gCore - A high-performance ESP32 development board for portable graphics and GUI based devices.
gCore is a high-end ESP32 development board I designed to be the platform for tCam and to make available to others who wanted a performant, feature-rich platform for various portable projects. It has features I always wanted but didn't find on other boards such as a proper Li-Ion battery charging subsystem, soft power control, internal power monitoring, high performance graphics and backlight control. Software can be written using Arduino, the Espressif IDF or even MicroPython.
gCore can be bought from tindie or from the Group Gets website (either in their store or, occasionally, from a campaign).
The primary github repository can be found here. There are demo projects in other repositories listed below as well as direct downloads in case you don't want the entire github repository.
The primary github repository can be found here. There are demo projects in other repositories listed below as well as direct downloads in case you don't want the entire github repository.
Features
- ESP32 WROVER B (16 MB Flash, 8 MB PSRAM) with WiFi and Bluetooth interfaces
- 3.5" ILI9488-based 480x320 pixel LCD module driven by 80 MHz VSPI to 8-bit parallel interface with dimmable backlight
- FT6236 capacitive touchscreen controller
- Co-processor providing RTC with alarm wake-up, internal voltage and current monitoring, soft power control with critical battery and failsafe shutdown capability, and 4096 bytes of battery-backed NVRAM
- Full power-path charging with 500 mA or 1A charge current for 3.7V LiPo and Li-Ion batteries and switched 3.3V power
- High performance Micro-SD with 4-bit SD-mode data path
- USB-C power and programming/serial interface
- GPIO Headers / Qwiic I2C expansion interfaces
Applications
- Instrument controller
- Gaming platform
- Remote Control
- Communications device
- Education
- Development platform
Software Support
- Arduino library and demo sketches
- Port of Bodmer's LCD driver. Wickedly fast
- LVGL GUI examples in both Arduino and Espressif IDF projects
- Software downloader application. Downloads and programs various demos and actual applications I've written for gCore without needing to install any other software like Arduino or the Espressif IDF.
Links
- Primary github repository
- Port of Bodmer's TFT_eSPI library
- MicroPython - LVGL binding for MicroPython
- tCam thermal imaging camera
- gcore_life - LVGL and gCore integration using Espressif IDF
- gcore_lv_port_esp32 - LVLG v7 with gCore drivers
- lvgl_music_player - The LVGL v9 music demo
- gcore_tank - Remote control tank with video streaming
- Galaga emulator - Play the old classic complete with sound
- Internet Radio Player - Stream from thousands of internet radio stations (includes alarm clock)
- weeBell Bluetooth - Supporting POTS telephone service through your cellphone
Downloads
gCore documentation from main repository readme in PDF form.
Arduino Library with support for communicating with the co-processor, a simple LCD driver and plenty of demos.
3D printed enclosure design (OpenSCAD and STL files).
gCore Serial Downloader Application for Desktop. Download and program pre-compiled binaries for demos and applications I've written for gCore. No need to install Arduino or IDF to compile the source. All applications are 64-bit.
Unfortunately I could not sign the Mac OS or Windows versions because of the compiled esptool it uses to do the actual flashing. This means on Mac OS you'll have to go to System Preferences->Security & Privacy and manually confirm it's ok to run it. Windows may give you grief about downloading the zip file and then running the binary.
Note that you may need to install the Silicon Labs CP210x VCP driver on your computer (downloads here).
Unfortunately I could not sign the Mac OS or Windows versions because of the compiled esptool it uses to do the actual flashing. This means on Mac OS you'll have to go to System Preferences->Security & Privacy and manually confirm it's ok to run it. Windows may give you grief about downloading the zip file and then running the binary.
Note that you may need to install the Silicon Labs CP210x VCP driver on your computer (downloads here).
3D printed enclosure
