Elecrow CrowPanel E-Paper 5.79 (ESP32-S3)
5.79" 792x272 black-and-white e-paper on an ESP32-S3 N8R8 with a rotary switch, buttons and a 2x10 GPIO header - we reviewed it and later wrote the ESPHome/LVGL driver for it.
Pinout
25 pins
| Pin | GPIO | Labels | Status | Capabilities | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | IO0BOOT | strapping | - | BOOT button - hold at power-up for download mode |
| 2 | 1 | IO1EXIT_BTN | safe | - | Exit button - active low |
| 3 | 2 | IO2MENU_BTN | safe | - | Menu button - active low |
| 4 | 3 | IO3HDR | strapping | - | Free GPIO on the 2x10 header |
| 5 | 4 | IO4ROTARY_DOWN | safe | - | Rotary switch down - active low |
| 6 | 5 | IO5ROTARY_PRESS | safe | - | Rotary switch press - active low |
| 7 | 6 | IO6ROTARY_UP | safe | - | Rotary switch up - active low |
| 8 | 7 | IO7EPD_POWER | safe | - | E-paper power rail switch - MUST be driven high before the display responds |
| 9 | 9 | IO9HDR | strapping | - | Free GPIO on the 2x10 header |
| 10 | 10 | IO10SD_CS | strapping | spi | microSD slot - chip select |
| 11 | 11 | IO11EPD_MOSI | strapping | spi | Internal - e-paper SPI MOSI |
| 12 | 12 | IO12EPD_CLK | strapping | spi | Internal - e-paper SPI clock |
| 13 | 13 | IO13SD_MISO | strapping | spi | microSD slot - MISO |
| 14 | 15 | IO15HDR | safe | - | Free GPIO on the 2x10 header |
| 15 | 17 | IO17HDR | safe | - | Free GPIO on the 2x10 header |
| 16 | 19 | IO19HDR | uart | - | Free GPIO on the 2x10 header |
| 17 | 21 | IO21HDR | safe | - | Free GPIO on the 2x10 header |
| 18 | 39 | IO39SD_CLK | strapping | spi | microSD slot - clock |
| 19 | 40 | IO40SD_MOSI | strapping | spi | microSD slot - MOSI |
| 20 | 43 | IO43TXD0 | strapping | uart | UART0 - USB-C flashing/logs and the UART0 port |
| 21 | 44 | IO44RXD0 | strapping | uart | UART0 - USB-C flashing/logs and the UART0 port |
| 22 | 45 | IO45EPD_CS | strapping | spi | Internal - e-paper chip select |
| 23 | 46 | IO46EPD_DC | strapping | - | Internal - e-paper data/command |
| 24 | 47 | IO47EPD_RST | strapping | - | Internal - e-paper reset |
| 25 | 48 | IO48EPD_BUSY | strapping | - | Internal - e-paper busy signal |
Start with these
9 pins with no boot or system involvementFreely assignable - no strapping, flash, USB or JTAG duties. Ideal first picks for buttons, sensors and LEDs.
Fine - with a little care
sampled at boot or shared with debug/serial| Pin | Label | What to know | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| IO0 | GPIO0 | Must be pulled high (default) or low (to enter UART download mode) at reset. Using it for other functions can interfere with boot mode configuration. | Strapping |
| IO3 | GPIO3 | Sampled at reset to select JTAG interface (USB Serial/JTAG controller vs. external pins). Improper use can disable external JTAG or alter debug interface. | Strapping |
| IO39 | MTCK (GPIO39) | Default JTAG debugging TCK pin. If JTAG is needed, this pin must be free; it may also be used internally for PSRAM chip select on certain modules, so avoid repurposing it. | Other |
| IO40 | MTDO (GPIO40) | Default JTAG TDO output for debugging. Using it as GPIO will interfere with JTAG debugging functionality. | Other |
| IO43 | U0TXD (GPIO43) | Used for bootloader output and UART console logs. If repurposed, you will lose the default serial output (and programming via UART0). | Other |
| IO44 | U0RXD (GPIO44) | Used for bootloader input (download mode via serial). If repurposed, you cannot use the default UART0 download mode for programming the chip. | Other |
| IO45 | GPIO45 | Determines flash/PSRAM power voltage (3.3 V vs 1.8 V) at boot. Must match hardware configuration; using as GPIO can upset flash supply setting. | Strapping |
| IO46 | GPIO46 | Must be at a defined level during reset (with GPIO0) to select normal or download boot and UART/USB print mode. This pin is input-only (no output drive), so it should be left for its intended strapping function. | Strapping |
Only if you know the tricks
wired to flash or USB - expect a fight| Pin | Label | What to know | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| IO9 | FSPIHD | Connected to external flash (data/hold signal) on most modules. Not recommended for use as GPIO, since it must remain dedicated to flash communication. | Flash |
| IO10 | FSPICS0 | Used to select the external flash chip. It is required for flash access and cannot be repurposed without losing flash connectivity | Flash |
| IO11 | FSPID | Used as a data line for flash (and in-package PSRAM). It should not be used as GPIO when the flash/PSRAM is in use. | Flash |
| IO12 | FSPICLK | Drives the flash (and PSRAM) clock. This critical signal must be reserved for memory and not used as general GPIO. | Flash |
| IO13 | FSPIQ | Used as a data line for flash/PSRAM transfers. Not available for other uses when flash/PSRAM is connected. | Flash |
| IO19 | USB_D- | By default connected to the on-chip USB Serial/JTAG controller. Using it as general GPIO without reconfiguring IO MUX will interfere with USB functionality. | USB |
| IO47 | SPICLK_P | Used only on variants with Octal SPI interface (e.g. ESP32-S3R16V) as part of the differential clock pair. On such chips it operates at 1.8 V and is reserved for the high-speed octal SPI clock, not for general GPIO use. | Flash |
| IO48 | SPICLK_N | Used only on variants with Octal SPI interface, as the negative leg of the differential clock&. On such chips it operates at 1.8 V; it should be avoided for GPIO to prevent conflicts with the octal flash/PSRAM clock. | Flash |
Pinout notes The Elecrow CrowPanel E-Paper 5.79 (ESP32-S3) pinout brings out 25 GPIO pins - every one of them usable in your project. If you want zero surprises, IO1 , IO2…
The Elecrow CrowPanel E-Paper 5.79 (ESP32-S3) pinout brings out 25 GPIO pins - every one of them usable in your project.
If you want zero surprises, IO1, IO2, IO4, IO5 and 5 more are free of any such role - the safest first picks. 8 of the exposed pins carry boot-time or system duties on the ESP32-S3 (IO0, IO3, IO39 and 5 more).
The e-paper panel takes SPI on IO12 (CLK) / IO11 (MOSI) with IO45 (CS), IO46 (DC), IO47 (RST) and IO48 (BUSY). Critically, IO7 switches the display's power rail - it must be driven high before the panel responds at all, which catches out every first-time firmware author (our ESPHome guide handles it for you).
Physical input sits on IO2 (Menu), IO1 (Exit) and the rotary switch on IO6/IO4/IO5 (up/down/press) - all active-low with pull-ups. The microSD slot runs its own SPI on IO39 (CLK), IO40 (MOSI), IO13 (MISO), IO10 (CS).
The 2x10 header exposes power rails, the UART0 pins and six free GPIOs - IO3, IO9, IO15, IO17, IO19, IO21 - a generous allocation by display-board standards, and enough for I2C plus a handful of sensors without any bus-sharing gymnastics.
Getting started
flash your first firmware in ~2 minutesBoard: ESP32S3 Dev Module Flash Size: 8MB (64Mb) PSRAM: QSPI PSRAM Partition Scheme: 8M with spiffs (3MB APP / 1.5MB SPIFFS) Upload Speed: 921600
// blink the onboard LED
void setup() {
pinMode(1, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
digitalWrite(1, HIGH); delay(500);
digitalWrite(1, LOW); delay(500);
}[env:elecrow-crowpanel-epaper-5-79]
platform = espressif32
board = esp32-s3-devkitc-1
framework = arduino
monitor_speed = 115200
upload_speed = 921600
board_build.arduino.memory_type = qio_qspi
build_flags = -DBOARD_HAS_PSRAMesp32-s3-devkitc-1 — or type it after board =.esp32:
board: esp32-s3-devkitc-1
variant:
framework:
type: esp-idf
psram:
mode: quad
speed: 80MHz
# blink - GPIO1
output:
- platform: gpio
pin: 1
id: led_out
light:
- platform: binary
name: "LED"
output: led_outesp32-s3-devkitc-1 (same ids as PlatformIO).esptool.py --chip esp32s3 --port /dev/ttyACM0 \
--baud 921600 write_flash 0x0 firmware.bin--port = your /dev/tty* (macOS/Linux) or COMx (Windows).Good to know
board-specific quirks worth 60 seconds
The dual-SSD1683 split panel defeats generic e-paper components, so we rewrote the driver from scratch - correct DisplayBuffer inheritance, a non-blocking update state machine, and LVGL compatibility. It's open source as crowpanel_epaper , and the guide builds a full weather dashboard on it. Set full_update_every: 10 for frequently updating dashboards, or 9999 and trigger full refreshes manually - we wire a…
The dual-SSD1683 split panel defeats generic e-paper components, so we rewrote the driver from scratch - correct DisplayBuffer inheritance, a non-blocking update state machine, and LVGL compatibility. It's open source as crowpanel_epaper, and the guide builds a full weather dashboard on it.
Set full_update_every: 10 for frequently updating dashboards, or 9999 and trigger full refreshes manually - we wire a long-press of the Menu button to force_full_update().
IO7 switches the e-paper's power rail. Firmware must drive it high before the first SPI transaction, or the panel stays blank and every symptom points at a wiring or driver problem that isn't there. It also means you can hard-cut display power in deep-sleep scenarios for extra savings. A blank panel with working serial logs is nearly always the IO7 rail, not a broken display - check it before opening a…
IO7 switches the e-paper's power rail. Firmware must drive it high before the first SPI transaction, or the panel stays blank and every symptom points at a wiring or driver problem that isn't there. It also means you can hard-cut display power in deep-sleep scenarios for extra savings.
A blank panel with working serial logs is nearly always the IO7 rail, not a broken display - check it before opening a support ticket.
E-paper and touchscreens rarely mix, so Elecrow gave this one proper physical input: Menu (IO2), Exit (IO1) and a three-way rotary switch (IO6/IO4/IO5). Mapped as an LVGL encoder, it navigates menus surprisingly well - the preloaded demo shows the pattern.
All five inputs are active-low - configure them with pull-ups and inverted logic, as in the example configs.
Gallery
7 photos
Specifications
ESP32-S3About this board
At its core is the ESP32-S3 - a dual-core Xtensa with vector extensions suited to AI workloads.
Expect to pay about $31.90 - in line with other ESP32-S3 boards.
Onboard you'll find 8MB PSRAM, an E-Paper 5.79" 792x272 display, a microSD slot, a rotary encoder, battery charging via SH1.0-2P and Menu/Exit/Boot/Reset + rotary up/down/press buttons.
The Elecrow CrowPanel E-Paper 5.79 pairs an ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 N8R8 (8 MB flash, 8 MB PSRAM) with a wide-format 5.79-inch black-and-white e-paper panel at 792x272. We reviewed it hands-on - the short version: a well-built module in a clean acrylic case, with more physical input than e-paper boards usually get, at a price that undercuts buying a bare panel plus a dev board separately.
The input hardware is the underrated part: besides Boot and Reset you get Menu and Exit buttons plus a three-way rotary switch (up/down/press), which makes menu-driven UIs possible without any external controller. A microSD slot, battery connector with charging, UART0 port and a 2x10 GPIO header round it out - six IOs on the header are genuinely free for your own hardware.
The panel is driven by two SSD1683 controllers, each owning half of the 792-pixel width. That split design is why generic e-paper drivers don't just work - and why our review originally listed "no ESPHome support" as the main con. That con is gone: we ended up writing an ESPHome external component with full LVGL support for this exact panel, with partial refresh (~600 ms), configurable full-refresh intervals and a manual refresh hook.
Where it fits: always-on dashboards, weather stations and status displays where an LCD's backlight and power draw are wrong, and where deep sleep between updates matters. It won't do video or smooth animation - that's e-paper physics, not a flaw - but as a low-power glanceable display with real buttons, it's one of the more complete packages around.
- 5.79" 792x272 black-and-white e-paper (two SSD1683 controllers in a split configuration)
- ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 N8R8 - 8 MB flash, 8 MB PSRAM
- Menu and Exit buttons plus a three-way rotary switch (up/down/press) for controller-free UIs
- 2x10 GPIO header with six free IOs (IO3, IO9, IO15, IO17, IO19, IO21)
- microSD slot on a dedicated SPI bus
- SH1.0 battery connector with onboard charging - built for deep-sleep battery projects
- Full ESPHome + LVGL support via our open-source crowpanel_epaper external component
- Partial refresh in ~600 ms, with configurable full-refresh cadence to clear ghosting
- Acrylic case and USB-C cable included; demo firmware preloaded
FAQ
5 common questionsDoes the CrowPanel E-Paper 5.79 work with ESPHome?›
Why does the display do nothing when I flash my own firmware?›
How fast does the screen update?›
Can it run on battery?›
What's the difference from the 4.2" CrowPanel e-paper?›
Where to buy
prices are typical street pricesResources
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