Support of E-Ink Displays

[Der_dankbare_User]

Hello everybody,

i use some Sonoff devices on Fhem and with EspEasy Version: v2.0-20180218. I want to thank everybody for this perfect part of firmware. Meanwhile there are some displays supported, but there is no E-Ink Display in the device list.

I am looking forward to use some like this: https://www.waveshare.com/product/7.5inch-e-paper-b.htm
with that controller: https://www.waveshare.com/e-paper-esp82 ... -board.htm

Do you think that this displays will be integrated in some version of EspEasy in the future?

[papperone]

I do remember there's some request open in GitHub but not sure about when/if ESPEasy will support those displays.
I think that using 6 GPIOs will limit a lot other devices and as well the memory needed for the bigger ones will be too high (as far as I understood).

[TD-er]

I've already a few Waveshare e-ink displays here to implement support for.
So it is pending, but given the amount of work I cannot give you an estimate timeframe.

Note that the bigger screens also have more pixels.
More pixels means more memory needed for the frame buffer and memory is quite limited on the ESP8266.
So maybe the bigger screens can only be supported on the ESP32, which has about the same amount of memory my MSX2 had in 1988, which was a huge step compared to the 1983 MSX1
The difference between the ESP8266 and the ESP32 is about the same, when comparing memory.

[Der_dankbare_User]

Thank you for your answers!

Please tell me, if you reached something and good to hear that you try! For me is is not so important to have many Gpio´s left. I just want to drive such a display for showing some data like weather, or so.
That combined with the possibility to of WiFi and low power consumtion would make a nice weatherstation.... Besides, i like the technology!

[TD-er]

It is indeed magnificent technology.
At my previous job, we had some measurement equipment (self made) which allowed focus at micron precision and a depth of field of 10 micron.
That gives you images like these (Kindle 3)

[LisaM]

Supported in uPyEasy, since there's a micropython driver for it: https://github.com/dhallgb/eInk-micropython
Writing a plugin that uses the driver isn't that hard to do.
Actually almost all display types (oled,tft,e-ink) have micropython drivers...

[Der_dankbare_User]

@ TD-er: very impressive pic! Thx for sharing!
@ LisaM: The uPyEasy (you developed, right?) is today runnig on ESP32 but not ESP82 right? If so, it should not be a problem to run the display on that device!

[JojoS]

Hello,
is there any update or activity on supporting e-ink / epaper displays? I've recenctly bought this waveshare ePaper driver board:
https://www.waveshare.com/e-paper-esp82 ... -board.htm
This is a simple ESP8266 board and waveshare ePaper displays can be connected directly. There is wiki for this driver board and source code for an Arduino project that turns this board into a webserver where an image file can be converted to b/w and uploaded to the display. Upload is using http and some POST requests
Maybe this board is also interensting for the ESPEasy.

[grovkillen]

It's on the Todo list but we need more sponsors so we can develop full time.

[JojoS]

thanks for your fast reply.
Yes, it would be nice to have more time for so many projects
You should add a donation button on the main homepage, in the wiki its too hidden.
Thanks for your great software and support!

[grovkillen]

I know, plan to make a brand new home page that will make everything so much clearer. Thanks for the idea!

[woocashewski]

I'm waiting for this plugin too

so... where's "donation" button?

[grovkillen]

It's right above and below your post

[woocashewski]

is there some working plugin for e-ink?

[Sminter4]

is there now some working plugin for e-ink?

[Ath]

is there now some working plugin for e-ink?

For e-ink/ePaper displays we have P096, that's still missing from the released documentation, but I have added documentation in a pending PR. That PR is intended to add some more display models (but I wasn't very successful yet in adding that, mostly because of the lack of documentation ).
The currently supported and working e-ink displays are:
- IL3897 (Lolin 250 x 122px)
- UC8151D (212 x 104px)
- SSD1680 (250 x 212px)
And when creating a Custom build with the proper #define, or using a MAX build:
- Waveshare 2.7" (264 x 176px)

NB: Don't expect displays with the matching resolution, but a different controller, to work as intended, these controllers are very picky about the initialization sequence, and without the technical documentation it's nearly impossible to get that right...

[TD-er]

is there now some working plugin for e-ink?

P096, which is included in the "display" build set (and the MAX builds of cours)

[Sylv_01]

For e-ink/ePaper displays we have P096, that's still missing from the released documentation, but I have added documentation in a pending PR. That PR is intended to add some more display models (but I wasn't very successful yet in adding that, mostly because of the lack of documentation ).
The currently supported and working e-ink displays are:
- IL3897 (Lolin 250 x 122px)
- UC8151D (212 x 104px)
- SSD1680 (250 x 212px)
And when creating a Custom build with the proper #define, or using a MAX build:
- Waveshare 2.7" (264 x 176px)

NB: Don't expect displays with the matching resolution, but a different controller, to work as intended, these controllers are very picky about the initialization sequence, and without the technical documentation it's nearly impossible to get that right...

Hello, I'm looking for using a Waveshare 2,7" screen with a Wemos D1 Mini, I don't find any documentation on PR, for example where cabling SPI signals in GPIO ?
Have you got some example to send me ?
Thanks in advance, and many thanks for your great job !

[Ath]

Hello, I'm looking for using a Waveshare 2,7" screen with a Wemos D1 Mini, I don't find any documentation on PR, for example where cabling SPI signals in GPIO ?
Have you got some example to send me ?
Thanks in advance, and many thanks for your great job !

The connections on the e-Paper board are not that difficult to understand, IMHO. The standard SPI connections MISO, MOSI and CLK are shown on the Hardware page, but most displays only need MOSI -> DIN and CLK -> CLK, and the other required connections, RST, DC and CS are configured on the device configuration page (you can select any available GPIO). The BUSY pin isn't required (and doesn't seem to work well for some displays), so can be left at None.
VCC on the display should be connected to 3V3, and GND to GND, of course.

[Sylv_01]

Hello, thanks for you reply !
Yesterday evening I have upload the "display" build into my Wemos, and have seen that all SPI bus are pinout availability, is great !
So I bought one of 2,7" e-ink display, now I will try to compile a extra build with P096 and P102 plugins together because I want to use a PZEM004-T with this kind of display (P102 plugin is already in "energy" build and P096 for e-ink is on "display" build...)

[Smotek7]

Will the combination of
ESP32-C3, Waveshare 2.7" display (264 x 176px)
And the standard Display build work for me?
Or will I have to make modifications and create my own build?
This is also a project for the future, I just wanted to order the display.

[Ath]

That display should be available in an ESP32 Display build.

be sure not to update the display too often, as a) it'll show a lot of flickering, and b) cause wear on the display, that won't be visible immediately, by only after some time (and lots of updates).

[Smotek7]

If there is a clock on the display, it will update once a minute. Is that a lot? I have no experience at all.
This will be my first attempt with E-ink.

[TD-er]

Problem with e-ink is that there are small balls which have some paint on one side.
The way an e-ink display operates is these balls are rotated.
Each rotation will wear off this paint.
I don't know if there is an actual wear stated anywhere.
However I do know that one of such displays which a friend of mine did change as often as 1x per second.
This display was worn out in about a weekend.
So let's assume an order of magnitude of about 100k updates.

1440 minutes per day, so that's less than a year till the pixels used to show the time will fade and show a 'burn in' pattern like you sometimes saw on monitors that had shown the same for long time.

I think you better lower it to once per 5 minutes, or maybe even add some presence detector to only update the display when someone is around.

[Smotek7]

For info, according to waveshare, it recommends:
- refresh at least 180s
- refresh 1,000,000 times (1 million times)

https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/2.7inch_ ... ccordion19

[TD-er]

Just keep in mind that a full refresh differs from a partial refresh.
Partial refresh is typically done more quickly and thus "more violently" towards the tiny balls in the display.
On the other hand, a full refresh does first 'invert' the newly painted image and then inverts all pixels again.
Thus twice the number of rotation. But at least those rotations are less turbulent to those tiny balls.

Also partial refreshes over different areas can be counted as multiple refreshes which makes this number look better.

The guestimate of 100k was based on the idea we don't know when the display got damaged over the weekend left unattended.
86400 seconds in a day, so a weekend can be as much as 300k, which is in the same order of magnitude as 1'000'000.

Edit:
This is another remark from your link I didn't know:

During the standby process (that is, after the refresh operation), it is recommended that the customer set the e-paper screen to sleep mode, or power off (the power supply part of the e-paper screen can be disconnected with an analog switch) to reduce power consumption and prolong the life of the e-paper screen. (If some e-paper screens are powered on for a long time, the screen will be damaged beyond repair.)