1.8″ ST7735 TFT with ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 — hardware SPI

The 1.8″ ST7735 is the cheapest colour screen in Indian shops and a good fit for the S3: the chip’s hardware SPI drives it quickly, and the module is 3.3 V already, so no level shifting.

Wire SDA (MOSI) to GPIO11, SCK to GPIO12, CS to GPIO10, A0 to GPIO15 and RESET to GPIO16, and power the board and backlight from 3V3.

Wiring

Every connection
ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1	1.8" ST7735 colour TFT (128×160)	Wire	Notes
3V3	VCC	red
GND	GND	black
10	CS	purple
16	RESET	orange
15	A0	blue	A0 is the data/command (DC) pin.
11	SDA	green	SDA here is SPI MOSI, not I2C.
12	SCK	yellow
3V3	LED	red	Backlight. Use a GPIO with PWM instead to dim it.

3.3–5 V on VCC (on-board regulator on most boards) part, 3.3 V board. The ST7735 is a 3.3 V chip. ESP32 and Pico connect directly. On a 5 V Arduino, put a level shifter or 1 kΩ / 2 kΩ dividers on CS, RESET, A0, SDA and SCK — 5 V signals shorten the display’s life.

Board quirks

The S3’s fast hardware SPI is on GPIO11 (MOSI) and GPIO12 (SCK). The display has no MISO, so GPIO13 stays free.
GPIO15/16 for A0/RESET have no boot role. On the S3, Arduino core 3.x also uses GPIO15/16 as Serial1’s default pins — if you add a UART device later, give Serial1 other pins.
The same 1.8″ board comes with different panel tabs. Wrong colours or a band of noise at the edges means you need INITR_GREENTAB or INITR_REDTAB instead of INITR_BLACKTAB.
The sketch shows the PSRAM size: 0 KB is normal with the default settings. N8R8/N16R8 boards report 8192 KB once you select OPI PSRAM in Tools.

Code

st7735-esp32s3.inoArduino C++Open in Playground Flash

// 1.8" ST7735 128x160 SPI TFT on an ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 (hardware SPI on the default FSPI pins).
// VCC → 3V3, GND → GND, CS → GPIO10, RESET → GPIO16, A0 (DC) → GPIO15, SDA → GPIO11 (MOSI),
// SCK → GPIO12, LED → 3V3 (backlight).
#include <SPI.h>
#include <Adafruit_GFX.h>
#include <Adafruit_ST7735.h>

constexpr int8_t TFT_CS = 10;
constexpr int8_t TFT_DC = 15;
constexpr int8_t TFT_RST = 16;
Adafruit_ST7735 tft(TFT_CS, TFT_DC, TFT_RST);  // uses SPI: SCK 12, MOSI 11 on the S3

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  tft.initR(INITR_BLACKTAB);  // try INITR_GREENTAB / INITR_REDTAB if colours or edges look wrong
  tft.setRotation(1);
  tft.fillScreen(ST77XX_BLACK);
  tft.setTextColor(ST77XX_CYAN);
  tft.setTextSize(2);
  tft.setCursor(8, 8);
  tft.print("ESP32-S3");
  tft.setTextSize(1);
  tft.setTextColor(ST77XX_WHITE);
  tft.setCursor(8, 34);
  tft.printf("PSRAM: %u KB", ESP.getPsramSize() / 1024);
  Serial.println("ST7735 ready");
}

void loop() {
  static uint32_t frame = 0;
  tft.fillRect(8, 60, 150, 20, ST77XX_BLACK);
  tft.setCursor(8, 60);
  tft.setTextSize(2);
  tft.setTextColor(ST77XX_YELLOW);
  tft.printf("Up %lu s", millis() / 1000);
  uint16_t c = tft.color565((frame * 8) & 0xFF, 128, 255 - ((frame * 8) & 0xFF));
  tft.fillRect(8, 90, 144, 24, c);
  frame++;
  delay(500);
}

// 1.8" ST7735 128x160 SPI TFT on an ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 (hardware SPI on the default FSPI pins).
// VCC → 3V3, GND → GND, CS → GPIO10, RESET → GPIO16, A0 (DC) → GPIO15, SDA → GPIO11 (MOSI),
// SCK → GPIO12, LED → 3V3 (backlight).
#include <SPI.h>
#include <Adafruit_GFX.h>
#include <Adafruit_ST7735.h>

constexpr int8_t TFT_CS = 10;
constexpr int8_t TFT_DC = 15;
constexpr int8_t TFT_RST = 16;
Adafruit_ST7735 tft(TFT_CS, TFT_DC, TFT_RST);  // uses SPI: SCK 12, MOSI 11 on the S3

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  tft.initR(INITR_BLACKTAB);  // try INITR_GREENTAB / INITR_REDTAB if colours or edges look wrong
  tft.setRotation(1);
  tft.fillScreen(ST77XX_BLACK);
  tft.setTextColor(ST77XX_CYAN);
  tft.setTextSize(2);
  tft.setCursor(8, 8);
  tft.print("ESP32-S3");
  tft.setTextSize(1);
  tft.setTextColor(ST77XX_WHITE);
  tft.setCursor(8, 34);
  tft.printf("PSRAM: %u KB", ESP.getPsramSize() / 1024);
  Serial.println("ST7735 ready");
}

void loop() {
  static uint32_t frame = 0;
  tft.fillRect(8, 60, 150, 20, ST77XX_BLACK);
  tft.setCursor(8, 60);
  tft.setTextSize(2);
  tft.setTextColor(ST77XX_YELLOW);
  tft.printf("Up %lu s", millis() / 1000);
  uint16_t c = tft.color565((frame * 8) & 0xFF, 128, 255 - ((frame * 8) & 0xFF));
  tft.fillRect(8, 90, 144, 24, c);
  frame++;
  delay(500);
}

Library: Adafruit ST7735 and ST7789 Library (Adafruit) — compiled with Adafruit ST7735 and ST7789 Library 1.12.0.

Expected serial output

Serial Monitor · 115200Output

ST7735 ready

ST7735 ready

Common errors

White screen

No data reaching the panel: check CS, A0 and RESET pin numbers, and that SDA/SCK go to 11/12.

Colours swapped (red shows as blue)

Panel variant. Try INITR_GREENTAB or INITR_REDTAB.