We’ve very recently covered M5paper IoT development kit based on ESP32 WiSoC, and equipped with a 4.7-inch touchscreen e-Ink display together with a 1,150mAh battery all nicely packed into an enclosure.
It looks great, but costs $69, so if you’d like to integrate this type of ESP32 connected display into your own project at a lower cost, you may be interested in TTGO T5 4.7-inch e-Paper display with 16 gray levels fitted with an ESP32-WROVER-E module with 16MB flash, and 8MB PSRAM.
TTGO T5 key features and specifications:
- Display
- 4.7-inch ePaper display with 960×540 resolution, 16 gray levels , partial refresh support
- 6-pin FPC touchscreen connector
- Wireless module – ESP32-WROVER-E with ESP32-D0WDQ6 V3 dual-core processor, 16MB flash, 8MB PSRAM
- USB – 1x USB-C port
- Expansion – 4-pin connector with GPIOs, GND, 3.3V
- Misc – 1x reset button, 4x user buttons
- Debugging – USB-C port connected to USB to TTL CP2104 chip
- Power Supply
- 5V/1A via USB-C port
- 18650 battery metal connectors
- 2-pin connector for LiPo battery
- Battery charge and discharge protection chip
- Sleep mode current – ~170uA
- Dimensions – TBD
LilyGO provides two version of the board: one with connectors for the 18650 battery, and one without for people preferring to use a LiPo battery. While there’s a 6-pin touchscreen connector, LilyGO does not appear to offer a touchscreen at this time.
The company says the display can be programmed with the Arduino IDE, ESP-IDF or MicroPython, but they only provide sample code for Arduino based on EPDiy E-Paper Driver project. Typical applications listed by LilyGO include desktop weather station, STEM education, and IoT device.
TTGO T5 4.7-inch e-Paper ESP32 display is now sold for $25.51 plus shipping, but if you’d like smaller or cheaper displays the company offers variants from 1.54-inch to 3.7-inch for around $14 and up.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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This is a pretty good deal due to the high level of integration.
For example you just add a couple of sensors and you have a room HVAC panel.
I wish TTGO pushed out a dimmable backlit version at some point, i’d really love that (and a light sensor)
so, what kind of Touchscreens could be used with this board/display? 🙂
A GT911 capacitive touch screen like on the M5Paper from M5Stack – https://github.com/m5stack/M5EPD
They have just recently added their own touch screen – https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001835564831.html
Aliexpress page went to 80 orders then “Sorry, this item is no longer available!”. The “LILYGO® TTGO T5 V2.3 2.13 Inch E-Paper Screen New Driver Chip” thing I see is $14.07, but you have to add $6.26 “AliExpress Standard Shipping” for a whopping $20.33 total. The estimated shipping time to the U.S. is 5 weeks. Yeah, let’s just call this stuff “unobtainium”.
Does anyone know if the same screen with driver exists as a standalone product?
I couldn’t find where to buy it in single quantities but here is the model number: ED047TC2
Thanks. Looks like there is one selling on taobao that has them for $8.. just need to find a driver board I guess 🙂
Have a look at EPDiy E-Paper Driver (https://github.com/vroland/epdiy) or using a IT8951 Driver Board that WaveShare supply with their parallel 3-paper displays