Boards / All-in-one boards

Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-3.5

3.5" 320x480 IPS LCD (ST7796, SPI), FT6336 touch, ES8311 audio, TF card, AXP2101, PCF85063, QMI8658.

Design a UI for this board Test my board Purchase this board Read the quick start

Affiliate link: LCD Wizard may earn a commission if you buy through it.

Building for it

A project is made for one toolchain, picked when you start it. All four can drive this board:

Toolchain
Arduino (C++)	Every board, every widget and every peripheral here. The most control, and the most to set up. Start a project
MicroPython	Change a screen by editing a file on the board. No compiler once it is flashed. Start a project
ESPHome	No compiler to install, and the panel can join Home Assistant as real entities. Start a project
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 ST7796 / ST7796S, 320 x 480 px, SPI (4-wire serial), 16-bit colour
Touch	FocalTech FT6236 / FT6336U (capacitive, I2C)
Backlight	GPIO 6, dimmable (PWM)
Memory	16 MB flash, 8 MB octal PSRAM (N16R8)
Graphics library	GFX Library for Arduino

Display pins

ST7796 / ST7796S on SPI (4-wire serial): SPI clock 80 MHz, host SPI2_HOST, BGR colour order, inversion on.

Signal	Pin
SCK / CLK	GPIO 5
MOSI / SDA	GPIO 1
MISO / SDO	GPIO 2
CS	not connected
DC / RS	GPIO 3
RESET	TCA9554 pin 1
Backlight	GPIO 6

Touch pins

FT6236 / FT6336U: I2C address 0x38, 400 kHz, shares the display bus.

Signal	Pin
SDA	GPIO 8
SCL	GPIO 7
RESET	not connected

Also on the board

I2C (GPIO 8 / 7) - SDA GPIO 8, SCL GPIO 7
TCA9554 I/O expander at 0x20, driving the lines marked above
PMICchargerrailsPWRkey - AXP2101, at 0x34, on I2C (GPIO 8 / 7)
RTC - PCF85063, at 0x51, on I2C (GPIO 8 / 7)
IMU - QMI8658, at 0x6B, on I2C (GPIO 8 / 7)
Camera, on I2C (GPIO 8 / 7), XCLK GPIO 38, PCLK GPIO 41, VSYNC GPIO 17, HREF GPIO 18, D0 GPIO 45, D1 GPIO 47, D2 GPIO 48, D3 GPIO 46, D4 GPIO 42, D5 GPIO 40, D6 GPIO 39, D7 GPIO 21 (arrives switched off in a new design)
The DVP camera connector. Switched off because not every unit has a camera fitted and its clock, sync and data lines are twelve of the header's pins. Control lines are the I2C bus on GPIO 8 / 7. Waveshare's code leaves PWDN and RESET unused (-1), so none is set here.
BOOTButton - input on GPIO 0

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 demo code and schematic (https://github.com/waveshareteam/ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-3.5 (commit 283ec84c566c096f8c30493b93dcd4b0bb608de7)). SPI clock: vendor IDF 80 MHz, xiaozhi 40 MHz. Camera connector (in the kit, switched off): pins are Waveshare's esp_camera_port.cpp for this board (the same twelve as the 3.5B's), control on the I2C bus on 8 / 7, 20 MHz, RGB565, PWDN and RESET unused there; the AXP2101's BLDO1 1.5 V and BLDO2 2.8 V are set as that repo's esp_axp2101_port.cpp sets them (the 3.5B schematic has them feeding the camera). Nothing has run on a board; xiaozhi drives EXIO0 low and that may be the camera's power-down - not confirmed.

Designing for it in LCD Wizard

Choose Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-3.5 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.h and platformio.ini - a project that builds for this board as it comes.
The FT6236 / FT6336U 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 320 x 480 px in either orientation, with LVGL 9 or LVGL 8.

The parts

ST7796 / ST7796S. The usual 4.0" 320x480 controller. Faster than ILI9488 over SPI (true RGB565).

FT6236 / FT6336U. Register-compatible with the FT6206. Very common on 2.8"-3.5" capacitive TFTs.

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.

From the people who made it

The board’s own documentation. Pinouts on vendor pages do sometimes disagree with the hardware in front of you - where this page and that one differ, trust your board and tell us.

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.

Waveshare ESP32-Touch-LCD-3.53.5" 320x480 IPS LCD (ST7796S, SPI), FT6336U touch, ES8311 audio, TF card, AXP2101, PCF85063.ESP32 · ST7796 / ST7796S 320 x 480 · FT6236 / FT6336U touchPurchase this board

Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2.8 V22.8" 240x320 IPS LCD (ST7789T3, SPI), CST3530 touch, PCM5101A speaker, TF card, QMI8658C, PCF85063ATL, battery sense.ESP32-S3 · ST7789 240 x 320 · CST3530 touchPurchase this board

Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2.82.8" 240x320 IPS LCD (ST7789T3, SPI), CST328 touch, PCM5101A speaker, TF card, QMI8658C, PCF85063ATL, battery sense.ESP32-S3 · ST7789 240 x 320 · CST328 touchPurchase this board

Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-22" 240x320 IPS LCD (ST7789T3, SPI), CST816D touch, TF card, QMI8658C.ESP32-S3 · ST7789 240 x 320 · CST816S touchPurchase this board

Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.831.83" 240x284 IPS LCD (ST7789P, SPI), CST816D touch, ES8311 audio, TF card, QMI8658, PCF85063, AXP2101.ESP32-S3 · ST7789 240 x 284 · CST816S touchPurchase this board

Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.691.69" 240x280 IPS LCD (ST7789V2, SPI), CST816T touch, QMI8658C, PCF85063ATL.ESP32-S3 · ST7789 240 x 280 · CST816S touchPurchase this board

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