Among the best known devices of LilyGo is the T5 family, formed by different electronic ink displays, with different sizes and resolutions, combined with the powerful ESP32.
Recently LilyGo surprised us by presenting its new LilyGo T5 4.7 inch display with integrated ESP32. This new panel ED047C1 has a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels, 16 levels of gray. It supports partial update, and the refresh rate is up to 200ms.
Regarding the processor, the LilyGo T5 4.7 mounts an ESP32-D0WDQ6-V3 with 16MB Flash and 8MB of PSRAM. Like all ESP32s, we are dealing with a dual-core processor with up to 240Mhz, with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.
Otherwise, the screen is provided “naked”, without any type of casing, battery, or additional electronics.
On the board we find three configurable buttons, three 4-pin molex PH ports (2.0 pitch), and different expansion ports. In addition, it has a connector for a battery and a holder for 18650 type batteries.
The board is programmed through a USB Type C port, thanks to a TTL CP2104 converter. For this, we can use the usual options, such as C++, Micropython, or the Arduino environment.
As a point to improve, as LilyGo has accustomed us, the company is better at manufacturing hardware and software than documenting it. A pity, because a small marketing and documentation effort would surely place it in a much more well-known place.
Therefore, the information you will find regarding the T5 4.7 is scarce, disordered, or outdated. The best repository is the product’s Github https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/LilyGo-EPD47, which includes several very interesting examples.
On the other hand, as we have said, the LilyGo T5 does not have a body or casing. However, if you have a 3D printer, the manufacturer has put various designs on Github.
It is also possible to find sellers offering both cases and a touch panel for the T5 4.7, for a price of about 12€. I haven’t tried them, so I can’t tell you what the final result is like, although from the photos it doesn’t look too good.
In short, LilyGo T5 4.7 inches is a very interesting device, which integrates an ESP32 together with a very high-quality electronic ink display, similar (or identical) to the one found in the popular M5 Stack Paper.
The price is about 25€, much lower than that of an M5Paper. In exchange, logically, sacrificing the touch panel, the battery, the casing, and the rest of the features that the M5Paper provides, and that motivate the higher price.
However, if you need to carry out a project with an electronic ink display, the LilyGo T5 4.7 is probably one of the best options available at the moment.