Skip to content

Holo Player

Firmware for the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.28, driving a droid's holoprojector: it plays Motion-JPEG clips and shows images — animated GIFs included — on a 240×240 round panel, lights a NeoPixel ring, and aims two servos the way a dome's basic holoprojectors move. Everything is driven from a console on the board's USB-C port.

The board is an ESP32-S3R2 with 2 MB of PSRAM and 16 MB of flash, carrying a GC9A01 round IPS panel, a CST816S touch controller and a QMI8658 IMU. Clips live on an 11 MB LittleFS volume and go onto the board over the same serial console, as does new firmware.

  • Install

    From the browser in a few clicks, with esptool, or built from source. Update in place, or start fresh.

  • The board

    Pins, the P2 expansion header, and what is wired to what.

  • Play a clip

    Make a Motion-JPEG file, put it on the board, and play it.

  • Show an image

    A PNG, JPEG or GIF on the panel, where it stays until something replaces it. Animated GIFs play.

  • Wire the LED ring

    Three wires, and the power budget that decides whether it needs its own supply.

  • Aim the holoprojector

    The motions, and calibrating each axis' travel.

  • The board in the browser

    Put clips and images on the board, and try every command, from Chrome or Edge. No tools to install.

  • Console commands

    Every command the firmware registers.

The screen is off whenever nothing is showing

At boot, after screen clear, and when a clip ends, the panel is asleep with its backlight off — not black, but unpowered. That is deliberate, and it is why the first frame of a clip is never drawn to a dark screen. A colour or an image stays up until something replaces it.