Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.8inch Knob Display (ST77916 Display, CST816 Touch)

[t-muehlberger]

Hello,

I recently purchased this (wiki) new Knob-Touch-Display from Waveshare. If somehow possible I would like to run Tasmota on the device. I already managed to get tasmota-lvgl (development) running on the ESP32-S3.

So far my research has pointed me to to the display.ini File which I would have to create for the Disply/Toch to work. Is that correct?

My knowledge of embedded displays is not very firm, so I do not even know if this can be done with reasonable effort or if it would require major modifications of Tasmota itself.

Are the Display IC (ST77916) and Touch (CST816) even compatible/supported in Tasmota?

Some hints in the right direction about how I could get started with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you:)

[sfromis]

Most displays can be supported without any Tasmota code modification, by constructing a suitable display descriptor file, indeed display.ini
https://tasmota.github.io/docs/Universal-Display-Driver/#universal-display-driver-udisplay

And the CST816 touch controller chip is already supported.

[t-muehlberger]

Yes, that is exactly where I got stuck, trying to create a display.ini file for my device. I have a working Arduino sketch running LVGL (downloaded from the manufacturer), and I wanted to use the settings (pins, commands, ...) from the sketch to create my display.ini file.

The first issue I ran into is that the Arduino sketch seems to use QSPI with 4 data pins, which as far as I understood, Tasmota does not support. According to the datasheet the display supports regular SPI as well as QSPI. Do you think I can use my display with regular SPI (ideally without soldering or any hardware modifications)?

Good to know that the Touch-IC is supported.

[sfromis]

Tasmota does support quad SPI, at least for flash. I'm not sure about other devices.

[t-muehlberger]

Maybe I found outdated information. If it is possible to use displays with quad SPI that might actually solve my problem but I could not find anything about it in the docs.

[t-muehlberger]

So far I've tried to create a display.ini file from information I found in the working Arduino sketch, the datasheet and the schematic. But I could not get it to work. The backlight seems to turn on, and brightness increases after about 1 s (probably has to do with the splash screen) but the screen stays black.

Original Pin Definitions

Arduino Example (Manufacturer)

#define EXAMPLE_PIN_NUM_LCD_CS      14
#define EXAMPLE_PIN_NUM_LCD_PCLK    13
#define EXAMPLE_PIN_NUM_LCD_DATA0   15
#define EXAMPLE_PIN_NUM_LCD_DATA1   16
#define EXAMPLE_PIN_NUM_LCD_DATA2   17
#define EXAMPLE_PIN_NUM_LCD_DATA3   18
#define EXAMPLE_PIN_NUM_LCD_RST     21
#define EXAMPLE_PIN_NUM_BK_LIGHT    47

Schematc:

According to the datasheet and the source code display library the display should actually support regular SPI. The Readme in this repo from ESP leads me to believe that in SPI mode DATA0 is used as MOSI. So I used the following pins:

• CS: 14
• CLK: 13
• MOSI: 15
• DC: -1
• Backlight: 47
• Reset: 21
• MISO: -1
• SPI Speed: 40Mhz

The problem is that I could not find out what pins corespond to DC and MISO on the display and if they are even connected on my board. I am not sure if this might be a deal-breaker.

I used the following line in my display.ini:

:H,ST77916,360,360,16,SPI,2,14,13,15,-1,47,21,-1,40

Here is the complete display.ini (the commands are from the example Arduino sketch) and the Tasmota log output with debug logging turned on. It appears that some data is written to the screen (I created autoexec.be from the LVGL example in the docs).

display.ini

:H,ST77916,360,360,16,SPI,2,14,13,15,-1,47,21,-1,40
:S,2,1,1,0,40,20
:I
F0,1,28
F2,1,28
73,1,F0
7C,1,D1
83,1,E0
84,1,61
F2,1,82
F0,1,00
F0,1,01
F1,1,01
B0,1,56
B1,1,4D
B2,1,24
B4,1,87
B5,1,44
B6,1,8B
B7,1,40
B8,1,86
BA,1,00
BB,1,08
BC,1,08
BD,1,00
C0,1,80
C1,1,10
C2,1,37
C3,1,80
C4,1,10
C5,1,37
C6,1,A9
C7,1,41
C8,1,01
C9,1,A9
CA,1,41
CB,1,01
D0,1,91
D1,1,68
D2,1,68
F5,2,00,A5
DD,1,4F
DE,1,4F
F1,1,10
F0,1,00
F0,1,02
E0,0E,F0,0A,10,09,09,36,35,33,4A,29,15,15,2E,34
E1,0E,F0,0A,0F,08,08,05,34,33,4A,39,15,15,2D,33
F0,1,10
F3,1,10
E0,1,07
E1,1,00
E2,1,00
E3,1,00
E4,1,E0
E5,1,06
E6,1,21
E7,1,01
E8,1,05
E9,1,02
EA,1,DA
EB,1,00
EC,1,00
ED,1,0F
EE,1,00
EF,1,00
F8,1,00
F9,1,00
FA,1,00
FB,1,00
FC,1,00
FD,1,00
FE,1,00
FF,1,00
60,1,40
61,1,04
62,1,00
63,1,42
64,1,D9
65,1,00
66,1,00
67,1,00
68,1,00
69,1,00
6A,1,00
6B,1,00
70,1,40
71,1,03
72,1,00
73,1,42
74,1,D8
75,1,00
76,1,00
77,1,00
78,1,00
79,1,00
7A,1,00
7B,1,00
80,1,48
81,1,00
82,1,06
83,1,02
84,1,D6
85,1,04
86,1,00
87,1,00
88,1,48
89,1,00
8A,1,08
8B,1,02
8C,1,D8
8D,1,04
8E,1,00
8F,1,00
90,1,48
91,1,00
92,1,0A
93,1,02
94,1,DA
95,1,04
96,1,00
97,1,00
98,1,48
99,1,00
9A,1,0C
9B,1,02
9C,1,DC
9D,1,04
9E,1,00
9F,1,00
A0,1,48
A1,1,00
A2,1,05
A3,1,02
A4,1,D5
A5,1,04
A6,1,00
A7,1,00
A8,1,48
A9,1,00
AA,1,07
AB,1,02
AC,1,D7
AD,1,04
AE,1,00
AF,1,00
B0,1,48
B1,1,00
B2,1,09
B3,1,02
B4,1,D9
B5,1,04
B6,1,00
B7,1,00
B8,1,48
B9,1,00
BA,1,0B
BB,1,02
BC,1,DB
BD,1,04
BE,1,00
BF,1,00
C0,1,10
C1,1,47
C2,1,56
C3,1,65
C4,1,74
C5,1,88
C6,1,99
C7,1,01
C8,1,BB
C9,1,AA
D0,1,10
D1,1,47
D2,1,56
D3,1,65
D4,1,74
D5,1,88
D6,1,99
D7,1,01
D8,1,BB
D9,1,AA
F3,1,01
F0,1,00
21,1,00
11,80
29,80
:o,28
:O,29
:R,36
:0,C0,00,00,00
:1,A0,00,00,01
:2,00,00,00,02
:3,60,00,00,03
:A,2A,2B,2C,01
:D,51
:i,20,21
#

Debug-Log

00:00:00.253 CMD: Fall back to serial port, no SOF packet detected on USB port
00:00:00.254 HDW: ESP32-S3 v0.2 
00:00:00.279 UFS: FlashFS mounted with 12584 kB free
00:00:00.290 CFG: Loaded from File, Count 65
00:00:00.298 QPC: Count 2
00:00:00.299 CFG: CR 354/699, Busy 0
00:00:00.303 TYA: Active=0
00:00:00.306 ROT: Mode 1
00:00:00.315 BRY: GC from 3768 to 3568 bytes, objects freed 4/21 (in 0 ms) - slots from 37/61 to 29/61
00:00:00.340 CFG: No '*.autoconf' file found
00:00:00.351 BRY: GC from 6793 to 5092 bytes, objects freed 9/45 (in 1 ms) - slots from 73/91 to 48/91
00:00:00.352 BRY: Berry initialized, RAM used 5092 bytes
00:00:00.360 BRY: No 'preinit.be'
00:00:00.378 DSP: File descriptor used
00:00:00.110 DSP: ST77916 initialized
00:00:00.118 SRC: Restart
00:00:00.126 Project tasmota - Tasmota Version 15.0.1.2(9b01d28-lvgl-haspmota)-3_1_3(2025-07-31T16:09:03)
00:00:00.131 LVG: Allocating buffer1 28 KB in main memory (flushlines 40)
00:00:00.138 LVG: LVGL initialized
00:00:00.199 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:00.209 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:00.219 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:00.230 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:00.246 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:00.257 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:00.267 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:00.278 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 7 ms (2057 pix/ms)
00:00:00.290 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 7 ms (2057 pix/ms)
00:00:00.294 ETH: No ETH MDC and ETH MDIO GPIO defined
00:00:01.076 BRY: GC from 10227 to 7448 bytes, objects freed 45/85 (in 1 ms) - slots from 234/244 to 95/167
00:00:01.089 LVG: LVGL was already initialized
00:00:01.135 BRY: Stack resized from 800 to 1016 bytes
00:00:01.167 BRY: GC from 14903 to 10504 bytes, objects freed 50/143 (in 1 ms) - slots from 321/335 to 160/335
00:00:01.245 BRY: Successfully loaded 'autoexec.be'
00:00:01.301 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 7 ms (2057 pix/ms)
00:00:01.311 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:01.322 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 7 ms (2057 pix/ms)
00:00:01.332 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 7 ms (2057 pix/ms)
00:00:01.342 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 7 ms (2057 pix/ms)
00:00:01.352 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:01.362 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:01.372 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:01.391 LVG: Refreshed 14400 pixels in 8 ms (1800 pix/ms)
00:00:01.653 WIF: Checking connection...
00:00:01.654 WIF: Attempting connection...
00:00:02.858 WIF: Connecting to AP1 Otto the Van Channel 1 BSSId 94:0E:6B:28:BF:68 in mode HT40 as tasmota-7A9984-6532...
00:00:02.936 WIF: IPv4 192.168.8.104, mask 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.8.1
00:00:04.270 WIF: Checking connection...
00:00:04.271 WIF: Connected
00:00:04.537 HTP: Web server active on tasmota-7A9984-6532 with IP address 192.168.8.104
00:00:04.697 NTP: Sync time...
00:00:04.833 WIF: DNS resolved '2.pool.ntp.org' (193.204.114.105) in 134 ms
00:00:04.856 WIF: IPv6 Local fe80::1220:baff:fe7a:9984%st1
00:00:04.940 RTC: UTC 2025-08-01T21:00:50Z, DST 2025-03-30T02:00:00, STD 2025-10-26T03:00:00
22:00:50.001 RTC: Synced by NTP
22:00:50.707 BRY: GC from 20763 to 11081 bytes, objects freed 129/158 (in 2 ms) - slots from 549/564 to 177/411
22:00:50.769 RSL: INFO1 = {"Info1":{"Module":"ESP32S3","Version":"15.0.1.2(9b01d28-lvgl-haspmota)","FallbackTopic":"cmnd/DVES_7A9984_fb/","GroupTopic":"cmnd/tasmotas/"}}
22:00:50.783 RSL: INFO2 = {"Info2":{"WebServerMode":"Admin","Hostname":"tasmota-7A9984-6532","IPAddress":"192.168.8.104","IP6Global":"","IP6Local":"fe80::1220:baff:fe7a:9984%st1"}}
22:00:50.797 RSL: INFO3 = {"Info3":{"RestartReason":"Vbat power on reset","BootCount":36}}
22:00:50.800 RSL: RESULT = {"POWER":"ON"}
22:00:50.811 RSL: POWER = ON
22:00:50.815 TFS: File 'autoexec.bat' not found
22:00:50.890 HTP: Main Menu
22:00:52.721 HTP: Tools
22:00:53.702 QPC: Reset
22:00:55.693 APP: Boot Count 36
22:00:55.695 BRY: GC from 14408 to 10965 bytes, objects freed 33/156 (in 1 ms) - slots from 242/411 to 175/396
22:00:55.698 RSL: STATE = {"Time":"2025-08-01T22:00:55","Uptime":"0T00:00:09","UptimeSec":9,"Heap":158,"SleepMode":"Dynamic","Sleep":10,"LoadAvg":99,"MqttCount":0,"Berry":{"HeapUsed":10,"Objects":156},"POWER":"ON","Wifi":{"AP":1,"SSId":"Otto the Van","BSSId":"94:0E:6B:28:BF:68","Channel":1,"Mode":"HT40","RSSI":60,"Signal":-70,"LinkCount":1,"Downtime":"0T00:00:03"}}
22:00:55.810 HTP: Console
22:00:56.380 CFG: Saved, Count 66, Bytes 4096
22:01:00.702 RSL: config = {"ip":"192.168.8.104","dn":"Tasmota","fn":["Tasmota",null,null,null,null,null,null,null],"hn":"tasmota-7A9984-6532","mac":"1020BA7A9984","md":"ESP32S3","ty":0,"if":0,"cam":0,"ofln":"Offline","onln":"Online","state":["OFF","ON","TOGGLE","HOLD"],"sw":"15.0.1.2","t":"tasmota_7A9984","ft":"%prefix%/%topic%/","tp":["cmnd","stat","tele"],"rl":[1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],"swc":[-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1],"swn":[null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null,null],"btn":[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0],"so":{"4":0,"11":0,"13":0,"17":0,"20":0,"30":0,"68":0,"73":0,"82":0,"114":0,"117":0},"lk":0,"lt_st":0,"bat":0,"dslp":0,"sho":[],"sht":[],"ver":1}
22:01:00.708 RSL: sensors = {"sn":{"Time":"2025-08-01T22:01:00"},"ver":1}

[TheKilroy]

You can find the resources including the schematics on https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/ESP32-S3-Knob-Touch-LCD-1.8

I came up to your thread while I have a Waveshare Touch LCD (https://www.waveshare.com/esp32-s3-touch-lcd-1.69.htm) as well. My display has a different display controller but the same touch controller. I am using the Universal Display Driver successfully but I can not get the touch to work with Tasmota, but it works well with the examples.

Did you get the touch to work with Tasmota? If so, how did you do that?

[t-muehlberger]

Hi @TheKilroy, thank you for reaching out. I am glad to hear that you could get the display to run on your device.

Unfortunately, I did not get to the point where I would try the touch screen. I gave up on using Tasmota for this specific project after I could not get the display to work. I am now writing Arduino code based on the working code sample from Waveshare.

Please keep us updated on how it goes. The board you have looks interesting, and I might get one in the future if it is possible to run Tasmota on it.

[TheKilroy]

I have selected that display because the dimension fit my requirements. My plans are to replace/use an existing heating controller and a roller shutter controller with a new, multi purpose device.
My first idea was using a "standard" ESP32 development board, temperature and humidity sensor, a display and some ESP32 internal touch button pins. Add a 230 VAC power supply and some additional relays would make is versatile.
But to integrate all components into a small device seemed to complicates. So I found almost all in one. A display, touch device, an ESP32 with extension for some relays and I2C. All with the right size to fit into a flush-mounted switch box (in German: UP-Dose).
Anyway, thank you for your information. I will try to keep it working somehow. Eventually I will open a new discussion for that display.

[Noschvie]

@t-muehlberger, @TheKilroy Are you also planning to get the "Waveshare ESP32-S3 5" Display Development Board" running with Tasmota? I'm interested, but unfortunately I don't have the knowledge to create the appropriate Display.ini file.

[t-muehlberger]

For me, doing embedded stuff is more like a hobby (I usually do web development in my day-to-day work), so my knowledge in this area is not super deep. That is why I am not fully convinced I could make it work. And although buying random ESP boards is somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine, I try to limit how much money I spend on them, especially if I don't have a specific project in mind.

[TheKilroy]

@Noschvie Im sorry, but I am not planning to do so. As written above my intention to use the mentioned display was the development of a versatile, smart switch which integrates into a smarthome system (iobroker with mqtt in my case) for roller shutter and as the main purpose a room thermostat with touch control.

[phoenix83]

I have the https://www.waveshare.com/product/esp32-s3-touch-lcd-1.85c.htm which has same display IC as the OP and is also wired for QSPI. The interface mode for this chip is set by hardwiring three of its pins, however (at least for my display) these pins are very difficult to access.

The Tasmota universal display driver doesn't support QSPI currently and it's likely a bit of work to implement (previous similar request #19204).

[TheKilroy]

This is for all users using a Waveshare display with a CST816 touch controller and Universal Driver.

After trying hours and hours with the definition of the Universal Touch Descriptor I found that the problem is the reset procedure in the Universal Touch Driver.

After I changed the reset procedure in uDisplay.cpp, in function uDisplay::utouch_Init(char **name) from a timing of HIGH=10 ms, LOW=5 ms, HIGH=10 ms to HIGH=10 ms, LOW=10 ms, HIGH=50 ms for the reset line, I was able to succesfully initialize the controller.

Here is my commented part of the display.ini for the universal touch:

:UTI,CST816T,I1,15,*,*           ; UTI,<dev-name>,<i2c-bus 1>,<i2c-address 0x15>,<reset-pin *=tasmota TS_RST>,<irq-pin *=TS_IRQ>
RD A7                            ; Read register 0xA7: CHIP-ID
CP B5                            ; compare CHIP-ID with 0xB5 (CST816T)
                                 ; 0x20 -> CST716
                                 ; 0xb4 -> CST816S
                                 ; 0xb5 -> CST816T
                                 ; 0xb6 -> CST816D
                                 ; for differences between the variants, please check the according datasheet
RTF                              ; return FALSE if last compare was FALSE
WR FA 40                         ; Write register IRQ_CONTROL and set IRQ_EN_TOUCH
WR EC 00                         ; Write register IRQ_MOTIONMASK and set all to OFF
WR FE FF                         ; Write register AUTO_SLEEP and disable auto sleep mode
WR FB 00                         ; Write register AUTO_RESET and disable auto reset mode
RT

:UTT                             ; Touch check call
RDM 01 6                         ; Read 6 bytes from registers 01: GESTURE, FINGER_NUM, X_HIGH, X_LOW, Y_HIGH, Y_LOW
CP 05                            ; Compare GESTURE with 0x05 (GESTURE_SINGLE)
RT                               ; Return the compare result as TRUE if the gesture is 0x05, otherwise FALSE

:UTX                             ; Get X touch value
MV 2 2                           ; Move word from index 2 to result (X_HIGH, X_LOW)
AND 7fff                         ; Bitwise AND result word to mask X value
RT                               ; Return the X touch value

:UTY                             ; Get Y touch value
MV 4 2                           ; Move word from index 4 to result (Y_HIGH, Y_LOW)
AND 7fff                         ; Bitwise AND result word to mask Y value
RT                               ; Return the Y touch value
#                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Please strip the comments when using the commands in your display.ini

If you have another variant than the CST816T please change the CHIP-ID in the init sequence.