Waveshare 4.2inch e-Paper Module User manual

4.2inch e-Paper Module User Manual
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4.2inch e-Paper Module
User Manual
Version
Data
Description
V1.0
2017.05.17
Factory
V2.0
2018.12.05
Notes
【Notes】
⚫Please read this manual before you use the e-Paper. Damage caused by wrong
operations is not within the scope of the warranty
⚫This manual shows you how to use the e-paper with the demo codes we provide.
⚫The e-paper described in this manual is Module/HAT version. (Raw panel should
work with driver board)
⚫All specification supplied herein are subject to change without notice at any time.

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CONTENT
Type Description ........................................................................................................................................4
Notes ..............................................................................................................................................................5
Overview........................................................................................................................................................7
Specification ........................................................................................................................................7
Interfaces ..............................................................................................................................................8
Working Principle.......................................................................................................................................9
4-wire SPI..............................................................................................................................................9
Demo codes..............................................................................................................................................11
Download ..........................................................................................................................................11
Raspberry Pi......................................................................................................................................12
Hardware connection............................................................................................................12
Copy examples to Raspberry Pi.........................................................................................12
Libraries Installation ..............................................................................................................13
Running demo codes............................................................................................................15
Expected result........................................................................................................................16
Arduino...............................................................................................................................................17
Hardware connection............................................................................................................17
Running examples..................................................................................................................17
Expected result........................................................................................................................18
STM32.................................................................................................................................................19
Hardware connection............................................................................................................19

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Running example....................................................................................................................19
Expected result........................................................................................................................19
Codes Description ..........................................................................................................................20
Version .......................................................................................................................................20
C codes.......................................................................................................................................20
Python codes ...........................................................................................................................23
Image Data Array ....................................................................................................................................25

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TYPE DESCRIPTION
Generally, there are two version for every type of e-paper, one is raw panel, and
another is Module/HAT version.
Raw panel should work with driver board, if you are the first time to use
Waveshare e-Paper, we recommend you the Module/HAT version or purchase a driver
board separately.
Module/HAT version has PCB which integrates driver circuit. You can connect 8Pin
connector to MCU directly.
Raw Panel (4.2inch e-Paper):
Module Version (4.2inch e-Paper Module):

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NOTES
1. For those e-Paper which support partial refresh, you cannot use partial refresh all
the time. A full refresh should be done to clear screen after several times(partial
refresh), otherwise, e-Paper will be damaged and cannot fixed.
2. Three-color e-Paper is normal to be a little ‘color’ . You can refresh it to white
and keep it upward for storage.
3. The e-Paper cannot be powered on for long time, you must set e-Paper to sleep
mode or power off when it needn’t refresh, otherwise, e-Paper keeps in high
voltage status for long time, which will damage e-Paper and cannot be fixed.
4. We suggest you update e-Paper once every 24 hours or at least 10 days
1
to
update again. Otherwise, ghost of the last content may cannot be cleared.
5. e-Paper ignores the data sent when it is in sleep mode, you need to initialize it for
properly refreshing.
6. You can adjust border color by controlling 0x3C register. In some of demo codes,
you can adjust Border Waveform Control or VCOM AND DATA INERTVAL SETTING
registers.
7. If you find that the image data you made cannot be properly displayed on e-
Paper, please check the size of image, or change its width and height and try
again.
1
For details of operating requirement, please refer to datasheet

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8. The e-Paper cannot refresh directly under sunlight
2
. The refresh steps should be
done indoor
9. For raw panel, its working voltage is 3.3V, note that when you designed you own
driver board, level convert circuit is required if the working voltage of your board
is 5V. Module/HAT version can support 5V voltage if the Module you buy is the
new version which has been integrated convert circuit.
10. The FPC of the panel is fragile, please make sure that your bend it in correct way.
11. The glass raw panel is fragile, please do not falling, crashing or pressing hard.
12. We recommend you test the e-Paper with our demo code when you first time
receive it.
2
e-Paper don’t have UV film, cannot work under sunlight directly

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OVERVIEW
⚫This is an E-Ink display module, 4.2inch, 400x300 resolution, with embedded
controller, communicating via SPI interface.
⚫Due to the advantages like ultra-low power consumption, wide viewing angle,
clear display without electricity, it is an ideal choice for applications such as shelf
label, industrial instrument, and so on.
⚫We provide demo codes for you (Arduino, Raspberry Pi and STM32)
SPECIFICATION
⚫Operating Voltage: 3.3V/5V
3
⚫Working Temperature: 0~50°C
⚫Interface: 3-wire SPI/4-wire SPI
⚫Dimension:
◼PCB: 103.0mm × 78.5mm
◼Raw Panel: 90.1mm × 77.0mm
⚫Display area: 84.8mm × 63.6mm
⚫Dot pitch: 0.212 × 0.212
⚫Resolution: 400x300
⚫Display color: Black, White
⚫Refresh time
4
:
◼Full refresh: 4s
3
The voltage of every pins should be same 3.3V or 5V
4
These are experimental data; actual data may be different according to working situation

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⚫Consumption
5
:
◼Refresh consumption: 26.4mW(typ.)
◼Standby consumption: <0.017mW
⚫Viewing angle: >170°
INTERFACES
VCC
：3.3V/5V
GND
：GND
DIN
：SPI MOSI pin
CLK
：SPI SCK pin
CS
：SPI chip selection, low active
DC
：Data/Command Selection（High: Data; Low: Command）
RST
：Reset（Low active）
BUSY
：Busy（Low active）
5
These are experimental data; actual data may be different according to working situation

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WORKING PRINCIPLE
This product is an E-paper device adopting the image display technology of
Microencapsulated Electrophoretic Display, MED. The initial approach is to create tiny
spheres, in which the charged color pigments are suspending in the transparent oil
and would move depending on the electronic charge. The E-paper screen display
patterns by reflecting the ambient light, so it has no background light requirement.
Under sunshine, the E-paper screen still has high visibility with a wide viewing angle of
180 degree. It is the ideal choice for E-reading.
4-WIRE SPI
Different from the traditional SPI protocol
6
, the data line from the slave to the
master is hidden since the device only has display requirement.
⚫CS is slave chip select, when CS is low, the chip is enabled.
6
You can search online for more information about traditional SPI protocol

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⚫DC is data/command control pin, when DC = 0, write command, when DC = 1,
write data.
⚫SCLK is the SPI communication clock.
⚫SDIN is the data line from the master to the slave in SPI communication.
SPI communication has data transfer timing, which is combined by CPHA and CPOL.
1. CPOL determines the level of the serial synchronous clock at idle state. When
CPOL = 0, the level is Low. However, CPOL has little effect to the transmission.
2. CPHA determines whether data is collected at the first clock edge or at the second
clock edge of serial synchronous clock; when CPHL = 0, data is collected at the
first clock edge.
⚫There are 4 SPI communication modes. SPI0 is commonly used, in which CPHL =
0, CPOL = 0.
As you can see from the figure above, data transmission starts at the first falling edge
of SCLK, and 8 bits of data are transferred in one clock cycle. In here, SPI0 is in used,
and data is transferred by bits, MSB.

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DEMO CODES
DOWNLOAD
Please visit Waveshare Wiki, search with key words “1.54inch e-Paper module.
Download the demo code from wiki,
Extract it and you can get these folders:
Arduino
7
: Demo code for Arduino UNO;
RaspberryPi: Demo codes for Raspberry Pi. (BCM2835, wiringPi and python)
STM32: Demo code for STM32, control board is STM32F103ZET6
7
If you use other Arduino board, you should check if it is compatible with Arduino Uno, or
modification is required.

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RASPBERRY PI
There are four examples for Raspberry Pi, bcm2835, wiringPi, python2 and python3.
HARDWARE CONNECTION
e-Paper
Raspberry Pi
BCM2835 No.
Board No.
3.3V
3.3V
3.3V
GND
GND
GND
DIN
MOSI
19
CLK
SCLK
23
CS
CE0
24
DC
25
22
RST
17
11
BUSY
24
18
COPY EXAMPLES TO RASPBERRY PI
1. Insert SD card which has Raspbian installed to your PC

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2. Copy RaspberryPi extracted to root directory (BOOT) of SD card
3. Power on your Raspberry Pi and open Terminal, you can find that the examples is
listed in boot directory
4. Copy the RaspberryPi folder to /home/pi and change its execute permission.
sudo cp -r /boot/RaspberryPi/ ./
sudo chmod 777 -R RaspberryPi/
LIBRARIES INSTALLATION
To use demo codes, libraries should be installed first.
BCM2835 LIBRARY
Download link of the bcm2835 library: http://www.airspayce.com/mikem/bcm2835/
Download the library and copy it to raspberry pi without extracting. Open terminal of
raspberry pi and install:

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sudo tar zxvf bcm2835-1.xx.tar.gz
cd bcm2835-1.xx
sudo ./configure
make
sudo make check
sudo make install
Note: xx is version of the library you download. For example, if the version is
bcm2835-1.52, you should complete the command to: sudo tar zxvf bcm2835-
1.52.tar.gz
WIRINGPI LIBRARY
Open Terminal and install wiringPi with commands below:
sudo apt-get install git
sudo git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi
cd wiringPi
sudo ./build
PYTHON2 LIBRARY
Open Terminal and execute commands to install:
sudo apt-get install python-pip
sudo apt-get install python-pip
sudo apt-get install python-imaging
sudo pip install spidev

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sudo pip install RPi.GPIO
PYTHON3 LIBRARY
Open Terminal and install library with commands:
sudo apt-get install python3-pip
sudo apt-get install python-imaging
sudo pip3 install spidev
sudo pip3 install RPi.GPIO
sudo pip3 install Pillow
If you get the error while installing Pillow: ImportError: libopenjp2.so.7: cannot open
shared object file: No such file or directory. Please install libopenjp2-7-dev with the
command: sudo apt-get install libopenjp2-7-dev then try again.
RUNNING DEMO CODES
Enter folder of examples
Running bcm2835 example:
cd ~/RaspberryPi/bcm2835 #enter the example directory
make #compile codes
sudo ./epd #running
Running wiringPi example:
cd ~/RaspberryPi/wiringpi #enter the example directory
make #Compile
sudo ./epd #running

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Running python2 example:
cd ~/RaspberryPi/python2 #enter example directory
sudo python main.py #running
Running python3 example:
cd ~/RaspberryPi/python3 #enter example directory
sudo python3 main.py #running
EXPECTED RESULT
After running example:
1) The screen is refresh to white
2) Display a picture
3) Draw circles and lines, text is displayed
You can press ctrl and c at the same time to stop code.

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ARDUINO
Note: If the driver board you bought is e-Paper shield, you can use the demo codes
provided for e-Paper shield separately which can be downloaded in corresponding
wiki.
HARDWARE CONNECTION
If you use other Arduino board instead of Arduino UNO, you should check if its
interfaces are compatible with UNO.
e-Paper
Arduino UNO
3.3V/5V
3V3/5V
GND
GND
DIN
D11
CLK
D13
CS
D10
DC
D9
RST
D8
BUSY
D7
RUNNING EXAMPLES
1. Make sure you have installed Arduino IDE in your PC
2. Open Arduino project
3. Select correct Board and Port
4. Compile and upload to Arduino board

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EXPECTED RESULT
1) e-Paper is refreshed to white
2) Draw circles and lines, text is displayed

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STM32
The development board used is Open103z, project is based on HAL library.
HARDWARE CONNECTION
e-Paper
Open103Z
3.3V
3V3
GND
GND
DIN
PA7
CLK
PA5
CS
PA4
DC
PA2
RST
PA1
BUSY
PA3
RUNNING EXAMPLE
1. Open STM32 project with keil V5
2. Compile and download the demo code to STM32 board
EXPECTED RESULT
1) e-paper is refreshed to white
2) Display a picture
3) Draw circles and lines, display characters

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CODES DESCRIPTION
VERSION
The newest deme codes are V2.0 version, updated functions:
1) read pictures
2) python3 examples
3) update display function
4) fix bug that e-Paper cannot enter sleep mode
C CODES
Take bcm2835 codes as example:
1. Initialize pins and SPI interface:
DEV_ModuleInit（）；
2. Initialize e-Paper and clear it:
3. Create an image buffer
Create an image buffer and set its size as: Imagesize = EPD width/8 * EPD height.
Paint_newImage: Create a paint for new image, parameter 1 is image buffer,