M5Stack Dial (M5Dial)
Also known as: M5Dial · M5Stack Dial · M5 rotary knob display
The definitive smart-home knob: a finished rotary-encoder dial with a round touch screen, RFID reader, RTC and buzzer in a mountable case. A dedicated community ESPHome component makes it the easiest Home Assistant dial there is.
As an Amazon Associate and an affiliate we may earn from qualifying purchases. Prices and availability are set by the retailer.
At a glance
⚑ flag an error| SoC | ESP32-S3 |
|---|---|
| Vendor | M5Stack |
| Type | Finished gadget |
| Memory | 8 MB flash |
| Display | 1.28" 240x240 IPS (GC9A01 (round), SPI bus), capacitive (FT3267) touch |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, BLE 5 |
| USB | USB-C |
| Battery | No |
| Onboard extras | encoder, nfc, rtc, buzzer |
| Typical price | $32-40 (street, varies) |
Compare all ESP32 display boards in one table →
Good for
Works with
Firmware and UI-stack support, with a known-good starting point where one exists. "Community" means an unofficial but working config or port.
- ESPHome Community support config / port →
- LVGL / Arduino Community support config / port →
Gotchas to know
- No PSRAM (S3FN8, 8MB flash) — keep LVGL scenes modest.
- The WS1850S RFID/NFC chip is flaky under ESPHome; treat NFC as best-effort.
- Expansion is via two Grove ports only (plus a small header) — this is a finished gadget, not a breakout.
- Encoder detents feel great but the shaft is plastic; don't torque mounted knobs.
Variants
v1.1 is current. Guition's JC3636K518 'K5 knob' (1.8" 360x360 QSPI + encoder) and Waveshare's Knob-Touch-LCD-1.8 are the budget alternatives.
The ESP32-S3 inside
This board is built on the ESP32-S3 . See the SoC page for the full peripheral, GPIO and security details.
Bare modules on the same SoC:
Adding sensors?
Presence radars, climate, CO2, energy — the sensor comparison table covers what people actually wire to these boards, with ESPHome support status and clone-risk ratings per part. Radars want a hardware UART; I2C sensors chain on two pins.
Resources
Community guides usually go deeper than this page: pinout diagrams, wiring, library setup and copy-paste example code from people who build with these boards daily.