This Esp32 kit is great and as far as I have been able to get it working, it does work as advertised. I have to get better at development since I can never seem to get esp32 to work quite the way I want. The screen is bright and clear and everything works exactly as advertised.

I got the Wonrabai ESP32-S3 display board to develop applications for micro-controller boards. This 7 inch color display with capacitive touch supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (BLE5) connectivity. The back of the board offers a two UART, USB, Sensor, CAN, I2C and RS485 ports that can be used in many different development scenarios. The board can be powered using the port or for remote applications a battery (not included). I will be using this 7 inch display as a primary display for my remote greenhouse system.

My first warning about this kit is that it is an lcd screen with an ESP32-S3 board attached to the back. There is no back case or shell for the device so plan on some fabrication if you want to place this someplace where the back is exposed. Otherwise this is a neat kit that comes with a lot of connectors and pigtails. It even supports an attached lithium battery (not included) so you can run it without wired power. Plan on investing some time if you want to create a project with this. If you are already familiar with developing with the Adruino IDE this should seem familiar to you. I elected to use the Microsoft VS Code Extension (using the VS Code editor) to compile a test "Hello World" project. There is good documentation on the Waveshare's website - just search for the part number (esp32-s3-touch-lcd-7) and it will take you to the product page on their site with a link to their wiki at the bottom of the page. The wiki will walk you through the whole process. A basic overview - first you need to connect the device to your computer via a usb-c connection. Be sure to use the usb-c connection labeled "UART" on the ESP32-S3, not the one labeled "USB". The "USB" port will supply power to the board and you can see the very cool sample application that comes preinstalled on the device, but if you want to flash and upload your own program, you need to use the "UART" port (which will also light up more of the onboard LED's - making it easy to recognize visibly). The device will show up in your Windows computer as a COM port or tty/cu port on a Mac or Linux system. All you need to do is install the EspressIf IDF (ESP-IDF) VS Code extension and follow the instruction which will download and install the required tools. After install, the ESP-IDF extension welcome screen will be displayed and there is an option to "Show Examples". It will list a large number of sample programs and I chose "Hello World" as shown in the Wiki. After selecting "Hello World" click the "Create Project using example Hello World" button and it will setup a project in VS Code with the required files downloaded and ready to go. Then you need to focus on all of the new little icons that populate on the bottom of VS Code. First you need to select the COM port and pick the one that will appear when you plug the ESP32-S3 into your computer. Next click the driver and be sure to choose ESP32-S3 (if you miss any of these steps it will complain when you try to compile and flash the code to the device). Then click on the hello_world_main.c in the file explorer on the left hand side of the editor and click the little "flame" icon at the bottom to "Build, Flash and Monitor". I highly advise that you open the terminal before buildling (it is to the right of the flame icon). Hopefully all will build successfully and you will be prompted for a flash method (choose UART). And if all goes well your device will be flashed with the hello world program and it will start to run (this process will wipe the cool touchscreen demo that comes with the device). The hello world program just prints "Hello World", some information about the ESP32-S3 board and then counts down until it runs again. Unplug the board to stop it. If you want to run it again, just plug the board back in and make sure the VS Code COM port setting is correct and click the monitor icon (to the left of the flame at the bottom of the screen) to see the Hello World output again. This all worked pretty smoothly for me on a Windows 10 system. I also tried to do the same on my MacBook running Ventura (I am a version behind), and although I was able to get through all of the steps up to a successful build, I was not able to flash the device from my Mac. It gave an odd error (A fatal error occurred: Failed to write to target RAM (result was 01070000: Operation timed out)). After doing some searching I found that some people had issues with flashing on Mac's. Rather than spending a lot of time troubleshooting I just moved to a Windows system - so if you are Mac only, take heed.

I really wanted to like and use this board, but the wifi on it is SO bad that it would only connect to my router 1 in 5 times, and when it does connect 60-80% of the pings fail. I have at least 4 different ESP32's on my desk that run the same wifi code, they all connect and run perfectly with no issues. The issues seems to stem from the use of a Rev 0 esp chip.Also, the documentation for getting it running is not very good. I use Platform.IO and could not find the board definition for it. I eventually found a library called esp32-smartdisplay on Git Hub, which made it easier to get it to work.The board also has limited GPIO available for use. I wanted to add sound but have not figured out how to connect the I2S board to the available GPIO pins. I didn't spend too much time on it as the Wi-Fi is a deal breaker for me, and I procured a different display with a built-in speaker connection.

Imagine if Tony Stark decided to dabble in DIY electronics – this is what he’d use. The ESP32-S3 is so advanced, it might just start making coffee for you in the morning. The capacitive touch display is so responsive, it feels like it’s reading your mind. And with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, you can finally live out your dream of controlling your home appliances from your couch. Just don’t be surprised if your fridge starts sending you memes.The 32-bit LX7 dual-core processor is like having a tiny superhero in your pocket.The 800×480 screen is so clear you might mistake it for a window to another dimension.With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you’re always connected, even if you’re hiding in your Wi-Fi dead zone. Ensures you get a strong signal, even if you’re in a lead-lined bunker.It’s so powerful, you might feel like it’s judging your coding skills. (Hint: It is.)You might find yourself spending more time with this board than with your family.