Is this a blown OLED Featherwing?

[BDL]

Just dusted off some old HW and thought I would try out some code. To my surprise my OLED Featherwing has a bunch of stuck pixels. Now this isn't burn in, it's just that the pixels are stuck. If I invert the display, the stuck pixels flip. display.clearDisplay(); display.display(); does not clear the pixels. The randomly lit pixels are on the bottom half of the display. By random I mean the position is random in appearance, but the pixel positions do not change. The top half seems to be ok.

Is my OLED kaput? Are these units particularly static sensitive? I had put it away in a plastic drawer plugged into a triple decker feather board, never dreaming that that would pop it. Honestly, I'm disappointed. Wasn't expecting this.

[adafruit_support_carter]

What's driving the OLED? What main Feather board and what software?

[BDL]

Took me a bit to look it up. I have a Feather M0 with the ATWINC1500 on it. I tried the simplest of sketches on it. Here's one of the simpler ones.

Code: Select all

#include <Adafruit_SSD1306.h>

Adafruit_SSD1306 display = Adafruit_SSD1306(128, 32, &Wire);

void setup() {
  display.begin(SSD1306_SWITCHCAPVCC, 0x3C);
  display.clearDisplay();
  display.invertDisplay(true);
  display.display();
}

void loop() {
  delay(400);
  display.invertDisplay(true);
  display.display();
  delay(400);
  display.invertDisplay(false);
  display.display();
  delay(400);
  display.clearDisplay();
  display.display();
}

I have another sketch called OLED_featherwing. Same behavior, top 1/2 of display works, bottom half seems damaged. OLED_featherwing is a supplied example sketch to test SSD1306 displays.

[adafruit_support_carter]

Thanks. That looks generally OK.

For the sake of trouble shooting, go through all your libs and make sure they are up to date. Then try running the example here:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-ole ... 2290050-10
and see what happens.

If it's still showing an issue, please post a photo.

[BDL]

lower half of display not working

PXL_20201111_223108110_resized.jpg (169.91 KiB) Viewed 334 times

A couple of days ago updated arduino ide to 1.8.13. Just now I updated all the board support packages and the libraries. It's good to see the libraries now calling in all the dependencies and forcing their downloads. Copied the code off the link and saved it. And ran it. Same thing. Here's a picture.

[adafruit_support_carter]

Thanks for the photo. Could there be some solder blobs or something else shorting a few pins?

oled.jpg (37.35 KiB) Viewed 333 times

[BDL]

Most likely to be flux, but I will clean it well with isopropyl alcohol and check it.
Clean as a whistle now, but display is the same. If you want I will send another picture.

[BDL]

Cleaned.

cleaned and rerun of code

PXL_20201112_003601495.MP.resized.jpg (178.66 KiB) Viewed 323 times

[adafruit_support_carter]

Hmmm. Not sure then. I just ran that example on a Feather M0 with all the latest libs just to make sure nothing has changed, and it ran as expected. So, unfortunately, it seems like maybe something happened to the OLED while in storage.

This is the same Feather main board it used to work on previously?

[BDL]

Affirmative.

[adafruit2]

it got damaged somehow. you can email support@adafruit for a replacement

[BDL]

Oh dear. On a lark, I tried compiling the example on a Featherwing 32u4. And it works fine. Display is correct. So the display seems ok.

So it's my M0 with wifi that's suffered damage... Maybe I have selected the wrong board. What is the correct board to select for the M0 Featherwing with the ATWINC1500? Is it Adafruit Feather M0? Which I just tried. Still no good. So maybe SDA or SDL is damaged on the M0? If that were so, how come half the display works? Hmm.

Thanks for the offer of a new display, but it appears it's the M0.

[adafruit2]

odd could be something with the library or board support package. not sure what the issue is - odd htat you're the only person having this issue tho. its not the m0 being damaged, it doesnt really work that way? maybe try to update all your libraries and board packages

[BDL]

And I'm not even sure about that. The common thread are the stacking headers. My 32u4 has the stubby headers attached. My M0 uses the stacking headers with smaller pins. I have an M4 Featherwing. Plugged that in and only half the display works, but I never touched the OLED display. The boards are plugged into a Featherwing tripler. (Only one processor at a time!) I'm suspecting these thinner pins and the sockets on the tripler. (Connector issue) I find it very hard to believe that both processor boards have blown i2c ports. If I remove the M4 Feather Express and put the 32u4 back the display works. Both the 32u4 and the OLED featherboard have the stubby (non-stacking) headers. Both the processors have the stacking headers. Hmm. Wish I knew what was going on....

[BDL]

Boards Manager reports nothing to update.
Library manager also reports nothing to update.
Addtional Boards Manager URL= https://adafruit.github.io/arduino-boar ... index.json

For what it is worth an M4 ItsyBitsy with normal soldered headers when wired up has the same problem. Top half of display is ok, bottom half has random pixels. My goodness, this didn't happen on 1.8.9! I'm baffled. Really, can't be 3 faster processors all with the same error? Unless the library was accidentally making i2c run too fast? Clutching at straws. All M0 & M4 were compiled at lowest clock rates and standard optimization. 32u4 has no options. The ItsyBitsy has been in an antistatic bag. I just took it out to try it. I'm wearing an antistatic wrist strap and using an antistatic mat which is grounded. 0 for 3 SAMD processors? But 1 for 1 non-SAMD? Seems something is awry. At the moment, I'm out of Featherwings, to try..

Any ideas?