Pervasive Displays e-Paper EPD Extension Kit
|
This display uses e-ink or e-paper technology with two main advantages:
This is a perfect solution for ultra-low power designs and pervasive information solutions. New release 231 no longer requires a PWM signal on pin 9. This makes the BoosterPack compatible with all the LaunchPads. A new version of the BoosterPack is available: see Pervasive Displays e-Paper EPD Extension Kit Gen 2. |
|
Out of the Box
|
The Pervasive Displays e-Paper EPD Extension Kit comes carefully packed.
The same extension kit can be used with 3 different screens: 1.44", 2.0" or 2.7". |
|
|
The board includes the display with its circuitry and an EEPROM. Both are driven through SPI.
Contrary to other displays, the e-paper screen has no VRAM or SRAM memory. The VRAM is thus provided by the MCU or by an external SRAM circuit. The amount of SRAM depends on the size of the screen:
|
|
Connecting to Boards
|
The e-Paper EPD Extension Kit is designed to fit onto a LaunchPad MSP430.
It uses PWM in pin P2_1 on the LaunchPad MSP430, which is not provided by hardware on the corresponding pin PA_5 of the LaunchPad Stellaris. With the LaunchPad MSP430, all except three pins are used. The following pins remain unused:
This provides the opportunity of adding a SPI SRAM with pin P1_0 as Chip Select. |
|
|
The e-Paper EPD Extension Kit also features a 2x10 pins connector, allowing easy connection to other boards, as the Stellaris LaunchPad, the Arduino Uno, Leonardo or Mega.
A detailed pin-out is provided here. To avoid misplacement, do not consider the white dot as it goes out easily. Consider instead the triangle on the top of the header. To avoid any misalignment, stick a white paper on top of the connector to ensure proper positioning into the header. |
|
The right reference and possible error
|
A sticker to ensure correct alignment
|
Using the Display
|
Pervasive Display provides a driver to use with the Adafruit GFX library. This allows direct plug-and-play.
However, as already discussed, it requires enough RAM to prepare the image to be displayed. A dedicated GitHub repository includes all the examples, with continuous update. A new release of the screen I haven't tested yet no longer requires a PWM signal. A new version of the EPD Extension Kit Gen 2 is available. |
|
Pins Map
Pros
|
Cons
|
Wrap-Up
|
Links
|
|
|
