Pokemon Card Expositor

This project turns a Waveshare ESP32-S3 board with a 5-inch LCD into a digital Pokemon card display. You can search for cards online, download them, and display them on the device.

What it does

• Shows Pokemon cards on a 5-inch LCD screen
• Connect via WiFi to control it remotely
• Download cards from the web interface
• Stores cards on SD card
• Can run in slideshow mode

What you need

• Waveshare ESP32-S3 RGB 5" LCD board (1024x600 version works best)
• MicroSD card (FAT32 format)
• WiFi connection (optional)

Board Documentation

• Wiki: ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-5 Wiki
• Schematic: ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-5-Sch.pdf

Setup Instructions

1. Upload the firmware

• Open Arduino IDE
• Go to File → Preferences
• Add this URL to "Additional Board Manager URLs":

  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json
  

• Go to Tools → Board → Boards Manager
• Search for "ESP32" and install "esp32 by Espressif Systems"

3. Configure Board Settings:
   • Select Tools → Board → ESP32 Arduino → ESP32S3 Dev Module
   • Set the following parameters:
   • USB CDC On Boot: Enabled
   • Flash Size: 16MB (or according to your board)
   • Partition Scheme: Default 4MB with spiffs

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4. Upload the Firmware:
   • Open PokemonExpositor.ino in Arduino IDE
   • Connect your Waveshare ESP32-S3 board via USB
   • Click the Upload button (→)

2. Install the tools

Go to the tools folder and run:

pip install -r requirements.txt
npm install

3. Get some cards

Start the server:

node server.js

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser. Search for cards and download them. The site can be slow sometimes, just wait it out.

Cards get saved to images/raw/.

4. Put cards on the device

• Put a FAT32 SD card in your device and turn it on
• It'll create an images folder automatically
• Copy your cards from images/raw/ to the SD card's images folder
• Put the SD card back in the device

5. Control it

The device connects to WiFi in two ways:

Client mode: Connects to your WiFi network. Check the serial monitor for the IP address.

Access Point mode: If it can't connect to WiFi, it creates its own network called "PokemonExpositor". Connect to it and go to http://192.168.4.1.

Files and folders

📦 PokemonCardExpositor-Firmware
├── 🎮 PokemonExpositor.ino          # Main firmware file
├── 📊 *.h / *.cpp                   # System components
├── 🖼️ images/                       # Image storage
│   ├── converted/                   # Processed images
│   ├── downloaded/                  # Raw downloads
│   └── raw/                        # Ready-to-use images
└── 🛠️ tools/                        # Development tools
    ├── 🌐 server.js                 # Node.js web server
    ├── 🐍 *.py                      # Python processing scripts
    ├── 📦 package.json              # Node dependencies
    └── 📋 requirements.txt          # Python dependencies

Configuration

Edit project_config.h to change:

• WiFi settings
• Display brightness and timing
• Debug output
• Enable/disable features

Problems?

Device won't start: Check your SD card is FAT32 formatted. Look at the serial monitor (115200 baud).

WiFi not working: Double-check your WiFi password. Try access point mode instead.

No cards showing: Make sure images are in the images/ folder on the SD card.

Web interface won't load: Check the IP address in serial monitor. Try a different browser.

⚠️ Known issues

Hardware stuff:

• Some fast SD cards don't work - stick to Class 10 or slower (tested only with a 32GB samsung one)
• Screen can flickers sometimes when changing images, expecially in the upper part of the card

Software stuff:

• Pokemon API sometimes blocks you if you download too much (easy to reach, you need to wait and then add the new cards after some hours)
• Really big images (>2048px) might not convert properly
• WiFi drops out occasionally (it tries to reconnect automatically)

Performance:

• Takes 10-15 seconds to boot up
• First image load is slow while it processes
• Card search can be slow when lots of people are using the API

Compatibility:

• Arduino IDE 2.3+ might not compile - use 2.2.x
• ESP32 package newer than 2.0.11 can break the display
• Only FAT32 SD cards work

Quick fixes:

• If it crashes, restart it
• If API is limiting you, wait a couple hours
• If WiFi is flaky, power cycle the device
• If compilation fails, clear Arduino cache and restart

Most of these are being worked on. Check the GitHub issues for updates.

Contributing

Anyone can contribute! Here's how:

• Found a bug? Report it
• Have an idea? Suggest it
• Want to code? Fork the repo and make a pull request
• Documentation unclear? Help improve it
• Built one? Show it off!

Standard GitHub workflow:

1. Fork this repo
2. Make a branch (git checkout -b cool-feature)
3. Commit changes (git commit -m 'Add cool feature')
4. Push it (git push origin cool-feature)
5. Open a pull request

License

This is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

What that means:

• ✅ You can share, copy, and modify this
• ✅ You must credit the original project
• ✅ If you change it, share under the same license
• ❌ You can't use it commercially

Full license: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Pokemon and Pokemon cards are trademarks of their owners. This is just for fun and learning.

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Made for Pokemon card fans