas could always include external antenna connectors always...not sure the hype of just pcb antenna...i guess small/ compact form factor....meh Ps: your discord link in your youtube bio is broken....

[@kevingreene2397]

Bought one. Now I'm a newbie, there no videos on how to set these up with Esphome. I know your example are good, but would appreciate a video on how to...

[@smoochies5056]

@Brian Lough can we use this with marauder?

[@codingfun63]

i can get the web installer working with the examples but cant get any other ones working? im using pins from github and have changed the setup file in tft eSPI ?

[@jarongebhardt]

I wanna create a cheap home assistant control panal but there is no good guide available

[@nerknerk8834]

Thank you for the video! I would love to make an analog clock that would sink with wifi to get the correct time. I have given up on WWV. I just don't seem to be able to pick it up here.

[@peircedan]

I'm wanting to do a clock project too that updates off wi-fi. My elderly mother has trouble setting time on the clock I gave her before. Was going to use an ESP32 and pick a display. This might be a nicer solution.

[@nerknerk8834]

@@peircedan thanks for your reply.

[@chrome98]

I can't get but one example to display jack squat. I've spent days going over and over settings trying every TFT_,eSPI example, trying your examples, your user_setup file and NOTHING. I'm not new to Arduino/ESPs/Pi's etc. I'm lost! Even your test sketch does nothing. My CYD has no R at the end of the model #, just says ESP32-2432S028, could this be the problem? If I were a novice I'd have tossed it already. But now I'm determined to not let it beat me.

[@Clark-Mills]

Nice work, thanks! (Ps: I first thought that the video title was about my wife... ;)

[@BrianLough]

Thank you, much appreciated! Your poor wife! 😅 Best of luck tomorrow if you're into the rugby!

[@sumaxeme]

Great video. At minute 6:52 you mention legal reasons against webflashing. Does that only apply to this example, or are there also reasons that apply specifically to webflashing?

[@BrianLough]

The ROMs get converted to be part of the code, so you'd be technically distributing copyrighted material!

[@bornach]

​@@BrianLoughYou will always be distributing copyrighted material. The key difference is it will be derived from material whose copyright does not include a permission for you to redistribute, unlike the open source licensed copyright for most of the ESP32 related source found on GitHub.

[@andreascassidy5721]

how do i make the screen in dark mode? I have just web flashed marauder but the backlight/screen has a white background and not a black/dark background. HELP PLS???

[@andrewtitcombe8378]

Libraries on the GITHUB for Arduino. I just get past my windows PC not liking bad file names. Include libraries not master .

[@davi5music521]

Is this work with Squareline studio and Arduino?

[@steubens7]

nice! i just got 2 of the 800x480 variants w/ capacitive touch, 4.3" and 7" (4.3 is nice ... 7 is pretty washed out)

[@BrianLough]

Cool, I haven't even turned the larger ones on yet :D

[@Noxoreos]

@@BrianLough I got two of the 7" capacitive boards, because i was planning to make a meter and tracking device to mount it on a wall, for my diy solar power installation. It's supposed to track all the parameters like solar cell voltages, input current and power, battery status and energy consumption. Then display everything on the screen, control settings and stream the data onto a server with an elasticsearch database to be able to create dashboards for the recorded data. Too get the data I'm using some additional devices and wanted to wire them up via some serial communication (probably i2c). Unfortunately I didn't have the time to do any serious work with the screens, yet, but i experimented with the boards and had some success to output something on the screen and use the touch functionality of the screen. On my screens I noticed that the label of one pin was incorrectly written on the boards silk screen (the pin marked as "IO18" was actually "IO19"). I'm not sure if my boards are exactly the same as the one shown in the video, though.

[@JonnyWaldes]

I have two of these soo slow but price is right

[@bickhofe]

Danke!

[@kenanargyaahnaf2830]

man, can u help me?? im using ur telegram library on esp32. but the "get new message"make my entire program slow. how can i fix it?

[@dh2032]

does the board have real, or is hobby project thing, only asking because it so looks like ready made part of something much bigger? and I'm just wonder what that may be?

[@BrianLough]

The CYD? Definitely looks to me like it's intended to be a hobby project thing.

[@nicoladellino8124]

TNX

[@ChunkySteveo]

Awesome video Brian! Where's your affiliate links in the description, scrape some pennies!

[@daveduke8783]

will it play a mp4 320x200 with sound?

[@timot9041]

Have you experienced problems with WiFi? My CYD display gets white instantly when WiFi.begin is executed.

[@anoniem012]

I saw this from someone else short referencing to you

[@davidalvarez5322]

Traducir texto con tu cámara Has anyone measured power consumption?

[@hikviz9410]

Can you create a KZbin Subscriber count and Views project for this screen?

[@jjones503]

For the life of me, I can't get code to push to the device. I fineally got it to recognize in Arduino IDE, but I keep getting: Error: unable to open ftdi device with description '*', serial '*' at bus location '*'