Thanks to @TheCoolest OpenVFD now supports OLED displays on LePotato.
I have ordered a bigger OLED, awaiting delivery of it.
Also supported is displaying temperature / date and playback time.
Odroid C2, Le Potato and KVIM2 are supported.
Any SSD1306 compatible OLED with an I2C (4 pins) interface should work.
SSD1306, SSD1309 and SH1106 should work, but support will be confirmed at a later date.
The HD44780 LCD should have an I2C backpack, any size combination should work (except 40x4), but 20x4 is recommended.
Similar to this:
The vfd.conf files have been added to the repository.
LCDs (HD44780) are already supported in the current builds of CE, OLEDs (SSD1306) support has been pushed to CE repo, and will be available in the upcoming builds.
LCD
You can buy displays rather cheaply today.
A 20x4 LCD (HD44780) with an I2C backpack should cost around $6-7, a 16x2 LCD will be cheaper, but not recommended due to text size constraints.
OLED
What you’re looking for is a 128x32 or 128x64 monochrome OLED. They usually come in White, Blue or a combination of Yellow + Blue. I, personally, like White the most, Blue would be my second pick. Yellow + Blue would just look weird for this application, in my opinion.
Note that the OLEDs are quite small, so take that into consideration. A common size of the 128x64 OLEDs is either 0.96" or 1.3". The 128x32 OLEDs normally come at 0.91". There are other resolutions too (like 64x48), and they will work with OpenVFD, but there will be compromises on text size or availability of icons/indicators. There are some larger OLEDs (2.42"), which cost considerably more. They use a SSD1309 controller. They should work too, as the SSD1309 controller uses a compatible command set to the SSD1306, but I don’t have one to verify.
Icons
128x32 displays will show 32x32 icons for temp, date, media, but the font size is limited to a height of 32 pixels.
128x64 displays use a larger font, 48 pixels high. This will make the numbers easier to read from a distance, but will limit the icon size to 16x16 pixels.
Indicators
The indicator icons (ethernet/wifi/play/pause/USB/SD/Addons/Settings) are always 16x16 pixels in size. On 128x32 displays they are positioned on each side of the time display. On 128x64 displays, they will be positioned on the bottom of the screen, beneath the time.
Ethernet and Wifi icons share the same position, Ethernet takes priority.
Play and pause icons share the same position. If the content is playing, you will see the play icon, if it’s paused, you’ll see the pause icon.
USB and SD icons share the same position, USB takes priority. USB is active only when a USB storage device is connected, it doesn’t react to any other USB device.
Addons (apps icon) and Settings (gear icon) share the same position.
Connecting a display to your board
To connect a display to your board, you will need female to female ‘dupont’ cables. You can buy dupont cables quite cheaply in places such as eBay and AliExpress.
Odroid-C2
Display Board
VCC 5V - Pin #2
GND GND - Pin #6
SCL GPIODV_27 - I2C_SCK_B - Pin #28
SDA GPIODV_26 - I2C_SDA_B - Pin #27
https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-c2/hardware/expansion_connectors
Le Potato
Display Board
VCC 5V - Pin #2
GND GND - Pin #6
SCL GPIODV_27 - I2C_SCK_B - Pin #28
SDA GPIODV_26 - I2C_SDA_B - Pin #27
Khadas VIM2
Display Board
VCC 5V - Pin #2
GND GND - Pin #5
SCL GPIODV_27 - I2C_SCK_B - Pin #25
SDA GPIODV_26 - I2C_SDA_B - Pin #26
1 Like
Hmm. I really like that, do you have a link to the tiny one (first picture.) and a backpack?
Here you go:
There are a bunch of them on ebay and aliexpress. You can pick different colors (usually white or blue and white, blue or yellow-blue for 128x64 versions)
Is there a way to install OpenVFD on Armbian for the Lepotato?
Should be possible with new builds of Armbian.
You’ll need to read the Armbian docs on how to set it up.