HPR4472: Cheap Yellow Display Project: Introduction to the Cheap Yellow Display

Hacker Public Radio

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Hello, again. This is Trey.

Several months ago, I heard Paul Asadoorian mention the Cheap Yellow Display on his podcast, Paul's Security Weekly ( https://www.scworld.com/podcast-show/pauls-security-weekly ). I didn't think much of it at the time, but then I heard it referenced again, and again. Then, finally, it was described, and I became interested.

"Cheap Yellow Display" is the term used for the ESP32-2432S028R. Since this is somewhat challenging to say, and to remember, and since the board is yellow, and it can be obtained for as little as $12 USD, it has been given the nickname "Cheap Yellow Display". I will abbreviate this as CYD for the remainder of this episode. It is an ESP32 (with built in WiFi & Bluetooth) on a development board with one or more USB connectors, a MicroSD slot, a limited selection of GPIO pins, an RGB LED, a speaker, a light sensor, and best of all, a 2.8-inch (71mm) TFT touchscreen LCD display.

The CYD runs on 5 volts DC. I am including some photographs of the CYD in the show notes.

RandomNerdTutorials has produced a very good writeup about this board on their website ( https://randomnerdtutorials.com/cheap-yellow-display-esp32-2432s028r/ ).

Brian Lough (AKA WitnessMeNow) has been building a community for the CYD on his GitHub site ( https://github.com/witnessmenow/ESP32-Cheap-Yellow-Display ) where he has instructions, examples, tutorials, downloadable tools, and much more.

Beginning back in the 1970s, my father and I built electronics projects together. And I have had a love for doing so ever since. Over the last few years, I have built several Arduino based gadgets on different platforms, including a couple which run on breadboards sitting beside me on my desk (I will share more about one of those later).

A common use for the CYD among hackers is to leverage the built in WiFi & Bluetooth radios to compromise wireless networks or devices. The Marauder project is a prebuilt image which can be loaded directly to the CYD to use it as a wireless hacking tool. Fr4nkFletcher's Github repository ( https://github.com/Fr4nkFletcher/ESP32-Marauder-Cheap-Yellow-Display ) is one place where you can download the Marauder tool. There are also video games, clocks, photo slideshows, and more, which have already been coded for you, and are available on the internet for download.

What would you do with a CYD? What could you build? What problem might you solve? What fun project might you come up with?

For myself, the CYD intrigued me, but it did not yet jump out at me as something I had a need for. Yet.

What would change my mind? What would set me on a quest to obtain some of these devices and learn to develop code for them? What problem did I wish to solve?

Tune in again, in a couple weeks, to learn the answers some of these questions and more in my next episode in this HPR series.

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