Adafruit 128x64 OLED Bonnet Datasheet

Adafruit 128x64 OLED Bonnet for Raspberry Pi

Created by lady ada

Last updated on 2021-10-22 11:19:04 AM EDT

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Guide Contents

Guide Contents Overview Usage

Install CircuitPython Enable I2C Verify I2C Device

Running Scripts on Boot

Library Usage

Python Library Setup Display Setup

Pin Setup

Display Initialization Button Input and Drawing

Speeding up the Display

Downloads

Files Software

Schematic & Fabrication Print

Overview

If you'd like a compact display, with buttons and a joystick - we've got what you're looking for. The Adafruit

128x64 OLED Bonnet for Raspberry Pi is the big sister to our mini PiOLED add-on (https://adafru.it/wVd).

This version has 128x64 pixels (instead of 128x32) and a much larger screen besides. With the OLED

display in the center, we had some space on either side so we added a 5-way joystick and two

pushbuttons. Great for when you want to have a control interface for your project.

These displays are small, only about 1.3" diagonal, but very readable due to the high contrast of an

OLED display. This screen is made of 128x64 individual white OLED pixels and because the display makes

its own light, no backlight is required. This reduces the power required to run the OLED and is why the

display has such high contrast; we really like this miniature display for its crispness!

Please note that this display is too small to act as a primary display for the Pi (e.g. it can't act like or

display what would normally be on the HDMI screen). Instead, we recommend using pygame for drawing

or writing text.

Using the display and controls in python is very easy, we have a library ready-to-go for the SSD1306 OLED

chipset and the joystick/buttons are connected to GPIO pins on the Pi. Our example code allows you to

draw images, text, whatever you like, using the Python imaging library. We also have example code for

using the joystick/buttons/OLED together. Our tests showed 15 FPS update rates once you bump the I2C

speed to 1MHz, so you can do animations or simple video.

Comes completely pre-assembled and tested so you don't need to do anything but plug it in and install

our Python code! Works with any Raspberry Pi computer, including the original Pi 1, B+, Pi 2, Pi 3 and Pi

Zero.

Usage

Install CircuitPython

This guide assumes that you've gotten your Raspberry Pi up and running, and have CircuitPython

installed. If not, check out the guide:

https://adafru.it/Deo

To install the library for the Pi OLED (https://adafru.it/u1f), enter the following into the terminal:

sudo pip3 install adafruit-circuitpython-ssd1306

If that complains about pip3 not being installed, then run this first to install it:

sudo apt-get install python3-pip

We also need PIL to allow using text with custom fonts. There are several system libraries that PIL relies

on, so installing via a package manager is the easiest way to bring in everything:

sudo apt-get install python3-pil

Enable I2C

To enable i2c, you can follow our detailed guide on configuring the Pi with I2C support

here. (https://adafru.it/dEO)

You also need to install Blinka support as detailed here (https://adafru.it/Deo)

After you've enabled I2C you will need to shutdown with sudo shutdown -h now

Once the Pi has halted, plug in the PiOLED. Now you can power the Pi back up, and log back in. Run the

following command from a terminal prompt to scan/detect the I2C devices

sudo i2cdetect -y 1

This guide assumes you have your Raspberry Pi all set up with an operating system, network

connectivity and SSH!



https://adafru.it/Deo

You should see the following, indicating that address 0x3c (the OLED display) was found

Verify I2C Device

You can run our buttons example, which will let you press various buttons and see them mimicked on the

OLED.

Create a new file with nano ~pi/bonnet_buttons.py and paste this code below in! Then save it.

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2017 James DeVito for Adafruit Industries # SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

# This example is for use on (Linux) computers that are using CPython with # Adafruit Blinka to support CircuitPython libraries. CircuitPython does # not support PIL/pillow (python imaging library)!

import board import busio from digitalio import DigitalInOut, Direction, Pull from PIL import Image, ImageDraw import adafruit_ssd1306

# Create the I2C interface. i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA) # Create the SSD1306 OLED class. disp = adafruit_ssd1306.SSD1306_I2C(128, 64, i2c)

# Input pins: button_A = DigitalInOut(board.D5) button_A.direction = Direction.INPUT button_A.pull = Pull.UP

button_B = DigitalInOut(board.D6) button_B.direction = Direction.INPUT button_B.pull = Pull.UP

button_L = DigitalInOut(board.D27) button_L.direction = Direction.INPUT button_L.pull = Pull.UP

button_R = DigitalInOut(board.D23)

button_R.direction = Direction.INPUT button_R.pull = Pull.UP

button_U = DigitalInOut(board.D17) button_U.direction = Direction.INPUT button_U.pull = Pull.UP

button_D = DigitalInOut(board.D22) button_D.direction = Direction.INPUT button_D.pull = Pull.UP

button_C = DigitalInOut(board.D4) button_C.direction = Direction.INPUT button_C.pull = Pull.UP

# Clear display. disp.fill(0) disp.show()

# Create blank image for drawing. # Make sure to create image with mode '1' for 1-bit color. width = disp.width height = disp.height image = Image.new("1", (width, height))

# Get drawing object to draw on image. draw = ImageDraw.Draw(image)

# Draw a black filled box to clear the image. draw.rectangle((0, 0, width, height), outline=0, fill=0)

while True: if button_U.value: # button is released draw.polygon([(20, 20), (30, 2), (40, 20)], outline=255, fill=0) # Up else: # button is pressed: draw.polygon([(20, 20), (30, 2), (40, 20)], outline=255, fill=1) # Up filled

if button_L.value: # button is released draw.polygon([(0, 30), (18, 21), (18, 41)], outline=255, fill=0) # left else: # button is pressed: draw.polygon([(0, 30), (18, 21), (18, 41)], outline=255, fill=1) # left filled

if button_R.value: # button is released draw.polygon([(60, 30), (42, 21), (42, 41)], outline=255, fill=0) # right else: # button is pressed: draw.polygon( [(60, 30), (42, 21), (42, 41)], outline=255, fill=1 ) # right filled

if button_D.value: # button is released draw.polygon([(30, 60), (40, 42), (20, 42)], outline=255, fill=0) # down else: # button is pressed: draw.polygon([(30, 60), (40, 42), (20, 42)], outline=255, fill=1) # down filled

if button_C.value: # button is released

draw.rectangle((20, 22, 40, 40), outline=255, fill=0) # center else: # button is pressed: draw.rectangle((20, 22, 40, 40), outline=255, fill=1) # center filled

if button_A.value: # button is released draw.ellipse((70, 40, 90, 60), outline=255, fill=0) # A button else: # button is pressed: draw.ellipse((70, 40, 90, 60), outline=255, fill=1) # A button filled

if button_B.value: # button is released draw.ellipse((100, 20, 120, 40), outline=255, fill=0) # B button else: # button is pressed: draw.ellipse((100, 20, 120, 40), outline=255, fill=1) # B button filled

if not button_A.value and not button_B.value and not button_C.value: catImage = Image.open("happycat_oled_64.ppm").convert("1") disp.image(catImage) else: # Display image. disp.image(image)

disp.show()

Run sudo python3 bonnet_buttons.py to run the demo, you should see something like the below:

Press buttons to interact with the demo. Press the joystick + buttons at once for an Easter egg!

Running Scripts on Boot

You can pretty easily make it so this program (or whatever program you end up writing) run every time you

boot your Pi.

The fastest/easiest way is to put it in /etc/rc.local

Run sudo nano /etc/rc.local and add the line

sudo python /home/pi/bonnet_buttons.py &

on its own line right before exit 0

Then save and exit. Reboot to verify that the screen comes up on boot!

For more advanced usage, check out our linux system services guide (https://adafru.it/wFR)

Library Usage

In the examples subdirectory of the Adafruit_CircuitPython_SSD1306 repository (https://adafru.it/EsZ),

you'll find more examples which demonstrate the usage of the library.

To help you get started, I'll walk through the bonnet_buttons.py code below, that way you can use this file

as the basis of a future project.

Python Library Setup

import board import busio from digitalio import DigitalInOut, Direction, Pull from PIL import Image, ImageDraw import adafruit_ssd1306

First, a few modules are imported, including the adafruit_ssd1306 module which contains the OLED driver

classes. The code also imports board (containing the Raspbery Pi pin definitions), busio (communication

with the i2c and spi buses), and digitalio (to control the Raspberry Pi's pins).

You can also see some of the Python Imaging Library modules like Image, ImageDraw, and ImageFont

being imported. Those are, as you can imagine, are for drawing images, shapes and text/fonts!

Display Setup

# Create the I2C interface. i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA) # Create the SSD1306 OLED class. disp = adafruit_ssd1306.SSD1306_I2C(128, 64, i2c)

The next bit of code creates the I2C interface (which the display on the bonnet communicates over) and

creates a SSD1306 OLED class. Note that we are passing SSD1306_I2C 128 and 64, those values

correspond to the bonnet's OLED display.

Pin Setup

# Input pins: button_A = DigitalInOut(board.D5) button_A.direction = Direction.INPUT button_A.pull = Pull.UP

button_B = DigitalInOut(board.D6) button_B.direction = Direction.INPUT button_B.pull = Pull.UP

button_L = DigitalInOut(board.D27) button_L.direction = Direction.INPUT button_L.pull = Pull.UP

button_R = DigitalInOut(board.D23) button_R.direction = Direction.INPUT button_R.pull = Pull.UP

button_U = DigitalInOut(board.D17) button_U.direction = Direction.INPUT button_U.pull = Pull.UP

button_D = DigitalInOut(board.D22) button_D.direction = Direction.INPUT button_D.pull = Pull.UP

button_C = DigitalInOut(board.D4) button_C.direction = Direction.INPUT button_C.pull = Pull.UP

Next up we define the pins that are used for the joystick and buttons. The Joystick has Left, Right, Center

(press in), Up and Down. There's also the A and B buttons on the right. Each one should be set as an input

with pull-up resistor ( Pull.UP in the code)

Display Initialization

# Clear display. disp.fill(0) disp.show()

# Create blank image for drawing. # Make sure to create image with mode '1' for 1-bit color. width = disp.width height = disp.height image = Image.new('1', (width, height))

# Get drawing object to draw on image. draw = ImageDraw.Draw(image)

# Draw a black filled box to clear the image. draw.rectangle((0, 0, width, height), outline=0, fill=0)

The next chunk of code clears the display by inverting its fill with fill(0) and then writing to the display

with show() .

Then it will configure a PIL drawing class to prepare for drawing graphics. Notice that the image buffer is

created in 1-bit mode with the '1' parameter, this is important because the display only supports black and

white colors.

We then re-draw a large black rectangle to clear the screen. In theory we don't have to clear the screen

again, but its a good example of how to draw a shape!

Button Input and Drawing

while True: if button_U.value: # button is released draw.polygon([(20, 20), (30, 2), (40, 20)], outline=255, fill=0) #Up else: # button is pressed: draw.polygon([(20, 20), (30, 2), (40, 20)], outline=255, fill=1) #Up filled

if button_L.value: # button is released draw.polygon([(0, 30), (18, 21), (18, 41)], outline=255, fill=0) #left else: # button is pressed: draw.polygon([(0, 30), (18, 21), (18, 41)], outline=255, fill=1) #left filled

if button_R.value: # button is released draw.polygon([(60, 30), (42, 21), (42, 41)], outline=255, fill=0) #right else: # button is pressed: draw.polygon([(60, 30), (42, 21), (42, 41)], outline=255, fill=1) #right filled

if button_D.value: # button is released draw.polygon([(30, 60), (40, 42), (20, 42)], outline=255, fill=0) #down else: # button is pressed: draw.polygon([(30, 60), (40, 42), (20, 42)], outline=255, fill=1) #down filled

if button_C.value: # button is released draw.rectangle((20, 22, 40, 40), outline=255, fill=0) #center else: # button is pressed: draw.rectangle((20, 22, 40, 40), outline=255, fill=1) #center filled

if button_A.value: # button is released draw.ellipse((70, 40, 90, 60), outline=255, fill=0) #A button else: # button is pressed: draw.ellipse((70, 40, 90, 60), outline=255, fill=1) #A button filled

if button_B.value: # button is released draw.ellipse((100, 20, 120, 40), outline=255, fill=0) #B button else: # button is pressed: draw.ellipse((100, 20, 120, 40), outline=255, fill=1) #B button filled

if not button_A.value and not button_B.value and not button_C.value: catImage = Image.open('happycat_oled_64.ppm').convert('1') disp.image(catImage) else: # Display image. disp.image(image)

disp.show()

Once the display is initialized and a drawing object is prepared, you can draw shapes, text and graphics

using PIL's drawing commands (https://adafru.it/dfH).

This is a basic polling example - we'll check each button.value in order, and draw a different shape - a

directional arrow or a round circle) depending on whether the button is pressed. If the button is pressed

we have the shape filled in. If the button is not pressed, we draw an outline only

Then we run disp.image(image) and disp.show() to actually push the updated image to the OLED. This is

required to actually make the changes appear!

Speeding up the Display

For the best performance, especially if you are doing fast animations, you'll want to tweak the I2C core to

run at 1MHz. By default it may be 100KHz or 400KHz

To do this edit the config with sudo nano /boot/config.txt

and add to the end of the file

dtparam=i2c_baudrate=1000000

reboot to 'set' the change.

Downloads

Files

EagleCAD PCB files on GitHub (https://adafru.it/wWC)

UG-2864HSWEG01 (https://adafru.it/aJI) Datasheet

UG-2864HSWEG01 (https://adafru.it/wWD) User Guide

SSD1306 (https://adafru.it/aJK) Datasheet

Fritzing objects available in the Adafruit Fritzing Library (https://adafru.it/aP3)

Software

OLED Bonnet Toolkit (https://adafru.it/VbN)

Schematic & Fabrication Print

Dimensions in mm