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THIS DIY GADGET PUTS 5 ROUND SCREENS ON YOUR DESK SHOWING EVERYTHING YOU TRACK

Five round TFT displays cycling clocks, weather, stocks and your own MQTT or web data, all driven by a single ESP32 board you flash yourself.

by Brett Tech

FULL CAD BOM FIRMWARE DOCS

DisplaysHome

Built withESP32

difficulty
●●○○○
time
an evening
license
AGPL-3.0
repo
repo ACTIVE432 stars

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Videos
1
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COMPAREE VERDICT

Info Orbs is a desk-glanceable widget platform: five round 240x240 displays on one ESP32, showing clocks (including a nixie style), weather, stock, crypto and forex prices, a parqet.com portfolio, MQTT data from Home Assistant or your own web data. You can order the published main PCB and PCB stand from the KiCad files and Gerbers, wire the displays by hand from the pinout in the README, or buy the creator's 60-dollar dev kit. Setup is PlatformIO: copy config.h.template to config.h, set your timezone, weather location and stock tickers, flash, then join the device's Wi-Fi portal to connect it. The template ships with working keys for the timezone and weather services, so you do not have to sign up anywhere to get started. The code is modular: each widget is a class with setup, update and draw methods. The most likely thing to go wrong is wiring by hand: double-check each screen's chip-select pin against the README.

GOOD TO KNOW

  • —Repository contains the PlatformIO firmware source, config template, web data examples, the wiring diagram and PCB dimension drawings. The enclosure files are not in the repo.
  • —Parts: five GC9A01 round TFT displays, an ESP32 board, three buttons and wiring; the creator also sells a complete dev kit.
  • —You build and flash with PlatformIO after copying config.h.template to config.h for your timezone, widgets and API keys; Wi-Fi is set up in a browser portal on first boot.
  • —Documentation covers initial setup, adding new widgets and troubleshooting display initialization failures.
  • —License is AGPL-3.0, which requires that derivative works and network services using this code also be open-sourced.
  • —No commercial restrictions on building or selling the hardware itself, but software modifications must remain open.

Parts to buy

6 items

From our check of the build. Exact quantities and part numbers are in the creator’s BOM.

  • Five GC9A01 round 240x240 displaysFind
  • One ESP32 boardFind
  • Three push buttonsFind
  • Wiring or the published PCBsFind
  • USB power supplyFind
  • Creator's complete dev kit (60 dollars)Find

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Can I build this?

PrintNo print files in the repository — source or design an enclosure yourself, or get the creator's dev kit.
BuyFive GC9A01 round 240x240 displays, one ESP32 board, three push buttons, wiring or the published PCBs, and a USB power supply, or the creator's complete dev kit (60 dollars).
ToolsSoldering iron, PlatformIO in VS Code and a USB cable; optionally the published PCBs (main board and stand) from a PCB service.
SkillsBasic ESP32 flashing and WiFi setup; ability to edit config files and troubleshoot SPI wiring. No soldering required if you use pre-wired jumpers.
TimeAn evening: soldering the displays (or the PCB kit), copying and editing config.h, flashing with PlatformIO and joining the Wi-Fi portal.
CostMid band: the round displays are the main cost; the creator's complete dev kit is 60 dollars.
SafetyNo mains voltage, no lithium charging circuit, no lasers. Standard low-voltage electronics care applies.

Build at your own risk. Projects involve tools, electronics and sometimes mains voltage — follow the creator’s safety notes.

Videos

Brett's own YouTube video walks through soldering and flashing; note that the flashing steps have changed since, so follow the new Firmware Install Guide in the repo.

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Gallery

media.wired.com
media.wired.com

Start here

Navigation into the creator’s own docs — we don’t rewrite the guide, we route you to the source.

  1. 1.Read the README and check the parts list (Verify your ESP32 board variant matches the wiring diagram — some clones swap GPIO pins.)
  2. 2.Get the stand: order the PCB stand from the Gerbers, use a community enclosure, or buy the dev kit(The repository has no enclosure files; check the Discord for community enclosures or buy the creator's dev kit.)
  3. 3.Wire the displays before you flash anything (Double-check the CS pin assignments — one wrong connection and you will spend an hour debugging a blank screen.)
  4. 4.Edit config.h with your WiFi and API keys, then flash (PlatformIO is the supported path; Arduino IDE works but you may need to manually install the TFT_eSPI library.)

KNOWN ISSUES

  • Not all GC9A01 displays ship with the same pinout — compare your boards to the repository photos before you wire anything, or you will burn an evening chasing a mistake that looks like broken firmware.
  • Each screen has its own chip-select pin (GPIO 13, 33, 32, 25 and 21 by default), set in config.h. If you wire to different pins, change them there, or screens will stay blank.
  • Live widgets need Wi-Fi and their online services: weather comes from Visual Crossing and stocks from Twelve Data. The config template ships with keys for the timezone and weather services, so you only set your location and tickers.
  • If you power the ESP32 from USB and the displays from a separate 5V rail, you must connect grounds — a floating ground is the second most common 'it does not work' mistake after wrong wiring.
  • There are no 3D-printable enclosure files in the repository. The project gives you a PCB stand (KiCad files and Gerbers) for the five 1.28-inch round displays; if you want a housing around it, design your own or use a community design.
  • AGPL-3.0 means that if you modify the code and run it as a network service (e.g. a cloud dashboard backend), you must open-source your changes. Building the hardware for personal use or sale has no such restriction.

Can I use a different microcontroller, like an ESP8266 or a Raspberry Pi Pico?

The code is written for ESP32 and relies on its dual-core architecture and specific GPIO count. Porting to ESP8266 would require rewriting the display driver; Pico support is theoretically possible but not documented.

Do I have to use all five displays, or can I build a smaller version?

The project is built for five displays and the README does not document a smaller version, so fewer screens would mean changing the code and the PCB or stand yourself.

What happens if my WiFi goes down?

Widgets that require network data will freeze or show stale values. The clock widget continues running because it uses the ESP32's internal RTC (synced at boot via NTP).

How do I add a new widget, like a GitHub stars counter or a Twitch viewer count?

Write a class that inherits from Widget and implements setup(), update(), draw(), buttonPressed() and getName(), then register it with the widget set. The existing widgets in firmware/src/widgets are the examples. For simple data, the MQTT or Dynamic Web Data widget may be enough without new code.

Community builds

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Discussion1

FROM THE COMPAREE TEAM

Five round displays, a PCB or a handful of wires, and one evening of flashing. What would your five widgets show?

CompareeTEAM2mo agoedited

Practical notes from our verification: the repository has over 400 stars, firmware version 1.1 with a browser-based WiFi setup portal, and quick links in the README to the author's YouTube assembly and flashing video and a Discord server. The repo also includes KiCad files and Gerbers for a main PCB and a PCB stand, plus a wiring diagram, so you can either order the boards or wire the displays up yourself using the pinouts in the README. If you would rather skip sourcing, the author sells a full dev kit. There are no 3D-print files for a stand in the repository. The biggest variable is how you get the five round displays: buying them separately, or going with the kit. Correction (4 October 2026): we re-checked this page line by line against the project's own repository, documentation and videos, and fixed errors in earlier versions.

Brett Tech

Brett Tech (brett.tech) designed Info Orbs as an open-source ESP32 desk display with interchangeable widgets. He published the firmware, PCB files and wiring diagram, sells complete dev kits, made a YouTube video walking through the soldering and flashing, and runs a Discord where builders share setups.

GitHub

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  • Information is provided without warranty and may become outdated as projects evolve. Prices are indicative bands only — always check the creator’s parts list for current costs.
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