ESP32-S3 3.5 inch Capacitive Touch IPS Display – Setup

by F1ATB André · Published 12 April 2025 · Updated 13 April 2025

The module JC3248W535 offers a great solution based on a powerful ESP32-S3 microcontroller, a capacitive touch display, an SD card interface and various accessible GPIOs. You can buy it on Aliexpress at a reasonable price.

Main characteristics

3.5-inch LCD-TFT capacitive touch display module with housing
Supports WiFi and Bluetooth
Support lithium battery power supply
Capacitive touch
320 * 480 screen resolution
RGB 65K colors
IPS glass panel
ESP32-S3 N16R8 controller dual core CPU
Clock frequency 240MHz
8M PSRAM
16M FLASH
I2S Audio
Speaker output

Code example – Display and Touch screen

The following code is a simple program to demonstrate how to use the module and compile it on Arduino IDE. ArduinoGFX is the graphic library to be installed. It does not use libraries as LVGL.

/*
* Example provided by F1ATB
*
* See also https://github.com/AudunKodehode/JC3248W535EN-Touch-LCD
*/
#include <Arduino_GFX_Library.h>
#include <Wire.h>

// Pin definitions
#define GFX_BL 1
#define TOUCH_ADDR 0x3B
#define TOUCH_SDA 4
#define TOUCH_SCL 8
#define TOUCH_I2C_CLOCK 400000
#define TOUCH_RST_PIN 12
#define TOUCH_INT_PIN 11
#define AXS_MAX_TOUCH_NUMBER 1

Arduino_DataBus *bus = new Arduino_ESP32QSPI(45, 47, 21, 48, 40, 39);
Arduino_GFX *g = new Arduino_AXS15231B(bus, GFX_NOT_DEFINED, 0, false, 320, 480);
Arduino_Canvas *gfx = new Arduino_Canvas(320, 480, g, 0, 0, 0);

uint16_t touchX, touchY;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);

  // Initialize Display
  gfx->begin();

  // Initialize touch
  Wire.begin(TOUCH_SDA, TOUCH_SCL);
  Wire.setClock(TOUCH_I2C_CLOCK);

  // Configure touch pins
  pinMode(TOUCH_INT_PIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(TOUCH_RST_PIN, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(TOUCH_RST_PIN, LOW);
  delay(200);
  digitalWrite(TOUCH_RST_PIN, HIGH);
  delay(200);

  gfx->setRotation(1);
  gfx->fillScreen(RGB565_BLUE);
  pinMode(GFX_BL, OUTPUT);  //Back Light On
  digitalWrite(GFX_BL, HIGH);
  gfx->setTextSize(2);
  gfx->setTextColor(RGB565_GREEN);
  gfx->setCursor(150, 10);
  gfx->print("Hello from F1ATB");
  gfx->setCursor(180, 100);
  gfx->print("Touch Screen");
  gfx->flush();
}

void loop() {
  if (getTouchPoint(touchX, touchY)){
    Serial.println("Touch Pressed:" + String(touchX) + "," + String(touchY));
    gfx->fillRect(180, 100, 200, 20, RGB565_BLUE);
    gfx->setCursor(200, 100);
    gfx->print(String(touchX) + "," + String(touchY));
    gfx->drawCircle(touchX, touchY, 2, RGB565_WHITE);
    gfx->flush();
  }
  delay(5);
}

bool getTouchPoint(uint16_t &x, uint16_t &y) {
    uint8_t data[AXS_MAX_TOUCH_NUMBER * 6 + 2] = {0};
    
    // Define the read command array properly
    const uint8_t read_cmd[11] = {
        0xb5, 0xab, 0xa5, 0x5a, 0x00, 0x00,
        (uint8_t)((AXS_MAX_TOUCH_NUMBER * 6 + 2) >> 8),
        (uint8_t)((AXS_MAX_TOUCH_NUMBER * 6 + 2) & 0xff),
        0x00, 0x00, 0x00
    };
    
    Wire.beginTransmission(TOUCH_ADDR);
    Wire.write(read_cmd, 11);
    if (Wire.endTransmission() != 0) return false;
    
    if (Wire.requestFrom(TOUCH_ADDR, sizeof(data)) != sizeof(data)) return false;
    
    for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(data); i++) {
        data[i] = Wire.read();
    }
    
    if (data[1] > 0 && data[1] <= AXS_MAX_TOUCH_NUMBER) {
        uint16_t rawX = ((data[2] & 0x0F) << 8) | data[3];
        uint16_t rawY = ((data[4] & 0x0F) << 8) | data[5];        
        if (rawX > 500 || rawY > 500) return false;       
        y = map(rawX, 0, 320, 320, 0);
        x = rawY;       
        return true;
    }    
    return false;
}

Before compiling, select the ESP32S3 Dev Module and verify the following parameters. In particular, USB DFU on Boot : Enabled, to allow data published on the serial interface.