Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.28 Inch Round Capacitive Touch Display

The Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28 is a compact development board featuring a 1.28-inch round IPS capacitive touch display, 240 × 240 resolution, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, QMI8658 6-axis IMU, USB Type-C, GPIO expansion, and 3.7V lithium battery support. It is designed for LVGL interfaces, IoT dashboards, smart gauges, wearable-style controls, and compact HMI projects.

Description

The Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.28 Inch Round Capacitive Touch Display combines a powerful ESP32-S3 platform with an integrated circular touchscreen, motion sensing, wireless connectivity, battery support, and GPIO expansion.

Its main feature is the 1.28-inch round IPS capacitive touchscreen with 240 × 240 resolution and 65K-color support. The LCD uses the GC9A01A display controller over SPI, while touch input is handled by the CST816S capacitive touch controller through I²C. Waveshare specifies an active display diameter of Φ32.4mm and a pixel size of 0.135 × 0.135mm.

The ESP32-S3 platform provides a dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor operating at up to 240MHz, along with 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 Low Energy. The board is suitable for wireless embedded systems, smart controls, interactive dashboards, sensor interfaces, and graphical applications.

An onboard QMI8658 6-axis IMU combines a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope for motion, orientation, posture, and movement detection.

Key Features

• Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28

• Dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor

• Maximum CPU frequency: 240MHz

• 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

• Bluetooth 5 Low Energy

• 1.28-inch round IPS capacitive touch display

• 240 × 240 pixel resolution

• 65K colors

• GC9A01A LCD controller

• SPI display communication

• CST816S capacitive touch controller

• I²C touch communication

• QMI8658 6-axis IMU

• 3-axis accelerometer

• 3-axis gyroscope

• USB Type-C

• CH343P USB-to-UART

• 3.7V lithium battery support

• Battery charging and discharging management

• MX1.25 battery connector

• SH1.0 expansion connector

• 6 GPIO signals exposed for external peripherals

• BOOT and RESET buttons

• Arduino IDE support

• MicroPython support

• Suitable for LVGL graphical interfaces

Technical Specifications

IPS Capacitive Touch Display Specifications

IMU Specifications

The integrated IMU is suitable for detecting motion, orientation, posture, tilt, and other movement-related information.

Onboard Resources

• ESP32-S3 processor

• External NOR Flash

• CH343P USB-to-UART

• MP1605 power module

• ETA6096 lithium battery charging controller

• QMI8658 6-axis IMU

• MX1.25 battery connector

• USB Type-C

• SH1.0 GPIO expansion connector

• BOOT button

• RESET button

• Round IPS capacitive touchscreen

Waveshare specifies the MP1605 power section for up to 3.3V / 2A output.

GPIO / Expansion Interface

The Rev3 board exposes the following signals through its expansion connector:

• GND

• VSYS

• RESET

• BOOT

• GND

• 3V3

• GPIO15

• GPIO16

• GPIO17

• GPIO18

• GPIO21

• GPIO33

The six GPIO signals can be configured for supported ESP32-S3 peripheral functions such as I²C, SPI, digital I/O, and other application-specific functions.

Waveshare documentation confirms the SH1.0 connector provides 6 GPIOs for external expansion.

Battery & Power

The board supports a single 3.7V lithium battery through the onboard MX1.25 2-pin connector.

Key power features include:

• USB Type-C power

• 3.7V lithium battery input

• Onboard battery charging

• Battery discharging support

• ETA6096 charging management

• Battery voltage monitoring capability

• Portable and battery-powered operation

Battery is not included unless specifically confirmed by Chip.pk.

Applications / Use Cases

• ESP32 touch screen projects

• Round capacitive touch interfaces

• LVGL round display projects

• HMI interfaces

• Smart gauges

• IoT dashboards

• Smart-home controllers

• Wearable-style displays

• Portable instruments

• Wireless monitoring devices

• Motion-sensitive interfaces

• Orientation and posture sensing

• Sensor dashboards

• Battery-powered devices

• Embedded control panels

• Educational ESP32-S3 development

Compatibility

The board supports common ESP32 development workflows including Arduino IDE and MicroPython. Waveshare also provides LVGL resources for graphical user-interface development.

The onboard components communicate through:

• GC9A01A LCD: SPI

• CST816S capacitive touch controller: I²C

• QMI8658 IMU: I²C

The board is therefore suitable for building round GUI interfaces, gauges, menus, status displays, instrumentation screens, and other interactive embedded applications.

LVGL is a software graphics library and requires appropriate firmware configuration; it is not a preinstalled operating system.

Package Contents

Confirmed product:

• 1 × Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28 Rev3 Development Board

• 1 × External expansion I/O connector

Buy in Pakistan

Buy the Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.28 inch round capacitive touch display in Pakistan from Chip.pk for LVGL, IoT, HMI, smart gauges, wearable-style interfaces, and compact wireless control projects.

Its 240 × 240 round IPS capacitive touchscreen, ESP32-S3 processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, QMI8658 IMU, lithium battery support, and GPIO expansion make it suitable for compact interactive embedded applications.

FAQs

1. What is the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28?
It is a compact ESP32-S3 development board with an integrated 1.28-inch round IPS capacitive touch display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, QMI8658 6-axis IMU, lithium battery support, and GPIO expansion.

2. Is this display capacitive touch?
Yes. The board uses a CST816S capacitive touch controller connected through I²C.

3. What is the screen resolution?
The round IPS display has a 240 × 240 pixel resolution.

4. Which LCD controller is used?
The display uses the GC9A01A controller and communicates with the ESP32-S3 through SPI.

5. Is the display IPS?
Yes. It uses a 1.28-inch round IPS panel with an active display area of approximately Φ32.4mm.

6. Does the board support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth?
Yes. The ESP32-S3 platform supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 5 Low Energy.

7. Does the board include an accelerometer and gyroscope?
Yes. The onboard QMI8658 6-axis IMU combines a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope.

8. Can I use this board with LVGL?
Yes. The round IPS touchscreen is suitable for LVGL-based GUIs, including gauges, menus, dashboards, status displays, and control panels when correctly configured in firmware.

9. Does the board support a lithium battery?
Yes. It includes an MX1.25 2-pin connector for a single 3.7V lithium battery and supports charging and discharging.

10. How many GPIO pins are available for expansion?
The expansion connector exposes six GPIO signals: GPIO15, GPIO16, GPIO17, GPIO18, GPIO21, and GPIO33, along with power and system-control signals.

11. What is the difference between this board and the non-touch ESP32-S3-LCD-1.28?
This model is the ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28 and includes a CST816S capacitive touch controller. The non-touch ESP32-S3-LCD-1.28 does not provide the same touch functionality.

12. Does this board have 2MB PSRAM and 16MB Flash?
Waveshare documents the product family with 2MB PSRAM and 16MB Flash, but the actual Rev3 stock shows updated component markings. Chip.pk should verify the current batch electrically before treating these memory capacities as guaranteed Rev3 specifications.

14. Where can I buy the ESP32-S3 round touch display in Pakistan?
The Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28 is available from Chip.pk for LVGL, IoT, HMI, smart gauge, wearable-style, and embedded GUI projects.