Display stopped working

[HowdyMoto]

Hello,

After receiving my board, I left it plugged in for a couple days and then woke up and the display no longer works.

When I plug the device in, the red charging LED workd. After reloading the firmware.bin, the device shows the red charging LED, and the green LED on the top of the board flashes repeatedly, but the display never lights up or shows anything. The device shows up in Arduino IDE and I'm able to successfully uploaded sketches to it.

Is the display broken or are there some ways to try to get it working again?

[asiorgad]

Have the same issue , they are selling crap .

[MaxKinz]

I have the same issue - I thought this was due to me trying to fit it into a slightly undersize housing though no visible damage was sustained - there was however no immediate problem but display stopped working now

[nikthefix]

My T-Track Amoled died in the same way. I think it's ESD damage so it's my fault. Take care with grounding your workspace and body when handling these boards - all the usual antistatic precautions apply until in an enclosure etc.

[asiorgad]

For me , at the end ,the board was actually ok , I just flashed the regular "T-Display S3" firmware instead of the "T-Display S3 AMOLED" So just make sure you're flashing the right one

[HowdyMoto]

Just tried flashing the other board's firmware. That did not work.

It's a shame LILYGO hasn't responded here.

On Tue, Dec 5, 2023 at 11:39 PM asiorgad @.***> wrote:

For me , at the end ,the board was actually ok , I just flashed the regular "T-Display S3" firmware instead of the "T-Display S3 AMOLED" So just make sure you're flashing the right one

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/T-Display-S3-AMOLED/issues/13#issuecomment-1842261498, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AKKNRNH6RZSGHJYWB3Z5UTTYIAOJXAVCNFSM6AAAAAA42SZNYSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQNBSGI3DCNBZHA . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: @.***>

[asiorgad]

Their technical support is awful .. That's my experience... even though I managed to fix it at the end , when I was facing issues with the board - my experience with the support team was really bad, and I probably won't purchase any devices from them again .

[HowdyMoto]

It's a real shame. No one else makes boards as cool as theirs. I want to make commercial products from them, but not with these reliability issues.

On Wed, Dec 6, 2023 at 8:54 AM asiorgad @.***> wrote:

Their technical support is awful .. That's my experience... even though I managed to fix it at the end , when I was facing issues with the board - my experience with the support team was really bad, and I probably won't purchase any devices from them again .

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/T-Display-S3-AMOLED/issues/13#issuecomment-1843286923, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AKKNRNEXT6BPXTQDX4YMDVTYICPNBAVCNFSM6AAAAAA42SZNYSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQNBTGI4DMOJSGM . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: @.***>

[asiorgad]

That's right, and at first sight they seemed to be a company with some quality products, but actually their have lack of tech support, warranty, and customer service.

[teastainGit]

Hi, everyone! I live in Canada and I do not work for LilyGO !!! I own two LilyGO T-Display S3, one LilyGO T-Display S3 AMOLED and a T-HMI. They all work splendidly, I can run all the examples and I've created my own test programs called HotHead for each board. My first LilyGO T-Display S3 was a nightmare to get running last year because the demo program is useless until you edit it with your own WiFi creds. Using other peoples sketches for other ESP32s is frustrating because you must add power enable and back light outputs for it to work. (at-all in some cases). Also the original LilyGO T-Display S3 used a fork of TFT_eSPI to get the 8 bit parallel LCD interface running. but the display is the fastest I ever seen. So every user would update their Arduino IDE library and overnight it would stop working. Now that the library is not forked you can do library updates but you have to copy your own setup in a file called: 'User_Setup_Select.h' for each type of board and just copy it over the Arduino IDE library one, et voilà. To support other users with the LilyGO T-Display S3 (specifically) I made this GitHub repository: https://github.com/teastainGit/LilyGO-T-display-S3-setup-and-examples The AMOLED and T-HMI are easier to use, so I did not make a repository, but my HotHead test programs are available on request. -Terry

[nikthefix]

Lilygo are unusual in being so prolific and having so many interesting ideas which they quickly offer up to the maker community in the form of affordable hardware. I can't think of another firm as enthusiastically pumping out unique new boards. Tech support is not something I would expect from the sole maintainer of the whole lilygo codebase. Impossible job. But community support is good and these github pages are very active. Espressif support is also really good. New boards will obviously take time for the collective user knowledge base to build.

@Terry, Thanks for sharing your work.

[julio-matarranz]

Mine died yesterday, I tried factory firmware but there is no back light anymore. I don't know what happened it was just USB powered from the computer and nothing plugged on gpio because I was trying to code something about elm327 wifi based on nerdminer code. I haven't been using this board much (probably 3h)... Any idea ?

[nikthefix]

@julio-matarranz The AMOLED doesn't have a backlight. Each pixel generates it's own light. From your picture it looks like you still have some visible activity on the screen. Does your sketch display as expected albeit very dimly?

If so then I suspect the AMOLED power management IC has failed. Same thing happened to me with the T-Track-AMOLED. I couldn't bring it back to life but I concluded that I needed to improve my anti-static handling of the board.

Another possibility it that the display brightness register retains a low value. Try sending 0xFF to the brightness control register to see if it has any effect.

These setting should be volatile but I've found that sometimes they hold thru a power cycle unless they are explicitly initialized. Not sure why. Try adding delays in setup for a decent power on reset.

Additional: Did it fail after an upload or just unexpectedly when you plugged it in? The reason I ask is that updates to the lilygo library to include the touch version and Mk2 version of this display have a 'display enable' on pin 38 (I think it's 38 but I'm away from my dev machine at the moment) which needs to be pulled high to enable the display. Did you change your libs in any way before the failure?

nik

[julio-matarranz]

@julio-matarranz The AMOLED doesn't have a backlight. Each pixel generates it's own light. From your picture it looks like you still have some visible activity on the screen. Does your sketch display as expected albeit very dimly?

If so then I suspect the AMOLED power management IC has failed. Same thing happened to me with the T-Track-AMOLED. I couldn't bring it back to life but I concluded that I needed to improve my anti-static handling of the board.

Another possibility it that the display brightness register retains a low value. Try sending 0xFF to the brightness control register to see if it has any effect.

These setting should be volatile but I've found that sometimes they hold thru a power cycle unless they are explicitly initialized. Not sure why. Try adding delays in setup for a decent power on reset.

Additional: Did it fail after an upload or just unexpectedly when you plugged it in? The reason I ask is that updates to the lilygo library to include the touch version and Mk2 version of this display have a 'display enable' on pin 38 (I think it's 38 but I'm away from my dev machine at the moment) which needs to be pulled high to enable the display. Did you change your libs in any way before the failure?

nik

Dear, thank you for your answer it's really usefull to understand how AMOLED works. My picture is with original firmware (downloaded the oldest bin from older commit on the repository). I don't know how I broke it but I have 3d printed a case so the board was protected... Only plugged USB on laptop to work on the custom firmware but the screen wasn't working anymore.

[julio-matarranz]

Dear, based on octagon_on_amoled I produced this simple code :

#include "rm67162.h"
#include <TFT_eSPI.h>

// Initialize display and sprites
TFT_eSPI tft = TFT_eSPI();
TFT_eSprite bgr = TFT_eSprite(&tft);
TFT_eSprite sprite = TFT_eSprite(&tft);

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(115200);
    sleep(10);
    Serial.println("T-DISPLAY-S3-AMOLED SCREEN TEST");
    rm67162_init();
    lcd_setRotation(1);
    sprite.createSprite(536, 240);
    sprite.setSwapBytes(1);
}

void loop()
{
    Serial.println("lcd_on");
    lcd_on();
    for (uint16_t color : default_4bit_palette)
    {
        sprite.fillScreen(color);
        lcd_PushColors(0, 0, 536, 240, (uint16_t *)sprite.getPointer());
        Serial.print("fill ");
        Serial.println(color, HEX);
        sleep(5);
    }
    sprite.fillScreen(0xFF);
    lcd_PushColors(0, 0, 536, 240, (uint16_t *)sprite.getPointer());
    Serial.println("fill 0xFF");
    sleep(5);
    Serial.println("lcd_off");
    lcd_off();
    sleep(5);
}

void lcd_on()
{
  lcd_send_cmd(0x29, NULL, 0x00);
}

void lcd_off()
{
  lcd_send_cmd(0x28, NULL, 0x00);
}

The screen keep staying dark. Do you have other advice ?

[nikthefix]

I'll try your sketch. Which versions of the ESP32 core and TFT_eSPI are you using? nik

[julio-matarranz]

@nikthefix I took the master from this project on platformio. I put "src_dir = examples/octagon_on_amoled" in "platformio.ini" and tweaked the "octagon_on_amoled.ino" file. I found out that my screen is "working" if I manage less pixels. I suppose that my screen isn't powered enough anymore (if I manage less pixels they are brighter).

// Include necessary libraries and fonts
#include "rm67162.h"
#include <TFT_eSPI.h>

// Initialize display and sprites
TFT_eSPI tft = TFT_eSPI();
TFT_eSprite bgr = TFT_eSprite(&tft);
TFT_eSprite sprite = TFT_eSprite(&tft);

//#define LCD_H_RES     536
//#define LCD_V_RES     240

// #define LCD_H_START     0
// #define LCD_V_START     0

#define LCD_H_RES     50
#define LCD_V_RES     50

#define LCD_H_START     100
#define LCD_V_START     100

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(115200);
    sleep(10);
    Serial.println("T-DISPLAY-S3-AMOLED SCREEN TEST");
    rm67162_init();
    lcd_setRotation(1);
    sprite.createSprite(LCD_H_RES, LCD_V_RES);
    sprite.setSwapBytes(1);
}

void loop()
{
    sprite.fillScreen(TFT_BLACK);
    lcd_PushColors(LCD_H_START, LCD_V_START, LCD_H_RES, LCD_V_RES, (uint16_t *)sprite.getPointer());
    Serial.println("fill TFT_BLACK");
    sleep(2);
    sprite.fillScreen(TFT_WHITE);
    lcd_PushColors(LCD_H_START, LCD_V_START, LCD_H_RES, LCD_V_RES, (uint16_t *)sprite.getPointer());
    Serial.println("fill TFT_WHITE");
    sleep(2);
    sprite.fillScreen(TFT_GREEN);
    lcd_PushColors(LCD_H_START, LCD_V_START, LCD_H_RES, LCD_V_RES, (uint16_t *)sprite.getPointer());
    Serial.println("fill TFT_GREEN");
    sleep(2);
    sprite.fillScreen(TFT_RED);
    lcd_PushColors(LCD_H_START, LCD_V_START, LCD_H_RES, LCD_V_RES, (uint16_t *)sprite.getPointer());
    Serial.println("fill TFT_RED");
    sleep(2);
    sprite.fillScreen(TFT_BLUE);
    lcd_PushColors(LCD_H_START, LCD_V_START, LCD_H_RES, LCD_V_RES, (uint16_t *)sprite.getPointer());
    Serial.println("fill TFT_RED");
    sleep(2);
}

[nikthefix]

I see. Well unfortunately that does suggest the power management IC has failed. This IC provides the -ve and +ve supply required by the display. I bet the vendor will send you another if you explain what happened.

[julio-matarranz]

I see. Well unfortunately that does suggest the power management IC has failed. This IC provides the -ve and +ve supply required by the display. I bet the vendor will send you another if you explain what happened.

Thank you for your help, I wish I could fix or replace by my own but I guess it's complicated. I asked for support already but they mentionned "spring festival holiday" so I have to wait until 21st feb to get an answer. :(

Thank you again ;)

[nikthefix]

Yes. Everything stops for a month.

The IC is replaceable and readily available but it's very small. I wouldn't attempt to replace it myself for fear of damaging the other components on the board.

There is a manufacturer producing a version of this display (and others used by Lilygo) which has the power management IC built into the FFC ribbon cable with additional ESD protection. So if you ever want to make your own board then these could be a good option. I've been experimenting with a few of these and they're really good.

Link: https://www.dwo.net.cn/

nik

[julio-matarranz]

Yes. Everything stops for a month.

The IC is replaceable and readily available but it's very small. I wouldn't attempt to replace it myself for fear of damaging the other components on the board.

There is a manufacturer producing a version of this display (and others used by Lilygo) which has the power management IC built into the FFC ribbon cable with additional ESD protection. So if you ever want to make your own board then these could be a good option. I've been experimenting with a few of these and they're really good.

Link: https://www.dwo.net.cn/

nik

I wonder how bad it is to remove the screen from the board (it seems to be hardly glued), I will wait seller's answer first. Thank you.

[3Dsf-info]

The AMOLED display is removable from the Lilygo T-Display S3 AMOLED board, yes. But the ZIF connectors and the ribbon cable are extremely fragile and easily damaged, so I wouldn’t recommend it particularly unless you have to.

In my case I’m offsetting the display at a higher distance from the board, so I’m taking the chance. And I’ve bought some spare displays…

• NK Guy

On 8 Feb 2024, at 16:32, Julio MATARRANZ @.***> wrote:

Yes. Everything stops for a month.

The IC is replaceable and readily available but it's very small. I wouldn't attempt to replace it myself for fear of damaging the other components on the board.

There is a manufacturer producing a version of this display (and others used by Lilygo) which has the power management IC built into the FFC ribbon cable with additional ESD protection. So if you ever want to make your own board then these could be a good option. I've been experimenting with a few of these and they're really good.

Link: https://www.dwo.net.cn/

nik

I wonder how bad it is to remove the screen from the board (it seems to be hardly glued), I will wait seller's answer first. Thank you.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/T-Display-S3-AMOLED/issues/13#issuecomment-1934499127, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A7J3EYJCZMQSJBQMWXD54RLYST4YNAVCNFSM6AAAAAA42SZNYSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTSMZUGQ4TSMJSG4. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.

[nikthefix]

@3Dsf-info

It's good that the bare displays are so affordable. I've experimented with many similar sized AMOLEDs and don't find them particularly fragile - I've not destroyed one even tho I've swapped them between boards (ZIF and soldered) and often put quite a bit of strain on the FFC /FPC. There's also a lot more panel flex than with an IPS-TFT.

The failure always seems to be the power controller IC but I suspect that this may be due to a combination of BGA footprint and poor reflow soldering on my part.

Nevertheless, I've always found pcb charge pumped sources to be vulnerable. I'm forever losing DC-DC converters.

nik

[3Dsf-info]

On 9 Feb 2024, at 09:49, nikthefix @.***> wrote:

It's good that the bare displays are so affordable. I've experimented with many similar sized AMOLEDs and don't find them particularly fragile - I've not destroyed one even tho I've swapped them between boards (ZIF and soldered) and often put quite a bit of strain on the FFC /FPC. There's also a lot more flex than with an IPS-TFT.

Some folks are more experienced or skilled than others. :) Just a reminder that swapping the display isn’t like attaching a Lego block or something!

• NK Guy

[nikthefix]

Indeed! Good point. Plus, and speaking generally, there's often so much glue!

[nikthefix]

Here's a clip of one of the DWO amoled displays mentioned above. It's 360x360 and has power management built in so you only need to worry about QSPI and 3.3v supply.

dwo_amoled.zip

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