This Python 3 module implements a driver for the IT8951 e-paper controller, via SPI. The driver was developed using the 6-inch e-Paper HAT from Waveshare. It hopefully will work for other (related) hardware too.
To install, clone the repository, enter the directory and run
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install ./
For some examples of usage, take a look at the integration tests.
You should try setting different VCOM values and seeing how that affects the performance of your display. Every one is different. There might be a suggested VCOM value marked on the cable of your display.
You might be able to squeeze some extra performance out of the data transfer by increasing the SPI clock frequency. In my experience, you can only increase the frequency for the pixel transfer, if you increase it too much for any other data transfer the transfer will fail.
The SPI frequency for transferring pixel data is currently hardcoded at 24 MHz, which is the maximum
stated in the IT8951 chip spec here
(page 41). But, you could try setting higher and seeing if it works anyway. It is set on line 208 of IT8951/spi.pyx.
If you change spi.pyx, don't forget to tell setup.py to use Cython when you build or your change won't have
any effect.
For this version the backend was rewritten, so that the SPI communication happens directly
by communicating with the Linux kernel through /dev/spidev*. This means:
sudono longer required- requires neither the
bcm2835C library nor thespidevPython module - data transfer is way faster than before!