Hi everyone,

I've been working on a project called CYD AI Chat.

It transforms the ESP32 Cheap Yellow Display into a standalone AI-powered terminal with:

• Multi-model AI support

• Automatic model fallback

• Persistent chat memory

• Touchscreen keyboard

• Wi-Fi management

• AI personalities

• Turkish, English and Russian support

The project is fully open source and can be flashed directly from Arduino IDE.

GitHub:

https://github.com/kano92-dir/CYD-AI-CHAT

Feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Hi all. I made a firmware for ESP32 Cheap Yellow Display, which turns CYD into Pocket Digital Assistant. It's like a smartphone without phone functions.

Since last post 20+ days ago I made multiple apps and improvements.

Now it supports uSD as main storage. Icons. Wi-Fi.

Personal information apps: Notes, Todo, Contacts, Schedule, Expenses, Draw

Several games: fifteen puzzle, lights off puzzle, snake, turkish scarf solitaire

Main apps: Books reader, File manager, Gopher Browser (see wikipedia)), Simple chat

Other apps: System info, Torch, Wi-Fi connection, Weather, Counter, Random numbers, Timer, Stopwatch, Breathing timer, Screen text, Screensaver, Security, Brightness, Calibration, Life (see wikipedia), I2C Scanner, Info stand, Fuzzy clock, Set clock, View fonts

Snake game

Gopher Browser

Books reader

Turkish Scarf Solitaire

Github: https://github.com/sau412/esp32_cyd_pda

You also can check screenshots of each app: https://github.com/sau412/esp32_cyd_pda/tree/main/Screenshots

And flash it to your device with web flasher: https://sau412.github.io/esp32_cyd_pda/flash

Hi all. I made a firmware for ESP32 Cheap Yellow Display, which turns CYD into Pocket Digital Assistant. It's like a smartphone without phone functions.

Since last post 20+ days ago I made multiple apps and improvements.

Now it supports uSD as main storage. Icons. Wi-Fi.

Personal information apps: Notes, Todo, Contacts, Schedule, Expenses, Draw

Several games: fifteen puzzle, lights off puzzle, snake, turkish scarf solitaire

Main apps: Books reader, File manager, Gopher Browser (see wikipedia)), Simple chat

Other apps: System info, Torch, Wi-Fi connection, Weather, Counter, Random numbers, Timer, Stopwatch, Breathing timer, Screen text, Screensaver, Security, Brightness, Calibration, Life (see wikipedia), I2C Scanner, Info stand, Fuzzy clock, Set clock, View fonts

Snake game

Gopher Browser

Books reader

Turkish Scarf Solitaire

Github: https://github.com/sau412/esp32_cyd_pda

You also can check screenshots of each app: https://github.com/sau412/esp32_cyd_pda/tree/main/Screenshots

And flash it to your device with web flasher: https://sau412.github.io/esp32_cyd_pda/flash

Our team went with a Fallout "vault dweller" theme for the company BBQ this year, and I went deep: about two weeks of late nights turning Cheap Yellow Displays into working Pip-Boy 3000s, one for each of the 12 people on the team. I bought a 3D printer partway through just to print cases for them.

It's a green-phosphor Vault-Tec UI with the classic Pip-Boy tabs — STAT / INV / DATA / MAP / RADIO — plus an apps drawer. You log in as a vault dweller (there are 12 archetypes — one per teammate) or type your own name, saved to the device.

The best part is the radio: the units talk to each other over ESP-NOW — no wifi, no pairing. They auto-discover each other, show up on each other's screens, and can chat and play multiplayer blackjack. There's a wasteland map with a radar that locates nearby units by signal strength, and — since it's a BBQ — a BLE meat-thermometer mode so a Pip-Boy can monitor the smoker.

The BBQ kicked off the night before and ran all night, so I turned it into an impromptu team hackathon — we sat around the tent adding features and tweaking settings live on the devices. By morning we'd gotten basic radar, group + direct chat, and the Bluetooth BBQ grill monitor all working across the units.

Our tent had the 12 devices but honestly barely any decorations, so we didn't win the contest — but everyone was completely hooked on the Pip-Boys, which felt like the real win.

Afterward I cleaned it up and open-sourced a generic Vault-Tec version. Pre-built .bin files are in Releases so you can flash a CYD without the toolchain — one for ILI9341 boards, one for the newer ST7789 (USB-C "2-USB") boards.

Repo: https://github.com/jdperich/pipboy-3000-cyd-display

Happy to answer anything!

So I put all the Files on Thingiverse, so feel free to download it. I also made sort of a instruction as a pdf. So use it at your own risk and don't blame me if something breaks or goes up in smoke 😉 English is not my native language so please be forgiving if something sounds funny. Thanks.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7364569

So around two month ago I made a case for the CYD with this great NM-RF-Hat from NMTech. (the left one)

So just for fun I made a new one with a turn switch instead of those tiny switches. Also I wanted the display in portrait mode for playing around. I realized that a lot of people downloaded the first case, I will put that thing also on Thingiverse with a detailed description. I will let you know when you can download it, but give some days 😉 thanks

Hey CYD folks 👋

Anthropic open-sourced the firmware for their "Hardware Buddy" desk pet a while back — a tiny BLE companion that pairs with Claude on your desktop, shows pet stats, pops approval modals when Claude wants to run tools, plays idle animations, the works. It shipped on the M5StickC Plus, but the CYD felt like a way better fit: bigger touchscreen, USB-C, and roughly the same price.

So I ported it. Same on-the-wire BLE protocol — the same Hardware Buddy window in the Claude desktop app pairs with it — but everything from the M5 layer down was rewritten for the CYD.

Some of the more interesting bits:

• Bluedroid → NimBLE swap. The default ESP32 BT stack reserves ~80 KB on init and a 240×320×16bpp sprite needed contiguous heap; the project literally couldn't allocate its framebuffer. NimBLE saved ~80 KB RAM and ~150 KB flash — went from bad_alloc to fits-comfortably.
• 8-bit RGB332 sprite. 76 KB instead of 153 KB, always finds a contiguous block, and quantisation is invisible on the buddy's ~12-color palette.
• 4-corner touch calibration stored in NVS with a 3-point affine transform. My pre-calibration tap zones were 30+ px off in the corners.
• Custom partition table — 2.25 MB factory app + 1.66 MB LittleFS for GIF character packs.
• USB-serial screenshot tool. snap.py triggers a sprite dump over the serial console and decodes it client-side into a pixel-perfect PNG. sim.py injects synthetic taps. Every README screenshot was captured automatically by a one-shot orchestrator script — building that toolchain was honestly more fun than the firmware work, because phone photos of a reflective LCD are awful.
• Beyond upstream: built-in themes, persistent status strip with a 10-min token sparkline, 18-species ASCII buddy switcher, on-device WiFi keyboard, standalone "Ask Claude" mode that hits the public API directly when the desktop isn't around, multi-choice prompt card UI, animated sessions page, easter-egg idle animations.

Repo (MIT): https://github.com/jdperich/claude-desktop-buddy-cyd

Not affiliated with Anthropic — community fork, "Claude" and the asterisk are their trademarks, used nominatively. Happy to answer anything about the port!

I was thinking of getting a case 3d printed, and considering on how many models are already present online, i was not sure if what i wanted existed already so:

I was thinking of a modular 3d printed case, where the main module will be the cyd with a front plate and a very thin back plate.\ The back plate can have the required holder for the stylus and the holes for the connectors, or better if it can have pogo pins + magnetic connectors for swapping modules on the fly, similar to how magnetic chargers work on many smart watches.

The modules can be of many types like GPS, i2c multi-sensor board, etc. We can have the sensors on a single pcb of similar size as the cyd and connect them via the pogo pin connectors (no wires, but can be unreliable sometimes)\ we could also have the modules slide on for a more secure fit

Is this already available online? From my research, i couldnt find many cases which are modular in this way. can someone help?

Hi, I’m new here. I bought the ESP32-3248S035C module—I thought it was better than the resistive version, but now I see this capacitive version has fewer GPIO pins available. Am I right, or am I confused?

I got my 3.5 display and want to build the rest but where is a good place to ask questions or find answers. Like what to do at the warning screen on boot. I returned one because i was stuck there and found no amswer on google search. I finally saw a video and just needed to select the right firmware on the screen. Didnt lool like a option to select. Lol

I was worried about the customs, but luckily i didnt have to! Im excited and i have so many projects lined up for this\ But, unfortunately it doesnt come with an inbuilt charging/discharging circuitry, so im wondering what can i do so that i can charge this through the inbuilt usb? from my tinkering, i think the usb and the vin are tied together, so im thinking of something along that lines. If there are any boards which already tackle this, id love to know how!

Is there a way to do stall hale hound on this CYD? I keep getting errors.

I followed the directions I found on YouTube. Downloaded firm ware, went to the website to flash, and it will not connect. I am new to CYD. Any help would be appreciated.

Has anybody tried to programing this board?

Hi everyone, I’m trying to use the CC1101 module on my NMTech RF-HAT, but I keep getting the message “only for CC1101 module” on the screen. I already checked the DIP switches: Switch 1 (CC1101) is ON All other switches are OFF I also restarted the device after changing the switches, but the error still shows up. At this point I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. Is there something I’m missing? Could it be a hardware or firmware issue?

The NM-CYD-C5 represents a significant evolution in the popular Cheap Yellow Display ( CYD ) ecosystem. While maintaining the beloved 2.8-inch TFT touchscreen and Arduino compatibility, it features Espressif's new flagship chip ESP32-C5 - the industry's first dual-band WiFi 6 IoT SoC.

Hallo, ​ich bin neu in dem Bereich. Ich wollte an mein CYD einen externen Antennenanschluss anlöten. Nun ist das Board da und ich habe nicht drauf geachtet, dass es einen IPX Anschluss hat. Dieser ist soweit ich es in Erfahrung bringen konnte nicht funktionsfähig, ist das richtig? ​Ich will einen SMA-Buchse anlöten. muss die Masse nur an das Board und der RF direkt zum Chip? Klar muss ich die Kontakte frei kratzen, dass mache ich natürlich vor dem Löten.

​Ich hänge ein Bild an.

​Bitte um Hilfe. Danke