Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

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KeelanGarde
 
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Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by KeelanGarde »

Hello! I recently purchased a Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT, and have been trying to use the display with no success.

Immediately after opening the bag, I plugged the microcontroller into my computer and was met with the little demo that runs when you first power it on. It was displaying the voltage and the values were updating as the power fluctuated up or down slightly. Everything looked good.

Next, I followed the instructions and dragged the UF2 file into the FTHRS3BOOT directory. It disappeared and returned as CIRCUITPY, just as it should have.

However, from this point onwards, the display no longer shows anything. Every pixel is black, but I can see the backlight is on. I tried to run a simple script that would print "Hello world!" to the console every second, to see if it would display it on the screen... no luck. The screen is just black and none of the example scripts I have tried seem to do anything. But the microcontroller isn't error-ing out either...

I did observe that, every second when the script loops and writes a new print command, the backlight will briefly blink off before coming back on again. Is it perhaps trying to update the display? Is the display supposed to shut off momentarily when the script loops?

The microcontroller itself works great. I got it on WiFi and ran a script that pulled weather data from the internet and printed it to the serial console. Just couldn't get anything to show up on the display.

If I press the reset button, I am met with what I'll call the "boot screen", where it says "Feather TFT" at the top in green and tells me to download the UF2 file. So, I know for sure that the display works. But I have read elsewhere online that the microcontroller should be showing the serial console on the TFT display... so what gives? Did I miss a step? I am pretty experienced with the Feather, but this is my first time using a display of any kind, so I am feeling a bit out of my depth here. Any advice would be appreciated!

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dastels
 
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Re: Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by dastels »

You downloaded & installed CircuitPython from https://circuitpython.org/board/adafrui ... verse_tft/ ?

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KeelanGarde
 
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Re: Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by KeelanGarde »

Yes, that's correct. Tried again just now using the link you provided just to verify.

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dastels
 
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Re: Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by dastels »

Generally I woul;d expect it to echo the REPL on the screen. Have you tried any CircuitPython displayio demos?

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KeelanGarde
 
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Re: Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by KeelanGarde »

That was my understanding as well. I did try running this project: https://learn.adafruit.com/mini-weather ... p32-s2-tft, which does use displayio. Once again, the display didn't show anything when running it, but the script ran just fine and pulled weather data as intended. I saw that the project was for an S2 Feather rather than an S3, but I figured it wouldn't make much difference...

Any other code you'd suggest I try?

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dastels
 
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Re: Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by dastels »

It shouldn't make a difference in CircuitPython.

Was the backlight on while the code ran?

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KeelanGarde
 
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Re: Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by KeelanGarde »

Yes, the backlight was on then too. When the script first runs, the backlight flickers on and off a few times rapidly, then remains on indefinitely.

I just held the Feather next to my computer screen and observed that the flickering of the backlight corresponds to new messages in the serial console. Each time a new line is written to the console, the backlight flickers briefly. That leads me to believe that the display is trying to update to reflect the change.

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dastels
 
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Re: Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by dastels »

This is weird. I'll see if anyone else has some ideas.

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adafruit2
 
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Re: Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by adafruit2 »

first up take a photo of what you have - top and bottom, so we can identify it.
first try to double-click the reset button, press reset the second time when the neopixel is purple to enter bootloader. does the bootloader help appear on the screen?
then try to follow this factory reset - you said it was displaying when first purchased
https://learn.adafruit.com/esp32-s3-rev ... tory-reset

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KeelanGarde
 
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Re: Feather ESP32-S3 Reverse TFT Not Displaying Correctly

Post by KeelanGarde »

The factory reset fixed it. I took pictures but I don't think they'll be needed since it appears to be working now.

Interestingly, after I re-installed CircuitPython after the factory reset, it started to run one of my scripts right away! I thought I would have to re-create those files. Seems to be doing everything I expected it to do now though!

Thanks so much for all the help!

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