PINE64 + mini OLED display + Luma.OLED = PINEimus Prime

[sgjava]

First there was CHIPtimus Prime for the CHIP SBC. Then came ODROIDtimus Prime for the ODROID C series. Now there's PINEimus Prime for the PINE64. This will work for I2C displays only at this point. I wasn't able to get SPI fired up with legacy or mainline Armbian.



Transform your PINE64 into a PINEimus Prime for projects requiring a small OLED display. Luma.OLED makes it easy to do text, graphics and video. Both displays I used to test I bought on Amazon. I already ordered some cheaper ones on EBay. I was able to get 3 SSD1306 I2C displays for under $10! I also ordered some TFT displays as well to test.

Requirements

• PINE64 flashed with latest legacy Armbian Ubuntu server
  
• Small nylon nuts, bolts and standoffs
  
• OLED display (check http://luma-oled.readthedocs.io/en/latest/hardware.html)
  

Do the following for I2C version of SSD1306

• Tested I2C OLED display (I used https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O2KDQBE, but there are cheaper alternatives)
  
• 4 female/female jumper wires required
  

The 4 wire DIY display can be powered by 3.3V or 5V which makes it handy if you need the other power source for something else. Wire mapping using i2c-0 (twi0):

Code:

VCC to VCC 5V   (pin 4)
GND to GND      (pin 6)
SCL to I2C1 SCL (pin 5)
SDA to I2C1 SDA (pin 3)

Configure I2C

• Power off PINE64, wire up display and power on
  
• sudo apt-get install i2c-tools
  
• sudo usermod -a -G i2c username
  

Test I2C and display

• i2cdetect -l
  

Code:

i2c-0    i2c           twi0                                I2C adapter
i2c-1    i2c           twi1                                I2C adapter

• i2cdetect -y 1
  
  

Code:

     0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f
00:          -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 3c -- -- --
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Time to install Luma.OLED

Code:

sudo apt-get install python-dev python-pip libfreetype6-dev libjpeg-dev
sudo -H pip install --upgrade pip setuptools
sudo -H pip install --upgrade luma.oled

I2C hello world

• cd
  
• nano i2chello.py
  

Code:

import time
from luma.core.serial import i2c
from luma.core.render import canvas
from luma.oled.device import ssd1306

serial = i2c(port=1, address=0x3C)
device = ssd1306(serial)

with canvas(device) as draw:
    draw.rectangle(device.bounding_box, outline="white")
    draw.text((3, 3), "Hello", fill="white")

time.sleep(10)

• python i2chello.py
  

Then install examples

Code:

cd
sudo apt-get install git-core libsdl-dev libportmidi-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev
git clone https://github.com/rm-hull/luma.examples.git
cd luma.examples
sudo -H pip install -e .

Run example on I2C display

Code:

cd
cd luma.examples
python examples/invaders.py -d ssd1306 --i2c-port 1 --i2c-address 0x3c

[xalius]

Thanks for the tutorial, I may have a project that requires a small display...

[sgjava]

Thanks for the tutorial, I may have a project that requires a small display...

Now if I can only get SPI/GPIO working I could get the SPI displays fired up. I just got SPI/GPIO configured on the ODROID C1 using a RPi.GPIO replacement module. I need something similar for PINE64.

[dkryder]

there is a rpi-gpio for pine64 around. at least there was a while back. https://github.com/swkim01/RPi.GPIO-PineA64 i think there were some issues with this in getting it to work as expected. it does not appear to be under active development currently.

[sgjava]

Yea, I looked around, but without a stable GPIO module it's impossible to get Luma.OLED working. I have it working on CHIP and ODROID C1 with the mono display, but the RGB SSD1331 is still giving me issues. I ordered a Pi 3, so I can use that as a base test since that what most GPIO code is written for.