ESP32 lvgl eez-demo

Highly experimental branch

https://github.com/lvgl/lvgl

https://github.com/lvgl/lv_port_esp32

https://github.com/eez-open/eez-framework

https://github.com/eez-open/studio

Using this repo

1. If you do not have ESP IDF check here how to install (you can use v4.4.3):

   https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/v4.4.3/esp32/get-started/index.html

   Go inside you ESP IDF instalation folder and run:

   . export.sh
   

2. Now, go to the folder where you want this project to be and clone this repo:

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/goran-mahovlic/esp32-lvgl-eez-demo.git
   

3. Go to the newly created folder:

   cd esp32-lvgl-eez-demo
   

4. Build example project according to your display board. For example, if you have Inkplate6, execute following:

   ./build.sh Inkplate6
   

5. Make sure your Inkplate6 board is connected and powered, then start flash:

   idf.py -p /dev/ttyUSB0 flash monitor
   

• Note 1 These are build commands for other display boards:

  ./build.sh Heltec
  ./build.sh ILI9341_240x320
  ./build.sh TouchDown
  
  etc.
  
  

• Note 2 You must execute fullbuild.sh when you switch between display boards:

  ./fullbuild.sh Inkplate6
  

• Note 3 To make changes in the GUI, you can open eez-project file, i.e. examples/Inkplate6/esp32-lvgl-eez-demo-Inkplate6.eez-project in EEZ Studio. When you are done editing changes, first build within Studio and then use ./build Inkplate6 again.

Example EEZ GUI with ESP32 using LVGL

ILI9341 eez-project opened inside EEZ Studio on Windows

(Don't worry, EEZ Studio works on Linux and Mac too!)

LVGL project for ESP32 with EEZ studio demo

EEZ demo project is located in eez-project directory - you can open that file with EEZ Studio

• Version of ESP-IDF required 4.2. NOTE: We're trying to make this repo backwards compatible, usage of idf.py is encouraged.
• Version of LVGL used: 8.3.
• Version of lv_examples used: 8.3.

Table of content

• Get started
• Use LVGL in your ESP-IDF project
• Use lvgl_esp32_drivers in your project
• Platformio support
• ESP32-S2 Support

Display and touch controllers

The display and touch (indev) controllers are now into it's own repository, you can find it here. To report any issue or add new display or touch (indev) drivers you can do so in the lvgl_esp32_drivers repo.

Get started

Prerequisites

• ESP-IDF Framework.

Note

This project tries to be compatible with both the ESP-IDF v3.x and v4.0, but using v4.0 is recommended. Instructions assume you are using the v4.x toolchain, otherwise use the make commands, e.g. instead of running idf.py menuconfig, run make menuconfig.

Build and run the demo.

1. Clone this project by git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/goran-mahovlic/esp32-lvgl-eez-demo.git, this will pull this repo and its submodules.

2. Get into the created esp32-lvgl-eez-demo directory.

3. Run idf.py menuconfig

4. Configure LVGL in Components config->LVGL Configuration. For monochrome displays use the mono theme and we suggest enabling the unscii 8 font.

5. Configure your display and/or touch controllers in Components config->LVGL TFT Display Configuration and Components config->LVGL TOUCH Configuration.

6. Store your project configuration.

7. Build the project with idf.py build

8. If the build don't throw any errors, flash the demo with idf.py -p (YOUR SERIAL PORT) flash (with make this is just make flash - in 3.x PORT is configured in menuconfig)

Platformio support

Not tested on this fork - let me know if it works

Using the lv_platformio project add the following lines to platformio.ini file:

[env:esp32]
platform = espressif32
framework = espidf
board = esp-wrover-kit

Change the default environment to default_envs = esp32.

Modify the main.c like this:

#include "lvgl.h"

// #include "driver.h"

#include "demo.h"

int app_main(void)
{
    lv_init();

    /* Initialize your hardware. */
    
    /* hw_init(); */

    demo_create();

    /* Create the UI or start a task for it.
     * In the end, don't forget to call `lv_task_handler` in a loop. */

    /* hw_loop(); */

    return 0;
}

For more information see: platformio with espidf framework compability.

ESP32-S2 Support

Support for ESP32-S2 variant is Work In Progress. Smaller displays (e.g. 320x240) work fine, but larger ones need testing.

Background

ESP32-S2 has less on-chip SRAM than its predecessor ESP32 (520kB vs. 320kB). This causes problems with memory allocation with large LVGL display buffers as they don't fit into the on-chip memory and external PSRAM is not accessible by DMA.

Moreover, static allocation to external PSRAM is not yet supported (see GitHub issue).

At this momement, the buffers are dynamicaly allocated with DMA capabilty and memory allocator handles the rest.