Inkplate E-Paper Displays

The Inkplate family consists of Wi-Fi enabled ESP32-based e-paper displays by Soldered Electronics. Each board integrates the e-paper panel, an ESP32 module, a TPS65186 PMIC, and a GPIO I/O expander into a single ready-to-use unit. For hardware details and board-specific documentation, see the Inkplate documentation.

Supported Models

Model key	Product	Resolution
`inkplate4`	Inkplate 4 TEMPERA	600×600
`inkplate5v1`	Inkplate 5 v1	960×540
`inkplate5v2`	Inkplate 5 v2	1280×720
`inkplate6v1`	Inkplate 6 v1	800×600
`inkplate6v2`	Inkplate 6 v2+	800×600
`inkplate6plus`	Inkplate 6 PLUS	1024×758
`inkplate6flick`	Inkplate 6 FLICK	1024×758
`inkplate10`	Inkplate 10	1200×825

Minimal Configuration

i2c:

pca6416a:
  - id: pca6416a_hub
    address: 0x20

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate6v2
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    update_interval: 60s
    lambda: |-
      it.print(0, 0, id(my_font), "Hello World!");

NOTE

Inkplate boards require PSRAM for framebuffer allocation. Add psram: to your configuration.

WARNING

Partial updates (full_update_every > 1) are not supported in grayscale mode and are ignored.

Configuration Variables

model (Required, enum): The Inkplate board model. One of:
- inkplate4
- inkplate5v1
- inkplate5v2
- inkplate6v1
- inkplate6v2
- inkplate6plus
- inkplate6flick
- inkplate10
pca6416a_id (Optional, ID): ID of the PCA6416A I/O expander. Required for all models except inkplate6v1.
mcp23017_id (Optional, ID): ID of the MCP23017 I/O expander. Required for inkplate6v1. Exactly one of pca6416a_id or mcp23017_id must be specified.
grayscale_mode (Optional, boolean): Enable 3-bit grayscale rendering. Defaults to false.
full_update_every (Optional, int): Perform a full refresh every N updates. Set to 1 to always do a full refresh (partial updating disabled). Set to a higher value to enable partial updates with a periodic full refresh. Defaults to 1.
id (Optional, ID): Manually specify the ID used for code generation.
lambda (Optional, lambda): The lambda to use for rendering. See Display Rendering Engine.
update_interval (Optional, Time): Interval between refreshes. Minimum 5s. Defaults to 1min when lambda or pages is configured.
pages (Optional, list): Show pages instead of a single lambda. See Display Pages.

I²C

The component communicates with the onboard TPS65186 PMIC over I²C. The i2c: bus must be configured. See I²C Bus.

address (Optional, int): I²C address of the TPS65186 PMIC. Defaults to 0x48.
i2c_id (Optional, ID): ID of the I²C bus to use.

Inkplate 4

i2c:

pca6416a:
  - id: pca6416a_hub
    address: 0x20

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate4
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    update_interval: 60s

Inkplate 5 v1

i2c:

pca6416a:
  - id: pca6416a_hub
    address: 0x20

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate5v1
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    update_interval: 60s

Inkplate 5 v2

i2c:

pca6416a:
  - id: pca6416a_hub
    address: 0x20

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate5v2
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    update_interval: 60s

Inkplate 6 v1

The original Inkplate 6 uses an MCP23017 I/O expander. Use mcp23017_id instead of pca6416a_id:

i2c:

mcp23017:
  - id: mcp23017_hub
    address: 0x20

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate6v1
    mcp23017_id: mcp23017_hub
    update_interval: 60s

Inkplate 6 v2

i2c:

pca6416a:
  - id: pca6416a_hub
    address: 0x20

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate6v2
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    update_interval: 60s

Inkplate 6 PLUS

i2c:

pca6416a:
  - id: pca6416a_hub
    address: 0x20

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate6plus
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    update_interval: 60s

Inkplate 6 FLICK

i2c:

pca6416a:
  - id: pca6416a_hub
    address: 0x20

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate6flick
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    update_interval: 60s

Inkplate 10

The Inkplate 10 board has two PCA6416A expanders. The display driver only uses the primary expander at address 0x20. The secondary expander at 0x21 can be declared independently to access its additional I/O pins.

i2c:

pca6416a:
  - id: pca6416a_hub
    address: 0x20
  - id: pca6416a_hub2
    address: 0x21

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate10
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    update_interval: 60s

Usage

Basic Rendering

Use lambda to draw on the display. See Display Rendering Engine for the full drawing API.

font:
  - file: "gfonts://Roboto"
    id: roboto_48
    size: 48

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate6v2
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    update_interval: 60s
    lambda: |-
      it.fill(COLOR_OFF);
      it.print(10, 10, id(roboto_48), COLOR_ON, "Hello World!");
      it.rectangle(10, 80, 200, 100);

Grayscale Rendering

Enable grayscale_mode to draw with 8 gray levels (3-bit). Use color values from 0x00 (black) to 0xFF (white):

display:
  - platform: inkplate
    model: inkplate6v2
    pca6416a_id: pca6416a_hub
    grayscale_mode: true
    update_interval: 60s
    lambda: |-
      it.fill(Color(0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF));
      it.filled_rectangle(0, 0, 100, 100, Color(0x00, 0x00, 0x00));
      it.filled_rectangle(100, 0, 100, 100, Color(0x80, 0x80, 0x80));

Partial Updates

Set full_update_every to reduce flicker on frequent updates. A full refresh runs every N cycles to clear ghosting.