Alternate Display Options

[opensourcefan]

Sometimes it's hard to find specific boards due to location and stock etc. Could we possibly create a list of known working boards other than the FireBeetle. Will any esp32 work? or even the prebuilt solutions with a screen ie the Makerfabs-ESP32-S3-SPI-TFT-with-Touch?

[alex-code]

I don't think there's any code that's specific to the firebeetle so it could work on other ESP32s. The firebeetle just had a convenient layout.

I won't be able to add extra board support myself as there's just too many variations in displays, touch controllers, pin locations and board designs with the 3D case.

The best I could do is try to abstract some of the code out more so classes for different hardware would be easier to add.

[opensourcefan]

Greatly appreciate all the work you're doing here! Thank you!

It seems as though the typical esp32 is available everywhere. None seem to have the convenient display ribbon connector though. So a different pin header display would also be needed. Not all have WiFi so that needs to be kept in mind. The hardware would most likely end up 100% different.

Are display drivers generic to some degree?

Might just wing it and see how the code does with random Amazon parts.

[alex-code]

The firebeetle does have the useful GDI port for the display.
I've seen the ESP32s with a 3.5" display but they don't always have holes in the PCB to mount them or they have ears which makes it wider.

The TFT espi library supports lots of displays so that should be easy to work with another display.
Just edit the display settings in platformio.ini.
The display would have to be 480x320 as the positions of the UI elements are fixed.

[opensourcefan]

I picked up one of these screens, easy to find on Amazon. http://www.lcdwiki.com/3.5inch_IPS_SPI_Module_ST7796

I'll report back on how it goes, once I get the rest of the bits.

[opensourcefan]

Here's where I've gotten so far. I realized that my alternate display has a 14 pin FPC connector vs the 18 pin FPC (GDI) on the Firebeetle 2. So I believe I'm going to need to wire it up myself.

Are any of these pins not used in the code so I can skip wiring them in? Anything crazy wrong stand out?

[opensourcefan]

Done lots of tweaking to the print files but finally have the alternate display fitting nicely.

[opensourcefan]

Are there specific drivers in use for the display? ie ILI9488...

I can't seem to find TFT_eSPI.h or cpp where I thought it may be. I'm not a code guy though, so ignore that if it make no sense. :/

[alex-code]

You'd need to remove the GT911 header include and add the new one.

There's some code that is specific to the touch lib I created so you'll have to rewrite some bits.

The touchscreen is the ts object in main.cpp

[opensourcefan]

okay, I'll try. Don't know how to code though, just delete, copy and paste.

I think your work would be considerably more flexible if you were able to incorporate a more generic touch screen library such as this:
https://github.com/bitbank2/bb_captouch/blob/main/README.md

The DFROBOT display is unique and expensive compared to all those available on Amazon and AliExpress etc.

However I do appreciate all that you've done and shared, I just wish I had the knowledge to help you with this request.

[alex-code]

That's an interesting lib, looks like it could be used.

[opensourcefan]

If I'm not mistaken, it looks like there's GT911 code in there as well.

[opensourcefan]

Also I definitely don't mind testing anything for you, I can keep a dedicated platform on the ready.