Getting started with Ink Frame 5.7

Support
1

Hello,
I am trying to get to grips with the Inky Frame but would appreciate some help.

  • After upgrading to version 1.21 of your UF2 file my Inky Frame 5.7 works - more or less.
  • On power up, the launcher displays but jumps straight to the last chosen app.
  • In order to select a different app I need to first reset the display by pressing buttons A, E and reset simultaneously, to return to the launcher. I then have to select the new app. This involves two refresh cycles - pretty tedious.
  • Just pressing one of the other buttons to select a different app simply updates the current app.
    Is this correct?
  • If so, it is inconvenient, particularly as the reset button is on the back. I would have liked to be able to build it into a case.
  • Is it possible to select a new app remotely and/or update a given app remotely?
     
  • In the main.py file I downloaded, some of the “inky helper” commands start with " ih." but in your tutorial this is not the case. Which is correct?
  • The word_clock app prints text to the REPL but does not display any text on the inky frame.
  • The other apps seem to work OK.

Thanks for any help
Bob

2

When Inky Frame wakes up whilst on battery power it will run whatever script is saved as main.py. The launcher ‘remembers’ which example it was running by saving the current state to a file, but you don’t need to incorporate this in your software if you don’t want to.

Is it possible to select a new app remotely and/or update a given app remotely?

It’s not something we’ve implemented in our examples, but running code over wi-fi on a Pico W is possible. Check out WebREPL for a starting point - MicroPython WebREPL

  • In the main.py file I downloaded, some of the “inky helper” commands start with " ih." but in your tutorial this is not the case. Which is correct?

I think the functions in the old inky_helper module have now mostly been replaced by the ones built into the inky_frame module (these are accessible with import inky_frame as described in the Learn guide). Some of the examples might still use inky_helper though.

  • The word_clock app prints text to the REPL but does not display any text on the inky frame.

That doesn’t sound right - did you download the most recent version of the example from Github?