Feather ESP32-S3 TFT PSRAM by Adafruit
We’ve got a new machine here at Adafruit, it can uncover your deepest desires. Don’t believe me? I’ll turn it on right now to prove it to you! What, you want your very own soft serve ice cream machine? OK well, that’s not something we can provide. But we can provide your second-deepest desire: an ESP32-S3 Feather board with a built in IPS TFT color display. It’s got all the delicious creamy goodness features of a Feather main board, the comforting warmth of an ESP32-S3 WiFi+BLE microcontroller, and the crispness of a 240x135 pixel color TFT display. All that and it will even plug in nicely into a breadboard, terminal block wing, or Feather Doubler or even just stack on top of another wing.
This Feather comes with native USB and 4 MB Flash + 2 MB of PSRAM, so it is perfect for use with CircuitPython or Arduino with low-cost WiFi. Native USB means it can act like a keyboard or a disk drive. WiFi means it’s awesome for IoT projects. And Feather means it works with the large community of Feather Wings for expandability.
The ESP32-S3 is a highly-integrated, low-power, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi/BLE System-on-Chip (SoC) solution that has built-in native USB as well as some other interesting new technologies like Time of Flight distance measurements and AI acceleration. With its state-of-the-art power and RF performance, this SoC is an ideal choice for a wide variety of application scenarios relating to the Internet of Things (IoT), wearable electronics, and smart homes.
The Feather ESP32-S3 has a dual-core 240 MHz chip, so it is comparable to ESP32’s dual-core. However, there is no Bluetooth Classic support, only Bluetooth LE. This chip is a great step up from the earlier ESP32-S2! This ESP32-S3 mini-module we are using on the Feather comes with 4 MB flash and 2 MB PSRAM, as well as lots of 512KB of SRAM so it’s perfect for use with CircuitPython support or any time massive buffers are needed: for fast memory access use SRAM, for slower-but-roomier access use PSRAM. It’s also great for use in ESP-IDF or with Arduino support.
The color TFT is connected to the SPI pins and uses additional pins for control that are not exposed to the breakout pads. It’s the same display as you see here, with 240x135 pixels and is IPS so you get bright color at any angle. The backlight is also connected to a separate pin so you can PWM the backlight up and down as desired.
For low power usages, the Feather has a second low-dropout 3.3V regulator. The regulator is controlled with a GPIO pin on the enable line and can shut off power to the Stemma QT port and TFT. There is also a separate power pin for the NeoPixel that can be used to disable it for even lower quiescent power. With everything off and in deep sleep mode, the TFT feather uses about 100uA of current.
Features:
- ESP32-S3 Dual Core 240MHz Tensilica processor - the next generation of ESP32-Sx, with native USB so it can act like a keyboard/mouse, MIDI device, disk drive, etc!
- Mini module has FCC/CE certification and comes with 4 MByte of Flash and 2 MByte of PSRAM - you can have huge data buffers
- Color 1.14” IPS TFT with 240x135 pixels - bright and colorful display with ST7789 chipset that can be viewed at any angle angle.
- Power options - USB type C or Lipoly battery
- Built-in battery charging when powered over USB-C
- LiPoly battery monitor - LC709203 chip actively monitors your battery for voltage and state of charge / percentage reporting over I2C
- Reset and DFU (BOOT0) buttons to get into the ROM bootloader (which is a USB serial port so you don’t need a separate cable!)
- Serial debug output pin (optional, for checking the hardware serial debug console)
- STEMMA QT connector for I2C devices, with switchable power, so you can go into low power mode.
- On/Charge/User LEDs + status NeoPixel with pin-controlled power for low power usage
- Low Power friendly! In deep sleep mode, we can get down to 80~100uA of current draw from the Lipoly connection. Quiescent current is from the power regulator, ESP32-S2 chip, and Lipoly monitor. Turn off the NeoPixel and external I2C/TFT power for the lowest quiescent current draw.
- Works with Arduino or CircuitPython
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CircuitPython 9.2.8
This is the latest stable release of CircuitPython that will work with the Feather ESP32-S3 TFT PSRAM. Use this release if you are new to CircuitPython.
Modules included in this download
_asyncio _pixelmap adafruit_bus_device adafruit_pixelbuf aesio alarm analogbufio analogio array atexit audiobusio audiocore audiomixer audiomp3 binascii bitbangio bitmaptools board builtins builtins.pow3 busdisplay busio busio.SPI busio.UART canio codeop collections countio digitalio displayio epaperdisplay errno espidf espnow espulp fontio fourwire framebufferio frequencyio getpass gifio hashlib i2cdisplaybus io ipaddress jpegio json keypad keypad.KeyMatrix keypad.Keys keypad.ShiftRegisterKeys keypad_demux keypad_demux.DemuxKeyMatrix locale math max3421e mdns memorymap microcontroller msgpack neopixel_write nvm onewireio os os.getenv ps2io pulseio pwmio rainbowio random re rgbmatrix rotaryio rtc sdcardio sdioio select sharpdisplay socketpool socketpool.socketpool.AF_INET6 ssl storage struct supervisor synthio sys terminalio tilepalettemapper time touchio traceback ulab usb usb_cdc usb_hid usb_midi vectorio warnings watchdog wifi zlibFeatures: Feather-Compatible, Battery Charging, STEMMA QT/QWIIC, Wi-Fi, USB-C, Display, Breadboard-Friendly
CircuitPython 10.0.0-beta.0
This is the latest development release of CircuitPython that will work with the Feather ESP32-S3 TFT PSRAM.
Alpha development releases are early releases. They are unfinished, are likely to have bugs, and the features they provide may change. Beta releases may have some bugs and unfinished features, but should be suitable for many uses. A Release Candidate (rc) release is considered done and will become the next stable release, assuming no further issues are found.
Please try alpha, beta, and rc releases if you are able. Your testing is invaluable: it helps us uncover and find issues quickly.
Release Notes for 10.0.0-beta.0
Modules included in this download
_asyncio _bleio _bleio (native) _eve _pixelmap adafruit_bus_device adafruit_pixelbuf aesio alarm analogbufio analogio array atexit audiobusio audiocore audiomixer audiomp3 binascii bitbangio bitmapfilter bitmaptools board builtins builtins.pow3 busdisplay busio busio.SPI busio.UART canio codeop collections countio digitalio displayio epaperdisplay errno espcamera espidf espnow espulp fontio fourwire framebufferio frequencyio getpass gifio hashlib i2cdisplaybus io ipaddress jpegio json keypad keypad.KeyMatrix keypad.Keys keypad.ShiftRegisterKeys keypad_demux keypad_demux.DemuxKeyMatrix locale lvfontio math max3421e mdns memorymap microcontroller msgpack neopixel_write nvm onewireio os os.getenv ps2io pulseio pwmio qrio rainbowio random re rgbmatrix rotaryio rtc sdcardio sdioio select sharpdisplay socketpool socketpool.socketpool.AF_INET6 ssl storage struct supervisor synthio sys terminalio tilepalettemapper time touchio traceback ulab usb usb_cdc usb_hid usb_midi vectorio warnings watchdog wifi zlibFeatures: Feather-Compatible, Battery Charging, STEMMA QT/QWIIC, Wi-Fi, USB-C, Display, Breadboard-Friendly
Absolute Newest
Every time we commit new code to CircuitPython we automatically build binaries for each board and language. The binaries are stored on Amazon S3, organized by board, and then by language. These releases are even newer than the development release listed above. Try them if you want the absolute latest and are feeling daring or want to see if a problem has been fixed.
Previous Versions of CircuitPython
All previous releases of CircuitPython are available for download from Amazon S3 through the button below. For very old releases, look in the OLD/ folder for each board. Release notes for each release are available at GitHub button below.
Older releases are useful for testing if you something appears to be broken in a newer release but used to work, or if you have older code that depends on features only available in an older release. Otherwise we recommend using the latest stable release.
Install, Repair, or Update UF2 Bootloader
Latest version: 0.35.0
The UF2 bootloader allows you to load CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino programs. The bootloader itself is not CircuitPython. On Espressif boards, the UF2 bootloader is called TinyUF2. If the TinyUF2 bootloader is installed, you can check its version by looking in the INFO_UF2.TXT file when the BOOT drive is visible (FTHRS2BOOT, MAGTAGBOOT, HOUSEBOOT, etc.)
In general, it is not necessary to update TinyUF2 at every version change. You can read the release notes on GitHub to see what has been changed. Update if you've been told about a necessary change or a bug fix.
Note: CircuitPython 10 and later, on Espressif boards with 4MB flash, requires TinyUF2 0.33.0 or later. The flash partition layout has changed (details).
If TinyUF2 has never been installed on the board, or it was removed by erasing or overwriting the flash, it must be installed in order to flash .uf2 files onto the board. But you don't need the TinyUF2 bootloader to upload .bin files. They can be uploaded using the built-in ROM bootloader, with the Adafruit WebSerial ESPTool or esptool.py.
Warning: Installing the TinyUF2 bootloader will erase everything that was previously on the board. Save any files in CIRCUITPY for which you don't have backups.
There are several ways to install the TinyUF2 bootloader on your board. Check to see if your board's manufacturer provides specific instructions. For Adafruit boards, consult the Factory Reset page in the Learn Guide for your particular board (example).
The easiest way to install TinyUF2 is to use the OPEN INSTALLER button (see above, in the CiruitPython sections). You can also use the Adafruit WebSerial ESPTool, or esptool.py, as described in the Factory Reset page.
- Plug board into a USB port on your computer using a data/sync cable. Make sure it is the only board plugged in, and that a charge-only cable is not being used.
- Press and hold the BOOT button (sometimes marked "B0").
- Press and release the RESET button (sometimes marked "RST").
- Release the BOOT button. This starts the ROM bootloader.
After installing TinyUF2, enter the UF2 bootloader by double-clicking the RESET button. On boards with an RGB status LED, you usually tap reset once, wait for the LED to turn purple, and tap again before the purple goes away. On other boards, consult the board documentation.
If you are updating TinyUF2, look at INFO_UF2.TXT to verify the new version of TinyUF2, by checking the version number. Then you will need to copy the CircuitPython.uf2 file to the BOOT drive.