Customer:
I bought two Inkplate 6 PLUS boards. The first one works fine with my ESPHome program, but the new one doesn’t work despite running the same code. I’ve tested whether it’s using a mcp47a1 instead of a pca6416a like the first one, but that didn’t resolve it.
Originally submitted via email support on 23 March 2024. Migrated to the forum for community visibility.
Soldered Support:
The new version of Inkplate 6PLUS requires different code for ESPHome. A private repository is available with instructions on how to add the GPIO expander and use it with Inkplate. The original ESPHome repository was a community contribution, so support is limited, but we did manage to get it working. Check the README for setup instructions, which should work the same for 6PLUS.
Attachment omitted in migration: PCAL6416A-ESPHome-Component-main (2).zip
Customer:
ESPHome has support for the new hub on working boards. I’m fairly certain the first board I received is from the Inkplate 6+ v2 set. I’ll check in more detail when I return, but I suspect the second board is simply broken. If it isn’t, please tell me what changed between the two versions instead of referring me to the README, especially since I already tested for the specific hub chips (mcp47a1, pca6416a).
Soldered Support:
ESPHome may have support for those boards, but we don’t officially support it—that support was written as a community contribution. The private repository we created contains instructions that aren’t available elsewhere and was made for testing new PCAL-based Inkplates.
To test whether the second board is broken, try uploading example sketches from our Inkplate library: basic->black and white and basic->grayscale for your board, which should always work.
Regarding your question about differences: the GPIO expander differs between versions and possibly the lack of touchpads. Other things should work the same from a software point of view. Let me know when you have time to look into this further.