eink display

Last update: Thu Jun 5 22:25:40 2025

My adventures with eInk displays. Fantastic tools, but with a twist if you let them running too long...
I use it with my eInk Weather station.

Implementation

Setup


sudo apt-get install python-pip  python-dev
sudo apt-get install python-imaging python-pillow
sudo pip install spidev RPi.GPIO numpy

#the libraries from the maker WaveShare
git clone https://github.com/waveshare/e-Paper

Issues with e-paper running too long

So I got the problem twice: make your program work with your screen. Mine are 2.13inch screens from WaveShare. And let the puppy run for 1 month continuously with a full update 3 times an hour. and you end up with that↓

Screen number 1: can't completely erase anymore.

Screen number 2: can't completely erase anymore after 1 month running continuously.

Facts collection:

Both are 2.13 ePaper Hat from WaveShare for Raspberry Pi, v1 it seems

Both run on 3.3v

Both worked perfectly for weeks (powered 24/7) until losing the capacity to clear in a few days

Both were mounted near vertically in the Weather station

Both were "sleeped" after each update to avoid that precise problem. However after checking the source code of the epd2in13.py vs the latest version that the code for calling changed. Before it was only self.send_command(DEEP_SLEEP_MODE) and in the latest it became self.send_command(DEEP_SLEEP_MODE) ; self.send_data(0x01) ... so yeah, could be a problem of using old code?

Solution

Well apparently I'm not the only one complaining about the power consumption (and time-bomb effect that goes with it I deduce), so solution is like expected to implement in manually. The solution the gentleman propose is a high side (source) PNP, which sounds about right to me too :)

Links

Helpful sources

https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/2.13inch_e-Paper_HAT_(B)

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