Adafruit Qualia ESP32-S3 for TTL RGB-666 Displays, 5800

Introducing the Adafruit Qualia ESP32-S3, a powerful development board designed for those who love to push the boundaries of display technology with microcontrollers. While you might be familiar with smaller TFT screens, this board takes you into the realm of larger TTL interface TFT displays, where you can experiment with resolutions beyond the typical 320x480.

The ESP32-S3 stands out as a low-cost microcontroller with a unique built-in peripheral capable of driving TTL displays. It boasts a substantial 16 MB of Flash and 8 MB of octal PSRAM, making it perfect for handling large images on big screens. The board's RGB display peripheral allows you to present stunning graphics, animations, and even video at an impressive refresh rate of approximately 30 FPS.

This development board specializes in interfacing with displays that use the 40-pin RGB-666 connector, commonly found in square, round, and bar displays. It also includes pins for a capacitive touch overlay, linked to the ESP32-S3's I2C port, offering the added functionality of touch control.

Please note, the board does not come with a display. It's compatible with any RGB-666 pinout display, with or without a touch overlay. You'll need to program the driver initialization code, dimensions, and pulse widths for your chosen display.

Compatible displays include:

• 2.1" 480x480 Round (with and without touch)
• 4" 720x720 Square and Round (with and without touch)
• 4.6" 960x320 Rectangular Bar

The Qualia board features a robust connection setup with 16 pins for 5-6-5 RGB color, HSync, VSync, Data Enable, and Pixel Clock. It includes a constant current backlight control circuit using the TPS61169, adjustable for various current settings. Connectivity is made easy with a USB C connector for power and programming, and a hardware UART TX pin for debugging.

Given the extensive use of GPIOs for RGB-666 displays, which typically require SPI initialization, the board includes a PCA9554 I/O expander on the shared I2C bus. This allows for easy reset and initialization of various displays, while also connecting to two right-angle buttons and the display backlight.

The board offers additional versatility with a full 4-pin SPI port and two analog GPIO pins, suitable for projects like an A/V playback demo with an MMC in 1-wire SDIO mode and an I2S amplifier. For further expandability, there's a Stemma QT / Qwiic port for connecting additional sensors or devices.

In summary, the Adafruit Qualia ESP32-S3 is a comprehensive development board for enthusiasts and professionals looking to explore larger TFT displays with a low-cost, feature-rich microcontroller.