🖥️ ESP-VGA-Displayer

A lightweight ESP32 project that drives a VGA display and accepts simple text commands over TCP/IP.
Any device on the same network can send commands to update the VGA text output remotely — perfect for building custom dashboards, status screens, or retro-style displays.

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📸 Preview

VGA Text Test	ESP32 Board
VGA Screen back	VGA Screen front

✨ Features

• 🧠 VGA output powered directly by the ESP32
• 🌐 TCP-based text protocol — send commands from any networked device
• ⚙️ Simple integration — works with netcat, telnet, or custom clients
• 🎨 Color control — set text color with a simple command
• 🔁 Live updates — clear the screen or print text in real time

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⚡ Requirements

• An ESP32-based board (e.g. DOIT ESP32 DEVKIT V1)
• VGA adapter wired to the ESP32 (project-specific wiring not included)
• ESP32 connected to the same network as the client

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📡 Protocol

The ESP32 listens for TCP connections on port 1337.
Commands are sent as newline-terminated lines (\n).

Optional identification

/identify [device_name]

Gives your client a name for easier tracking.

Supported commands

Command	Description
/clear	Clears the VGA screen
/print text	Prints the rest of the line as text
/color name	Sets the current text color. Supported colors: black, blue, green, cyan, red, magenta, yellow, white

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💡 Examples

Clear the screen:

/clear

Print text:

/print Hello, world!

Change text color:

/color red
/print Warning: Overheating detected!

Reset color:

/color white
/print Normal operation resumed.

Using netcat (replace <IP> with your ESP32’s address):

nc <IP> 1337
/clear
/color green
/print Remote text sent from netcat

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🎨 Color Mapping

Here’s the internal color table used by /color:

_color textColors[8] = {
  {"black",   {0, 0, 0}},
  {"blue",    {0, 0, 255}},
  {"green",   {0, 255, 0}},
  {"cyan",    {0, 255, 255}},
  {"red",     {255, 0, 0}},
  {"magenta", {255, 0, 255}},
  {"yellow",  {255, 255, 0}},
  {"white",   {255, 255, 255}},
};

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🧱 Building & Flashing (PlatformIO)

From the project root:

# Build
pio run

# Upload to the device
pio run -t upload

Make sure your platformio.ini matches your board and serial port configuration.

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🧠 Tips

• Ensure the ESP32 has a valid IP address and is reachable from your client device.
• Each command must end with a newline (\n).
• For more robust clients, implement retries or acknowledgements if you need reliable delivery.
• Use /color to highlight different message types (e.g., status updates, errors, info).

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🧭 Future Plans

The project is still evolving! Some planned features include:

• 📜 Scrolling text support — allowing smooth text movement and overflow handling
• 🪟 Split-screen mode — divide the VGA display into regions for multiple text streams or widgets
• 🧩 Extended color support — support RGB values or predefined themes
• ⚙️ New commands for text layout and cursor positioning

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🤝 Contributing

Pull requests and issues are welcome!
If you add new commands or extend the text protocol, please document them clearly so others can build on your work.

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