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Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech.
Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he has been working with it and its sister website, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity topics.
Summary
- DIY pixel-art frame: ESP32 (Waveshare), screen and power — tiny, beginner-friendly BOM.
- Connects via Wi-Fi, auto-downloads and cycles art every 30s; web control, SD caching and robust file handling.
- Supports GIF/WebP/JPEG/PNG, dual-core smooth playback, and use Makapix Club to grab sprite art.
When starting off with making your own hardware, you can't go wrong with a digital picture frame. The components list is very small; you only need a screen, a power supply, and a board to process everything. Once you've gotten it set up, you can pop it somewhere visually pleasing and have yourself a cool-looking set piece you can look at over the day. Plus, you can impress people who come over by showing off what you made.
If you'd like something beginner-friendly and you want to get stuck in with an ESP32 board, why not make this cool sprite art picture frame? It's a great way to add a retro flair to your room, and if you're not great at drawing your own art, there's a handy resource you can use to download moving sprite scenes from popular games.
The p3a is a DIY digital pixel art frame powered by an ESP32
Over on the ESP32 subreddit, user fabpub showed off what they've been working on. It's called the p3a, and it's a cute little screen on which you can show off pixel art. As you might imagine, the bill of materials is very small; in fact, from what I can tell, all you need is a Waveshare ESP32-P4 which combines the chip with a little touchscreen. Which is great, because ESP32 displays usually sell for cheap.
Once you've followed the p3a setup guide on GitHub, fabpub states that you'll have the following features waiting for you:
- it connects over wi-fi to a server and downloads pixel artworks automatically
- changes artwork every 30 seconds
- you can also control it using a web interface on your phone or laptop
- asynchronous, dual-core image processing pipeline that delivers consistent frame durations and gapless, freeze-less transitions between animation files
- support for GIF, WebP, JPEG and PNG using canonical libraries and hardware acceleration for JPEG
- web interface exposed on local LAN via mDNS at http://p3a.local/
- web interface allows to change animations and reconfigure network settings
- if not successfully connected to wi-fi, device offers Soft Access Point with Captive Portal for network configuration
- downloaded files are cached in SD card
- robust handling of corrupt files (file gets marked as unhealthy and device moves on to another healthy one if available)
Fabpub also says that this project is connected with Makapix Club, where you can grab some cool sprite art to put on your screen. As such, if you're not a dab hand at sprite work, that sounds like your best bet to fill your new digital display with cool artwork.
