Display Station 24a

Compute Asset mesh station
1

Display Station 2024 Model A

The Display Station 2024 Model A (DS24a) is based on the ESP32-2432S028R provides an ultra low cost interface to your compute.

There are many clones and they are sometimes called Guition / Sunton Smart Displays.

2

Hardware

The ESP32-2432S028R version we are referencing as DS24a here has the words "HW-458" printed on the circuit board.

Note DS24a does NOT have a battery interface!

1. Processor

ESP-WROOM-32

esp32-pinout-chip-ESP-WROOM-32
source: randomnerdtutorials

  • Dual-core ESP32-D0WDQ6 processor
  • 40MHz Crystal Oscillator
  • 4MByte Flash Storage
  • Meandered Inverted-F Antenna

Note use of lower frequency crystal oscillators (e.g. 26MHz) might work but is not recommended.

References:

2. Display

This model has 2.8 inch ILI9341 SPI display with a resolution of 240x320 (portrait mode).

Details: ILI9341.pdf (3.3 MB)

front

To make it display in landscape mode (teh DS24a's default orientation), we have to rotate the output by 90 degrees.

Notice there is a Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) to measure light level in the upper left corner of the board above the display.

Components

The DS24a is very expandable supporting a lot of different inputs and outputs.

esp32-2432s028

Below is a comprehensive of labelling of components of a similar model (which does NOT have a USB Type-C port and does NOT have IO22 exposed).

esp32-2432s028

3

Alternative CYD

Although our focus is on the ESP32-2432S028R model which has the best open software support.

There are a number of different models with a ESP-WROOM-32 chip and a display, they are also called CYD (Cheap Yellow Display). They have a display resolution of 240x320 with different screen sizes, touch ability and connectors.

1, Screen Types

  • Non Touch - normally the cheapest
  • Resistive Touch - normally comes with a stylus
  • Capacitive Touch - normally the most expensive

We tend to use the one with Resistive Touch due to lower price than the Capacitive Touch one, which comes with a

2. Connector Types

2.2 inch - ESP32-2432S022

esp32-2432s022

2.4 inch - ESP32-2432S024

esp32-2432s024

2.8 inch - JC2432W328

jc2432W328

4

Software

ESPHome

  1. home-automation/ESPHome at master · eouthwaite/home-automation · GitHub
  2. ESP32-Cheap-Yellow-Display/Examples/ESPHome at main · witnessmenow/ESP32-Cheap-Yellow-Display · GitHub
  3. GitHub - GuySie/cyd-thermostat: ESPHome based thermostat controller for Cheap Yellow Display (CYD)
  4. GitHub - BOlaerts/ESP32-2432s028: Home Assistant integration using ESPHome on an esp32-2432s028 board, featuring I²C expansion and touchscreen functionalities

BECAREFUL some of the CYDs use Parallel Interface which is NOT support in ESPHome yet:

References

  1. ESP32-2432S028 | macsbug
  2. GitHub - rzeldent/esp32-smartdisplay: PlatformIO library LVGL Drivers for Sunton Smart display boards (CYD Cheap Yellow Display). This library supports these boards without any effort. ESP32-2432S024N/R/C, ESP32-2432S028R/C, ESP32-3248S035R/C, ESP32_8048S070N/C
  3. GitHub - rzeldent/platformio-espressif32-sunton: Board definitions for the Sunton Smart display boards (CYD Cheap Yellow Display). These definitions contain not only contain the CPU information but also the connections and devices present on the board.
  4. GitHub - witnessmenow/Spotify-Diy-Thing: Something similar to the Spotify Car Thing, built with a cheap ESP32 Screen
  5. ESP32-2432S028 - openHASP