I created an issue on the github page about this issue, but I’ll repost it here, in case this gets more visibility:
I have two Impressions now, a 5.7" I’ve had for a while and a new 7.3" I’m setting up now. I’ve run into a weird issue that appears to be permissions-based, but somehow at the level of the screen itself. Both of my setups are running on Pi Zero Ws with Raspbian 11, and all of the latest packages installed.
On my 5.7", when running ‘identify.py’ I get:
$ ./identify.py
Found: 7-Colour (UC8159)
Display: 600x447
Color: None
PCB Variant: 1.2
Display Variant: 14
Time: b'2022-09-29 10:58:30.9'
And on my 7.3" I get:
$ ./identify.py
Found: None
Display: 800x480
Color: None
PCB Variant: 1.0
Display Variant: 20
Time: b'2023-08-21 08:48:46.6'
Except, if I run it as root, I get:
$ sudo ./identify.py
Found: 7-Colour 800x480 (AC073TC1A)
Display: 800x480
Color: None
PCB Variant: 1.0
Display Variant: 20
Time: b'2023-08-21 08:48:46.6'
Similarly, none of the other examples will run unless I run them as root:
$ ./name-badge.py --name Test
Inky pHAT/wHAT: Hello... my name is:
Use Inky pHAT/wHAT as a personalised name badge!
Detected None
Failed to detect an Inky board. Trying --type/--colour arguments instead...
usage: name-badge.py [-h] [--simulate] --type {what,phat,phatssd1608,impressions,7colour,whatssd1683} [--colour {red,black,yellow}]
name-badge.py: error: the following arguments are required: --type/-t
And specifying the type as shown does not resolve the issue.:
$ ./name-badge.py --type 7colour --name Test
Inky pHAT/wHAT: Hello... my name is:
Use Inky pHAT/wHAT as a personalised name badge!
Detected None
Failed to detect an Inky board. Trying --type/--colour arguments instead...
/home/sal/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/inky/inky_uc8159.py:302: UserWarning: Busy Wait: Held high. Waiting for 32.00s
warnings.warn("Busy Wait: Held high. Waiting for {:0.2f}s".format(timeout))
/home/sal/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/inky/inky_uc8159.py:302: UserWarning: Busy Wait: Held high. Waiting for 0.20s
warnings.warn("Busy Wait: Held high. Waiting for {:0.2f}s".format(timeout))
To eliminate variables, I tried to swap the sdcards from the two installs, to see if it was the setup itself, but the 5.7" install had the same issue running with the 7.3" screen, and the 7 install had no issues working with the 5 screen.
I then swapped the entire Pi Zero from the known working setup onto the new screen and it still had the same issue.
Seeing as the only variable is the screen itself, I’m thinking that there’s something different there, either hardware or firmware-wise. I also have the busy/wait issue #1876581066 and don’t have that on the other Impressions, so perhaps it’s related.
The 7color/image.py script does work fine when running as root, which is what I’m using the screen for, so I’m not dead in the water, but I figured A: If someone else has this issue, they can refer to this, and B: Help fix the issue.