The GC9A01 is a versatile TFT display driver IC commonly used for square or round displays (equal height and width) with resolutions of up to 240x240 pixels at full 18bit color (262 thousand different colors).
Its low power consumption and sleep mode make this driver ideal for medium or small size portable products such as digital cellular phones, smart phone, MP3 and PMP where long battery life is a major concern
Overview
This driver is used by many square and round TFT display boards up to a resolution of 240x240. This includes the popular watch-like shaped round displays.
The driver supports SPI and the Parallel interface, as well as some lesser-used options. In typical applications, it is controlled via SPI.
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Maximum Resolution | 240(H)x240(V) pixels |
| Supported Resolutions | 80x160, 120x120, 128x128, 160x160, 240x240 |
| Maximum Color Depth | 18bit (262K) |
| Reduced Color Mode | Yes, 3bit (8 colors) |
| Source and Gate Lines | 360/32 |
| Memory | 129,600 bytes GRAM |
| Voltage | 2.5-3.3V |
| Power Consumption | 14mA (with backlight) |
| Sleep-In Power Consumption | In the range of uA (no exact value in datasheet) |
| Sleep Command | 0x10 (enter), 0x11 (exit) |
| Interface | SPI and Parallel |
Power Saving
In battery-operated devices or other environments where low power consumption is a priority, the GC9A01 driver supports multiple power-saving modes. These modes reduce power consumption in five stages:
- Partial Mode: A part of the display is used with a maximum of 262,144 colors.
- Idle Mode: The full display is used with reduced colors (8 colors).
- A combination of Partial Mode and Idle Mode.
- Sleep Mode: The DC-DC converter, internal oscillator, and panel driver circuit are stopped. The MCU interface and memory continue to operate, and the contents of the memory are preserved.
- Power Off: Both VCI and IOVCC are cut off, meaning there is no communication with the driver and memory is lost.
Strategies
For many applications, using the 8-Color Mode is sufficient (e.g., indicator displays that only need a few colors) to reduce power consumption during normal operation.
If the driver is used with displays that do not use the maximum resolution, Partial Mode can turn off areas of the display that are not in use.
Before sending your microcontroller to deep sleep, issue command 0x10 to put the display driver into its own sleep mode. The content currently displayed will remain visible on the screen. Command 0x11 will wake the display (if necessary).
It is extremely important to manually send the display driver to its sleep state before putting the microcontroller into deep sleep. When the display is in sleep mode, typical deep sleep consumption of the system will be in the uA range. Without putting the display to sleep, its power consumption will be in the 10-20mA range.
Programming
ESPHome Support
In March 2024, ESPHome added long-requested support for the GC9A01 to the official ILI9xxx TFT LCD Component. Now, you no longer need external code or libraries for this display driver.
The ILI9xxx component, originally intended for ILI9xxx drivers (as the component name suggests), has expanded over the years to support a wide range of TFT drivers. As a result, this component now provides interchangeable support for various TFT displays, including the GC9A01.
This is particularly beneficial, as it makes ESPHome configurations compatible with a broad range of TFT displays.
At the time of writing, ESPHome documentation does not yet explicitly list GC9A01 as being supported by their ILI9xxx component.
PlatformIO/Arduino Support
Adafruit offers a free Adafruit library for GC9A01 drivers, and the GC9A01 driver is also supported by the TFT_eSPI library.
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(content created Jan 07, 2025)