XPT2046 Touch Screen Controller (Updated version)

The xpt2046 touchscreen platform allows using the touch screen controllers based on the XPT2046 chip (datasheet, AZ-Delivery) with ESPHome. Many cheap LCD displays contain this controller. The SPI is required to be set up in your configuration for this sensor to work.

../../_images/xpt2046-full.jpg

XPT2046 Touch Screen Controller

# Example configuration entry
touchscreen:
  platform: xpt2046
  id: my_touchscreen
  cs_pin: 17
  interrupt_pin: 16
  update_interval: 50ms
  report_interval: 1s
  threshold: 400
  calibration_x_min: 3860
  calibration_x_max: 280
  calibration_y_min: 340
  calibration_y_max: 3860
  swap_x_y: false

Configuration variables:

The configuration is made up of two parts: The touch screen component, and optional individual binary sensors.

Base Configuration:

  • id (Optional, ID): Set the ID of this sensor.

  • cs_pin (Optional, Pin Schema): The chip select pin. Often marked T_CS on the board.

  • interrupt_pin (Optional, Pin Schema): The touch detection pin. Often marked T_IRQ on the board. If not specified the component will use polling via SPI. This key is renamed from irq_pin

  • update_interval (Optional, Time): The interval to check the sensor. If interrupt_pin is specified the touch will be detected nearly instantaneously and this setting will be used only for the release detection. Defaults to 50ms.

  • report_interval (Optional, Time): The interval to periodically report the coordinates while the touch screen is touched. Defaults to never.

  • threshold (Optional, int): The value to detect the touch or release. Defaults to 400.

  • calibration_x_min (Optional, int): The raw value corresponding to the left (or top if swap_x_y is specified) edge of the display. See Calibration for the process to calibrate the touch screen. Defaults to 0.

  • calibration_x_max (Optional, int): The raw value corresponding to the right (or bottom if swap_x_y is specified) edge of the display. Defaults to 4095.

  • calibration_y_min (Optional, int): The raw value corresponding to the top (or left if swap_x_y is specified) edge of the display. Defaults to 0.

  • calibration_y_max (Optional, int): The raw value corresponding to the bottom (or right if swap_x_y is specified) edge of the display. Defaults to 4095.

  • swap_x_y (Optional, boolean): If true the x and y axes are swapped. Defaults to false.

  • All other options from Base Touchscreen Configuration.

Calibration

To match the point of the touch to the display coordinates the touch screen has to be calibrated. The XPT2046 component returns raw values in the 0 to 4095 range. Those raw values are available as the x_raw and y_raw member variables and for example write them out as in the example on_touch Trigger. The goal of the calibration is to identify the raw values corresponding to the edges of the screen.

The calibration assumes a display oriented in a way that you will be using it, i.e. your Display Rendering Engine component has to have the [0,0] logical coordinate at the top left. Set the dimensions as dimension_x and dimension_y and do not set any calibration values nor swap_x_y.

# Touchscreen
touchscreen:
  platform: xpt2046
  id: my_touchscreen
  cs_pin: 17
  on_touch:
    - lambda: |-
          ESP_LOGI("cal", "x=%d, y=%d, x_raw=%d, y_raw=%0d",
              id(my_touchscreen).x,
              id(my_touchscreen).y,
              id(my_touchscreen).x_raw,
              id(my_touchscreen).y_raw
              );

Get a stylus or a similar object, run the project and touch the corners of the screen at the edge pixels. Repeat several times and note minimum and maximum x and y raw values.

... top left ...
[21:07:48][I][cal:071]: x=217, y=34, x_raw=3718, y_raw=445
[21:07:49][I][cal:071]: x=222, y=32, x_raw=3804, y_raw=419
... top right ...
[21:07:52][I][cal:071]: x=19, y=36, x_raw=334, y_raw=370
[21:07:52][I][cal:071]: x=22, y=35, x_raw=386, y_raw=347
... bottom left ...
[21:08:00][I][cal:071]: x=224, y=299, x_raw=3836, y_raw=3835
[21:08:00][I][cal:071]: x=225, y=303, x_raw=3848, y_raw=3878
[21:08:01][I][cal:071]: x=223, y=299, x_raw=3807, y_raw=3829
... bottom right ...
[21:08:11][I][cal:071]: x=16, y=299, x_raw=281, y_raw=3839
[21:08:12][I][cal:071]: x=19, y=302, x_raw=328, y_raw=3866
[21:08:13][I][cal:071]: x=20, y=296, x_raw=358, y_raw=3799

That means that the minimum raw x is 281, maximum 3848, minimum y 347 and maximum 3878.

Identify which raw value is the display’s x direction and what the y one. In our case moving right decreases the x raw value and going down increases the y one so the axes match and we don’t need to use swap_x_y. If the raw x is the display’s y, use swap_x_y = true.

If one of the coordinates goes in the “wrong” direction it needs to be inverted. The inversion is performed by swapping the minimum and maximum values. In our case the horizontal direction represented by the raw x (no swap) is inverted so the calibration_x_min needs to be larger than calibration_x_max. The vertical direction is fine. The configuration would thus be

touchscreen:
  platform: xpt2046
  calibration_x_min: 3848
  calibration_x_max: 281
  calibration_y_min: 347
  calibration_y_max: 3878

Compile, run and click on the edges again. The x and y should now match the coordinates of the display.

[21:32:34][I][cal:071]: x=7, y=6, x_raw=3755, y_raw=407
[21:32:37][I][cal:071]: x=237, y=4, x_raw=313, y_raw=385
[21:32:43][I][cal:071]: x=239, y=318, x_raw=284, y_raw=3845
[21:33:05][I][cal:071]: x=2, y=313, x_raw=3821, y_raw=3793

Note that the touch screen is not extremely precise and there might be nonlinearities or similar errors so don’t expect a pixel-perfect precision. You can verify the touchpoint using a display lambda similar to the following.

display:
  - platform: ili9341
    lambda: |-
      it.fill(BLACK);
      if (id(my_touchscreen).touched)
        it.filled_circle(id(my_touchscreen).x, id(my_touchscreen).y, 10, RED);

To be exact, the component does the following

  • reads the raw x and y and normalizes it using (non-inverted) min and max values

  • swaps x and y if needed

  • inverts if needed

  • scales to the display dimensions

See Also