Selling an open-source machine with GUI (480p or more)

General discussion
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Hi guys, im looking to sell a machine for home use (kitchen) and i want a nice GUI with PNG style icons, smooth page transitions and such. Im a bit scared of running linux or something too heavy

ive really wanted to run ESP32 but i feel like id be pushing the limits

Ideally i really want it to be opensource so ive been recommended LVGL.
Which microprocessor would i be looking at? STM32 maybe?
Id have 5 or 6 pages with nice icons but no crazy special effects, something around 4.3 inch/480P

Let me know if you have experience with LVGL and where i should start. id really appreciate it. thanks!

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esp32-s3 would be able to accommodate what you want to do and it can do it using SPI so long as there are no really fancy animations. Once you step into heavy animations then you will want the ESSP32 connected to the display using either an 8 bit parallel or a 16 bit parallel connection.

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(ESP32)
I have only experienced with ESP32.
If you would like 480p with SPI communication, it might be very slow, but you can easily use ESP-IDF.
But if you don’t have to SPI communication, than parallel connection is good, but you can’t use ESP-IDF, just only Arduino framework. If you are a beginner and would like to learn about this thing, I think this is the perfect choice.

Little compare video (SPI vs 16 bit parallel):

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and why would you not be able to use the ESPIDF if you are using a parallel display?

For a 320 x 480 display running SPI on an ESP32 is actually not that bad…

see here.

That’s running the lv_micropython binding which is going to be slower to some degree than running LVGL without micropython. I am using double buffering with DMA memory and the buffers are 1/10th the display.

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Actually, what I said is not entirely true, you can use ESP-IDF if you use LovyanGFX driver. The lvgl_esp32_drivers is not compatible with parallel connection.

320x480 still good with esp32.

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This is an ESP32? is there different models?
Thats impressive, doesnt seem to stutter or anything.

So this isnt programmed in arduino IDE right?

Also, could you tell me what display that is? it seems pretty big. capacitive. good resolution. capable of running on ESP32. exactly what im looking for honestly. most Youtube tutorials ive seen use displays that are too small for my needs, and i dont want to venture too far into the unknown

1 Like
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I ordered one of these because the high resolution looks very promising but theres no I/O pins which is quite useless for me. But it at least appears the ESP is definitely capable of what i want. I got a lot of homework to do…!

Im not really advanced enough to sell a commercial product obviously still learning, i just wanna clear out all the legwork and get an engineer to clean up afterwards instead of paying for several weeks of development

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This is what I got.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B1V3R62D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am running MicroPython that has LVGL compiled into it. So the Arduino IDE was not used.

It’s a 4.3" display that has a resolution of 480x320. The front being finished like it is makes it easy when packaging it. The only downside is the pin headers on the back are a 2.0mm pitch instead of a 2.54mm But the connectors they used are of a good quality and it’s actually nice they used the smaller header because well, it’s smaller. You have to keep that in mind if you are wanting to use any of the GPIO’s.

The other really nice thing about that board is they don’t use up all of the GPIO’s for things you may never use, like audio or USB. and all of the pins are broken out including the ones used for the display.