Customer:
I have several Inkplate models that I deploy with ESPHome, which integrates well with Home Assistant. This works great with my original Inkplate 6 models, but I’m having trouble getting the display to work on my Inkplate 6 PLUS (eRadionica Inkplate6Plusv2). The controller boots up, joins WiFi, and otherwise works, but the display doesn’t fire up. The board works fine when I send sketches to it using the e-radionica Inkplate6Plus board profile. I attempted to swap the MCP bus with a PCA bus as documented for Inkplate 6v2, but the display still doesn’t work. Do you have guidelines for a minimum functioning ESPHome config?
I also have an Inkplate 4 TEMPERA and have seen notes about community ESPHome support but can’t find any references to it. Any leads would be appreciated.
Originally submitted via email support on 31 January 2025. Migrated to the forum for community visibility.
Soldered Support:
For the eRadionica v2 model, the GPIO expander does need to be swapped, but use the Soldered Inkplate 6PLUS board definition instead. This was the last model before the switch from e-Radionica to Soldered. It uses the PCAL expander, but the board is blue and labeled with ‘e-Radionica’.
Inkplate 4 TEMPERA does not have official ESPHome support yet. You’ll need to check the community to see if someone has written a configuration file. We are working on familiarizing ourselves with ESPHome and providing documentation for it.
Customer:
I took a closer look at this board and figured out what’s different. This is a purple, Soldered-branded Inkplate 6 PLUS board, but it has a single MCP23017 unit and no PCAL expanders. With some experimentation, I’ve got a working ESPHome build for it now.
Regarding the Inkplate 4 TEMPERA, I’ll explore further. I saw press release mentions of community support but haven’t found a reference to it yet. If you have a link to an old repo or forum post about this, please let me know.
Soldered Support:
Great that you managed to resolve it! My plan was to ask the R&D colleagues who worked on the 6PLUSV2 to see what’s different about it, since it’s a legacy product. I figured if the Inkplate works with e-radionica board definitions, the GPIO expanders would have to be MCP23017.
Unfortunately, I can’t find a user implementation of Inkplate 4 TEMPERA for ESPHome. The press release mention may have been referring to existing support for other Inkplate models. We are currently working on expanding and improving the full Inkplate documentation along with official ESPHome components for Inkplate, which will include Inkplate 4 TEMPERA. The timeline is uncertain, but it’s in the works.