Where does the picture live, and who keeps it alive?
A screen is not one thing, and the name of its connector does not tell you how it works. Sixteen short lessons take I2C, SPI, QSPI, 8080, RGB, MIPI DSI, LVDS and eDP in turn, each with a bench you can press on a laptop, a phone or in a VR headset, and end with how to choose a screen from the chip you have.
How much data a picture is, and why a screen is a panel, a controller, a backlight and a host that have to agree.
The four ways a host writes into a display controller's memory: I2C, SPI, QSPI and the 8080 parallel bus.
Where a frame lives, the frame buffer and what moves it, RGB timing and colour depth, and why a picture tears.
MIPI DSI lanes and modes, LVDS, eDP, and how to pick a screen starting from the chip you have.
Electricity
Volts, current, resistance and the mistakes that kill parts. 35 pages, true of every board.
35 articles →The other fundamentals trackPower and protection
Fuses, ideal diodes, TVS and lithium cells — every part that sits between a supply and something you would rather not replace. 13 pages, with part numbers.
13 articles →The other fundamentals trackI2C
The two-wire bus nearly every sensor module speaks, from the beginning. Every lesson has a bench in 3D and in a VR headset.
12 articles →The other fundamentals trackMQTT
How a reading gets from a sensor to a phone, a laptop and a lamp without any of them knowing the others. Every lesson has a bench in 3D and in a VR headset.
10 articles →The other fundamentals trackSPI
The four-wire bus that chip after chip uses when it needs to be fast: a clock, two belts of bits, and a light that says who is listening. Every lesson has a bench in 3D and in a VR headset.
14 articles →The other fundamentals trackTCP and UDP
What a network adds to your data and what it leaves out: one-line cards that may be lost, and a novel cut into numbered strips that is pasted back together. Every lesson has a bench in 3D and in a VR headset.
12 articles →The other fundamentals trackUART
How two devices send bytes down a wire with no clock between them, only an agreement made beforehand: the idle line, the start bit, the data bits, baud, and what happens when the two sides disagree. Every lesson has a bench in 3D and in a VR headset.
12 articles →The other fundamentals trackWorkshop
The hand skills. Soldering a joint that lasts, and reading the ones that will not. 2 pages, no circuit required.
2 articles →Next, in the ESP32 bookWires on the board
How two chips agree on what a line means, sorted by what it costs you in pins
9 articles, no board required →Next, in the ESP32 bookMessages on the network
Once there is no wire left to agree about, the question is who talks first
5 articles, no board required →