ePaper Partial Update via CircuitPython digitalio

[gg2]

Will it be possible soon (or is it already possible) to make partial updates of ePaper displays using the CircuitPython library - digitalio - (or lower level CP methods)?

I would be very interested in being able to generate partial updates on the Adafruit ePaper 2.9" grayscale (296 x 128 pixels) with on-board SRAM or for the same screen in the Adafruit Magtag.

A partial update of an ePaper display allows specific smaller regions of the screen to be written to, and displayed, without requiring a full global refresh.

Many thanks,

[tannewt]

It's not high on our list because the refresh time isn't improved.

[gg2]

Tannewt - thanks for your response.

I must have misunderstood a limited number of other postings and demos concerning previous incarnations of ePaper. They appeared to show a localized update of a numerical counter in ePaper where a partial update could take place 5x faster than a full screen refresh. Their method also avoided the visible white/black/white cycle for a while - ultimately one was needed, but many localized updates were possible before the reset.

Is it possible with MagTag to update the buffer that is live rather than writing to the second buffer and switching?

Are you saying the particular hardware on the MagTag display can't be accessed using a method that avoids the white/black/white cycle? (Or am I mistaken in a more general way?)

Examples of faster update:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsbiO8EAsGw (0:02:30 in has demo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN4NopK5eC8

Many thanks,

[tannewt]

I think the hardware can do what the video shows. CircuitPython doesn't have the software support for it though. I do think Arduino has partial update support but I don't think it has a faster refresh cycle associated with it.

[AliBabaz]

Hello, I also have to say that I can't understand that CircuitPython has so far not been able to integrate Eink via Partial Update.

It becomes even more incomprehensible if you advertise it as "Adafruit" (but sometimes not exactly mentioning that it doesn't work with CP).
https://blog.adafruit.com/2020/12/07/ne ... -thinkink/
https://www.facebook.com/adafruitindust ... 281049792/

I appreciate many who work with CP and Eink would like to have this function and opportunity. I would really appreciate it myself. My first project failed because I realized that the CP cannot do a partial update. However, I don't want to deal with Arduino as well :(.

Kind regards
AliBabaz