Adafruit Ssd1306 User manual

Monochrome OLED Breakouts

Created by Ladyada

Last updated on 2014-03-05 08:15:08 AM EST

Guide Contents

Overview

Power Requirements

OLED Power Requirements

5V- ready 128x64 and 128x32 OLEDs

0.96" 128x64 OLED

Arduino Library & Examples

Create Bitmaps

Wiring 128x64 OLEDs

Solder Header

I2C or SPI

Using with I2C

Using with SPI

Wiring 128x32 SPI OLED display

128x32 SPI OLED

Wiring 128x32 I2C Display

128x32 I2C OLED

Wiring OLD 0.96" 128x64 OLED

128x64 Version 1.0 OLED

Downloads

Buy OLED Displays

Forums

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Overview

This is a quick tutorial for our 128x64 and 128x32 pixel monochrome OLED displays. These

displays are small, only about 1" diagonal, but very readable due to the high contrast of an

OLED display. Each OLED display is made of 128x64 or 128x32 individual white OLEDs, each one

is turned on or off by the controller chip. 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!

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The driver chip, SSD1306 can communicate in multiple ways including I2C, SPI and 8-bit

parallel. However, only the 128x64 display has all these interfaces available. For the 128x32

OLED, only SPI is available. Frankly, we prefer SPI since its the most flexible and uses a small

number of I/O pins so our example code and wiring diagram will use that.

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Power Requirements

OLED Power Requirements

The OLED and driver require a 3.3V power supply and 3.3V logic levels for communication. The

power requirements depend a little on how much of the display is lit but on average the display

uses about 20mA from the 3.3V supply. Built into the OLED driver is a simple switch-cap charge

pump that turns 3.3v-5v into a high voltage drive for the OLEDs. You can run the entire display

off of one 3.3V supply or use 3.3V for the chip power and up to 4.5V for the OLED charge pump

or 3.3V for the chip power and a 7-9V supply directly into the OLED high voltage pin.

5V- ready 128x64 and 128x32 OLEDs

Unless you have the older v1 128x64 OLED, you can rest assured that your OLED is 5V ready.

All 1.3" 128x64 and the small 128x32 SPI and I2C are 5V ready, if you have a v2 0.96" 128x64

OLED with the 5V ready mark on the front, it's also 5V safe. If you have an older 0.96" OLED

(see below) you'll need to take extra care when wiring it to a 5V micontroller. The OLED is

designed to be 5V compatible so you can power it with 3-5V and the onboard regulator will take

care of the rest.

All OLEDs are safe to use with 3.3V logic and power.

Simply connect GND to ground, and Vin to a 3 to 5V power supply. There will be a 3.3V output

on the 3Vo pin in case you want a regulated 3.3V supply for something else.

0.96" 128x64 OLED

The older 0.96" 128x64 OLED is a little more complex to get running as it is not 5V compatible

by default, so you have to provide it with 3.3V power.

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VDD is the 3.3V logic power. This must be 3 or 3.3V

VBAT is the input to the charge pump. If you use the charge pump, this must be 3.3V to

4.2V

VCC is the high voltage OLED pin. If you're using the internal charge pump, this must be left

unconnected. If you're not using the charge pump, connect this to a 7-9V DC power supply.

For most users, we suggest connecting VDD and VBAT together to 3.3V and then

leaving VCC unconnected.

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Arduino Library & Examples

For all of the different kinds of small OLED monochrome displays, you'll need to install the

Arduino libraries. The code we have is for any kind of Arduino, if you're using a different

microcontroller, the code is pretty simple to adapt, the interface we use is basic bit-twiddling

SPI.

To download the Arduino library, visit the Adafruit SSD1306 library repository on

GitHub (http://adafru.it/aHq) . Click the DOWNLOAD button near the upper left, extract the

archive and then rename the uncompressed folder to Adafruit_SSD1306. Confirm that this

folder contains the files Adafruit_SSD1306.cpp and Adafruit_SSD1306.h and the

examples folder.

Place the Adafruit_SSD1306 folder inside your Arduino /libraries folder. You may need to

create this folder if it does not yet exist. In Windows, this would be (home folder)\My

Documents\Arduino\libraries and for Mac or Linux is (home

folder)/Documents/Arduino/libraries. We also have a tutorial on library

installation (http://adafru.it/aYG).

You will need to do the same for the Adafurit_GFX library available here (http://adafru.it/aJa)

After installing the Adafruit_SSD1306 and Adafruit_GFX library, restart the Arduino IDE. You

should now be able to access the sample code by navigating through menus in this order:

File®® Sketchbook®® Libraries®® Adafruit_SSD1306®® SSD1306...

After you've finished wiring the display as indicated on the following pages, load the example

sketch to demonstrate the capabilities of the library and display.

The OLED SSD1306 driver is based on the Adafruit GFX library which provides all the underlying

graphics functions such as drawing pixels, lines, circles, etc. For more details about what you

can do with the OLED check out the GFX library tutorial (http://adafru.it/aPx)

The library cannot determine the screen size via software.

The library cannot determine the screen size via software. You have to specify it in

You have to specify it in

the header file.

the header file. Go into the library folder and open the file Adafruit_SSD1306.h.

Go into the library folder and open the file Adafruit_SSD1306.h.

Toward the top you'll see a section of comments that tell how how to edit the file for

different kinds of display.

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Create Bitmaps

You can create bitmaps to display easily with the LCD assistant software (http://adafru.it/aPs).

First make your image using any kind of graphics software such as photoshop or Paint and save

as a Monochrome Bitmap (bmp)

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Select the following options (You might also want to try Horizontal if Vertical is not coming

out right)

and import your monochrome bitmap image. Save the output to a cpp file

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You can use the output directly with our example code

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Wiring 128x64 OLEDs

Solder Header

Before you start wiring, a strip of header must be soldered onto the OLED. It is not possible to

"press-fit" the header, it must be attached!

Start by placing an 8-pin piece of header

with the long ends down into a

breadboard for stability

Place the OLED on top so all the short

ends of the header stick thru the header

pads

Finish by soldering each of the 8 pins to

the 8 pads!

I2C or SPI

The nice thing about the 128x64 OLEDs is that they can be used with I2C (+ a reset line) or SPI.

SPI is generally faster than I2C but uses more pins. It's also easier for some microcontrollers to

use SPI. Anyways, you can use either one with this display

Using with I2C

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The display can be used with any I2C microcontroller. Because the I2C interface is for 'writing' to

the display only, you'll still have to buffer the entire 512 byte frame in the microcontroller RAM -

you can't read data from the OLED (even though I2C is a bidirectional protocol).

To start, you'll need to solder the two jumpers on the back of the OLED. Both must be

soldered 'closed' for I2C to work!

Finally, connect the pins to your Arduino

GND goes to ground

Vin goes to 5V

Data to I2C SDA (on the Uno, this is A4 on the Mega it is 20 and on the Leonardo digital 2)

Clk to I2C SCL (on the Uno, this is A5 on the Mega it is 21 and on the Leonardo digital 3)

RST to digital 4 (you can change this pin in the code, later)

This matches the example code we have written. Once you get this working, you can try a

different Reset pin (you can't change the SCA and SCL pins).

Finally you can run the

File®® Sketchbook®® Libraries®® Adafruit_SSD1306®® SSD1306_128x64_i2c example

Using with SPI

The breakouts are ready for SPI by default, but if you used them for I2C at some point, you'll

need to remove the solder jumpers. Use wick or a solder sucker to make sure both are clear!

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Finally, connect the pins to your Arduino -

GND goes to ground

Vin goes to 5V

DATA to digital 9

CLK to digital 10

D/C to digital 11

RST to digital 13

CS to digital 12

(Note: If using the display with other SPI devices, D/C, CLK and DAT may be shared, but CS

must be unique for each device.)

This matches the example code we have written. Once you get this working, you can try

another set of pins.

Finally you can run the

File®® Sketchbook®® Libraries®® Adafruit_SSD1306®® SSD1306_128x64_spi example

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Wiring 128x32 SPI OLED display

128x32 SPI OLED

The 128x32 SPI OLED is very easy to get up and running because it has built in level shifting.

First up, take a piece of 0.1" header 8 pins long.

Plug the header long end down into a breadboard and place the OLED on top. Solder the short

pins into the OLED PCB.

Finally, connect the pins to your Arduino - GND goes to ground, Vin goes to 5V, DATA to

digital 9, CLK to digital 10, D/C to digital 11, RST to digital 13 and finally CS to digital 12.

(Note: If using the display with other SPI devices, D/C, CLK and DAT may be shared, but CS

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must be unique for each device.)

This matches the example code we have written. Once you get this working, you can try

another set of pins.

Finally you can run

the File®® Sketchboo k®® Libraries®® Adafruit_SSD1306®® SSD1306_128x32_SPI example

If you're using the 128x32 OLED, be sure to uncomment the "#define

SSD1306_128_32" in the top of Adafruit_SSD1306.h to change the buffer size

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Wiring 128x32 I2C Display

128x32 I2C OLED

The 128x32 I2C OLED is very easy to get up and running because it has built in level shifting and

regulator. First up, take a piece of 0.1" header 6 pins long.

Plug the header long end down into a

breadboard

Place the OLED on top

Solder the short pins into the OLED PCB.

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Finally, connect the pins to your Arduino

GND goes to ground

Vin goes to 5V

SDA to I2C Data (on the Uno, this is A4 on the Mega it is 20 and on the Leonardo digital 2)

SCL to I2C Clock(on the Uno, this is A5 on the Mega it is 21 and on the Leonardo digital 3)

RST to digital 4 (you can change this pin in the code, later)

This matches the example code we have written. Once you get this working, you can change

the RST pin. You cannot change the I2C pins, those are 'fixed' in hardware

Finally you can run

the File®® Sketchboo k®® Libraries®® Adafruit_SSD1306®® SSD1306_128x32_i2c example

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Wiring OLD 0.96" 128x64 OLED

128x64 Version 1.0 OLED

The version 1 128x64 OLED runs at 3.3V and does not have a built in level shifter so you'll need

to use a level shifting chip to use with a 5V microcontroller. The following will assume that is the

case. If you're running a 3.3V microcontroller system, you can skip the level shifter.

We'll assume you want to use this in a

breadboard, take a piece of 0.1" header

10 pins long.

Place the header in a breadboard and

then place the left hand side of the OLED

on top.

And solder the pins

This wiring diagram is only for the older 0.96" OLED that comes with a level shifter

chip. If you did not get a level shifter chip, you have a V2.0 so please check out the

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