How to connect Pico to Inky Impression 7.3

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1

The 7.3 has a 40 pin header. The pico has two rows of 20 pins. I’m not clear how to connect the two.

2

The Inky Impression is for a Raspberry Pi. The Inky Frame has an Pico-W onboard.

3

Thank you for the reply. Attached is a pic of my 7.3 Inky Impression next to a Pico. There is no onboard Raspberry Pi.

IMG_5593
IMG_55933024×4032 3.39 MB

4

Exactly. You have to buy one. I recommend at least the Pi Zero W 2.

5

So does that mean I can’t use the Pico with the Inky?

6

“The Inky” is not the correct wording. “The Inky Impression” can’t be used with a Pico, only with a Pi. “The Inky-Frame” is for the Pico.

These are two different product-lines:

  • Inky Impression: these are for a Raspberry Pi
  • Inky Frame: these are for an (onboard) Pico-W
7

I see. Thank you for the clarification.

8

Is the only difference between the Inky Frame and the Inky Impression the onboard Pico and software? In other words, if I plug a Zero into my Impression, can I turn it into a Frame?

9

And, I guess back to my earlier question, is it possible for me to connect a Pico to my Inky Impression?

10

The displays are almost identical. You could use jumper wires to connect the correct pins. You should read the schematic of the Inky-Impression and compare this with the schematic of the Inky-Frame, then you know which pins to map.

One difference is an additional memory-chip on the Inky-Frame. The Inky-Impression does not need this chip, since even the entry-level Pi has much more memory than the Pico.

From software-side the programs on the Zero (Impression) are definitely different than programs on the Pico. On the Zero, you use normal CPython and the PIL (Python-Image-Library) to create an image that you then display. On the Pico you can use C++ or MicroPython and you manipulate low-level graphical functions.

11

Thanks again. Looks like you’ve taken care of the wiring. This should work, yes?

or this?

12

Yes, my HAT works fine with the Inky-Impression 5.7" and should also work with the 7.3". I did not know about the HAT from The Pi Hut, thanks for the link. Looking at the mapping, this also looks fine.

Added bonus: if you dump the Pico-W and use the Waveshare ESP32-S3 Pico, you get much higher speed and much more memory. Downside is that you cannot use the Micropython-version of Pimoroni with all their examples. One of the reasons I use CircuitPython.