Inky Phat Black and White. Display not displaying

Support
1

I just got the Inky Phat so here is exactly what I did. I am using a pi zero without wireless version 1.3 it is call or similar shouldn’t matter isn’t really old.

Installed using bash/curl way in old docs and am using the most current rasp pi os (raspbian). Also tried installing it from github which shouldn’t make a difference but still same situation.

I connected the inky phat and it is a bit loose which I am guessing is ok.
The inky phat is detected in the console so that is good as a black inkphat SSD1608.
I ran the examples and the python inky library. I am stuck because nothing is updating and the original display image is just left on the display.

The badge example of github I get this.
Inky pHAT/wHAT: Hello… my name is:

Use Inky pHAT/wHAT as a personalised name badge!

Detected Black pHAT (SSD1608)

No error but no change on the display even though it seemed successful.

2

Hi

Can you copy your script so i can compare it with mine?

Did you use Pimoroni Dashboard to install the Phat ?

3

I have not seen the dashboard option, so I will definitely try that today.
I used just rasp os (raspbian) lite without the gui right now, just the server since I don’t often have a need for gui. I just used the script on the github setup installation to install inky and the gpio setting have setup in raspiconfig so it is detectable. tried the badge, weather, and calendar… None of them work.

Example of shell output is
Inky phat/what hello… my name is :

User Inky… rest of the text it prints

Detected Black phat (SSD1608)

and then nothing at all happens on the display itself. Must be defective.

This picture below is how it arrived. I am wondering if that is how it usually arrives because the image does appear to be at an older scale for an older ink phat and not scaled for the current resolution.

IMG_0547
IMG_05471920×1078 143 KB

Thank you for your quick response!.

4

I currently get this error to follow later on but even changing the busy wait timeout to longer doesn’t stop it from timing out and the display doesn’t change still.

This happens in examples and python3 cli (own code)

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 1, in
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/inky/inky_ssd1608.py”, line 249, in show
self._update(buf_a, buf_b, busy_wait=busy_wait)
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/inky/inky_ssd1608.py”, line 174, in _update
self.setup()
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/inky/inky_ssd1608.py”, line 155, in setup
self._busy_wait()
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/inky/inky_ssd1608.py”, line 163, in _busy_wait
raise RuntimeError(“Timeout waiting for busy signal to clear.”)
RuntimeError: Timeout waiting for busy signal to clear.

5

Hi
Im using he example test.py.

#!/usr/bin/env python

from PIL import ImageFont
import sys

import inkyphat

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
print(""“Usage: {}
Valid colours: red, yellow, black
“””.format(sys.argv[0]))
sys.exit(0)

colour = sys.argv[1]

try:
inkyphat.set_colour(colour)
except ValueError:
print(‘Invalid colour “{}” for V{}\n’.format(colour, inkyphat.get_version()))
if inkyphat.get_version() == 2:
sys.exit(1)
print(‘Defaulting to “red”’)

font_file = inkyphat.fonts.FredokaOne
inkyphat.arc((0, 0, 212, 104), 0, 180, 2)

top = 0
left = 0
offset_left = 0

for font_size in (10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20):
text = “Test {}”.format(font_size)
font = inkyphat.ImageFont.truetype(font_file, font_size)
width, height = font.getsize(text)
inkyphat.text((0, top), text, 1, font=font)
top += height + 1
left = max(left, offset_left + width)

offset_left = left + 5
top = 0

for font_size in (22, 24, 26, 28):
text = “Test {}”.format(font_size)
font = inkyphat.ImageFont.truetype(font_file, font_size)
width, height = font.getsize(text)
inkyphat.text((offset_left, top), text, 1, font=font)
top += height + 1
left = max(left, offset_left + width)

offset_left = left + 5
top = 0

for font_size in (30, 32, 34):
text = “Test {}”.format(font_size)
font = inkyphat.ImageFont.truetype(font_file, font_size)
width, height = font.getsize(text)
inkyphat.text((offset_left, top), text, 1, font=font)
top += height + 1
left = max(left, offset_left + width)

inkyphat.show()

from command line using python test.py black
it clears the screen and display test in black

image
image1920×1440 235 KB

6

That above python error is now gone again with a clean install.

So the test.py is from the old phat github repo which I cloned and also an older phat model as well.

I get Valid colours: red, yellow, black back.

Do know that later on a new model and library was made to handle
Detected Black pHAT (SSD1608) ← this model which is different than older ones.
this is the one I have.

Thanks though, I gave it a try.

7

I have found similar posts about this same issue but not a fix/answer for it yet.

8

Lesson here is simple.

I believe a lot of people make this mistake but make sure inky phat has a secure connection. If it doesn’t, the ink phat will be detected however the display will never update and that is probably what is going on with most these posts.

I think what can help is if not on the get started page but also a simple print instruction included in the order would fix some of these mistakes for beginners.

It is a fun product and I am just getting started.

Thank You to all who have been quick to respond to my problem.