1.54 inch 4-color E-paper mini photo board
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ESP32
Introduction
1. Product Overview
The 1.54" BWRY Mini Photo Album is a low-power frame built around the ESP32-C3 Super Mini controller and a 1.54" BWRY four-color e-paper display (driver IC: JD79660). It needs no internet or mobile app; just connect to the hotspot it broadcasts and open 192.168.4.1 in any browser to upload photos, browse the album and configure the slideshow. The device has no physical buttons or TF card slot, so all interaction is done in the browser;photos are stored in the on-board LittleFS file system and survive a power loss. The screen supports black / white / red / yellow four-color display; combined with the browser-side Floyd-Steinberg dithering, it renders color photos in fine detail as a four-color e-paper image.
2. Key Features
1.54" BWRY four-color e-paper (200 × 200,2bpp, 10,000 bytes per frame).
WiFi AP direct mode: SSID = ePaperAlbum, password 88888888,IP 192.168.4.1.
Four-color dithering is done in the browser (no server involved); each image uses only ~10 KB of data.
LittleFS stores photos; NVS saves the current display and slideshow settings.
Supports gallery list, single-image switching, single/all deletion, and slideshow auto-play.
Supports EN / RU bilingual Web UI (English / Russian Web).
HTTP server starts before the boot refresh and keeps responding throughout it, so it isaccessible as soon as you join the hotspot.
3. Use Cases
Compact desktop photo frame: plug in and use, with no dependence on a router or cloud service.
Gift / ornament: converts photos of family and friends into a four-color e-paper style display.
Embedded / IoT learning reference: a complete ESP32 + WebServer + LittleFS practice.
Specifications
| MCU | ESP32-C3 Super Mini (RISC-V single core, 4 MB Flash, 400 KB SRAM,WiFi + BLE)
|
|---|---|
| Display | 1.54" BWRY four-color e-paper (driver IC: JD79660) |
| Resolution | 200 × 200 pixels, 2bpp (4 pixels / byte, MSB-first, row-major) |
| Data per Frame | 10,000 bytes / frame |
| Refresh Time | 12 ~ 15 s / full refresh (determined by the driver IC) |
| Storage | On-board LittleFS (about 2.34 MB usable) |
| Wireless | WiFi AP mode (2.4 GHz, CH6, up to 4 clients) |
| Interface | USB-C (power + program download) |
| Buttons | None (all interaction via the browser) |
| TF Card Slot | None (photos stored in LittleFS) |
Hardware
| Signal | GPIO | Description |
|---|---|---|
| BUSY | GPIO 1 | E-paper busy signal (input). Low level means the panel is refreshing.
|
| RST | GPIO 2 | E-paper reset (output, active low). |
| DC | GPIO 3 | Data / command select (output). High = data, low =command.
|
| CS | GPIO 10 | SPI chip select (output, active low). |
| SCK | GPIO 4 | SPI clock (10 MHz, MSB-first, MODE0). |
| MOSI | GPIO 6 | SPI master-out, slave-in. |
Size
FAQ
Q: Cannot Connect / Can't Find the WiFi
Make sure the device has been powered on for over 5 seconds (the boot refresh takes about 12 ~ 15 seconds, and the hotspot has already begun broadcasting).
Pull down to refresh the WiFi list on your phone to see whether ePaperAlbum can be found.
If the hotspot disappears and reappears after a few minutes, this is normal (the device keeps it alive with an internal heartbeat).
In an extreme case: unplug the power, wait 10 seconds, then power back on; the device restarts the AP automatically.
Q: Screen Doesn't Change After Upload
First make sure the Web page status shows Sent and saved!, otherwise the upload did not succeed.
Make sure the uploaded file size is exactly 10,000 bytes (after dithering the browser shows "Preview ready"; it sends a fixed length).
If it stays on "Sending (refresh ~15s)..." for over 30 seconds, try re-plugging the USB.
Q: Switch / Delete Does Not Respond
The browser retries automatically 3 times (every 1.5 seconds); it usually recovers within 5 seconds.
If there is no response for a long time, the AP may be temporarily unreachable
Q: Ghosting / Garbled Screen
Occasional brief ghosting between different images is a normal physical property of epaper and isnot a fault.
If it has not recovered within 1 minute or the ghosting is severe, power the device off and on to reset.
Q: Upload Failure (HTTP 400 / 500)
HTTP 400 size mismatch — the uploaded byte count is not 10,000; do not upload manually outside the browser.
HTTP 500 — LittleFS is out of space; delete some photos first.
Downloads