How Can I Get My ESP32 to Work with a 3.5-inch ILI9486-Based RPi Display Using SPI in Arduino IDE?

Question

I'm working on a project where I need to connect my ESP32 (WROOM) to a 3.5-inch, 480x320 resolution LCD designed for the Raspberry Pi, which uses the ILI9486 driver (as suggested by the lcd wiki). I’m currently trying to use the TFT_eSPI library with SPI mode, but I’m having trouble getting the display to respond correctly. These are my pins connections:

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#include <TFT_eSPI.h> // Include the TFT library
TFT_eSPI tft = TFT_eSPI(); // Create an instance of the display
void setup() {
 // Initialize the display
 tft.init();
 tft.setRotation(1); // Adjust rotation as needed
 // Clear the screen with a color (e.g., black)
 tft.fillScreen(TFT_BLACK);
 // Display text to test
 tft.setTextColor(TFT_WHITE, TFT_BLACK); // White text on black background
 tft.drawString("Hello, ESP32!", 50, 100, 4); // Draw text at (50, 100) with font size 4} 
 void loop() {
 // Optional: Add more display functions here if needed
 }

This code is working fine with 2.8 inches 320x240 and ILI9341 drivers but not with 3.5 inches (320x480) display with ILI9486 drivers (also not with ILI9341). Guide me I am not expert in this.

• hcheung: What is your User_Setup.h settings?
• fine line: User_Setup.h
• hcheung: Are you sure your display has ILI9486 driver? For 320x480 display, it could also supported by ILI9488 or ST7796 driver chip. Have you try any of those? Check with the vendor's website or ask them what chip the display is using.

Answer 1

Fixed the issue. Problem was 1 connection. Moved RST display connection from GPIO4 to EN on ESP32 and in User_Setup TFT_RST -1. Thanks everyone for your response.