feature_oled_driver.md

OLED Driver

Supported Hardware

OLED modules using SSD1306, SH1106 or SH1107 driver ICs, communicating over I2C or SPI. Tested combinations:

IC	Size	Platform	Notes
SSD1306	128x32	AVR	Primary support
SSD1306	128x64	AVR	Verified working
SSD1306	128x32	Arm
SSD1306	128x64	Arm	Verified working
SH1106	128x64	AVR	No scrolling
SH1107	64x128	AVR	No scrolling
SH1107	64x128	Arm	No scrolling
SH1107	128x128	Arm	No scrolling

Hardware configurations using Arm-based microcontrollers or different sizes of OLED modules may be compatible, but are untested.

Usage

To enable the OLED feature, there are two steps. First, when compiling your keyboard, you'll need to add the following to your rules.mk:

OLED_ENABLE = yes

OLED type

OLED Driver	Supported Device
ssd1306 (default)	For both SSD1306, SH1106, and SH1107

e.g.

OLED_DRIVER = ssd1306

OLED Transport
i2c (default)	Uses I2C for communication with the OLED panel
spi	Uses SPI for communication with the OLED panel

e.g.

OLED_TRANSPORT = i2c

Then in your keymap.c file, implement the OLED task call. This example assumes your keymap has three layers named _QWERTY, _FN and _ADJ:

#ifdef OLED_ENABLE
bool oled_task_user(void) {
    // Host Keyboard Layer Status
    oled_write_P(PSTR("Layer: "), false);

    switch (get_highest_layer(layer_state)) {
        case _QWERTY:
            oled_write_P(PSTR("Default\n"), false);
            break;
        case _FN:
            oled_write_P(PSTR("FN\n"), false);
            break;
        case _ADJ:
            oled_write_P(PSTR("ADJ\n"), false);
            break;
        default:
            // Or use the write_ln shortcut over adding '\n' to the end of your string
            oled_write_ln_P(PSTR("Undefined"), false);
    }

    // Host Keyboard LED Status
    led_t led_state = host_keyboard_led_state();
    oled_write_P(led_state.num_lock ? PSTR("NUM ") : PSTR("    "), false);
    oled_write_P(led_state.caps_lock ? PSTR("CAP ") : PSTR("    "), false);
    oled_write_P(led_state.scroll_lock ? PSTR("SCR ") : PSTR("    "), false);
    
    return false;
}
#endif

Logo Example

In the default font, certain ranges of characters are reserved for a QMK logo. To render this logo to the OLED screen, use the following code example:

static void render_logo(void) {
    static const char PROGMEM qmk_logo[] = {
        0x80, 0x81, 0x82, 0x83, 0x84, 0x85, 0x86, 0x87, 0x88, 0x89, 0x8A, 0x8B, 0x8C, 0x8D, 0x8E, 0x8F, 0x90, 0x91, 0x92, 0x93, 0x94,
        0xA0, 0xA1, 0xA2, 0xA3, 0xA4, 0xA5, 0xA6, 0xA7, 0xA8, 0xA9, 0xAA, 0xAB, 0xAC, 0xAD, 0xAE, 0xAF, 0xB0, 0xB1, 0xB2, 0xB3, 0xB4,
        0xC0, 0xC1, 0xC2, 0xC3, 0xC4, 0xC5, 0xC6, 0xC7, 0xC8, 0xC9, 0xCA, 0xCB, 0xCC, 0xCD, 0xCE, 0xCF, 0xD0, 0xD1, 0xD2, 0xD3, 0xD4, 0x00
    };

    oled_write_P(qmk_logo, false);
}

bool oled_task_user(void) {
    render_logo();
    return false;
}

?> The default font file is located at drivers/oled/glcdfont.c and its location can be overwritten with the OLED_FONT_H configuration option. Font file content can be edited with external tools such as Helix Font Editor and Logo Editor.

Buffer Read Example

For some purposes, you may need to read the current state of the OLED display buffer. The oled_read_raw function can be used to safely read bytes from the buffer.

In this example, calling fade_display in the oled_task_user function will slowly fade away whatever is on the screen by turning random pixels black over time.

//Setup some mask which can be or'd with bytes to turn off pixels
const uint8_t single_bit_masks[8] = {127, 191, 223, 239, 247, 251, 253, 254};

static void fade_display(void) {
    //Define the reader structure
    oled_buffer_reader_t reader;
    uint8_t buff_char;
    if (random() % 30 == 0) {
        srand(timer_read());
        // Fetch a pointer for the buffer byte at index 0. The return structure
        // will have the pointer and the number of bytes remaining from this
        // index position if we want to perform a sequential read by
        // incrementing the buffer pointer
        reader = oled_read_raw(0);
        //Loop over the remaining buffer and erase pixels as we go
        for (uint16_t i = 0; i < reader.remaining_element_count; i++) {
            //Get the actual byte in the buffer by dereferencing the pointer
            buff_char = *reader.current_element;
            if (buff_char != 0) {
                oled_write_raw_byte(buff_char & single_bit_masks[rand() % 8], i);
            }
            //increment the pointer to fetch a new byte during the next loop
            reader.current_element++;
        }
    }
}

Other Examples

In split keyboards, it is very common to have two OLED displays that each render different content and are oriented or flipped differently. You can do this by switching which content to render by using the return value from is_keyboard_master() or is_keyboard_left() found in split_util.h, e.g:

#ifdef OLED_ENABLE
oled_rotation_t oled_init_user(oled_rotation_t rotation) {
    if (!is_keyboard_master()) {
        return OLED_ROTATION_180;  // flips the display 180 degrees if offhand
    }

    return rotation;
}

bool oled_task_user(void) {
    if (is_keyboard_master()) {
        render_status();  // Renders the current keyboard state (layer, lock, caps, scroll, etc)
    } else {
        render_logo();  // Renders a static logo
        oled_scroll_left();  // Turns on scrolling
    }
    return false;
}
#endif

Basic Configuration

These configuration options should be placed in config.h. Example:

#define OLED_BRIGHTNESS 128

Define	Default	Description
OLED_BRIGHTNESS	255	The default brightness level of the OLED, from 0 to 255.
OLED_COLUMN_OFFSET	0	Shift output to the right this many pixels. Useful for 128x64 displays centered on a 132x64 SH1106 IC.
OLED_DISPLAY_CLOCK	0x80	Set the display clock divide ratio/oscillator frequency.
OLED_FONT_H	"glcdfont.c"	The font code file to use for custom fonts
OLED_FONT_START	0	The starting character index for custom fonts
OLED_FONT_END	223	The ending character index for custom fonts
OLED_FONT_WIDTH	6	The font width
OLED_FONT_HEIGHT	8	The font height (untested)
OLED_IC	OLED_IC_SSD1306	Set to OLED_IC_SH1106 or OLED_IC_SH1107 if the corresponding controller chip is used.
OLED_FADE_OUT	Not defined	Enables fade out animation. Use together with OLED_TIMEOUT.
OLED_FADE_OUT_INTERVAL	0	The speed of fade out animation, from 0 to 15. Larger values are slower.
OLED_SCROLL_TIMEOUT	0	Scrolls the OLED screen after 0ms of OLED inactivity. Helps reduce OLED Burn-in. Set to 0 to disable.
OLED_SCROLL_TIMEOUT_RIGHT	Not defined	Scroll timeout direction is right when defined, left when undefined.
OLED_TIMEOUT	60000	Turns off the OLED screen after 60000ms of screen update inactivity. Helps reduce OLED Burn-in. Set to 0 to disable.
OLED_UPDATE_INTERVAL	0 (50 for split keyboards)	Set the time interval for updating the OLED display in ms. This will improve the matrix scan rate.
`OLED_UPDATE_PROCESS_LIMIT'	1	Set the number of dirty blocks to render per loop. Increasing may degrade performance.

I2C Configuration

Define	Default	Description
OLED_DISPLAY_ADDRESS	0x3C	The i2c address of the OLED Display

SPI Configuration

Define	Default	Description
OLED_DC_PIN	Required	The pin used for the DC connection of the OLED Display.
OLED_CS_PIN	Required	The pin used for the CS connection of the OLED Display.
OLED_RST_PIN	Not defined	The pin used for the RST connection of the OLED Display (may be left undefined if the RST pin is not connected).
OLED_SPI_MODE	3 (default)	The SPI Mode for the OLED Display (not typically changed).
OLED_SPI_DIVISOR	2 (default)	The SPI Multiplier to use for the OLED Display.

128x64 & Custom sized OLED Displays

The default display size for this feature is 128x32, and the defaults are set with that in mind. However, there are a number of additional presets for common sizes that we have added. You can define one of these values to use the presets. If your display doesn't match one of these presets, you can define OLED_DISPLAY_CUSTOM to manually specify all of the values.

Define	Default	Description
OLED_DISPLAY_128X64	Not defined	Changes the display defines for use with 128x64 displays.
OLED_DISPLAY_64X32	Not defined	Changes the display defines for use with 64x32 displays.
OLED_DISPLAY_64X48	Not defined	Changes the display defines for use with 64x48 displays.
OLED_DISPLAY_64X128	Not defined	Changes the display defines for use with 64x128 displays.
OLED_DISPLAY_128X128	Not defined	Changes the display defines for use with 128x128 displays.
OLED_DISPLAY_CUSTOM	Not defined	Changes the display defines for use with custom displays. Requires user to implement the below defines.

!> 64x128 and 128x128 displays default to the SH1107 IC type, as these heights are not supported by the other IC types.

Define	Default	Description
OLED_DISPLAY_WIDTH	128	The width of the OLED display.
OLED_DISPLAY_HEIGHT	32	The height of the OLED display.
OLED_MATRIX_SIZE	512	The local buffer size to allocate. (OLED_DISPLAY_HEIGHT / 8 * OLED_DISPLAY_WIDTH).
OLED_BLOCK_TYPE	uint16_t	The unsigned integer type to use for dirty rendering.
OLED_BLOCK_COUNT	16	The number of blocks the display is divided into for dirty rendering. (sizeof(OLED_BLOCK_TYPE) * 8).
OLED_BLOCK_SIZE	32	The size of each block for dirty rendering (OLED_MATRIX_SIZE / OLED_BLOCK_COUNT).
OLED_COM_PINS	COM_PINS_SEQ	How the SSD1306 chip maps it's memory to display. Options are COM_PINS_SEQ, COM_PINS_ALT, COM_PINS_SEQ_LR, & COM_PINS_ALT_LR.
OLED_COM_PIN_COUNT	Not defined	Number of COM pins supported by the controller. If not defined, the value appropriate for the defined OLED_IC is used.
OLED_COM_PIN_OFFSET	0	Number of the first COM pin used by the OLED matrix.
OLED_SOURCE_MAP	{ 0, ... N }	Precalculated source array to use for mapping source buffer to target OLED memory in 90 degree rendering.
OLED_TARGET_MAP	{ 24, ... N }	Precalculated target array to use for mapping source buffer to target OLED memory in 90 degree rendering.

90 Degree Rotation - Technical Mumbo Jumbo

// OLED Rotation enum values are flags
typedef enum {
    OLED_ROTATION_0   = 0,
    OLED_ROTATION_90  = 1,
    OLED_ROTATION_180 = 2,
    OLED_ROTATION_270 = 3, // OLED_ROTATION_90 | OLED_ROTATION_180
} oled_rotation_t;

OLED displays driven by SSD1306, SH1106 or SH1107 drivers only natively support in hardware 0 degree and 180 degree rendering. This feature is done in software and not free. Using this feature will increase the time to calculate what data to send over i2c to the OLED. If you are strapped for cycles, this can cause keycodes to not register. In testing however, the rendering time on an ATmega32U4 board only went from 2ms to 5ms and keycodes not registering was only noticed once we hit 15ms.

90 degree rotation is achieved by using bitwise operations to rotate each 8 block of memory and uses two precalculated arrays to remap buffer memory to OLED memory. The memory map defines are precalculated for remap performance and are calculated based on the display height, width, and block size. For example, in the 128x32 implementation with a uint8_t block type, we have a 64 byte block size. This gives us eight 8 byte blocks that need to be rotated and rendered. The OLED renders horizontally two 8 byte blocks before moving down a page, e.g:

0	1
2	3
4	5
6	7

However the local buffer is stored as if it was Height x Width display instead of Width x Height, e.g:

3	7
2	6
1	5
0	4

So those precalculated arrays just index the memory offsets in the order in which each one iterates its data.

Rotation on SH1106 and SH1107 is noticeably less efficient than on SSD1306, because these controllers do not support the “horizontal addressing mode”, which allows transferring the data for the whole rotated block at once; instead, separate address setup commands for every page in the block are required. The screen refresh time for SH1107 is therefore about 45% higher than for a same size screen with SSD1306 when using STM32 MCUs (on AVR the slowdown is about 20%, because the code which actually rotates the bitmap consumes more time).

OLED API

// OLED rotation enum values are flags
typedef enum {
    OLED_ROTATION_0   = 0,
    OLED_ROTATION_90  = 1,
    OLED_ROTATION_180 = 2,
    OLED_ROTATION_270 = 3, // OLED_ROTATION_90 | OLED_ROTATION_180
} oled_rotation_t;

// Initialize the OLED display, rotating the rendered output based on the define passed in.
// Returns true if the OLED was initialized successfully
bool oled_init(oled_rotation_t rotation);

// Called at the start of oled_init, weak function overridable by the user
// rotation - the value passed into oled_init
// Return new oled_rotation_t if you want to override default rotation
oled_rotation_t oled_init_kb(oled_rotation_t rotation);
oled_rotation_t oled_init_user(oled_rotation_t rotation);

// Send commands/data to screen
bool oled_send_cmd(const uint8_t *data, uint16_t size);
bool oled_send_cmd_P(const uint8_t *data, uint16_t size);
bool oled_send_data(const uint8_t *data, uint16_t size);

// Clears the display buffer, resets cursor position to 0, and sets the buffer to dirty for rendering
void oled_clear(void);

// Renders the dirty chunks of the buffer to OLED display
void oled_render(void);

// Moves cursor to character position indicated by column and line, wraps if out of bounds
// Max column denoted by 'oled_max_chars()' and max lines by 'oled_max_lines()' functions
void oled_set_cursor(uint8_t col, uint8_t line);

// Advances the cursor to the next page, writing ' ' if true
// Wraps to the beginning when out of bounds
void oled_advance_page(bool clearPageRemainder);

// Moves the cursor forward 1 character length
// Advance page if there is not enough room for the next character
// Wraps to the beginning when out of bounds
void oled_advance_char(void);

// Writes a single character to the buffer at current cursor position
// Advances the cursor while writing, inverts the pixels if true
// Main handler that writes character data to the display buffer
void oled_write_char(const char data, bool invert);

// Writes a string to the buffer at current cursor position
// Advances the cursor while writing, inverts the pixels if true
void oled_write(const char *data, bool invert);

// Writes a string to the buffer at current cursor position
// Advances the cursor while writing, inverts the pixels if true
// Advances the cursor to the next page, wiring ' ' to the remainder of the current page
void oled_write_ln(const char *data, bool invert);

// Pans the buffer to the right (or left by passing true) by moving contents of the buffer
// Useful for moving the screen in preparation for new drawing
// oled_scroll_left or oled_scroll_right should be preferred for all cases of moving a static
// image such as a logo or to avoid burn-in as it's much, much less cpu intensive
void oled_pan(bool left);

// Returns a pointer to the requested start index in the buffer plus remaining
// buffer length as struct
oled_buffer_reader_t oled_read_raw(uint16_t start_index);

// Writes a string to the buffer at current cursor position
void oled_write_raw(const char *data, uint16_t size);

// Writes a single byte into the buffer at the specified index
void oled_write_raw_byte(const char data, uint16_t index);

// Sets a specific pixel on or off
// Coordinates start at top-left and go right and down for positive x and y
void oled_write_pixel(uint8_t x, uint8_t y, bool on);

// Writes a PROGMEM string to the buffer at current cursor position
// Advances the cursor while writing, inverts the pixels if true
// Remapped to call 'void oled_write(const char *data, bool invert);' on ARM
void oled_write_P(const char *data, bool invert);

// Writes a PROGMEM string to the buffer at current cursor position
// Advances the cursor while writing, inverts the pixels if true
// Advances the cursor to the next page, wiring ' ' to the remainder of the current page
// Remapped to call 'void oled_write_ln(const char *data, bool invert);' on ARM
void oled_write_ln_P(const char *data, bool invert);

// Writes a PROGMEM string to the buffer at current cursor position
void oled_write_raw_P(const char *data, uint16_t size);

// Can be used to manually turn on the screen if it is off
// Returns true if the screen was on or turns on
bool oled_on(void);

// Can be used to manually turn off the screen if it is on
// Returns true if the screen was off or turns off
bool oled_off(void);

// Returns true if the oled is currently on, false if it is
// not
bool is_oled_on(void);

// Sets the brightness level of the display
uint8_t oled_set_brightness(uint8_t level);

// Gets the current brightness level of the display
uint8_t oled_get_brightness(void);

// Basically it's oled_render, but with timeout management and oled_task_user calling!
void oled_task(void);

// Called at the start of oled_task, weak function overridable by the user
bool oled_task_kb(void);
bool oled_task_user(void);

// Set the specific 8 lines rows of the screen to scroll.
// 0 is the default for start, and 7 for end, which is the entire
// height of the screen.  For 128x32 screens, rows 4-7 are not used.
void oled_scroll_set_area(uint8_t start_line, uint8_t end_line);

// Sets scroll speed, 0-7, fastest to slowest. Default is three.
// Does not take effect until scrolling is either started or restarted
// the ssd1306 supports 8 speeds with the delay
// listed below between each frame of the scrolling effect
// 0=2, 1=3, 2=4, 3=5, 4=25, 5=64, 6=128, 7=256
void oled_scroll_set_speed(uint8_t speed);

// Begin scrolling the entire display right
// Returns true if the screen was scrolling or starts scrolling
// NOTE: display contents cannot be changed while scrolling
bool oled_scroll_right(void);

// Begin scrolling the entire display left
// Returns true if the screen was scrolling or starts scrolling
// NOTE: display contents cannot be changed while scrolling
bool oled_scroll_left(void);

// Turns off display scrolling
// Returns true if the screen was not scrolling or stops scrolling
bool oled_scroll_off(void);

// Returns true if the oled is currently scrolling, false if it is
// not
bool is_oled_scrolling(void);

// Inverts the display
// Returns true if the screen was or is inverted
bool oled_invert(bool invert);

// Returns the maximum number of characters that will fit on a line
uint8_t oled_max_chars(void);

// Returns the maximum number of lines that will fit on the OLED
uint8_t oled_max_lines(void);

!> Scrolling is unsupported on the SH1106 and SH1107.

!> Scrolling does not work properly on the SSD1306 if the display width is smaller than 128.

SSD1306.h Driver Conversion Guide

Old API	Recommended New API
struct CharacterMatrix	removed - delete all references
iota_gfx_init	oled_init
iota_gfx_on	oled_on
iota_gfx_off	oled_off
iota_gfx_flush	oled_render
iota_gfx_write_char	oled_write_char
iota_gfx_write	oled_write
iota_gfx_write_P	oled_write_P
iota_gfx_clear_screen	oled_clear
matrix_clear	removed - delete all references
matrix_write_char_inner	oled_write_char
matrix_write_char	oled_write_char
matrix_write	oled_write
matrix_write_ln	oled_write_ln
matrix_write_P	oled_write_P
matrix_write_ln_P	oled_write_ln_P
matrix_render	oled_render
iota_gfx_task	oled_task
iota_gfx_task_user	oled_task_user