Overview

The Guition ESP32 JC2432W328C is a feature-rich development board combining an ESP32 module with a 2.8-inch 240x320 color LCD display and capacitive touchscreen. It includes WiFi, Bluetooth, RGB LED, speaker connector, SD card slot, photoresistor, and battery support, making it ideal for IoT projects requiring a user interface.

NOTE: This is covering only capacitive touch screen version, I haven’t tried resistive one. There is a different controller chip for resistive touch and wiring is slightly different I think. The calibration is slightly simpler with capacitive touch too.

The board uses the Sparkle IOT XH-32S module, which is based on the ESP-WROOM-32 with a dual-core Tensilica LX6 MCU running at 240MHz with 4MB Flash memory.

Test Status

Complete Example Configuration covers:

• ✅ Basic Config
• ✅ GPIO
• ✅ SPI (not exposed externally)
• ✅ I2C
• ✅ (LED) PWM (RGB LED & Backlight)
• ✅ ADC (Light Sensor)
• ✅ Display
• ✅ Touchscreen

The rest:

• SD-Card
• Speaker
• External Connectors

Hardware Features

• Display: 2.8” TFT LCD 240x320 (ST7789V controller)
• Touchscreen: Capacitive touch (CST816 controller)
• Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n HT40, Bluetooth/BLE 4.2
• Storage: TF/Micro SD card slot
• Audio: Speaker connector (GPIO26)
• Sensors: Photoresistor (GPIO34)
• LED: RGB LED (GPIO4=Red, GPIO16=Green, GPIO17=Blue)
• Power: USB-C for programming and power, battery interface with switch, 4P 1.25 power supply base
• Buttons: Boot, Reset, Battery switch
• Backlight Control: GPIO27 (PWM controllable)
• USB: CH340C for USB-to-UART

Module Specifications

• Module: Sparkle IOT XH-32S (similar to ESP32-WROOM-32)
• CPU: Dual-core Xtensa 32-bit LX6, up to 240MHz
• RAM: 520KB SRAM
• Flash: 4MB
• WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n HT40
• Bluetooth: v4.2 BR/EDR and BLE
• Operating Voltage: 3.3V
• Input Voltage: 5V (USB-C or external)

Pinout and I/O Connectors

Switches and Buttons

• Reset (RST): resets the board
• Boot (BOOT): if low on startup, puts the board to programming mode. Not necessary to be used for programming, online ESPHome Web uses USB connection to put it into programming mode. The button can be used after startup as a normal button
• Battery Button Switch: Don’t press it if you are not using battery or you’ll reboot your device. My original enclosure was a bit tight and was pressing it slightly. Took me a while to figure out why is device not working

Extended I/O Connectors

Three 4-pin connectors provide access to additional GPIOs, from left to right looking at the back of the board (connectors are not named on the board but pin names are shown):

1. CON1: GND, IO16, IO4, IO17 (RGB LED connections)
2. CON2: GND, IO22, IO21, VCC (I2C interface)
3. CON3: GND, IO32, IO22, IO21 (I2C + Touch I2C)

Pin Distribution

NOTE: Pins are marked as IOxx on the board, they correspond to GPIOs with the same number on the ESP32 chip. While you can define any pin in your configuration, not all are actually available and exposed on the board or have a function that could be useful.

Pin	Function	Connected To	Notes
IO0	BOOT	Boot button
IO1	U0TXD	Serial TX
IO2	GPIO	TFT_RS	Display DC pin
IO3	U0RXD	Serial RX
IO4	GPIO	LED1_2	RGB LED - Red (CON1)
IO5	VSPI CS0	TF_CS	SD Card CS
IO6	SCK	Flash	Don’t use
IO7	SDO	Flash	Don’t use
IO8	SDI	Flash	Don’t use
IO9	SHD/SD2	Flash	Don’t use
IO10	SWP/SD3	Flash	Don’t use
IO11	CSC/CMD	Flash	Don’t use
IO12	HSPI MISO	TFT_SDO	Display SPI MISO
IO13	HSPI MOSI	TFT_SDI	Display SPI MOSI
IO14	HSPI CLK	TFT_SCK	Display SPI CLK
IO15	HSPI CS0	TFT_CS	Display SPI CS
IO16	U2TXD	LED1_3	RGB LED - Green (CON1)
IO17	U2RXD	LED1_1	RGB LED - Blue (CON1)
IO18	VSPI CLK	TF_CLK	SD Card CLK
IO19	VSPI MISO	TF_SDO	SD Card MISO
IO21	I2C SDA	I2C Bus	CON2 & CON3
IO22	I2C SCL	I2C Bus	CON2 & CON3
IO23	VSPI MOSI	TF_SDI	SD Card MOSI
IO25	GPIO	CTP_RST	Touch Reset
IO26	GPIO	SPK	Speaker
IO27	GPIO	BL_CTRL	Display Backlight PWM
IO32	GPIO	CTP_SCL	Touch I2C SCL (CON3)
IO33	GPIO	CTP_SDA	Touch I2C SDA
IO34	INPUT ONLY	Photoresistor	Analog input
IO35	INPUT ONLY	-	Not Exposed
IO36	INPUT ONLY	-	Not Exposed
IO39	INPUT ONLY	-	Not Exposed

ESPHome Configuration

Complete Example Configuration

This is a complete example with all the hardware features configured:

• RGB Screen is showing test card - check that R has red, G has green and B has blue background
• Touch Screen - see logs for coordinates of the touch, but easy visualisation - touch is turning backlight (and screen) on and off. If it toggles the screen, it’s working
• Backlight
• RGB light - all 3 colors set so you get some kind of pink. Comment out or change color percentages if you want a different color. Every 5 seconds brightness is changing just to show that controls are working

esphome:
  name: guition-display

esp32:
  board: esp32dev
  framework:
    type: esp-idf

logger:

interval:
  - interval: 5s
    then:
      # making sure that RGB light is wired up
      - light.turn_on: internal_rgb
      - light.control:
          id: internal_rgb
          brightness: !lambda |-
            static int num_executions = 0;
            num_executions = (num_executions % 4) + 1;
            //go from 10%-100%
            return num_executions * 0.25;
          red: 100%
          green: 25%
          blue: 75%

# Sensor for onboard photoresistor
# Check out log to see the read-outs
sensor:
  - platform: adc
    pin: GPIO34
    name: "Ambient Light"
    id: board_ldr
    update_interval: 60s
    attenuation: auto

# PWM outputs for RGB LED and backlight
output:
  - platform: ledc
    pin: GPIO04
    id: rgb_led_red
    inverted: true
  - platform: ledc
    pin: GPIO16
    id: rgb_led_green
    inverted: true
  - platform: ledc
    pin: GPIO17
    id: rgb_led_blue
    inverted: true
  - platform: ledc
    pin: GPIO27
    id: backlight_pwm

# RGB LED and backlight control
light:
  - platform: monochromatic
    output: backlight_pwm
    name: "Display Backlight"
    id: backlight
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_ON
  - platform: rgb
    id: internal_rgb
    name: "RGB LED"
    red: rgb_led_red
    green: rgb_led_green
    blue: rgb_led_blue
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF

# Boot button
binary_sensor:
  - platform: gpio
    pin:
      number: GPIO00
      inverted: true
    name: "Boot Button"
    id: boot_btn

# SPI buses - separate for display and SD card
spi:
  - id: spi_card
    clk_pin: GPIO18
    mosi_pin: GPIO23
    miso_pin: GPIO19
  - id: spi_display
    clk_pin: GPIO14
    mosi_pin: GPIO13
    miso_pin: GPIO12

# Display configuration
display:
  - platform: mipi_spi
    model: ST7789V
    id: my_display
    spi_id: spi_display
    cs_pin: GPIO15
    dc_pin: GPIO02
    data_rate: 40MHz
    rotation: 90
    # for LGVL:
    #auto_clear_enabled: false
    #update_interval: never
    # only for initial testing to make sure the board is working
    show_test_card: true
    # have a look at different displays how to draw on the screen
    #lambda: |-
    #  // Your drawing code here
    #  it.print(0, 0, id(font), "Hello World!");

# I2C bus for touchscreen
i2c:
  id: i2c_bus
  sda: GPIO33
  scl: GPIO32

# Capacitive touchscreen
touchscreen:
  - platform: cst816
    id: my_touchscreen
    #NOTE: do not setup interrupt pin otherwise weird behavior
    reset_pin: GPIO25
    transform:
      swap_xy: true
      mirror_y: true
      mirror_x: false
    on_touch:
      - lambda: |-
          ESP_LOGI("touch", "x=%d, y=%d", touch.x, touch.y);
      #also turn on/off the screen on touch (just a visual so we know touch screen is wired up correctly)
      - light.toggle: backlight

# Optional: Speaker output
#output:
#  - platform: ledc
#    pin: GPIO26
#    id: speaker_out
#
#rtttl:
#  output: speaker_out

SD Card Configuration

To use the SD card slot:

spi:
  - id: spi_card
    clk_pin: GPIO18
    mosi_pin: GPIO23
    miso_pin: GPIO19

# Note: SD card support in ESPHome may require additional configuration
# Refer to ESPHome documentation for SD card component usage

NOTE: I haven’t tested SD Card yet.

Touchscreen Calibration

The touchscreen may require calibration. Use the following code to display raw touch coordinates:

touchscreen:
  - platform: cst816
    id: my_touchscreen
    reset_pin: GPIO25
    on_touch:
      - lambda: |-
          ESP_LOGI("calibration", "x=%d, y=%d, x_raw=%d, y_raw=%d",
              touch.x, touch.y, touch.x_raw, touch.y_raw);

Adjust the transform parameters based on the output:

• swap_xy: Swap X and Y coordinates
• mirror_x: Mirror horizontally
• mirror_y: Mirror vertically

Important Notes

⚠️ SPI Buses: The board uses two separate SPI buses - one for the display (HSPI) and one for the SD card (VSPI). They are wired differently and not available for external devices.

⚠️ Flash Pins: GPIO6-11 are connected to the flash memory. Do not use these pins.

⚠️ Input-Only Pins: GPIO34-39 can only be used as inputs and don’t have internal pull-up/pull-down resistors. They are not exposed on the board anyway.

⚠️ RGB LED: The RGB LED pins are inverted (active low).

⚠️ Touch Reset: GPIO25 is used for touchscreen reset. Must be configured in the touchscreen component. Do not configure interrupt pin in the touchscreen component.

Using with LVGL

⚠️ Display Updates: For using with LVGL, set update_interval: never and auto_clear_enabled: false in the display config.

This board works great with LVGL (Light and Versatile Graphics Library). To wake the display on touch:

touchscreen:
  - platform: cst816
    id: my_touchscreen
    reset_pin: GPIO25
    transform:
      swap_xy: true
      mirror_y: true
    on_release:
      - if:
          condition: lvgl.is_paused
          then:
            - logger.log: "LVGL resuming"
            - lvgl.resume:
            - lvgl.widget.redraw:
            - light.turn_on: backlight

Troubleshooting

Display not working:

• Check backlight is enabled (GPIO27)
• Verify SPI pins are correct (HSPI bus)
• Try lower data_rate (start with 10MHz, then increase)

Touch not responding:

• Verify I2C pins (GPIO32=SCL, GPIO33=SDA)
• Check touchscreen reset pin (GPIO25) is configured
• Do not configure interrupt pin
• Run I2C scan to confirm CST816 is detected

Board won’t flash:

• Hold the BOOT button while connecting USB
• Try a different USB cable (must support data)
• Ensure USB drivers are installed
• It uses CH340C - I noticed only one serial port showing up even when multiple boards connected, disconnect other boards

Random resets:

• Check power supply (needs stable 5V, 500mA+)
• If using battery, ensure it’s charged
• Disable WiFi temporarily to test if power-related

Other Images