Broken board or user error?

[Smallfry]

Hello, I am new to ESP32 boards and am not sure if my current board is broken or if I am just not understanding the complex balance of variables that need to align just right. I have an ESP32-S3 board from waveshare with a built in display (link below) and can not for the life of me get the screen to do anything. When I first got the board it booted up and ran the factory program which included UI, but since then I have flashed other various headless programs from Arduino IDE with great difficulty (more library and compile headaches), but have never been able to compile or upload any code that interacts with the screen. I am continually running into errors such as needing Arduino core 3.x.x to support my exact board but anything past 2.0.14 introduces a bug with the GFX library, or COM port errors that weren't an issue until I downgraded some TFT library because it was interfering with SPI communication...

- Init and flash RGB colors? Nope
- Hello world with lvgl? Library incompatibilities
- Hello world with basic text with gfx library? The code uploads but the screen does nothing
- Just turn on the backlight to any brightness? AMOLED does not use backlights and does not expose a pin for it
- Try to re-flash factory program that worked when I first plugged it in? That example code is only available in Visual studio IDF, I am using Arduino IDE and failing - Visual studio seems like it has an even steeper learning curve and I am clearly an idiot. Plus the rest of my project is an Arduino ino file.

I need a large coffee and someone to please explain the basics of integrated displays within the ESP32 environment. Or just to provide any code what so ever (and a detailed set of IDE settings) that can activate my screen just enough for me to understand that the screen CAN in fact turn on and is not broken. Thank you very very very very much......

https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/ESP32-S3 ... 4#ESP32-S3

[wulu01]

Hi Smallfry,

Sorry for the trouble. The fastest way to get this resolved is to contact Waveshare’s official support so they can track your case and check board-specific configs:

- Ticket: https://service.waveshare.com/
- Email: support@waveshare.com

Please include your exact board model/revision (photo/URL), Arduino-ESP32 core version, display library versions, IDE board settings, and the minimal sketch you tried. I’m not on the waveshare technical support team, but I’ve flagged this internally and will keep an eye on the thread.