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Understand every major component inside the ESP32-2424S012C Development Board.

Read more: https://circuitdigest.com/review/inside-the-esp32-2424s012c-development-board-teardown

From the ESP32-C3 controller and GC9A01 display driver to the CST816D touch controller and IP5306 charger IC, this teardown explains the schematic, PCB layout, display assembly, and power management design used in modern touchscreen embedded systems.

#ESP32 #ESP32C3 #ESP322424S012C #ESP322424S012CTeardown #EmbeddedSystems #PCBDesign #HardwareTeardown #Microcontroller #DIYElectronics #ElectronicsEngineering
Transcript
00:10Hello guys! Welcome to the turn on video of this ESP32 C3 based development board which is the ESP32 2424S012C.
00:19Here the 2424 indicates that this has a display whose resolution is of 240 by 240 pixels.
00:25The S indicates the manufacturer that is Sundan Electronics from China.
00:30The 012 indicates that this falls in the class of standard 1.2 inch displays and C indicates that this
00:38has a capacitive touch inside.
00:40Now let's get into the video.
00:42First of all let's examine the device from its outside.
00:44On the top we have the display itself which is a 1.28 inch round IPS capacitive touchscreen display.
00:51The entire body is built out of plastic.
00:54On the side we can see a type C connector which is for charging the device as well as programming.
00:59Then we have a JST-SH 1mm pitch 4 pin connector on the side which is for UART programming.
01:05Then on the back we have another JST 2 pin 1.25 mm pitch connector for connecting a 3.7
01:14volt lithium battery.
01:15Then we have slots for this boot button, reset button and an on off button on the side.
01:21That's it from the outside now let's open this up and see what's in there.
01:25When we open this up initially we can see that we have internal FPC antenna that's stuck to the body.
01:32Let's try to remove this antenna first.
01:35Now we have revealed the top portion of the PCB.
01:39We have the main part which is the ESP32-C3 board itself.
01:44Then we have this boot button.
01:46We have the reset button.
01:48We can see the charging connector.
01:50We have this UART connector.
01:52You can see the TXRX VCC ground marked in there.
01:55We'll be exploring this whole circuit using this schematic diagram of the device itself.
02:00Now let's start with this type C.
02:02We have the type C connector over here.
02:04You can see that the main pins which are the data plus and data minus.
02:08They are connected to the GPIO pins 19 and 18 which are the D plus and D minus of ESP32.
02:16Now we have a short key diode at the Vout part of the type C which is for reverse current
02:21protection.
02:22Now let's explore the power circuit of this device itself.
02:24We have this battery connector over here.
02:27See, it's connected to the battery charger boost converter IC which is IP5306.
02:34The battery is connected to this pin BAT or pin number 6 of this IC.
02:39Let's see the individual pins of this IC.
02:41We have this VIN which connects to this 5V coming from this type C.
02:47It has an RC filter at the input side for filtering out any noises.
02:51The LED status pins, they are not being used because we have a whole display for displaying the battery status.
02:59Now we have a key pin which is pin number 5 which is connected to this ON-OFF button.
03:05See, on the side.
03:06Now according to the datasheet, short pressing this button enables the output that comes from pin number 8 which is
03:13VOUT BAT.
03:14And double pressing this button disables the output.
03:17It's like turning ON and OFF this device using this ON and OFF button.
03:22Now we have this BAT pin or pin number 6 which is connected to this battery.
03:27Then we have SW pin which is a high frequency switching pin which helps in boosting the 3.7V of
03:33this battery to this 5V output.
03:36Now let's take a look at the LDO used in this circuit.
03:39We have this 3V3 LDO which is A6165P.
03:44Now the duty of it is to take in the voltage that comes from this boost converter and battery charger
03:50IC and give a steady 3V3 output.
03:54Now this 3V3 output is used to power the ESP32 as well as the touch and display drivers.
03:59Now let's come to this boot button.
04:01You can see that the boot button is connected to this GPIO 9 of the ESP32.
04:08It has a pull up of 10K.
04:10When the boot is pressed, it connects to this ground.
04:13If you take a look at this PCB top layer, you can see an empty pad, empty copper pad provided
04:18over here.
04:19See, a round pad.
04:20Now this purpose of this pad is to act as a secondary boot button.
04:26See, it's labeled as S1 in the schematic.
04:28It is also pulled up using a 10K resistor.
04:32Now it's connected to the GPIO pin 8 of this ESP32.
04:36I-O8 is also a boot pin of ESP32.
04:40Now the purpose of this additional boot button is to serve as a backup boot button in case the standard
04:46boot button fails.
04:48Now we have a reset button over here.
04:50See, this is the reset button.
04:51It is connected to this enabled pin of ESP32.
04:55Now it's also pulled up using a 10K resistor.
04:58When the reset is turned on, it connects to this ground.
05:02Now let's take a look at this UR connector over here.
05:05You can see that it's labeled as RX, TX, 3V3 and ground.
05:08Now let's check that in this schematic.
05:10We have it over here.
05:12See, we have this RX and TX pins that connect to this TX and RX pins of ESP32, which are
05:18pin numbers 31 and 30.
05:20Now let me try to split this PCB from the display touch portion and try to reveal you the display
05:25touch circuitry.
05:27Both of the portions are glued together.
05:30Now once I split these two portions, you can see that we have a flexible PCB that connects the two
05:35portions.
05:36If you take a closer look, we can see that it's a 16 pin flexible PCB that connects the display
05:43touch portion to the PCB.
05:44Now let's try to explore the individual pins one by one.
05:48See pin number one, it is ground.
05:51Then we have an LED minus and LED plus pins.
05:54These pins connects to the backlight LED of the display.
05:57These pins turns on and off the backlight LED of the display.
06:01Now we have a VDD, then a ground.
06:03Now this LED pin, it connects to the ESP32 to the GPIO pin 3 via an N channel MOSFET.
06:11See, the N channel MOSFET drives the LED.
06:14Now the MOSFET used here is A290.
06:17You can see the MOSFET over here, which drives the LED.
06:21So it is A290.
06:23Then we have this VDD, then a ground, a ground.
06:26Then we have this SPI pins for display.
06:29The display uses SPI communication.
06:32So we have this DC, CS, SEL, SDA and reset of SPI.
06:37Then the touch uses I2C.
06:40So we have the I2C reset, I2C, SEL, SDA and interrupt.
06:45If you take a closer look over here, you can see a tiny QFN20 package IC over here.
06:51See, you can take a look over here.
06:54See, it's CST816D, which is the touch driver IC.
06:59Now it's mounted onto this flexible PCB.
07:02See, this method of mounting an IC on a flexible PCB is called COF or chip on flex.
07:09Now we have seen the touch driver IC over here, right?
07:12Which is COF or chip on flex.
07:14Now, where is the display driver IC?
07:16We can't see it.
07:16It's not labeled in the circuit.
07:18Actually, the display driver IC, which is GC9A01.
07:24It cannot be revealed in this kind of circuits as an individual IC because it's COG or chip
07:30on glass means it's bonded directly to the glass substrate of this display.
07:37Now, let me try to split this further and show you if we can see the display driver,
07:43which is bonded onto the glass substrate.
07:46Let me try to split this further.
07:53See, now this is the backlight.
07:57Now we have, see, if you take a look over here, you can see the raw IC.
08:01You can see an IC kind of thing, a black thing.
08:05This is the display driver IC, which is bonded directly onto the glass substrate.
08:11This is the glass portion of the display.
08:13It is bonded directly to the glass without an IC package.
08:16This method is used for, you know, keeping it compact and minimal.
08:22And see, this is the raw IC.
08:24You can see small pins connecting to the ribbon cable.
08:28So this is the display driver IC, which is COG or chip on the glass.
08:34Now let's try to power on and see how this thing works.
08:39You know, all things works.
08:41We already have a program running in this.
08:49See, the backlight is powered on.
08:51Now you can see the display is also on.
08:55If they are bonded together, then only we can see the whole thing.
08:58See, the touch is also working.
09:03And this is a torch.
09:05We have a tutorial on our channel.
09:08See the touch brightness.
09:10See the backlight is, the MOSFET is adjusting the current flowing through it.
09:16Let me put them back together.
09:29So that was the teardown video of the ESP32-C3 based development board.
09:34Hope you enjoyed it.
09:35Let's see the next video.
09:36Bye.
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