Originally posted on www.letsmakerobots.com
imagesI guess it’s been an I2C weekend. I found these organic light-emitting diode displays (OLED)images imagesat Itead studio for $5. images
imagesNifty little buggers.images
They might be small, but their extraordinary contrast and viewing angle more than make up for it. Plus, I mean, c’mon, they’re $5. I will say I was a little annoyed that they operate at 3.3v. And I’m sure this means I’ll be making a small little level converter board for them pretty soon. I estimate the converter board would be around $1.25, simagestill a good price.images
images imagesimagesSome perks of OLEDs:images
- imagesWider viewing angle (i.e., you don’t have to look straight down at it).images
- imagesNo back light, making them flatter and use less power (not a lot less).images
- imagesHigh refresh rate. The only time I saw a flicker is through my video camera. And I had delay(10); in my code :) images
- imagesThey are cheap(er?).images
- imagesThey’re the future :) images
The only downside that really jumped out at me was the libraries are about 9k flash uploaded. The 64x64 LMR Bot was around 1k.
imagesWhen I got them I was worried I wouldn’t be able to use them without digging into the datasheets. But come to find out, they were exactly the same unit as on Adafruit’s boards. Sorry, I love you Ada…but…can’t afford $19.50. Now, maybe if Becky Stern came with them. Erm. Anyway, with Ada’s excellent guides and software I had the LMR Bot moving around in about 10 minutes. So, I’ll end up buying something from Ada to monetarily say, “Thank you, love.”images
- Adafruit’s Guides on working with the imagesSSD1306 images128x64 OLED
- Ada’s Arduino libraries for working with the SSD1306 (it supports basic shapes, lettering, and bitmaps)
- LCD Assisstant (for converting bitmaps to byte arrays).
The connections go something like this:
- imagesArduino Uno 3.3v <————> OLED VCCimages
- imagesArduino Uno 3.3v <————> LV of Logic Converterimages
- imagesArduino Uno 5v <————> HV of Logic Converterimages
- imagesArduino Uno Gnd <——————> OLED GNDimages
- imagesArduino Uno Gnd <——————> LV Logic Converter GNDimages
- imagesArduino Uno Gnd <——————> HV Logic Converter GNDimages
- imagesArduino Uno A5 (SCL) <——— Channel 1 Logic Converter ——–> OLED SCLimages
- imagesArduino Uno A4 (SDA) <——— Channel 2 Logic Converter ——–> OLED SDAimages
- imagesArduino Uno D4 (SCL) <——— Channel 3 Logic Converter ——–> OLED RESETimages
I know, I know; I’m working on a converter adapter to make tha all those wires go away.
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