blackcoffee2/prome

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

★ 5CAudience · developerComplexity · 4/5LicenseSetup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((PROME))
    What it does
      Tile-grid home screen
      Camera viewfinder app
      Focus timer app
      Touch calibration
    Hardware
      ESP32-S3 board
      ILI9341 touchscreen
      OV7670 camera optional
    Tech Stack
      C firmware
      ESP-IDF
      LVGL
      LittleFS
    Setup
      Three idf.py commands
      Flash over USB
      One-file board config
    Audience
      Embedded developers
      Hobbyist makers

mindmap root((PROME)) What it does Tile-grid home screen Camera viewfinder app Focus timer app Touch calibration Hardware ESP32-S3 board ILI9341 touchscreen OV7670 camera optional Tech Stack C firmware ESP-IDF LVGL LittleFS Setup Three idf.py commands Flash over USB One-file board config Audience Embedded developers Hobbyist makers

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Build and flash a working handheld console with a touchscreen and tiled app launcher onto an ESP32-S3 development board.

USE CASE 2

Use the codebase as a starting point to add custom apps to a sandboxed embedded UI without touching hardware directly.

USE CASE 3

Port the firmware to a different display or microcontroller board by editing the single board-config header file.

What is it built with?

CESP-IDFLVGLESP32-S3LittleFS

How does it compare?

	blackcoffee2/prome	unsignedchad/bcm4360-wpa3	ffmpegkit-maintained/ffmpeg
Stars	5	5	6
Language	C	C	C
Setup difficulty	moderate	hard	easy
Complexity	4/5	5/5	2/5
Audience	developer	developer	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 1h+

Requires installing Espressif's ESP-IDF toolchain and sourcing its environment before building and flashing.

Apache 2.0, free to use, modify, and distribute for any purpose including commercial, as long as you include the license notice.

In plain English

PROME is open-source firmware for a small handheld device built around an ESP32-S3 microcontroller chip. The device runs a tile-grid home screen with a small set of built-in apps: a camera viewfinder, a focus timer, a settings screen, and a touch calibration tool. The firmware is free to download, build, and modify. The hardware it targets is a mix of cheap, widely available modules: an ESP32-S3 development board with extra memory, a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, a resistive touch controller sharing the same data bus as the screen, and an optional camera module. All the pin assignments and hardware configuration live in a single file, so porting the firmware to a different board with similar parts is mostly a one-file change. A wiring guide in the repository lists exact pin-by-pin connections. Building and loading the firmware onto a device uses the standard ESP-IDF toolchain from Espressif (the chip maker). Three commands handle the whole process: configure the target chip, build the code, and flash it over USB. The USB connection on the development board doubles as the serial monitor, so you can read debug output from the same cable. The code is organized around a couple of deliberate design choices. A single main loop drives all the UI updates, and every app runs cooperatively within it rather than in separate parallel tasks. This simplifies the code and avoids a category of bugs. Each app also runs inside a sandbox: it receives a limited set of functions it is allowed to call rather than direct access to hardware or the filesystem. Apps and hardware services register themselves at build time using a macro, so adding or removing a feature is a build-list change with no other edits required. The project is developed by one person in spare time and accepts Patreon support. The README includes detailed comments on hardware bring-up lessons: display timing, color byte order, camera timing constraints, and touch calibration. Those comments are described as the practical porting guide for anyone adapting the firmware to different hardware. The code is licensed under Apache 2.0.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

I want to build the PROME firmware for my ESP32-S3 board with an ILI9341 display. Walk me through the ESP-IDF setup and the three build commands to flash it over USB.

Prompt 2

I want to add a new app to PROME. How does the REGISTER_APP macro work and what functions does the app_api_t sandbox expose?

Prompt 3

I'm porting PROME to a different ESP32-S3 board with a different display. What do I need to change in bsp_config.h and what pin assignment rules should I follow?

Prompt 4

The camera feed on my PROME build is corrupted. What does the README say about OV7670 cable length and DVP timing requirements?

Frequently asked questions

What is prome?

Open-source firmware for a small ESP32-S3 handheld console with a touchscreen, optional camera, and a tiled app launcher, built on ESP-IDF and LVGL.

What language is prome written in?

Mainly C. The stack also includes C, ESP-IDF, LVGL.

What license does prome use?

Apache 2.0, free to use, modify, and distribute for any purpose including commercial, as long as you include the license notice.

How hard is prome to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 1h+ to a first successful run.

Who is prome for?

Mainly developer.

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