Raspberry Pi Pico & SSD1306 Display with MicroPython

Do you want to add a small SSD1306 display to your Pico & MicroPython powered projects? Then this is the video for you.

In this video I will cover:
- How a display works
- The SSD1305 display
- Frame Buffers
- Bit depth
- Animating the display
- The SSD1306 Library
- Image conversion

For more information, tutorials, parts and more visit:

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Link to the MicroPython Code

Music by Epidemic Sounds

Chapters:
00:00 Raspberry Pi Pico & SSD1306 Display with MicroPython
00:27 Session Overview
00:48 Display
01:21 SSD1306 Display - Specifications
02:15 I2C connections
03:51 Frame Buffers
05:22 Bit Depth
07:26 Memory Usage
10:07 Frame Buffers in MicroPython
12:27 Buffers & the display cycle
13:50 Animating the display
15:44 GitHub Code Repository
16:23 Image Conversion
20:25 GIMP image tool for converting graphics
22:45 PBM file format
25:41 Demo Time
48:42 Community Update
#Pico​ #MicroPython​ #Robotics

[chigeryelam]

I don't like being negative as I really wanted to follow this as a guide but it seems to be more :"look at what I've done/what I know" rather than "Here's how you can do this". No instructions on how to upload the .PBM files from GitHub to Pico (which throws up 'Bad encoding'), a problem which has stopped me in my tracks. No wiring schematic. I suspect many people are like me and new to the Pico and coding and just want to have a clear set of instructions. I would have liked to show my son some googly eyes but this video just isn't up to the job.

[toddbrown-sr]

Great tutorial! I really learned a lot from this! I really admire people like you who not only take the time to share knowledge but also do so in such great detail!
😂Not to get all philosophical, but I truly believe it's people like you that help society advance through learning! Thanks again!

[TamTam-iq]

I like you :) Thx for all the work you put into this

[Mr-Steve-Robinson]

Having got a display working just well enough in my project, I watched this video to backfill my knowledge. What a fantastic resource. Thanks Kevin, I learnt much. Fantastic teaching.

[bickyou]

how would the oled.blit() work when it is not defined in ssd1306 library?

[ianleitch]

I bumped into the problem a little while back that a ssd1306 library just didn't want to hackle, bumping into runtime issues with parameters of one sort or another. Perhaps a few words about what micropython changes borked things might help us to understand the underlying issues. Breaking backward compatibility is unfortunately going to be a thing, but it does create a lot of noise for the unwary - like me. I was thinking that the problem was down to the proliferation of ssd1306 library offerings, without realising that micropython changes had created the issue.

It's not like Python is likely to screw up backward compatibility now, is it - 2.7 to 3 comes to mind quite readily. We seem to have a degree of form!

Keep up the good work; thank you.

[luisfmoralesjr]

Excellent tutorial! I learned a lot and it filled in the gaps for me.

[androidlov]

Hi Kevin, Could i use that library for Microbit MU online Editor?

[john-r-edge]

Hopefully you don't block pedants. But GIMP is "GNU Image Manipulation Program".
Christopher Barnatt from Explaining Computers has a standard rendering task with GIMP he uses when benchmarking SBCs etc - it works fine on RPi and friends.
Good useful video, thanks.

[Alquien]

Hi.
I am a professional software developer and currently I am getting interested about the Rasberry Pi Pico and what you can do with it.
Looking for videos about the subject I (like always) came across videos of publishers from India with a horrible pronounciation and I am very happy now to have found someone explaining what I am interested in in a propper british English!
You explain everthing in a way that even non IT people can understand it easily but it is still interesting for professionals.
I immediately subscribed to the channel.
If I may give you a little suggestion for the problem you had focusing on small details with your camera:
There are USB microscopes that are absolutly perfect for working with tiny electronics and other small items and as tecnically these are simply USB camera devices you can use them for your videos just like any other camera.

Thanks for that great video!
Christian (from Germany)

[tiagdvideo]

Best tutorial on this topic I've seen.