Here’s something fun from [Chad Kapper] over on HackMakeMod: Escape Room Lockbox with the Cheap Yellow Display.
You may have heard of the “cheap yellow display” (CYD), so-called due to the board’s typical color. It’s a dodgy cheapo board with, among other things, TFT display, touchscreen, and ESP32 built-in. You can learn more about the CYD over here: Getting Started with ESP32 Cheap Yellow Display Board – CYD (ESP32-2432S028R).
In this build eight AA batteries are used to deliver 12 volts to operate a solenoid controlling a latch and 5 volts for the microcontroller. The encasing is clear in order to entice players in an escape-room style sitting. The custom software is included down the bottom of the project page and it is also available from arduino.cc, if that’s your bag.
Of course we’ve done plenty of other ESP32 TFT projects before, such as Piko – Your ESP32 Powered Fitness Buddy and ESP32 Brings New Features To Classic Geiger Circuit.
The CYD is pretty much a platform at this point and a cheap one at that. i’d like to see it get a proper OS using Classic-Mac-style cooperative multitasking (the ESP32 has no memory manager) — it would be like a retrocomputer in terms of power but also tiny and cheap. All it needs to be a perfect like poor man’s cyberdeck is a keyboard.
Yeah this is the first i’ve looked at the CYD and i’m just blown away by its specs, especially considering the apparent price! Having watched the mobile CPU + display space pretty intently for about 25 years, it’s just unbelievable. The real unbelievable part is that now that it’s cheap and easy i’ve lost interest :( I can’t think of a project for it that i wouldn’t just use something else that i already have instead.