Customer:
I’m using Inkplate 10 with a Li-ion battery (4000mAh 3.7V) to change photos every 1 minute from an SD card. After 12 hours of work the battery is completely drained. Why does the Inkplate 10 drain all the power in 12 hours and what can I do to reduce power consumption so it will work for weeks or months?
This is the code I use:
/*
Inkplate_SD_BMP example for e-radionica Inkplate6
For this example you will need a micro USB cable, Inkplate6 and a SD card loaded with
image1.bmp and image2.bmp file that can be found inside folder of this example.
Select "Inkplate 10(ESP32)" from Tools -> Board menu.
Don't have "Inkplate 10(ESP32)" option? Follow our tutorial and add it:
https://e-radionica.com/en/blog/add-inkplate-6-to-arduino-ide/
To work with SD card on Inkplate, you will need to add one extra library.
Download and install it from here: https://github.com/e-radionicacom/Inkplate-6-SDFat-Arduino-Library
You can open .bmp, .jpeg or .png files that have color depth of 1 bit (BW bitmap), 4 bit, 8 bit and
24 bit AND have resoluton smaller than 800x600 or otherwise it won't fit on screen.
Format your SD card in standard FAT fileformat.
This example will show you how you can read .bmp and .jpeg files (pictures) from SD card and
display that image on e-paper display.
Want to learn more about Inkplate? Visit www.inkplate.io
Looking to get support? Write on our forums: http://forum.e-radionica.com/en/
11 February 2021 by e-radionica.com
*/
// Next 3 lines are a precaution, you can ignore those, and the example would also work without them
#ifndef ARDUINO_INKPLATE10
#error "Wrong board selection for this example, please select Inkplate 10 in the boards menu."
#endif
#include "Inkplate.h" //Include Inkplate library to the sketch
#include "SdFat.h" //Include library for SD card
Inkplate display(INKPLATE_3BIT); // Create an object on Inkplate library and also set library into 1 Bit mode (BW)
SdFile file; // Create SdFile object used for accessing files on SD card
// If your Inkplate doesn't have external (or second) MCP I/O expander, you should uncomment next line,
// otherwise your code could hang out when you send code to your Inkplate.
// You can easily check if your Inkplate has second MCP by turning it over and
// if there is missing chip near place where "MCP23017-2" is written, but if there is
// chip soldered, you don't have to uncomment line and use external MCP I/O expander
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(115200);
display.begin(); // Init Inkplate library (you should call this function ONLY ONCE)
display.clearDisplay(); // Clear frame buffer of display
display.display(); // Put clear image on display
}
void loop()
{
// Init SD card. Display if SD card is init propery or not.
if (display.sdCardInit())
{
display.println("SD Card OK! Reading image...");
display.partialUpdate();
// If card is properly init, try to load image and display it on e-paper at position X=0, Y=0
// NOTE: Both drawImage methods allow for an optional fifth "invert" parameter. Setting this parameter
// to true will flip all colors on the image, making black white and white black. This may be necessary when
// exporting bitmaps from certain softwares.
if (!display.drawImage("1.bmp", 0, 0, 1))
{
// If is something failed (wrong filename or wrong bitmap format), write error message on the screen.
// REMEMBER! You can only use Windows Bitmap file with color depth of 1, 4, 8 or 24 bits with no
// compression! You can turn of dithering for somewhat faster image load by changing the last 1 to 0, or
// removing the 1 argument completely
display.println("Image open error");
display.display();
}
display.display();
}
delay(60000);
if (display.sdCardInit())
{
display.println("SD Card OK! Reading image...");
display.partialUpdate();
// If card is properly init, try to load image and display it on e-paper at position X=0, Y=0
// NOTE: Both drawImage methods allow for an optional fifth "invert" parameter. Setting this parameter
// to true will flip all colors on the image, making black white and white black. This may be necessary when
// exporting bitmaps from certain softwares.
if (!display.drawImage("2.bmp", 0, 0, 1))
{
// If is something failed (wrong filename or wrong bitmap format), write error message on the screen.
// REMEMBER! You can only use Windows Bitmap file with color depth of 1, 4, 8 or 24 bits with no
// compression! You can turn of dithering for somewhat faster image load by changing the last 1 to 0, or
// removing the 1 argument completely
display.println("Image open error");
display.display();
}
display.display();
}
delay(60000);
// Now try to load image using SdFat library class (for more advanced users) and display image on epaper.
if (file.open("3.bmp", O_RDONLY))
{
display.drawBitmapFromSd(&file, 0, 0);
display.display();
}
display.clearDisplay();
delay(60000);
display.display();
}
Originally submitted via email support on 11 February 2023. Migrated to the forum for community visibility.