Inkplate 6 FLICK touchscreen init fails when serial monitor starts before device boot

TECHNICAL SUPPORT Inkplate
1

Customer:

I received my Inkplate6Flick device with two issues:

  1. The screen has cracks in multiple places around the bezels. The cracked glass is outside the main display area, but it is severe and in one location exposes the contacts of the ribbon cable at the top, which I worry will oxidize. The product page mentions that minor imperfections like scratches may occur due to recycling, but all screens with significant damage are filtered out. This seems more severe than minor imperfections or scratches, and the cracks are very visible. I’ve attached pictures showing the defects.

  2. I tried several Arduino examples from your repository and get a “Touchscreen init failed!” message when display.tsInit(true) is called. When I start the serial monitor before turning on the device I see this error. However, if I boot the device first without the serial monitor running, the touchscreen initializes fine. I tried various examples using the touchscreen with the same result. This is problematic for development since the serial monitor is important. I tried different baud rates without success. I’m using Linux with the provided USB Type-C cable.

I hope you can help resolve these issues and replace the device with one in proper condition.

Attachment omitted in migration: Photos-001.zip

Attachment omitted in migration: 60_4254938.pdf

Originally submitted via email support on 18 February 2025. Migrated to the forum for community visibility.

2

Soldered Support:

Regarding the screen: the front panel still has the protective film on it. Removing the film should eliminate the air bubbles and other minor visual imperfections. The exposed flat cable connector is normal and not delicate enough to break from regular use and handling. As long as you keep it safely in its connector and do not pinch or crease the flat cable, everything will be fine. The panel appearance and how the flat cable sits is how it comes from the factory.

Regarding the touchscreen initialization issue: this is a known issue we discovered with producing these Inkplates. The touchscreen connector is very sensitive to EMI interference, which we miscalculated for this component. The issue can be fixed by adding aluminum foil tape to the connector. If you place your finger on the flat cable of the touchscreen it should initialize fine, since the EMS interference can be shielded this way. We recently added a new production step where we apply aluminum foil tape to the flat cable to fix this. Please let me know if you can perform this small repair yourself.

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