Waveshare ESP32-Touch-LCD-3.5
3.5" 320x480 IPS LCD (ST7796S, SPI), FT6336U touch, ES8311 audio, TF card, AXP2101, PCF85063.
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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 (WROOM / WROVER) Xtensa LX6 dual-core @ 240 MHz, 520 KB SRAM (+ up to 8 MB PSRAM on WROVER) |
| Display | Sitronix ST7796 / ST7796S, 320 x 480 px, SPI (4-wire serial), 16-bit colour |
| Touch | FocalTech FT6236 / FT6336U (capacitive, I2C) |
| Backlight | GPIO 25, dimmable (PWM) |
| Memory | 16 MB flash, 4 MB quad PSRAM (N16R4) |
| Graphics library | GFX Library for Arduino |
Display pins
ST7796 / ST7796S on SPI (4-wire serial): SPI clock 40 MHz, host SPI3_HOST, BGR colour order, inversion on.
| Signal | Pin |
|---|---|
| SCK / CLK | GPIO 18 |
| MOSI / SDA | GPIO 23 |
| MISO / SDO | GPIO 19 |
| CS | GPIO 5 |
| DC / RS | GPIO 27 |
| RESET | TCA9554 pin 0 |
| Backlight | GPIO 25 |
Touch pins
FT6236 / FT6336U: I2C address 0x38, 400 kHz, shares the display bus.
| Signal | Pin |
|---|---|
| SDA | GPIO 21 |
| SCL | GPIO 22 |
| INT / IRQ | GPIO 37 |
| RESET | TCA9554 pin 1 |
Also on the board
- I2C (GPIO 21 / 22) - SDA GPIO 21, SCL GPIO 22
- TCA9554 I/O expander at 0x20, driving the lines marked above
- PMICbatterycharger - AXP2101, at 0x34, on I2C (GPIO 21 / 22)
- RTC - PCF85063, at 0x51, on I2C (GPIO 21 / 22)
- BOOTButton - input on GPIO 0
- PWRButton - input on GPIO 36
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-Touch-LCD-3.5). SPI clock: 40 MHz in the ESP-IDF lvgl example (and the Arduino_ESP32SPI default), 80 MHz in the factory firmware; chose 40.
Designing for it in LCD Wizard
- Choose Waveshare ESP32-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.handplatformio.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 (WROOM / WROVER). No native RGB parallel peripheral - use SPI or an 8/16-bit i80 bus.
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.
- The vendor’s product page
- Vendor documentation
- Schematic (PDF)
- Waveshare demo code (pins read from here)
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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- 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