ESP32-TUX

ESP32-TUX is a sophisticated open-source template designed to jumpstart the development of Touch User Interfaces (TUX) on ESP32 and ESP32-S3 platforms. Developed by Sukesh Ashok Kumar, this project bridges the gap between raw hardware drivers and polished application-level UI, providing developers with a robust foundation for building Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI).

Hardware and Driver Foundation

The project is built upon the powerful ESP-IDF framework (specifically targeting version 5.0) and utilizes LovyanGFX as the primary graphics and touch driver. LovyanGFX is renowned in the ESP32 community for its performance and broad support for various display controllers. On top of this, LVGL 8.x is used to handle the UI elements, widgets, and event management.

ESP32-TUX currently supports several popular 3.5-inch display modules out of the box, including:

• WT32-SC01: ESP32 with SPI TFT (ST7796)
• WT32-SC01 Plus: ESP32-S3 with 8-bit Parallel TFT (ST7796UI)
• Makerfabs ESP32-S3: Available in both 16-bit Parallel and SPI variants using the ILI9488 controller.

Key Features and Capabilities

One of the standout features of ESP32-TUX is its flexibility. It includes built-in support for UI scaling across different resolutions and the ability to rotate between Landscape and Portrait modes without requiring extensive code changes.

Other notable features include:

• Theme Switching: Easily toggle between Light and Dark modes.
• Wi-Fi Provisioning: Integrated support for SoftAP and BLE provisioning using the Espressif Provisioning App.
• OTA Updates: Over-the-air update capabilities integrated with esp_events.
• Filesystem Integration: Seamless access to SPIFFS and SD Card partitions, mapped directly to the LVGL filesystem as F:/ and S:/ respectively.
• Thread Safety: Support for updating the UI from different tasks using lvgl_acquire and lvgl_release patterns.

The TUX_PANEL Widget

To simplify UI development, the project introduces the tux_panel widget. This custom component allows developers to create consistent “UI Islands” with headers, titles, and content areas.

// Example: Creating a TUX_PANEL
lv_obj_t *panel1 = tux_panel_create(parent, LV_SYMBOL_EDIT " CONFIG", 200);

// Set the common panel style
lv_obj_add_style(panel1, &style_ui_island, 0);

// Get Content Area of the panel to add UI elements
lv_obj_t *cont1 = tux_panel_get_content(panel1);

// Add a label to the content area
lv_obj_t *lbl_version = lv_label_create(cont1);
lv_label_set_text(lbl_version, "Firmware Version 1.1.0");

Architecture and Organization

The repository is well-organized, separating core logic into components and helpers. The main/helpers directory contains essential utilities for storage (FatFS, SPIFFS), display initialization, and SNTP time synchronization. The UI logic is largely contained within gui.hpp, while device-specific configurations are handled via header files in the main/devices folder. This modular approach allows developers to add support for new controllers or displays by simply creating a new configuration header.

Getting Started

For those looking to test the project quickly, a web installer is available at tux.sukesh.me, requiring only a USB cable and a compatible browser. Developers wishing to build from source should have ESP-IDF 5.0 installed. The project utilizes a custom CMake setup to manage LVGL configurations and provides helpful compile-time information to the console, making debugging and environment verification straightforward.