I've made the tutorial showing you step by step how you can run this SmallTV-Ultra with PlatformIO, but it's the same as in ArduinoIDE mostly. Check it out:
How to program SmallTV-Ultra in PlatformIO? Running TFT ST7789 with Adafruit and directly I've also included code sample for running TFT without external library. Let me know if I can help you futher somehow, and I'll be happy if you mention my tutorial in the video.
The new GeekMagic ultra arrived and i got the code working! Thank you so much i really appreciate it
Next step is to see if i can program a very basic game (something like pong or atari breakout) onto it, the controls would be from buttons hosted on a website on a webserver running on the SoC itself
CzeĹÄ,
posiadam falownik sofar spiÄty z homeassistantem po modbus over tcp, dziaĹa to Ĺadnie. Kiedy zobaczyĹem na ali te ekraniki od razu kupiĹem dwa, zainstalowaĹem esphome, i zaczÄ Ĺem rzeĹşbiÄ yamla, udaĹo mi siÄ dojĹÄ do etapu gdzie wszystko Ĺadnie siÄ odĹwieĹźa i wyĹwietla, ale obsĹuga tego lcd przez sterownik to jest jakaĹ padaka, 13 sek zamroĹźonego ekranu, 2 sek czarnego i potem nowy ekran z odĹwieĹźonÄ zawartoĹciÄ . Pamietam Ĺźe na oryginalnym sofcie te ekraniki byĹy bardzo responsywne, generowaĹy grafiki bardzo dynamicznie.
The SmallTV-Ultra is a compact ESP8266-based device featuring a 1.5-inch 240x240 IPS TFT display capable of showing time, weather forecasts, photos, and animations. It downloads weather data from OpenWeatherMap using a city code and supports customizable skins and image galleries uploaded via a browser. The device uses vendor-provided firmware with binaries available on GitHub but no open source code. Users discussed hardware details including USB-C power input (no data interface), GPIO pin availability, and potential for adding external sensors (BME280, BPM280, AHTX0, ENS160, motion sensors) and peripherals (buzzer, buttons). Programming challenges include SPI communication in Mode 3, display driver compatibility (Adafruit_ST7789 library), and pin assignments. Tutorials and example code for Arduino IDE and PlatformIO were shared, enabling OTA updates and custom applications such as simple games and webserver-based controls. Alternatives like the ThinkPulse project with larger TFT displays and local sensors were mentioned. Some users noted the small screen size limits usability for adults, while others appreciated the device for educational and hobbyist purposes. Integration attempts with ESPHome and Home Assistant showed performance issues compared to original firmware. Overall, the discussion covers hardware hacking, firmware customization, display programming, and potential expansions for the SmallTV-Ultra device. Summary generated by the language model.