Not sure if I’m doing something wrong or have bad luck, but I’m struggling to get a brand new Inky Frame 4.0 working.
I can connect to micropython on the serial port, however when I try and do any updates on the screen, the screen alternates flashing various shades of black and white about twice a second and stops after about 20 seconds. A small section of the screen along the left edge is unaffected and doesn’t change.
I had exacrly the same problem. Support for the 4.0 Frame is only available in the pre-release version of the Pimoroni pico code (1.19.11) not the release version (1.19.10). You’re trying to run the board with the code that’s supporting the 5.7" frame.
from picographics import PicoGraphics, DISPLAY_INKY_FRAME_4 as DISPLAY
(rather than DISPLAY_INKY_FRAME)
This is highly frustrating - They sent out a mailshot about the 4.0 board last week which meant that lots of relatively inexperienced people (myself included) will have purchased one only to find that it doesn’t work properly when running the getting started tutorials. I still can’t make the networking function and I suspect it’s something stupid that I’ve done but am yet to find out what.
A quick update after having played some more this morning.
The frame actually comes with the correct release installed to it so if you haven’t downloaded/installed any updates it will work fine - you just need to use the DISPLAY_INKY_FRAME_4 setting in your code.
If you do need to download a release then you need the inky_frame specific one not the generic pico one - otherwise the networking and external stuff won’t work.
You mentioned the flashing screen. For the uninitiated, these displays take a long time to update - 15 to 20 seconds during which time they do all that flashing stuff. Having come from using the kindle where the screen updates very fast this was a surprise to me and makes this display less suitable for (say) a regularlyh updating weather display.
Sorry about the confusion - we’ve improved a bunch of stuff on the software side for Inky Frame 4.0" that’s made the existing Inky Frame tutorial somewhat out of date (that’s why I haven’t hooked it up on the shop page yet). We’ll get it updated as soon as we can - here’s a quick rundown of what’s changed and a few things that might be useful in the meantime!
Because Inky Frame’s sleep mode cuts power to the Pico W completely, the launcher saves state to record which example you’re running (so it doesn’t return to the launcher every time it’s woken up). To return to the launcher, press A and E whilst pressing the reset button on the back.
This save state behaviour can make things a little confusing if you’re running your own (non-launcher) scripts - if you want to stop the launcher doing its thing just save main.py with a different file name and then delete the original from the Pico.
The inky_helper.py file is new and includes a bunch of helpful shortcuts for interacting with your Inky so you don’t have to do everything from scratch with basic machine commands, including a function for connecting to wifi, for interacting with the buttons and LEDs and a super helpful sleep function. It’s well worth a look!
The existing Inky Frame examples should also work on Inky Frame 4.0" - note that you’ll need to change DISPLAY_INKY_FRAME to DISPLAY_INKY_FRAME_4 (and you might need to add some additional files as detailed in the readme). Also note that the old examples use WIFI_CONFIG.py to store wifi credentials, not secrets.py.
Shout if there’s anything else that’s puzzling and I’ll see if I can help!
Thank you for the update, it all makes a lot more sense now.
Possibly the most confusing thing for me was that while the launcher is asleep, it’s not possible to access the Pico to copy across the secrets.py file - or indeed anything else. Thonny simply can’t see it. To a beginner this looks like a bug or error situation.
No problem (and thanks for the feedback!) Our production team are in the process of updating the 5.7" shipping firmware to match the 4.0" version, once that’s done I should be able to give the instructions a proper overhaul. In the meantime, I’ve added a few pointers to the tutorial to help point folks in the right direction. I’ve also made the refresh time a bit more prominent on the shop page.
while the launcher is asleep, it’s not possible to access the Pico to copy across the secrets.py file - or indeed anything else. Thonny simply can’t see it.
If you’ve got a main.py present and running (like the launcher) you’ll need to press stop in Thonny to interrupt it before you can copy/change any files - is that what you mean?
If you’ve got a main.py present and running (like the launcher) you’ll need to press stop in Thonny to interrupt it before you can copy/change any files - is that what you mean?
Haha, yes that was probably the problem. Thank you!