ESP32-P4 MIPI DSI Support Hub

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(Note: This is work in progress.) A general-purpose boilerplate for bringing up MIPI DSI LCDs (with optional touch) on the ESP32‑P4. This repo aims to give developers a clean, extensible starting point: select a board, select a panel, build, and get pixels on the screen with LVGL.

Feature

Modular, trim-to-fit panel support: choose your LCD and keep builds lean by removing unused drivers in lcd_config/.

Goals

• Minimal, vendor-neutral scaffolding for MIPI DSI on ESP32‑P4
• Clean separation of hardware init, display config, and UI logic (LVGL 9)
• Pluggable panel drivers and touch controllers
• Menuconfig-driven board selection and automatic sdkconfig overlays per vendor

Quick start

1. Prerequisites
   • ESP-IDF v5.5.3+ or v6.0 (P4 + MIPI DSI capable toolchain, tested with v5.5.3 and v6.0)
   • Python and Git installed

Note for ESP-IDF v6.0 Users: This project includes modified components in the components/ directory to ensure compatibility with ESP-IDF v6.0's new color/display API. These will be automatically used during build. The patches use conditional compilation to maintain backward compatibility with ESP-IDF v5.5.3+. See components/README.md for details.

2. Configure

   • Select your board in menuconfig under: Project Configuration → Hardware Vendor/Board
   • Select your LCD panel: Project Configuration → Display → Panel
   • No options will be added later

3. Build and flash

   • idf.py set-target esp32p4
   • idf.py menuconfig
   • idf.py -p PORT flash monitor

Note: Board selection applies an sdkconfig overlay from boards/sdkconfig.defaults.<vendor> to set sane SPI flash options and other defaults.

Repo structure

• main/
  • hw_config/ Board-level setup (I2C, LDO, MIPI DSI PHY power, etc.)
  • lcd_config/ Panel selection and LVGL display/touch wiring
• components/ Local component overrides (ESP-IDF v6.0 compatibility patches)
• managed_components/ Third-party components (esp_lvgl_port, LCD panels, touch, etc.)
• boards/ sdkconfig overlays applied per selected vendor/board
• project_include.cmake Logic to append the overlay based on Kconfig symbol

Configuration highlights

• ESP32-P4 chip revision support: Configured to support all chip revisions (v1.0 and above) for maximum hardware compatibility
• Partition table: 10MB factory app partition, 5MB SPIFFS storage (optimized for larger binaries)
• LVGL demos: Only widgets demo enabled by default to reduce binary size (other demos can be enabled in menuconfig)
• LVGL 9 via espressif__esp_lvgl_port
• MIPI DSI panel bring-up path: create DSI bus → DBI IO → wrap DPI panel → register display with LVGL
• I2C v2 API for touch and aux devices

Supported boards

The following ESP32-P4 development boards are supported and can be selected in menuconfig:

Vendor	Board Name	Flash	URL	Status
Espressif	ESP32-P4 Function EV Board	16MB	espressif.com	✅ Works
Olimex	ESP32-P4-DevKit	16MB	olimex.com	✅ Works
DFRobot	FireBeetle 2 ESP32-P4	16MB	dfrobot.com	✅ Works
Waveshare	ESP32-P4-Module-DEV-KIT	16MB	waveshare.com	✅ Works
Guition	JC-ESP32P4-M3 DEV Board	16MB	surenoo.com	✅ Works

All boards use the same general I2C and DSI PHY configuration. Board-specific settings (flash mode, frequency) are applied automatically via sdkconfig overlays in boards/.

Supported displays (growing)

Planned to be added incrementally as part-time development progresses.

Vendor	Model	Resolution (WxH)*	Interface	Touch	Status
BuyDisplay	5" IPS TFT ER-TFT050-10	720x1280	DSI (2-lanes)	GT911	✅ Works
DFRobot	5" DSI (SKU: DFR0550-V2)	800x480	DSI (1-lane)	FT5x06	✅ Works
Luckfox	5" DSI (SKU: 28560)	800x480	DSI (1-lane)	FT5x06	✅ Works
RaspberyPi	RPi 7" Touch Display V1	800x480	DSI (1-lane)	FT5x06	✅ Works
RaspberyPi	RPi 5" Touch Display V2	720x1280	DSI (2-lanes)	GT911	✅ Works
RaspberyPi	RPi 7" Touch Display V2	720x1280	DSI (2-lanes)	GT911	✅ Works
Waveshare	ESP32-P4-WIFI6-Touch-LCD-3.4C	800x800	DSI (2-lanes)	GT911	✅ Works
Amelin	7" 1024x600 LCD T D	1024x600	DSI (2-lanes)	GT911	In progress
SeeedStudio	TBD	—	DSI	—	Planned

*Default Resolution. Display orientation can be changed in the firmware.

Contributions and test reports are welcome.

Incorporating into your own project

The simplest way to use this repo as a foundation for your own ESP32-P4 project:

1. Copy or fork this repository and keep only the panel driver(s) you need under main/lcd_config/ and the board overlay under boards/ that matches your hardware.
2. Replace main/main.c with your own application code. The display and touch are initialised before app_main reaches your UI code, so you only need to call lv_timer_handler() in your main loop (or rely on the LVGL port task that the esp_lvgl_port component starts automatically).
3. Add your own components alongside the existing ones — the CMakeLists.txt and idf_component.yml follow standard ESP-IDF component conventions, so drop your component folder into components/ or list it in idf_component.yml as a managed dependency.

Hardware acceleration / improving swipe performance (NOT FULLY TESTED!)

The ESP32-P4 includes a Pixel-Processing Accelerator (PPA) that can offload fill, copy, rotate, and scale operations from the CPU. LVGL 9 can use this through its custom draw callback mechanism:

• Enable Espressif's PPA accelerator in sdkconfig (via menuconfig: Component config → LVGL configuration → Rendering configuration → Use Espressif's PPA accelerator).
• The esp_lvgl_port component wires the PPA renderer automatically when the Kconfig symbol is set — no extra code is required in main.c.
• If the option is not visible, make sure you are on LVGL ≥ 9.2 and ESP-IDF ≥ v5.5.3 (both are already required by this repo).

Enabling PPA typically makes list scrolling and screen transitions noticeably faster because blending and fill operations run in hardware while the CPU is free.

Contributors

• Tomasz Witke: added support for Waveshare ESP32-P4-WIFI6-Touch-LCD-3.4C.

Quick tips for troubleshooting

During bring-up across multiple DSI panels, configuration changes can occasionally leave the panel in an unresponsive state. If you flash the ESP32‑P4 with different DSI settings while the same panel remains connected, the panel might not reflect the new configuration. In that case:

• Switching ESP-IDF versions: If you're switching between ESP-IDF v5.5.3 and v6.0 (or vice versa), you must perform a clean build to avoid compatibility issues. Delete the following before rebuilding:

  # Clean all cached build artifacts and configuration
  rm -rf build/
  rm -f sdkconfig
  rm -f dependencies.lock
  # Then reconfigure and rebuild
  idf.py reconfigure
  idf.py build

  This ensures cached build artifacts, component dependencies, and configuration files from the previous IDF version don't interfere with the new build.

• Fully power-cycle the system (board and display) to clear any latched state in the panel or bridge.

• If the display shows scrambled frames, review the LCD_MIPI_DSI_LANE_BITRATE_MBPS setting and lower it as needed. A typical stable range is 600–1500 Mbps.

• If the touch controller doesn't initialize or the LCD (e.g., RPi 7") doesn't power up, reduce the I2C bus speed. Some panels don't tolerate higher rates. For example, the Luckfox 5" touch only initialized reliably at ≤100 kHz.

• ESP-IDF v6.0 + picolibc linker error: If you see can't link soft-float modules with single-float modules during linking, this is a known toolchain issue (esp-15.2.0_20251204) where the picolibc fallback libc.a was compiled with double-float extensions while the ESP32-P4 target uses single-float ABI only. Workaround: switch to newlib via menuconfig → Component config → C Library → Newlib (the sdkconfig.defaults in this repo defaults to newlib to avoid this).

Pictures

Below are a few photos from the project setup and output. Images are stored under pictures/.

License

See LICENSE for details.