Customer:
I already have e-paper for my device but I want Inkplate 5 gen2 because the partial refresh is faster. I have a soldering iron, and I need to know which pins I have to solder (BUSY, PWR, RST, DC, CS, CLK, DIN, GND, VCC) if the display needs additional power to use this Inkplate.
Originally submitted via email support on 13 January 2026. Migrated to the forum for community visibility.
Soldered Support:
Check the example on the “dev” branch of the Inkplate library, which sets the Inkplate device to a peripheral mode where you can draw the framebuffer as well as execute commands over UART. This is simpler than communicating with the panel directly and depending on your use case, there is little to no loss in speed compared to communicating with it directly.
Attachment omitted in migration: Inkplate_Peripheral_Mode_New_documentation.docx
Soldered Support:
The SPI pins available on the PCB are only used to reprogram the waveform of the display and cannot be used to send data and framebuffers to the panel. Your only option is the peripheral mode.
Customer:
How do I physically connect an Arduino Nano ESP32 BLE and the Inkplate 5 gen2 without a USB-C wire to use the gen2 in InkPeripheralMode?
Soldered Support:
Connect your Arduino board with the Inkplate via the UART pins (RX and TX respectively) as well as GND. The pins should be connected as follows: the RX pin from one board goes to the TX pin of the other and vice versa. GND connects to GND of the other board. Peripheral mode runs at 115200 baud. Check your board’s UART pins, as there are multiple UART ports on your board. The basic one called with “Serial.begin” is connected to the USB-C port of your board, so not using that one will allow you to get output on the Serial monitor. See https://docs.arduino.cc/tutorials/nano-every/uart/