What is it?

Is a ESP32-C3 2.7-inch Touch Wall Switch Demo Kit, the latest product from Fasani Corp that will revolutionize your home automation experience! With its cutting-edge ESP32C3 chip and GOOD DISPLAY's hot-selling 2.7-inch electronic paper display with touch screen GDEY027T91-T01, this kit allows you to easily control various devices in your home.

Why did you make it?

There is actually not any existing PCB on the market this days where you get Epaper controller plus touch for cheap SPI epapers. There are of course epaper controllers with touch but for ready-made products with parallel epapers such as Kindle and any other e-book reader. But what if you want to make a simple UX using a small SPI epaper?

This board gives an answer to this question and opens a new way to explore that possibility. This ESP32-C3 controller board includes in a single PCB the existing SPI adapter for 24 pin epapers and an additional I2C connector for touch. Based on my already working PCB to have a small footprint SPI driver and Tinypico HAT this new project has the size to be used in a home swich. But of course it's not limited to be used in a home switch but in any other project where you would like to try making easy and straight-forward UX. It has connectors ready to drive a 2.7 inch E-Ink Screen Display 264x176 epaper display. There is a new model that has touch and I can include it in this package optionally (Check product options)

What makes it special?

This demo kit supports RESE switches, which allows you to freely choose different types of electronic ink screens and achieve more customized features. It also includes the PCF8563 RTC real-time clock module, with a 10-minute capacitor backup power supply to ensure that the clock never fails due to power outages. Get this kit today and make your home smarter, more convenient, and efficient! You can code the UX yourself or you can also make it headless, without epaper, and use ESP-Rainmaker to control your switch.

This board gives an answer to this question and opens a new way to explore that possibility. This ESP32-C3 controller board includes in a single PCB the existing SPI adapter for 24 pin epapers and an additional I2C connector for touch. Based on my already working PCB to have a small footprint SPI driver and Tinypico HAT this new project has the size to be used in a home swich. But of course it's not limited to be used in a home switch but in any other project where you would like to try making easy and straight-forward UX. It has connectors ready to drive a 2.7 inch E-Ink Screen Display 264x176 epaper display. There is a new model that has touch and I can include it in this package optionally (Check product options) As a resume what you get with this PCB:

Low consumption controller for 24 FPC epaper displays (No LEDs, no additional consuming devices)
6 FPC touch connector already routed to I2C in the C3 (SDA: IO5 SCL: IO4) with pull-ups already in place
Size ready to comb the epaper display and place it safely in the other side with some double sided tape
USB to UART chip CP2102N (QFN28) with USB-C interface
3 Output IOs to control external devices: IO1, IO2 and IO3
FREE 3D-printed in PETG or PLA material Prusament an EU wall switch where PCB Fits (Look at last image)

What it does not have and is not planned to be included is Battery charging circuit since the idea it was to be used as a switch or industrial device where is always connected to a power source.

What it does not deliver in Revision 1.0 but is coming in release 1.1

RESE switch is resistance is fixed to 3 Ω in next revision comes a switch to allow also epapers that use 4.7 Ω
5V VBUS input (Rel 1.1 you can power also using 5V, 1.0 only via USB)
RTC PCF8563 which is tied to same I2C as touch but uses INT alarm pin with IO2
Please check routing and schematics in the links provided below

It can be programmed connecting it directly to USB. And it can be powered either by USB or by 3.3V directly. It was designed to be used in home appliances more specifically in a switch to have a smart-home actuator where you can place switches or do whatever you desire UX wise having an epaper which has a touch interface. But you don't want to charge a switch and a battery to it when there is power running all over the house. We will provide soon an extra PCB, that converts 220 AC to 3.3 DC, which has an additional Latch Relay on board.

Additionally after you are done tinkering there is also an open source PCB that you can send to fabrication in JLCPCB, that fits in any EU wall switch box, and converts 220 AC to 3.3 DC effectively allowing you to leave this board always connected to the wall consuming minimal current.

You can also find in that repository on the folder C3-27-epaper-touch all design files, schematics, and components. Full IO configuration for the switch example

EPAPER SPI pins

CONFIG_EINK_SPI_MOSI=0
CONFIG_EINK_SPI_CLK=6
CONFIG_EINK_SPI_CS=19
CONFIG_EINK_DC=18
CONFIG_EINK_RST=10
CONFIG_EINK_BUSY=7

# TOUCH I2C configuration

CONFIG_TOUCH_SDA=5 CONFIG_TOUCH_SDL=4 CONFIG_TOUCH_INT=8

INT pin is pulled-up and HIGH by default the touch controller triggers it LOW when there is a touch event to read.