Nothing shown on screen, only backlight

[paaspaas00]

So I've got a ESP32-8048S050C display board. I tried to load this project but all I see is white screen (backlight is working) but nothing shown (no GUI etc). Touchscreen works.

What's the issue? I suspect some library mismatch (dunno, required LVGL or something)

Thank you since now! @rzeldent

[rzeldent]

Retested the esp32-8048S070C (others had similar problems). My local version has backlight...

Might have something to do with: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/arduino-esp32/en/latest/migration_guides/2.x_to_3.0.html

// Setup backlight
pinMode(GPIO_BCKL, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(GPIO_BCKL, LOW);
#if ESP_ARDUINO_VERSION_MAJOR >= 3
ledcAttach(GPIO_BCKL, PWM_FREQ_BCKL, PWM_BITS_BCKL);
#else
ledcSetup(PWM_CHANNEL_BCKL, PWM_FREQ_BCKL, PWM_BITS_BCKL);
ledcAttachPin(GPIO_BCKL, PWM_CHANNEL_BCKL);
#endif

Something else that has been changed is the frequency; was 2000 Hz but this was audible. So now to 20kHz. Maybe this is too high?

[paaspaas00]

Ok I can confirm that backlight is working (tried to change the backlight value, it's changing the light accordingly).
But, as stated, no image is shown, all I see is the backlit white screen

[paaspaas00]

Ok I can confirm that backlight is working (tried to change the backlight value, it's changing the light accordingly). But, as stated, no image is shown, all I see is the backlit white screen.

Maybe that's already solved on library's develop branch? Can't test it unfortunately

[juracipereira]

I have the same problem using the ESP32-8048S043 display

[rzeldent]

Have you updaed platform io to the latest platform?

https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/core/userguide/platforms/cmd_update.html

pio pkg platform upate

[paaspaas00]

@rzeldent
pio pkg platform update
Is not recognized as a valid command.
I did
pio pkg update
And It says "already up to date"

[rzeldent]

Hi Passpaas,

Assume you still have problems?
Added some background info: rzeldent/esp32-smartdisplay#130.

[paaspaas00]

Hi @rzeldent , thanks for looking into the issue.
Dunno if I'm able to check the things you mentioned in the other GitHub issue, but will try.

May the develop branch contain stuff that would fix the issue? As I said, can't really try it. If it's stable and feature-complete, would you mind merging it to master? (So that I can try it, I've seen you changed some board definitions, maybe it helps).

Meanwhile, this is my board, in case you can have a look if the board PCB layout is somewhat different from yours:

[rzeldent]

Hi paaspass,

I merged the develop to master, so you can try that...

However, no significant changes are present for the 8048S050C as I remember.
The layout looks similar to the 8048S070C and as far as I could see the definitions should be correct.

Let me know how it went...

[paaspaas00]

Hi @rzeldent, no luck trying what you suggested, unfortunately.
Just found this one https://forum.lvgl.io/t/esp32s3-lvgl-not-displaying-on-screen/13680, is there somehing useful in there? In case, could you have a look? Thank you!

[rzeldent]

Hi Paaspaas,

I updated the boards definitions file with different parameters for the display. This has been done in the current develop boards repo. See PR: rzeldent/platformio-espressif32-sunton@5cae5f6

These are available in the develop branch, so after you checked out the project, switch to the develop branch and also make sure you're using the development branch of the board definitions.

Pls let me know if this works.

[paaspaas00]

Hi @rzeldent , done the steps you mentioned, still white screen, no change from before. White backlight and no image

[h3lgi]

I have the same issue with ESP32-8048S050C, we discussed it quickly in the discussions and the first thoughts were that I bought a weird clone. Then I borrowed a new display from the link on the board definition page the story is the same, only a white screen is shown.

I traced all of the PCB routes as far as I could and it looks like everything corresponds to the schematic (of course it is possible that I missed something), but all pins definitions correspond to the pinout on the updated board definitions.

Some notes about both of the boards:

• both of them are V1.2
• both of them arrived with a working LVGL demo.
• once the smart-display demo uploaded the touchscreen works perfectly

Probably they have a different LCD driver but I'm not sure how to check that, so can you guide me a bit what I can do to give you a bit more information about the board itself (unfortunately I have only basic tools) ?

P.S. Since I have two of these boards one of them can be destroyed if it is needed for the investigation.

[rzeldent]

Can you send the link to the demo program that's working? Just to be sure?
I made some modification to the definitions because found a different definition (LVGL groups) for the pinning.

[h3lgi]

The demo mentioned above was pre-uploaded by the manufacturer and the display just arrived with it on board.
So the only thing that I can show is how it looked before I uploaded the smart-display demo code, video is available HERE

[rzeldent]

Just ordered a esp32-8048S050C board to look what's going on....
Unfortunately, the documentation is minimal and testing on the device is apparently required... 😫

[h3lgi]

I just played with the parameters and:
by changing the ST7262_PANEL_CONFIG_TIMINGS_PCLK_HZ=(8*1000000) to (16*1000000) the demo appear to work!!

Any other values like(4*1000000), (18*1000000) , (24*1000000) or (32*1000000) did not worked;

I've tested on both branches develop and main on demo and on boards definitions repos and it worked.
I also tested both boards the one from the boards definition URL and one with unknown Aliexpress source and both just worked.

Sorry that I'm late with 15 mins and you had to buy this board :/

[h3lgi]

One more thing in addition to all the above is that on the boards - develop branch it works better, when I'm trying the boards - main branch sometimes the image shifts horizontally.

[rzeldent]

Hi h3lgi,

That's very good news. I could not find wrong parameter and not having the board did not help.
I made some changes lately because found a different definition in Squareline with different values for the display; so this helped!

Just to be sure, could you send the configuration that is working so I can update the boards files??

Great job!

[h3lgi]

You can find the config that worked for me HERE

[rzeldent]

Thanks Will put it in the repo!

[h3lgi]

After changing the ST7262_PANEL_CONFIG_TIMINGS_PCLK_HZ the lcd did work but with some glitches when I tried to interact with the UI i.e. when it had to render new things.

I did play a bit more with parameters and put everything to relate to the ST7262 datasheet.

However, it obviously did not work with 25MHz frequency but I placed half of it i.e. 12.5MHz worked and the glitches are gone.

So my final setting for pclk looks like:
-D ST7262_PANEL_CONFIG_TIMINGS_PCLK_HZ=(12.5 *1000000)

And the GIST file is also updated.

P.S. I also changed the PORCH values for vsync and hsync depending to the datasheet.

[paaspaas00]

@h3lgi just found some demo project here https://www.makerfabs.com/sunton-esp32-s3-5-inch-ips-with-touch.html
Here is the page with a link to the demo (at the end of page)
https://wiki.makerfabs.com/Sunton_ESP32_S3_5_7_inch_IPS_with_Touch.html
This should be for the 050C board. The config looks like it's setting 12000000 as clk and some other params look similar. Could you have a look @rzeldent and compare it with h3lgi config?

[h3lgi]

@paaspaas00 unfortunately I do not have time for tests next few days, but can you also test the config that I shared on your display and give some feedback?

[paaspaas00]

And the GIST file is also updated.

@rzeldent I can confirm starting from a clean project (demo master branch newly cloned with submodules) works perfectly on my device, both touchscreen and display! Thanks @h3lgi !!

[themacboy]

Thx guys ! Now me ESP32-8048S043C is working for firts time.

[luci84tm]

Hi there,
I have running Version 0.7.0-rc13 042fe05 on a new sunton-8048s043c.
What can I do to fix this white screen ?

Thanks allot!
Lucian

[luci84tm]

How did you managed, can you provide some infos ?

Thx guys ! Now me ESP32-8048S043C is working for firts time.

How did you @themacboy managed, can you provide some infos ?