Support waveshare 9.7in display

[phaer]

Hi,

I acquired an 9.7 inch e-ink display which, according to the waveshare, supports partial refresh. I've used their example code for full refreshes, but did not yet find out how to do a partial refresh - the displays refreshes partially, but doesn't display new text in the refreshed area - yet ;)

I'd be very interesting in working on PaperTTY support for this display, but I am new to e-ink displays in general and the 9.7in model seems to work quite differently compared to the smaller models. It uses a IT8951 controller. As far as I understand, I'd need the LUT values for PaperTTY? They seem to be stored in the hat, at least I haven't found them in the demo code yet. And information on the public internet seems sparse.

Anyone else interested in this?

More Infos on the official Wiki page: https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/9.7inch_e-Paper_HAT, the chinese version has a bit more info and code: http://www.waveshare.net/wiki/9.7inch_e-Paper_HAT

[joukos]

I too noticed they had a 9.7" model just a couple of days ago and it does seem pretty different - mostly more awesome. Not only is it grayscale but the refresh rate appears to be pretty good. Can't say much about it yet, but I'd be interested hearing your experiences with it - especially the refresh rate.

PaperTTY pretty much uses the vendor's sample code to drive the displays with mostly cosmetic modifications, so I think the 9.7" could be integrated similarly - it doesn't really matter if it differs from the other modules, as long as we can implement a method that updates the image on it. The demo code ought to give a partial refresh example too if it's supported, but I can't find any reference to that either.

Perhaps you can ask Waveshare themselves about it, I've gotten quick replies from their support earlier, and even some sample code that I haven't seen elsewhere - the Wiki might not have it all yet.

[joukos]

About the LUTs - I guess they're in the controller with no way to change them, as the datasheet mentions 8 programmable LUTs, but the command list seems very sparse and no mention if these can be reprogrammed (or read) easily from user code.

There's a small baby tugging at my trouser leg so I don't have time to look at this further right now, but seems like an interesting display for sure if it works as advertised.

[phaer]

Perhaps you can ask Waveshare themselves about it, I've gotten quick replies from their support earlier, and even some sample code that I haven't seen elsewhere - the Wiki might not have it all yet.

I did, they confirmed that it supports partial refresh, but didn't provide example code so far - but I sent the last mail just yesterday, so we'll see.

About the LUTs - I guess they're in the controller with no way to change them, as the datasheet mentions 8 programmable LUTs, but the command list seems very sparse and no mention if these can be reprogrammed (or read) easily from user code.

Okay, thanks for the confirmation, I wasn't sure if there's really nothing about reading them in the documentation or if I am missing something - I don't have much experience with low level hardware programming. And I found it strange, that the examples all used mode 2 and the docs did not seem to mention what they other modes were. But right after posting this issue, I found a document which describes the mode, a bit hidden in the chinese wiki (thanks google translate!) http://www.waveshare.net/w/upload/c/c4/E-paper-mode-declaration.pdf

[phaer]

I've got partial refresh working :) Going to look into PaperTTY support for this mode, but it might take a while as I have limited time available for this project.

[joukos]

Neat! :)

[JS01230]

I have the Waveshare 6in model. It is quite similar to the 9.7in as it also runs on the IT8951 driver. Right now, trying to figure out how to get PaperTTY working on this device. I also want to figure out partial-refresh.

[joukos]

I have the Waveshare 6in model. It is quite similar to the 9.7in as it also runs on the IT8951 driver. Right now, trying to figure out how to get PaperTTY working on this device. I also want to figure out partial-refresh.

Nice, do mention if you get it working. At some point it would be nice to add support for these since they seem to be superior to the older ones.

[phaer]

I stopped using PaperTTY as a base and tried to get a local https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/kmscon/wlterm/ fork to output on my display because it's a lot faster and a fully-featured terminal emulator. Then I paused the project for personal reasons. Going to try to publish some example code during the week, sorry for the delay

[joukos]

Nice, I hope you get it to work, it would be really cool for these new displays to be put to good use.

I'm still a bit inclined to try implementing a "PaperVNC" viewer or similar, so that "everything" would work with it - if I ever get the time to continue with these experiments.

[skipper113]

Cool, got myself a waveshare 9.7' and am interested in it as well. Looking forward for some example codes!

[dvn0]

@phaer did you get anywhere with wlterm?

[ekerebel]

@phaer, @joukos: I have been playing with the 6inch EPD and the IT8951 Hat for my project, successfully managing partial refreshes. My next step is to create my own PCB, using the IT8951. The question I have: do I need to program firmware/ load the LUT or do these come with the controller?

[mchack23]

@ekerebel @phaer: Hi I've also gotten the 6inch EPD and the IT8951 Hat after reading this thread and I "simply" want a terminal running on it ;) but in fact I have no Idea how to run papertty on it. Which driver did you use? What did you do to have partial refreshes on it? All I can do for now is compile the IT8951.c example from waveshare and show a .bmp on the display but don't know a way of getting papertty running on it. Any pointers?

[phaer]

Sorry for letting you all hanging for so long. Life came in between and I shelved the project for the last month, got my code base in a backup and going to try to look into it to answer your questions in the next weeks, but it could still take a while