Good Display ePaper for Arduino

Hi Jean-Marc,

I am working on a project where I am planning to use E-paper display (B/W) with arduino Mega. I have interfaced another e-paper display already with Atmega2560 already but due to some limitation of that I have to switch to the e-paper display of good-display company. On their website they are providing code for STM and as far as I understood from this thread you have done it with ESP for memory. Atmega2560 have 8KB of RAM so can we/ have you interface it with arduino Mega?

If yes can you share the code?

Thank you.

Hi Crazy Man,

Arduino MEGA / Atmega2560 is an uncommon board for use with e-paper for me. So I did not handle the special case of a Arduino MEGA with e.g. a 200x200 pixel b/w e-paper display in my library GxEPD. The display buffer for this would just fit into available RAM: 200*200/8 bytes. GxEPD handles all AVR Arduinos using paged drawing.But you can use GxEPD with Arduino MEGA.

These e-papers work with 3.3V supply and need 3.3V data signals. Use at least series resistors on data lines.

With the library GxEPD2 you can specify the page height used for paged drawing in the application code as template parameter, so you can decide how much RAM should be used for paged drawing or full buffered drawing, and how much left for your application.

Take a look at the readme.md files of these libraries, to learn about paged drawing.

You did not tell which e-paper display you intend to use, so I can't provide more help for now.
Post again with additional questions; this should get you started. Good Luck!

Jean-Marc

Hi Jean-Marc,

I will be using good-display e-paper model GDEW0213V7LT.
here's the link http://www.good-display.com/products_detail/productId=405.html

I know the memory is the main constraint for E-paper that's why I have selected Atmega2560, and I have already made standalone Atmega2560 PCB for using it with E-paper with the driver circuitry and also tested with one E-paper display which needed 5512 bytes successfully.

I will take look into your library.

Thank you for your help. :slight_smile:

@crazyman2012

I will be using good-display e-paper model GDEW0213V7LT.

Unfortunately this e-paper is not supported by any of my libraries; I do not have this new display.

It has a different resolution than the 2.13" b/w display GDE0213B1 I have and support.
The resolution parameters and maybe other setup parameters will be different.

You can try to adapt the display classes for the GDE0213B1 to your GDEW0213V7LT. Or try to persuade Good Display Support to provide one of these to me.

Jean-Marc

Sure, I'll try that and post what happened.

Thank you.

Hi everybody,
For a project I need a big Epaper screen with partial refresh so I was suggested to use the 6" one of Good Display, unfortunately it works in parallel and it is not well documented to be used with Arduino boards.
I know that some people is working on that and I wrote to the company to make this porting to Arduino easier, this was the answer.

Good day.
This is Chris from Good Display team, thanks for your inquiry.
Regarding to our 6" with partaial refesh epaper, you will see more information as below:
http://www.good-display.com/products_detail/productId=113.html
Current for the sample code we can provide is only support ARM, but i will inform our R & D dept.
Can you develop the board refer to the code that we provided? Also may i know do you have tested our epaper?

Any question, contact me anytime.

So I answer that I can't develop my own code, but some people is working on that and that I would buy this display if well supported etc...
He answered me again (very kindly).

Good day.
Appreciate that you can share so much information with us, this will be very helpfull.
This week on Wednesday, we will have a meeting to discuss about Arduino.
For the demo code, i suggest you try to learn from one of our agent Wareshare, they have Arduino board, the epaper on sale all provide by us.

Will update any news here.

I think that the this very kind and willing company is coming towards the Arduino world in the future.

Very welcome!

I have added the following to the Waveshare e-paper topic:

Addition for this topic:

Maybe you could ask Waveshare if they have any plans for additional parallel interface e-paper displays. Their 4.3" b/w e-paper display with serial connection uses the 4.3" parallel interface e-paper; in fact, their board is a complete STM32 system. So they have the knowledge and resources to do this, but would maybe need to know the market potential. The Arduino community might be very interested, if the source would be provided open, to allow to modify the on-board application.
From my experience, the 6" parallel e-paper provides much better contrast and picture quality than the 4.3".

I now have a 7 days evaluation license for Keil 5, and my next step is to check the original demo code on my DESTM32-T system, as my initial version of the ported code hangs at an unexpected place.

Jean-Marc

I will forward your question to them and wait for the answer :slight_smile:

ZinggJM:
Very welcome!

I have added the following to the Waveshare e-paper topic:

I now have a 7 days evaluation license for Keil 5, and my next step is to check the original demo code on my DESTM32-T system, as my initial version of the ported code hangs at an unexpected place.

Jean-Marc

Hello everybody,

I'll try to introduce e-paper for ma domotic station but i have a problem... it doesn't work :smiley:

I use a Blue Pill with DESTM32-S2 and HINK-E042A07 (HINK-E042A07 )

I use GxEPD_SPI_TestExample sketch and uncomment the lines below:

#include <GxGDEW042Z15/GxGDEW042Z15.cpp>    // 4.2" b/w/r 

#define BOARD_SPI1_NSS_PIN        PA4
#define BOARD_SPI1_MOSI_PIN       PA7
#define BOARD_SPI1_MISO_PIN       PA6
#define BOARD_SPI1_SCK_PIN        PA5

I'm sur to my hardware connection between DESTM32-s2 and blue pill..
On the serial i have "Busy Timeout" message.

Do you have any idea why it doesn't work please ?

Hi Maxvi33,

Yes, I have an idea, but I simply don't know if it is relevant.

GxEPD is for display panels from Dalian Good Display, and in the file GxGDEW042Z15.cpp you have chosen you see the controller it is intended for.

I have no idea if the controller SSD1619 of your display is compatible, nor if the pinout of the FCP connector is ok for DESTM32-S2. And I am not motivated to look at the details of the two specs to find out.

So you have to find out yourself if your e-paper should be compatible with the one from Good Display.

But maybe some other user of GxEPD has the time and will to do that.

Added: and you could post your wiring; did you connect BS to GND?

Jean-Marc

Hi,ZinggJM
I'm using the 4.2 display 400x300 GDEW042T2 and I'm trying to fix the size of the picture with the dpi but i lost , can you provide the best settings that i can do for the best result on this screen.
Also img2lcd is a software for windows only do you have any alternatives for MAC OSX? or any website that you tried yourself and it works ?

Thank you so much

Hi WegzZ,

I'm using the 4.2 display 400x300 GDEW042T2 and I'm trying to fix the size of the picture with the dpi but i lost , can you provide the best settings that i can do for the best result on this screen.

I don't understand your question; is it related to img2lcd? I have no experience with img2lcd, but someone reported that Waveshare has an example of use on their Wiki pages.

And someone posted about a webpage with a similar name, but I have not found that post again.

ZinggJM:
Very welcome!

I have added the following to the Waveshare e-paper topic:

I now have a 7 days evaluation license for Keil 5, and my next step is to check the original demo code on my DESTM32-T system, as my initial version of the ported code hangs at an unexpected place.
Addition for this topic:

Maybe you could ask Waveshare if they have any plans for additional parallel interface e-paper displays. Their 4.3" b/w e-paper display with serial connection uses the 4.3" parallel interface e-paper; in fact, their board is a complete STM32 system. So they have the knowledge and resources to do this, but would maybe need to know the market potential. The Arduino community might be very interested, if the source would be provided open, to allow to modify the on-board application.
From my experience, the 6" parallel e-paper provides much better contrast and picture quality than the 4.3".

Jean-Marc

Here the answer to this

Hello Giacomo,

Good day.
Apologized for my delay.
Regarding to your suggestion for Arduino, we have discussed, we will develop it but not now.
Our R & D dept have already add this to their plan, i hope it can be ready as soon as possible, will let you know.

Best regards,
Chris

EDIT: I have tried to get rid of quote problems of the previous post

@Bjack795,

Please check your post before posting, as your quote is incomplete; I tried myself, it looks like quoting posts that contain a quote does not work. So the meaning gets disturbed.

Thank you for the information.

Good Display know that I am working on a version for Arduino for my library GxEPD.
They provided also the document for the AVT6203A ASIC chip, as I could not download it from baidu.cn, as I have no account.

The AVT6203A is a general ASIC chip for use with EPD panels, it his highly configurable and generates the signals for the panel when fed with data, reading waveform table data from a serial flash memory that is also programmable though the AVT chip. The waveform table data is available in the demo source, but there seems no format information available (may be proprietary and not needed for use).

I was able to convert the demo code to be compiled with Arduino IDE and successfully run on the demo board. And I am making progress to convert that code for use as a display class in GxEPD.
The processor on the demo board has 64k RAM, so it looks like a full graphics b/w buffer of 600*800/8 bytes for text and graphics rendering can be achieved. But there is still work ahead.

Jean-Marc

ZinggJM:
@Bjack795,

Please check your post before posting, as your quote is incomplete; I tried myself, it looks like quoting posts that contain a quote does not work. So the meaning gets disturbed.

Thank you for the information.

Good Display know that I am working on a version for Arduino for my library GxEPD.
They provided also the document for the AVT6203A ASIC chip, as I could not download it from baidu.cn, as I have no account.

The AVT6203A is a general ASIC chip for use with EPD panels, it his highly configurable and generates the signals for the panel when fed with data, reading waveform table data from a serial flash memory that is also programmable though the AVT chip. The waveform table data is available in the demo source, but there seems no format information available (may be proprietary and not needed for use).

I was able to convert the demo code to be compiled with Arduino IDE and successfully run on the demo board. And I am making progress to convert that code for use as a display class in GxEPD.
The processor on the demo board has 64k RAM, so it looks like a full graphics b/w buffer of 600*800/8 bytes for text and graphics rendering can be achieved. But there is still work ahead.

Jean-Marc

Ok thank you for your work, keep us updated please.

PS. I have edited the previous message

The quoted post is here. quoting still didn't work.

@Bjack795,

The answer you got, is it from Good Display or from Waveshare? This is unclear from your post.

ZinggJM:
The quoted post is here. quoting still didn't work.

@Bjack795,

The answer you got, is it from Good Display or from Waveshare? This is unclear from your post.

Ok I recap here.

The post was the one you linked.

You did this question in both posts (that one and this one).
I prevously said "I will forward your question to Good Display" which has Waveshare as partner.

And that was their answer.

I hope it's more clear now.

Excuse me fo the confusion but it was the quote of a quote of a quote from another post :slight_smile:

A preliminary version for Good Display HD e-papers on DESTM32-T is available: GxEPD_HD

For use with GDE060BA panel.

Tests and enhancements are ongoing.

Jean-Marc

Still no news on "big screens with partial refresh" side from the company but I will keep you constantly updated.

As always thank you for your work.

@Bjack795

What are your plans, are you going to order that display?
Do you wait until Good Display has a solution for Arduino?

I know they are working on it, but I don't know what to expect.
Maybe just a version of their demo example for use with Arduino IDE.

Tell me when you are interested in using GxEPD_HD, so I can plan the next steps, next preliminary version.

Jean-Marc