Hi there, I recently purchased a UC-410 display (Order #X001GU1J13) and it works fine with my Raspberry Pi. However, I’m trying to use it with an ESP32 to reduce power consumption and avoid having to boot up the Pi every time. Does anyone know if there’s a library or example code available to program an ESP32 to drive this display? I’ve been searching but haven’t found anything that works. The display never really worked for me in this setup.
Thanks for reaching out and for the order details. Sorry to hear you’re having trouble getting the UC-410 to work with your ESP32. To help me better understand your current setup and diagnose the issue, could you please send over some photos of the UC-410 display? Specifically, I’d like to see how you have it connected and the board itself. That will help me figure out what’s going on.
Sure, I’ve attached a picture of the UC-410 display here. Let me know if you need anything else.
Thanks for the photo. After looking into this further, I can see what the issue is. The UC-410 display uses a MIPI DSI (Display Serial Interface) protocol, which is a high-speed communication standard. The problem is that most standard ESP32 models do not support the physical MIPI DSI interface, nor do they have the specialized timing controllers needed to drive this particular panel. The UC-410 is designed to work with the Raspberry Pi’s dedicated hardware DSI port, and that’s where it performs perfectly.
Unfortunately, there is currently no available library, example code, or hardware adapter that would allow the UC-410 to function with an ESP32. I know that’s not what you were hoping to hear.
Ah, that’s a bummer. I was really hoping to cut down on power usage by switching to the ESP32. So just to clarify — there’s absolutely no workaround or adapter out there that could bridge the ESP32 and the UC-410?
That’s correct, I’m afraid. MIPI DSI requires dedicated hardware lanes and very specific timing that isn’t available on the ESP32’s GPIO. There aren’t any off-the-shelf adapters that convert from the ESP32’s outputs to MIPI DSI either. If you need to use the UC-410 display, your best bet is to stick with a Raspberry Pi as the driver. It’s the supported platform and will give you the best results.
Got it, I understand. That’s a bit disappointing but I appreciate you looking into it thoroughly. I’ll just keep using the Raspberry Pi as the base to drive the display. No further issues on my end — thanks for the help!