Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch LCD 7B
7" 1024×600 IPS touch HMI panel on an ESP32-S3 N16R8 with CAN, RS-485, microSD, Li-ion charging and dual USB-C ports.
Pinout
13 pins
| Pin | GPIO | Labels | Status | Capabilities | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | 5V | power | - | 5V input on the POWER header (alternative to USB-C) |
| 2 | - | 3V3 | power | - | 3.3V rail on the I2C, UART2 and GPIO headers |
| 3 | - | GND | ground | - | Ground, present on every JST header |
| 4 | - | BAT | power | - | 3.7V Li-ion via PH2.0 connector - CS8501 charge management |
| 5 | 6 | GP6 | safe | adc · touch | The only fully free GPIO, on the 3-pin GPIO header |
| 6 | 8 | SDA | safe | i2c | I2C header - bus shared with the GT911 touch and CH32V003 expander |
| 7 | 9 | SCL | strapping | i2c | I2C header - bus shared with the GT911 touch and CH32V003 expander |
| 8 | 43 | TXU0TXD | strapping | uart | UART2 header - slide switch selects it or the USB-UART port |
| 9 | 44 | RXU0RXD | strapping | uart | UART2 header - slide switch selects it or the USB-UART port |
| 10 | - | A | safe | - | RS-485 bus A - SP3485 transceiver on GPIO15 (TX) / GPIO16 (RX) |
| 11 | - | B | safe | - | RS-485 bus B - SP3485 transceiver on GPIO15 (TX) / GPIO16 (RX) |
| 12 | - | H | safe | - | CAN high - TJA1051 transceiver on GPIO20 (TX) / GPIO19 (RX), shared with USB |
| 13 | - | L | safe | - | CAN low - TJA1051 transceiver on GPIO20 (TX) / GPIO19 (RX), shared with USB |
Start with these
2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TX | U0TXD (GPIO43) | Used for bootloader output and UART console logs. If repurposed, you will lose the default serial output (and programming via UART0). | Other |
| RX | 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 |
Only if you know the tricks
wired to flash or USB - expect a fight| Pin | Label | What to know | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCL | 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 |
Pinout notes The Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch LCD 7B breaks out 13 pins in total: 5 GPIO for your project, with 5V , 3V3 , GND and BAT handling power. Peripheral wiring is…
The Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch LCD 7B breaks out 13 pins in total: 5 GPIO for your project, with 5V, 3V3, GND and BAT handling power.
Peripheral wiring is straightforward: I²C is mapped to SDA on GPIO8 and SCL on GPIO9, while TX/RX on GPIO43 and GPIO44 cover serial logging and flashing.
Beyond plain digital I/O you get 1 ADC-capable pins for sensors and battery monitoring and 1 capacitive-touch inputs.
2 of the exposed pins carry boot-time or system duties on the ESP32-S3 (TX and RX) - check the guidance above before wiring anything to them. GP6 and SDA are free of any such role - the safest first picks.
Getting started
flash your first firmware in ~2 minutesBoard: Esp32s3 Dev
Flash Size: 16MB · QIO
Upload Speed: 921600
// blink
pinMode(6, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(6, LOW); // on (often inverted)[env:waveshare-esp32-s3-touch-lcd-7b]
platform = espressif32
board = esp32-s3-devkitc-1
framework = arduino
monitor_speed = 115200
upload_speed = 921600esp32:
board: esp32-s3-devkitc-1
variant: esp32s3
framework:
type: esp-idf
# blink - GPIO6
output:
- platform: gpio
pin: 6
id: led_out
light:
- platform: binary
name: "LED"
output: led_outesptool.py --chip esp32s3 --port /dev/ttyACM0 \
write_flash 0x0 firmware.binGood to know
board-specific quirks worth 60 seconds
Code and configs written for the older Touch-LCD-7 won't carry over directly: the 7B replaces the CH422G expander with a CH32V003 microcontroller running IO-expander firmware at I2C address 0x24 . It drives touch reset, display reset, the SD chip-select and the USB/CAN switch - and it does two things the CH422G couldn't: PWM backlight dimming and battery-voltage readout through its ADC. ESPHome supports it…
Code and configs written for the older Touch-LCD-7 won't carry over directly: the 7B replaces the CH422G expander with a CH32V003 microcontroller running IO-expander firmware at I2C address 0x24. It drives touch reset, display reset, the SD chip-select and the USB/CAN switch - and it does two things the CH422G couldn't: PWM backlight dimming and battery-voltage readout through its ADC.
ESPHome supports it natively since mid-2026 via the waveshare_io_ch32v003 component, so backlight brightness and battery monitoring work without custom code.
The 1024×600 framebuffer lives in the octal PSRAM, and heavy Wi-Fi activity can starve the panel refresh - it shows up as horizontal drift, flicker, or a screen that comes up shifted by half a page, often right when Wi-Fi reconnects. Waveshare's fix is ESP-IDF v5.1 or later (arduino-esp32 v3.x); lowering the pixel clock helps if it persists. In the Arduino IDE, set Flash Size to 16MB and PSRAM to OPI PSRAM…
The 1024×600 framebuffer lives in the octal PSRAM, and heavy Wi-Fi activity can starve the panel refresh - it shows up as horizontal drift, flicker, or a screen that comes up shifted by half a page, often right when Wi-Fi reconnects. Waveshare's fix is ESP-IDF v5.1 or later (arduino-esp32 v3.x); lowering the pixel clock helps if it persists.
In the Arduino IDE, set Flash Size to 16MB and PSRAM to OPI PSRAM - with the defaults the framebuffer allocation fails and the screen simply stays black.
The native USB-C port only enumerates while the onboard analog switch routes GPIO19/20 to USB - if the running firmware has selected CAN, no COM port appears at all. Hold BOOT while plugging in power to force download mode, or flash through the second USB-C port: it goes through the CH343 USB-UART chip and works regardless of the switch position.
Gallery
3 photos
Specifications
ESP32-S3 · 192.96 × 110.76 mmAbout this board
Inside sits the ESP32-S3 - a dual-core Xtensa with vector extensions suited to AI workloads.
At $46.99 it's on the expensive side for an ESP32-S3 board - most land around $30.
Only 5 GPIO are left for your own hardware - the display and onboard peripherals claim the rest.
Around the module: 8MB (OPI) PSRAM, an IPS LCD 7.0" 1024x600 display with touch, a microSD slot, an RS485 interface (SP3485), a CAN bus interface (TJA1051), battery charging (CS8501) via PH2.0, status LEDs (Power, Charge, Done) and Reset/Boot buttons.
- ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8 module - 16MB flash + 8MB octal PSRAM
- 5-point capacitive touch on tempered glass, 235 cd/m² brightness
- CH32V003 helper MCU as I2C IO expander (0x24) - touch reset, display reset, SD chip-select, USB/CAN switch, PWM backlight dimming and battery-voltage ADC
- Total thickness ~18.3 mm from screen glass to the top of the terminal blocks
- CAN shares GPIO19/20 with native USB - selectable, not usable simultaneously
- Slide switch routes UART0 (GPIO43/44) to either the USB-UART port or the UART2 header
- Onboard 120Ω termination DIP switch for the CAN and RS-485 buses
- Backlight boost converter (AP3032) with VCOM trimmer for panel tuning
- PCB without touch glass measures 164 × 97 mm
FAQ
7 common questionsCan I use the native USB port and the CAN bus at the same time?›
How do I connect my own sensors when almost every GPIO drives the display?›
Why doesn't my computer detect a COM port on the native USB-C port?›
The screen stays black after flashing from the Arduino IDE - what's wrong?›
Why does the display drift or flicker, especially when Wi-Fi reconnects?›
RS-485 transmits but never receives anything - is my board broken?›
Does it work with ESPHome and Home Assistant?›
Where to buy
prices are typical street prices
Resources
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