ESPHome + 4.2in EInk Display

ESPHome
1

Inspired by the esphome eink display project from these forums. Figured it would be easy to start with a smaller display, see how I like interacting with it, and maybe move on to a larger one depending on how I like this smaller one. Grabbed a waveshare esp32 and an eink display, and figured I was off to the races.

Cannot get the display to display anything. I can get the epd4in2_V2-demo provided by waveshare to work. I can flash the esp32 with a yaml that specifies either 4.20in and the 4.20in-bv2

esphome:
  name: esphome-web-235d30
  friendly_name: ESPHome Web 235d30


esp32:
  board: esp32dev
  framework:
    type: arduino

# Enable logging
logger:
  level: verbose

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  encryption:
    key:

ota:

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

# Include custom fonts
font:
  - file: 'fonts/GothamRnd-Bold.ttf'
    id: font1
    size: 8

#colors
color:
  - id: color_bg
    red: 0%
    green: 0%
    blue: 0%
    white: 0%
  - id: color_text
    red: 0%
    green: 0%
    blue: 0%
    white: 100%

# Pins for Waveshare ePaper ESP Board
spi:
  clk_pin: 13
  mosi_pin: 14

# Now render everything on the ePaper screen.
display:
  - platform: waveshare_epaper
    id: eink_display
    cs_pin: 15
    dc_pin: 27
    busy_pin: 25
    reset_pin: 26
    reset_duration: 200ms
    model: 4.20in
    update_interval: 60s
    rotation: 0°
    lambda: |-
      it.fill(color_bg);
      it.line(0, 0, 50, 50, color_text);
      it.filled_circle(25,25,10,color_text);

captive_portal:

Neither version gets a response from the eink display. If I swap in the 2.90inv2 (a model I know is the incorrect one), I can get the display to do something, but obviously this isn’t ideal.

tempImagefeaYPA
tempImagefeaYPA1920×2560 446 KB

So… My conclusions are:

  1. The display works
  2. The ESP32 works
  3. They’re connected correctly
  4. Something is up with the versioning I don’t understand

Guesses:

  • Waveshare updated their 4.2in display, and I have an unsupported screen
  • Something is wrong with my yaml that I can’t grok looking at documentation
  • I am less informed about esphome then I thought I am, and it’s a third thing

Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated. I’m still within the return period on the screen, so swapping out for a properly supported is a possibility.

2

I own this display too, and did not get to a working solution.
There is a complete different controller in this epaper, afair they also put the code for partial refresh into the controller hardware.
So I don’t expect this to work with ESPHome in the near future…

3

That’s too bad. These are decently priced for the size you get, and the more popular one (the 7.5 in) is a lil pricey. I’ll just return and think about how I’d like to move forward, thanks for the help!

4

I seems that I have the same problem as you! This is so bad. I waited a long time to receive this panel and now I cannot use it…

5

Had the same problem with a Waveshare 4.2 inch V2 screen.
There is a workaround on GitHub that worked for me: