GC9A01 Round LCD with ESP32 & Arduino

[@Dronebotworkshop]

Hi everyone - It's come to my attention that there has been someone masquerading as myself, responding to some comments here with a link to a Telegram chat to win a prize from me. THIS IS A SCAM, I am not holding a contest, nor do I have a Telegram account. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE MESSAGES!! It's happening on a lot of my videos, I'm taking steps to remove them manually, but as I have 162 videos, it will take some time. If you do run across a suspicious comment, I would appreciate you letting me know at [e-mail]. Thanks! Bill (The real one!)

[@grahamnichols1416]

It's the detail and care that you put into your videos that has over 500,000 people agreeing with me. Thanks, Bill.

[@kd4pba]

What a detailed video. I gotta say you absolutely have a fantastic presentation. Slow, detailed and easy to follow. The Bob Ross of microcontroller projects 😍 👌

[@usefulelectronics]

Nice tutorial I absolutely like it !! Of course you can always add an SD card to your project and fill it with indexed picture data so you can adopt your display to your own project. The next level step would be interfacing the display with parallel interface without an SPI driver in the middle!! Thank you for sharing this with the community!

[@johnstephenson4428]

I would like an example of that!

[@spasticjackson9578]

I bought a few LCD's last week and just got my first ESP32 board today. I have been watching your ESP32 videos all afternoon. It was a rocky start but after getting the drivers and libraries sorted, it's been very pleasant. Late to the party as usual but the ESP32 is very cool. Thanks for helping us through all this.

[@DemainCestLundi]

Thank you so much ! I've been struggling for days to run my round TFT with ESP32. Found your video, so clear and accurate, first try was a success !

[@flavioStar]

I find this video very much above the "usual stuff" - and I only watch the good ones! - it's really useful and exhaustive. My compliments. Given how "undocumented" the topic is I would have been nowhere without your help. Only pity is that it did not come out until I searched for "GCA901" instead of the product name and brand.

[@BobHolowenko]

These are always such well made and well produced videos. Thank you once again for some excellent content.

[@MeinElektronikHobby]

Many thanks for the very detailed introduction and overview of the round LCD display. I will also refer to your channel again when I come to my place to discuss the display. Great video.

[@Dronebotworkshop]

There is actually a riddle for science fiction comedy fans in this video at the 16:35 point, with the answer at the end. Unfortunately, I didn't have this released in time for National Towel Day (May 25th) but don't panic, at least it wasn't released on a Thursday (I never could get the hang of Thursdays). That last sentence was a clue, BTW! 😎 Bill

[@EcoHamletsUK]

I've always considered your videos to be harmless, but after this they should be updated to mostly harmless!

[@electronron1]

Never go anywhere without your towel. Hyper space is unpleasantly like being drunk. What's so unpleasant about being drunk? You ask a glass of water.

[@PeterDempsey-yarglags]

You really are a hoopy frood. 🤖

[@vogonjelc]

Ahem ahem If you keep talking like that I might have to introduce you to some poetry.

[@richardhockey8442]

don't forget your danger sensitive sunglasses, useful for avoiding unpleasant surprises

[@ssskids123]

Was wandering in the dark when I stumbled upon your tutorial. Within a few minutes I had it running… Thank you! Huuuuge help. Ah… some of the finest Vogon poetry I’ve had the displeasure to hear…..

[@MrJoegotbored]

Another great tutorial, Bill! Thanks very much for showing us how to use this display and the relevant libraries.

[@astoops]

Wonderful stuff again, (young) William. Your production values are enormous and I hope you understand we appreciate the effort. I made the "Eyes" project using AdaFruit components including Arduino shield, square displays and their fantastic dome lenses. As usual, I hated turning the electronics into a physical device - you know cutting holes in boxes and mounting bits and pieces. I didn't know about cat eyes :(. Having said that, I made it for my son's man-cave, and I don't expect it will ever be moved - or turned off. Thanks again Bill,

[@GuyaneseRasTa]

Thank you!! I just bought my lcd a couple days ago. This is such a great coincidence.

[@BlondieHappyGuy]

I just love the eyes project. I can see some fun stuff with that. Like, adding a "Gesture" sensor that could track a person as they move and the eyes follow. I suspect, but not sure, that they eyes are sprites. If so, I don't know if there's a way to "enlarge" the sprite or if it requires, as suggested, finding bigger eye files. I haven't even connected my 2 ESP32 boards as yet, but I guess I'll get to that during the winter. Right now, I'm concentration on a couple of projects that I NEED to get done ASAP. It's a networked monitoring system for our greenhouses, so that we can monitor things like temperature and humidity inside them as well as auto turning on/off the heat and exhaust fans. Fun stuff, but I got distracted and now it's urgent. LOL

[@csimet]

Someday I hope to play with this as well... add the tracking you suggest and a light sensor to make the iris pupil adjust in size. I could see adding a simple printed "head" in a frame with these eyes to my door so when people approach to knock/ring they are warned they are being monitored! ;) Haha.

[@gordonheadhauntedmanor9730]

If you have any information on the enlargement of the eyes, please let me know

[@DataDrifterOFC]

This is a great tutorial, I'm planning to do a pc case mod and was looking for this exact display with ESP32. Thank you very much!

[@billwestgarth9892]

I believe I can explain the "disappearing act". It is occurring because the code is expecting to read the current contents of the block where the needle sprite is to be written, so that it can be written back when the needle moves on. The module does not have a connection for the required data line.

[@Donald10569]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I jumped the gun and bought these off of amazon (no support) without having a clue how to use them - and I'm new to Arduino et al so I had a big challenge -but you've helped tremendously. BTW, I knew the poetry :)

[@zunrue1]

I was just looking at these while watching your videos trying to accumulate enough knowledge on arduino to make a thermal data logger. Very glad you put this out before I put in my final BOM

[@acestudioscouk-Ace-G0ACE]

What fun! I love this video, thanks Bill. Circular displays look good and I can see a lot of potential uses. I'm trying to work out how you would configure this display as a radio frequency read out.

[@electronics.unmessed]

Your video episodes are always well made! I am using them often to get started with new tinkering gadgets.

[@TBoy58_405]

Who could forget Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz? Thanks 👍🏾🤓

[@calebjpryor]

I absolutely love love love that you made this video. I am using them for uncanny eyes as well and do hope that you were able to figure out how to enlarge the eye images. The potential of these to be bigger eyes would be amazing. If you do sort it I do hope you update your blog!

[@gordonheadhauntedmanor9730]

If you have any information on the enlargement of the eyes, please let me know

[@SamLucas]

THANK YOU for explaining that you need to edit the User_Steup.h file with the correct pinouts to get it running. This does not seem to be documented elsewhere for some reason. You rescued me after hours of frustration trying to get the display to run using an Adafruit Feather V2

[@Foxhood]

So incredibly cheap, Not to small nor too big, easy to control and all you need to connect is either a simple breakout OR a willingness to solder a flex-pcb.... Definitely going to buying a small army of these!

[@NLGeebee]

I’m not going to say So long, but Thanks for all the fish!

[@cmuller1441]

42

[@SarahKchannel]

ahhhhmmmm... not even my own operating system loves me anymore... sighhhh....

[@lokergames7058]

ohm operating system fish learn more (0,4).sry drone bot .

[@peterdlynes]

I got my display working with your help. Thank you so much.

[@Akshaychaturvedi1]

Thank you so much for the video, man, literally i was looking for a video with 2 displays

[@cmulder007]

Further to my comment below, it is not an error in the code that cases the numbers to be erased or in some cases (like mine) to display a glitched rectangle.... looking at the code in the library and the documentation of the example, it is a result of the display not supporting readback of the graphics buffer. The code will attempt to read the buffer to restore the position where the old needle position was before drawing the new position but this only works on displays supporting the buffer read functionality. You can test your display's readback support by running the sketch under TFT_eSPI>Tests and Dignostics>TFT_ReadWrite_Test - the results are displayed on the serial monitor. I am trying to figure out a way to decode a JPG into raw program memory and rendering that to the screen buffer so that it can be read back without screen support. I have tried to do this by decoding the Jpg for the main gauge to a second sprite and drawing this to the TFT so that I still have access to the memory area.... but I have been unable to get a sprite loaded from the jpg decoder... I shall keep trying...

[@MartinBgelund]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! For calling the Hollywood movie adaptation of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe terrible. Because it was.

[@MagnumPopeye]

Thank you.. Finally a simple example of using animations with this display, been looking for ever for some video examples. Was hoping for a smaller form factor board for this but it is close to what I need.. As an artist I have been searching for awhile to display some simple animations

[@cmulder007]

Perfect timing with this video... I am using these right now as instruments in my flight sim cockpit.... I am pretty sure the disappearing numbers are due to the needle being draw over the numbers thereby erasing them. To draw a needle over the numbers as it would be seen on a normal dial, you would have to "restore" the pixels under the previous needle position and then draw the new position, of course you could redraw the complete background every time but this might be too slow for fast response dials. I will play with that as it is my projects use-case.

[@markj3851]

Chris Mulder- were you able to correct the disappearing numbers under the needle issue? I'd love to set this gage up on my RV to monitor transmission temps, but I need the numbers displayed and haven't figured it out. Lovely video though.

[@bladewire]

Perfect timing with the eyes tutorial. EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you, from a long time subscriber 👍

[@ghilashamaili2733]

It would be fun to use a movement detector or an ultrasonic sensor to track someone passing by and make the eyes follow them

[@rikardfrid2679]

Thank you I'm a really new to Arduino and you really make my life a lot easier I'm not so young anymore but I really love to play with raspberry and now Arduino

[@Crushonius]

Vogon poetry how beautiful

[@johnburgess2084]

Thanks for the excellent tutorial! You're such a good instructor.

[@Sabotage_Labs]

Bill, you're a good egg! Got into Raspi and 3D printing back in December of 21. I'm hooked....HARD LOL. I enjoy your videos. I typical check your channel first when I'm starting out in a new area. Like, ESPs, Pico (got my Pico W on order....woo-hoo!) Your videos are a good starting point to get the theory first? What is it, how it works ect. Then, you have some good simple projects to try to get hands dirty. So, I hope you're making some KZbin money...lol. Keep doing what ya do. A lot of people, especially noobs like me, really benefit from your work. Good on ya!

[@JoseFernandez-yz1sf]

As usual excellent, very informative, many thanks Drone Bot

[@noicthebrave]

LETS GOOOOO!!!! IVE BEEN WANTING A VIDEO ON THIS FOR A WHILE NOW!!! LETS GOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

[@sunpeter8260]

Excellent tutorial! Thank you, Bill!

[@terryhayward7905]

You are so right about the Hollywood film, Marvin is just wrong in the film.

[@mattharvey8712]

Bravo.....love the round......ok.......airplanes have a gyroscope design........can u do that........cheers.....

[@DBBahnospherix-BahnAtmospherix]

Super Video - Question: I am looking for a tutorial for the very interesting 40x160 display with the GC9d01 driver - is there any information on this? Thanks very much

[@huihuieer]

The treasure of KZbin

[@altamiradorable]

Wow ! perfect tutorial ! Now you are ahead of the game instead of following the parade ! High five !

[@doverivermedia3937]

Excellent interesting & insightful video as always. Thank you sir. 🇬🇧

[@koeiekop1973]

and again a very useful tutorial. Thank you for all the effort!!

[@ismzaxxon]

Nice Vid. as usual. I like the femaile pins more, is the can connect directly to the micro pins and no need for the issues bread board cause.

[@rambler1964]

what a great video! thank you! Could you have two needles showing on the single gauge to read from two input devices? Would this simply be a case of copying and pasting the code but altering to suit the correct input? Thank you!

[@austinhiggs7257]

great video -- at 40:57, you must also un-remark out those 2 lines 75 and 76

[@digihz_data]

I noticed that to,he just forgotten to mention that he forgotten it to in the video.

[@cyberc0l0mbiana]

Love it. Can the touchscreen versions be programmed for counter type functionalities for end-user to use as timer/tracker for instance? E.g.. title glasses of water - value input to increment by 1

[@jimrawson5568]

If you are looking for the cable without the female ends, Digi-Key part # 1460-1298-ND (Works Perfectly)

[@whitneydesignlabs8738]

Cool, video, Bill. I am taking an entry level animation class this summer. But I am thinking of building a robotic puppet, for some stop-motion animation projects. These eyes would be a great addition to my animated octopus. I have some big lenses from a rear projection TV that the displays might look really cool behind.

[@2point4turbo]

I wish you were my teacher in school, I learned so much in this one video then I did a whole semester in school, one I think I'm stumped on is I'm currently making a boost gauge and a oil pressure ,and I would like it to display the information to my phone via Bluetooth or wifi I have no luck trying to figure it out I have my pressure sensors working for a boost gaige up to 30psi

[@AndresSolar-y3g]

...The Hitchhiker's Guide to the round LCD...

[@TheUnofficialMaker]

41:53 Looks like sunglasses..cool effect.

[@judasknox3354]

good for Halloween costume

[@automatemefirst]

Cool project. Thanks for doing it!

[@nicoladellino8124]

Very nice video, TNX.

[@ericcarabetta1161]

What?! HHGTTG is a great movie!

[@kpldav06]

Thanks for this! Superb as always.

[@DarkiCraftS]

i ordered and planned to use an esp32 c3 mini mounted on an aliexpress custom module the famous 2424S012C which normally has the same display but for my part I've looked everywhere and found a minimum of information on its operation and configuration I only managed to make the lcd backlighting work but it was impossible to make it work despite several searches and documentation ...

[@horace577]

Excellent video . . makes it all seem so easy.

[@Lar_ry]

oh man this could be great for car gauges

[@B0M0A0K]

Would you be able to hook this display up to a temperature sensor so it could report on ambient temperature?

[@briansegura6506]

Really outstanding video... I was hoping you cold give me some advice.. I need to connect the display to an esp32 using the HSPI instead of the VSPI... any ideas ???

[@gnordh]

Thanks, would be great to make a gps speedometer. Any video planned of how to do that?

[@Sctronic209]

That’s cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@qzorn4440]

do you have a video on the arduino uno and the esp32 as a modbus rtu master slave rs485 to read input registers 30001, 30002, etc. with free forever PC windows modbus test software? Plus using hobby saleae software and decode oscilloscope for trouble-shooting? most modbus examples just work and if they do not show how to fix it, this would help a lot. 🤒 crc errors now today on to this cool GC9A01 project 😎 thank you

[@TheBadBone23]

Very detailed video! I'm thinking about building a diorama using a small LCD screen, which would simulate some sort of billboard advert thingy, to run some sort of gif animation, what do you think would be the best option to achieve that, in terms of the level of experience needed to work with and price?

[@billyhart3299]

Any way to get just the liquid crystal screen without the display features?

[@squirralien1863]

I love how thorough your videos are, thank you. I am wondering if you think it would be possible to have it as a clock and also a scroll left or right to a power switch by touch screen to start or shut down a device, ??

[@BlondieHappyGuy]

Bill, may I ask you a favor to confirm something? First, I'm been fighting with this danged round display for several hours now trying to get the thing to work. The ESP32 board that I have (well, one of a bunch) looks exactly the same as the board you were testing with the colors sketch, @24:55. But no way it will work for me. So then, I thought, I'll try one of the other boards, which is a 30 pin board, specifically marked as WROOM. The only change that I had to make was to the user_setup.h file and change TFT_DC from 16 to 15 as this particular board doesn't have a pin marked as 16. So in this case, when I uploaded the sketch to this different board, the display works. However, I think that it still has a problem because it goes all crazy with corruption/lines. I'll have to test all the wires as I suspect that's the issue. Anyway, all that being said, would you please confirm with me, that when you are uploading to the board at 24:55, which board you chose? I had also been using the WROOM board for this one (with 38 pins, looks the same as your board) and other sketches seemed to work fine. But perhaps I'm using the wrong board option. Please do let me know which one you used. Thanks so much in advance. *[UPDATED HERE]* I'd still like to confirm which board thing you use, however, I got it going on both boards. What I THINK was the problem, is the USB hub that I'm using is only putting out 4.7V. It's flaky when I plug into that. However, when I plug into a solid 5.1V smart phone supply, they are stable. Either these boards or those displays are super picky for voltage. SUPPOSEDLY, these displays are designed to work on both 3.3V and 5V. Oh well.

[@Javad.Abasalizadeh]

informative as always

My graphicstest insn't showing anything even if serial port is reporting the different steps to the end on Arduino uno. Up to here everything was going ok as you were saying. A difference, my sketch compile at the first time. I haven't tried the esp32 yet.

[@jamespletcher7574]

The disappearing numbers, intentional or not, give a crude "highest reading" effect.

[@markplain2555]

I know this video is about a particular display. I have an ESP32 gadget with a tiny 1.5" screen and what appears to be a 4-wire SPI bus interface. I'd like to swop out the display and install a 7" screen. I can imagine I will have to give that screen its own separate power supply. . Can I connect a larger 7" or 9" screen to my ESP32 gadget?

[@quickfixengineeringltd8035]

Thanks Bill. could we possibly build an arduino based pwm solar charge controller.

[@rayhsetwo8594]

can you do a project with a round dial and ESP32 to display car RPM from the W terminal on a standard alternator?

[@maurice0822]

great video. Have you seen any displays of only 0.50" or smaller in size?

[@warjimingading740]

sir, can you make a smart watch tutorial that can be used for video calls, what components are needed and what is the schematic?

[@rinokentie8653]

Very useful as always, thanks!

[@johnstephenson4428]

Thanks for this video I liked it very much!

[@maksimmuruev423]

Can you make video abotu ANT+ usage? will be cool combine with this one

[@roolon6604]

@DroneBot Workshop @Dronebotworkshop thank you. I have to use GC9A01 upside down as a circle gauge with number value displayed like 32:36. Is it easy do modify your code (and how) to display corectlly on display mounted upside down (rotated 180*)? Thank you for tips/code.Thank you

[@CollinBaillie]

Vogon poetry for the win!

[@buxx5334]

hey men thank u for make a good video.. can u help me. I wondering to know how to make SSD enclosure, what ic i use for that. and minimum components for build that. can u help me for got some reference for that. Im sorry if my question is out of topic of your content.

[@PhG1961]

Awesome !

[@Sami-pv1xs]

hey great video i was asking myself if the round screen work on a esp 32 and the pin of the jetson nano are like the rasberry one so can i use this screen on a ketson nano ???

[@911jedd]

I have ESP32, using the Arduino IDE 2.32. I've verified my pins vcc=3v3, GND=gnd, SCL=P23,SDA=P18,DC=P22,CS=P4 and RST=P16. I modified the user_setup.h as indicated (uncommenting) in the video and flashed the Colour_Test example from the TFT_ESPi|Test and Diagnostic section. I can see the backlight on the TFT GC9A01 come on, but no text or colors. I was wondering if I'm doing anything obviously wrong. I tried two different ESP32 narrow (38 pin) modules and 4 differt TFT 1.28 Round Display modules. Below is all I get on the serial output when I reset the ESP32. rst:0x1 (POWERON_RESET),boot:0x13 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT) configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00 mode:DIO, clock div:1 load:0x3fff0030,len:1344 load:0x40078000,len:13964 load:0x40080400,len:3600 entry 0x400805f0

[@GiovanniScafora]

It's awesome!

[@abdulrazak_alnajjar596]

excellent.

[@piotrrywczak]

What is the refresh rate of this panel?

[@senacht]

Agh!!! Prostechnic Jeltz’s Vogun poetry! Do not be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

[@palexb17]

Great idea

[@Tony770jr]

Did you find out why the numbers in the guage disappeared when the needle crossed over them?

[@MrMartinB1962]

The comment in the code at kzbin.info/www/bejne/oWPGY615oqiSjpI explains this: the example should read back the CGRAM from the TFT and write the modified area to the LCD. Since this LCD is read only (no data out pin to connect to MISO) that will not work.

[@thamghoul5719]

I think it's because the needle overwrites it, and does not rewrite it after the needle moves on.

[@jujuteuxOfficial]

Do you know what is the highest refresh rate you can get for full screen images?

[@JamesFraley]

Very cool!

[@t1d100]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@rishabh_7k]

Thank you sir❤❤❤