Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2.8 V2
2.8" 240x320 IPS LCD (ST7789T3, SPI), CST3530 touch, PCM5101A speaker, TF card, QMI8658C, PCF85063ATL, battery sense.
Building for it
A project is made for one toolchain, picked when you start it. For this board you can use two of the four:
| Toolchain | |
|---|---|
| Arduino (C++) | Every board, every widget and every peripheral here. The most control, and the most to set up. Start a project |
| MicroPython | The MicroPython export has no driver for this touch controller yet. |
| ESPHome | ESPHome has no driver for this touch controller. |
| ESP-IDF (C) | Espressif's own framework: esp_lcd, the component registry and idf.py, with nothing of Arduino in it. Start a project |
At a glance
| Part | Detail |
|---|---|
| Maker | Waveshare |
| MCU | ESP32-S3 Xtensa LX7 dual-core @ 240 MHz, 512 KB SRAM (+ 2-16 MB PSRAM on most modules) |
| Display | Sitronix ST7789, 240 x 320 px, SPI (4-wire serial), 16-bit colour |
| Touch | Hynitron CST3530 (capacitive, I2C) |
| Backlight | GPIO 5, dimmable (PWM) |
| Memory | 16 MB flash, 8 MB octal PSRAM (N16R8) |
| Graphics library | GFX Library for Arduino |
Display pins
ST7789 on SPI (4-wire serial): SPI clock 80 MHz, host SPI3_HOST, RGB colour order, inversion on.
| Signal | Pin |
|---|---|
| SCK / CLK | GPIO 40 |
| MOSI / SDA | GPIO 45 |
| MISO / SDO | GPIO 46 |
| CS | GPIO 42 |
| DC / RS | GPIO 41 |
| RESET | GPIO 39 |
| Backlight | GPIO 5 |
Touch pins
CST3530: I2C address 0x58, 400 kHz.
| Signal | Pin |
|---|---|
| SDA | GPIO 1 |
| SCL | GPIO 3 |
| INT / IRQ | GPIO 4 |
| RESET | GPIO 2 |
Also on the board
- I2C (GPIO 11 / 10) - SDA GPIO 11, SCL GPIO 10
- IMU - QMI8658, at 0x6B, on I2C (GPIO 11 / 10)
- RTC - PCF85063, at 0x51, on I2C (GPIO 11 / 10)
- SDCard - SD card, CLK GPIO 14, CMD GPIO 17, D0 GPIO 16
- GPIO 7 is set high at boot - Battery power hold (GPIO 7)
- Battery - analog input on GPIO 8
- BOOTButton - input on GPIO 0
- PWRKey BATButton - input on GPIO 6
The preset adds these to the Hardware tab with the board, so a sensor can go straight onto the connector.
Check your revision. Pins from Waveshare's V2 demo code (https://files.waveshare.com/wiki/ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2.8/ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2.8-V2-Demo.zip). This is the V2 revision (ST7789 panel, CST3530 touch at 0x58), which Waveshare says ships from 5 June 2026; a V1 board (CST328 at 0x1A) has the same pins and panel and the other record - check the label on the back. An Arduino export from either record reads whichever touch chip answers. Touch_CST3530.h has the same pins as Touch_CST328.h (SDA 1, SCL 3, INT 4, RST 2), and every other driver in the V2 demo - panel, TF card, speaker, battery, IMU, clock, power key - is the V1 demo's file unchanged, so the rest of this record is the V1 one's. Compiled, not run on a board.
Designing for it in LCD Wizard
- Choose Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2.8 V2 on the Hardware tab (or use the button above) and every pin on this page is filled in. The export writes the sketch,
lcd_pins.h, the GFX Library for Arduino configuration,lv_conf.handplatformio.ini- a project that builds for this board as it comes. - The CST3530 is capacitive and needs no calibration. The firmware resets it and checks it answers on every boot.
- The backlight is dimmable: give a slider or a button a Set backlight action.
- With PSRAM the LVGL memory pool can live there, leaving internal RAM for everything else.
- Screens are designed for 240 x 320 px in either orientation, with LVGL 9 or LVGL 8.
The parts
ST7789. Excellent colour and tolerates 80 MHz SPI. Many modules have no CS pin - tie it low and set CS to -1.
CST3530. Waveshare's 2.8" ESP32-C5 and C6 touch boards.
ESP32-S3. The only common Arduino target with a hardware RGB565 LCD peripheral. PSRAM is effectively required for RGB panels.
GFX Library for Arduino. Moshi Liu's library. Best QSPI/AMOLED and RGB coverage. Configured in code.
The pinout on one page
Every pin above, laid out to print and keep beside the bench. Generated from this preset, so it says exactly what the designer writes into lcd_pins.h.
Download the pinout (PNG)Open it as SVG
The same pins as data - board.json and pins.csv - are in the open pinout dataset on GitHub, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Designs for this board
Nobody has published a design for this board yet. Publish yours from the designer and it appears here and in the gallery.
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Next
- Quick start - from an empty screen to firmware on the board
- Boards and displays - presets, controllers, pins and touch in the designer
- Flashing and configuration - PlatformIO, the Arduino IDE and first-boot checks
- Troubleshooting - a white screen, mirrored image or touch that misses