new 7 colors display

[Pouletgrill]

Hi, i am currently testing paperPi witha 2.13inch Black and Red Epaper but was unable to use red on my slideshow, I i read correctly it seams to not be supporte yet but i was wondering if you were planning to support it soon ?
My real goal is to By the new 7 color 7.5Inch epaper display from Waveshare and use PaperPi. do you plan to support it in the future ?

I tried to edit the code myself to make the red work but did not succed for now.

[aaronr8684]

I started bringing in grey and color support a while ago and got caught up in other things. I'm right in the middle of another project, but could take a look when I wrap up. I've been meaning to pick this back up again.

[aaronr8684]

Sure thing. I have the 5.65f and 7.5c (red) and a bunch of other smaller ones, but they've really expanded their line (including yours) so it will be good to test as many as we can.

[txoof]

@aaronr8684

I ended up rolling back the OmniEPD changes due to lack of grayscale support. I hope that doesn't throw out your work out too far.

@Pouletgrill
I would love to get color working. It will take some changes to the EPDLib at the backend to make that happen. All the image processing is done in the EPDLib module; that's where the color handling needs to happen eventually.

**Is there a good value multi-color screen you would recommend? ** I'd be interested in fiddling with a color screen.

I took a quick browse through the Screen class and all the clear and update functions will need to be rewritten to handle multiple colors and decide which write functions to push at the screens.

[aaronr8684]

I ended up rolling back the OmniEPD changes due to lack of grayscale support. I hope that doesn't throw out your work out too far.

All good. It's been so long since I looked at the code, I'd want a fresh take anyway. When I start playing around with it, I'll let you know if I need anything

[txoof]

Wow. It looks like wavehsare has cleaned up their methods a bit since last I looked. It might be as simple as calling the write/clear functions just like the black and white screens.

Maybe I'll pick up a 4.01" color and give it a go.

[aaronr8684]

Yea, they've also added a bunch of yellow/red/black screens which is new from the last time I looked. I might have to grab a few new ones too 😄

[txoof]

Step 1: Buy a 7 Color Display
Step 2: Test it
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!?

I wasn't expecting super fast refresh, but wow. The 7 Color refresh time is something else.

[aaronr8684]

Is the refresh still upwards of 30 seconds? I wonder if the new screens are any faster?

[txoof]

Yeah, it's pretty slow, but the color pallet is reasonable.

[txoof]

It looks like it will be pretty simple to update epdlib to work with 7-color screens. At the moment all that's required is overriding the default Screen.mode attribute that defaults to '1' with 'RGB' for non HD screens and then feed it a color image:

We'll just need a way to pick the 7-color screens out reliably and rewrite the logic around the mode setting.

[txoof]

@Pouletgrill

I have a proof of concept that basically works in epdlib. I still need to validate it and clean up some messes, but that's one step closer to adding support to PaperPi.

Once I've sorted out a few things, I'll start working on implementing the color features in PaperPi. Once that's done, we'll need to update a few plugins to take advantage of the color. Right now everything is stuck in 1 or 8 bit gray mode.

[Pouletgrill]

it's crazy, it's barely a week since I discovered your project.
I took a chance to write to you without knowing how much it would restart the project to the next level (color Waw!).
very efficient guys, good job!

[txoof]

@Pouletgrill haha

You caught me at a good time. I'm between other projects and have some free time for something new.

I'll keep plugging away on this and see if I can't get something usable in the next week or so.

[txoof]

@aaronr8684
I've got a new version of epdlib (0.6) in progress over on the development branch. It support RGB; it's also now possible to update the properties of layout blocks on the fly without recalculating everything.

I want to clean up this deprecation warning and then I'll start testing it against PaperPi. I have a feeling that some of the older plugins are going to freak out when I make that change.

The next step after that is to write a plugin/layout that can actually take advantage of the screen!

[txoof]

here's what I'm tinkering with -- I edited this to fix a missing variable

s = Screen()
# s.epd = 'epd4in2'
# s.epd = 'epd2in7'
s.epd = 'epd2in9_V2'
# s.epd = 'epd1in64g'
# s.epd = 'epd2in13_V3'
# s.epd = 'epd7in3f'
# s.epd = 'epd2in13'
# s.epd = 'epd3in7'

try:
    clear_sig = inspect.signature(s.epd.Clear)
except AttributeError as e:
    raise ScreenError(f'epd has an unsupported `EPD.Clear()` function and is not usable with this module ')

color_default = clear_sig.parameters.get('color', False)
    
if color_default:
    logging.debug(f'Clear function has color parameter')
    if color_default.default is color_default.empty:
        color_param = 0xFF
        logging.debug(f'Clear(color) parameter has no default using: {color_param}')

[txoof]

I also just discovered that some of the libraries don't have standard EPD_HEIGHT and EPD_WIDTH values. Sometimes it's written as EPD_width.
¯_(ツ)_/¯ FFS.

[txoof]

I also just discovered that some of the libraries don't have standard EPD_HEIGHT and EPD_WIDTH values. Sometimes it's written as EPD_width.
epd3in52.py has EPD_width and EPD_height

I wonder what other incompatibilities are lurking out there :)

[aaronr8684]

here's what I'm tinkering with

s = Screen()
# s.epd = 'epd4in2'
# s.epd = 'epd2in7'
# s.epd = 'epd2in9_V2'
# s.epd = 'epd2in13_V3'
# s.epd = 'epd7in3f'
# s.epd = 'epd2in13'
s.epd = 'epd3in7'

This is similar to what mine looks like 😄

---

try:
clear_sig = inspect.signature(s.epd.Clear)
except AttributeError as e:
raise ScreenError(f'epd has an unsupported EPD.Clear() function and is not usable with this module ')

color_param = None
if color_default:
logging.debug(f'Clear function has color parameter')
if color_default.default is color_default.empty:
color_param = 0xFF
logging.debug(f'Clear(color) parameter has no default using: {color_param}')

What I came up with is changing this section in Screen.py:

if 'color' in clear_args_spec:
    clear_args['color'] = 0xFF

to something like this:

if 'color' in clear_args_spec.args and clear_args_spec.defaults is None:
    clear_args['color'] = 0xFF

This obviously isn't checking if the default set belongs to color, so that could be a little more robust, but it does work.

EDIT: I read more of your solution and it seems like a better solution once it's implemented on the Screen.py side.

[aaronr8684]

I wonder what other incompatibilities are lurking out there :)

Yea the libraries are a mess. I know that was a huge advantage of the Omni_EPD and I wish I had more time to implement it 😐

[txoof]

I also opened a PR with waveshare to get the three 2in13 libraries to set a default for color, but that could take months based on other PRs I've seen.

I went ahead and patched up all the inconsistent modules with the exception of the epd3in7.py module. I didn't have the patience to figure out what would be "correct" for the mode value.

[txoof]

waveshareteam/e-Paper#280

[aaronr8684]

Nice, I went ahead and closed mine since you covered all my changes

[aaronr8684]

So from what I remember, the 3in7 has two issues. First, the mode=0 (4Gray) is a good default. Second, the "full update" method isn't display(image) but display_4Gray(image)

I had overloaded the functions to get it working with the old version of paperpi, but it definitely isn't a clean method.

The main issue is that the 1Gray method uses getbuffer and the 4Gray method uses getbuffer_4Gray so you can't just create a display() in the driver for a full update because it won't work with the 1Gray buffer method.

[txoof]

uuug. That's fugly. I'm ok just leaving that screen as unsupported. Maybe they'll merge in the PR and make the rest somewhat "standard"

[txoof]

I went ahead and patched up all the inconsistent modules with the exception of the epd3in7.py module. I didn't have the patience to figure out what would be "correct" for the mode value.

Wow! PR accepted!. That should make things way easier to handle! Only the 3in7 is unsupported now.

[txoof]

@Pouletgrill and @aaronr8684

Good news!

The updates to epdlib pretty much drop right in to PaperPi and 'just work'. There will need to be a few modifications to the loading the configuration and all the plugins and layouts will need to be updated to make use of 'RGB' mode, but check out the word clock and slideshow plugins below.

[txoof]

@aaronr8684
I've pushed an updated version of epdlib to the development branch if you want to have a go with it against some more screens. Sometime in the next few days I'll see if I can't push a development branch of PaperPi out with the updated logic and configuration.

[aaronr8684]

5in65f (7-color) - FAILED (I think this is HW related...the library's example test doesn't work either. Hopefully I didn't fry it 😦)
2in13_V3 (b/w) - PASSED
4in2b_V2 (yellow) - PASSED (bw only)
7in5b_V2 (red) - PASSED (bw only)

[aaronr8684]

Ok so I hooked up the screen to another control board and it's working fine. I think the integrated control board is just sitting at always high on the BUSY pin which causes the scripts to not wait for the screen to actually write the image.

[txoof]

I hope your board/screen is ok!

I guess I'll stick with no hot-plugging.

Thanks for the testing.

[Pouletgrill]

Hello Guys, last week while testing my screen i found a bug with the rendering on picture that made it more yellow and fadded.
I told waveshare and they just posted yesterday on their github the correction for my screen epd7in3f.py.
I just wanted to make sur that you were working on up to date code before thinking that some fadding might be because of you while in this case is not.
i let here the link for the commit from yesterday about my screen : waveshareteam/e-Paper@8be47b2

Cheers!

[txoof]

I just pulled in the latest version from Waveshare. The changes in the code you highlighted shouldn't have any impact on epdlib at all.

Thanks for the heads up.

[txoof]

@Pouletgrill You can track progress here: #79

Sometime next week I hope to have a version that's ready to test.

[txoof]

@Pouletgrill and @aaronr8684

I have a very early version ready for testing on the I#79_color_display branch. I've tested it against all the working screens I have and it seems OK. I don't have a working 2-color screen at the moment so if you could test against that, it would be really helpful!

If you all can try this out on the color screens you have that would be fantastic.
This will automatically install from the development branch: /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/txoof/PaperPi/I%2379_color_display/install/remote_install_development.sh)"

You will need to add the following things to your global or user paperpi.ini

[main]
# if possible, use RGB colors; has no impact on 1, 2, 3 or grayscale screens
color = True

I've added RGB support for the following plugins:

• met_no
• word_clock
• slideshow
• reddit_quote
• lms_client
• librespot_client (I haven't had a chance to test this properly yet)

The following plugins will automatically display colored content without any additional configuration when using a 7-color screen:

• lms_client (album art)
• librespot_client (album art)
• slideshow (images)
• met_no (forecast images)

The following plugins support colored text/backgrounds, but you will need to add config options to each one:

• met_no
• reddit_quote
• word_clock

Add these configuration options to each of the plugins above to get colored text/background:

# choose from RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, WHITE, BLACK or random
text_color = RED
bkground = random

EXAMPLE:

[Plugin: Word Clock]
layout = layout
plugin = word_clock
refresh_rate = 200
min_display_time = 90
max_priority = 2
# Additional color configuration options here
text_color = random
bkground = BLACK

[aaronr8684]

Yeah I should be able to get to this in the next day or two

[txoof]

@Pouletgrill and @aaronr8684

There's a working version with an updated ini available here: /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/txoof/PaperPi/I%2379_color_display/install/remote_install_development.sh)"

If you want to enable color for the word_clock or reddit plugins, you'll need to uncomment the color lines in the paperpi.ini, but the rest should just work as expected with a 7-color display.

Your experiences would be much appreciated.

[txoof]

@Pouletgrill and @aaronr8684
Well, it's done!

If you want to have a play hit the standard installer and give it a whirl.

Your feedback is welcome! I'm going to go ahead and close this.

[aaronr8684]

I am unavailable this week, but should be able to play around with it next week