# Particle Photon OLED screen and SD card demo **URL:** \ **Category:** Tutorials\ **Created:** [December 9, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145 "2015-12-09T20:58:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MikeSeeH](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/mikeseeh/32/7974_2.png) [@MikeSeeH](https://community.particle.io/u/MikeSeeH)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/1 "2015-12-09T20:58:21Z")
With the help of this great community (especially @peekay123 – thanks!) I was able to build my first Photon demo that I would like to share with you. It is a mashup of some code and libraries I have taken from different posts in this forum and external sources. I tried to document this where possible. ## Demo project on Github > **[mikeseeh/photon-demo-oled-sdcard](https://github.com/mikeseeh/photon-demo-oled-sdcard)** > > photon-demo-oled-sdcard - Particle Photon OLED screen and SD card demo ## Hardware - Photon – SparkFun Photon RedBoard [https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13321](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13321) - Adafruit OLED Breakout Board - 16-bit Color 1.5" w/microSD holder [http://www.adafruit.com/products/1431](http://www.adafruit.com/products/1431) ## Libraries and code - Adafruit mfGFX and SSD1351 Library [https://github.com/pkourany/Adafruit\_SSD1351\_Library/](https://github.com/pkourany/Adafruit_SSD1351_Library/) with rotation support from [https://github.com/mikeseeh/Adafruit\_SSD1351\_Library](https://github.com/mikeseeh/Adafruit_SSD1351_Library) - bmpDraw Code [https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-SSD1351-library/blob/master/examples/bmp/bmp.ino](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-SSD1351-library/blob/master/examples/bmp/bmp.ino) ## Wiring ``` OLED Photon SI A5 CL A3 DC D7 R D5 OC D6 SC A2 SO A4 CD none 3V none + 3.3v G GND ``` ## Image on SD Card The image displayed on the screen gets loaded from the SD card. Place it as logo.bmp on the card or change the name in line #102. The file format must be BMP with 24bit. ## Remarks - I use the Particle Dev to compile the code in the cloud and push it on the Photon. You can use a local folder structure as long as you don’t refer to it in the #include statements (so only use the .h filenames). - In the code I found online I could not use the bmpDraw function as the declarations of read16 and read32 were missing. These are added in the line 69 and 70. - Be sure to not mix hardware and software SPI. I had this problem … Have fun and get in contact if you have questions! ---
**Author:** ![peekay123](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/peekay123/32/810_2.png) [@peekay123](https://community.particle.io/u/peekay123)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/2 "2015-12-09T21:04:44Z")
@MikeSeeH, where’s the video! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 10:30am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/3 "2016-03-20T10:30:24Z")
Hello! Just tried to run this and I keep getting the following error: ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/particle/original/2X/f/f5fcd3c790f215b69df45aa5674ba594b6e0b1a3.JPG) Do you have any idea why? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 5:25pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/4 "2016-03-20T17:25:04Z")
That comes from the fact that `Serial` now is a macro already, so this code from the library won’t work anymore ```cpp # define SERIAL_DEVICE 0 /* 0:SerialUSB 1=: Serial UART device */ # if SERIAL_DEVICE == 0 # define Serial Serial /* Use USB CDC port */ # define BPS_9600 /* Nothing */ # define BPS_115200 /* Nothing */ # else ... ``` But you’d be better off with the newer/better/faster `SDFat` library available on Web IDE anyway. Otherwise you could downgrade to firmware version 0.4.7 and build against that. ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/5 "2016-03-20T19:06:35Z")
Thank’s for the quick reply! I had a feeling something like that was happening. I have programming experience, but new to the embedded world. In fact, I ordered this exact screen just so I could learn off this example! I just downloaded the SDFat library. Does this replace the SD-card-library-photon-compact library then? After replacing, whats the first thing in the existing code that should be tweaked? Thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/6 "2016-03-20T19:21:07Z")
> [@jahydin](#): > > Does this replace the SD-card-library-photon-compact library then? That's the plan. I've not tried that combination, but just replace all includes for the old library with the new ones and have a try what errors come. If they are too obscure, feel free to ask. Maybe I or someone else finds the time to try it too. ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/7 "2016-03-21T12:46:21Z")
Sounds good. Really appreciate the help, I’ll give myself a good week to try to make things happen and will then report back. ---
**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/8 "2016-03-21T16:19:42Z")
One thing I noticed with the new library and that demo `.ino` is the need to use `#pragma SPARK_NO_PREPROCESSOR`. So after I added this to the top of the sketch, the project at least builds ```cpp #pragma SPARK_NO_PREPROCESSOR #include "Particle.h" #include "Adafruit_SSD1351.h" // additional set of .h/.cpp files in the project #include "Adafruit_mfGFX/Adafruit_mfGFX.h" // import contributed library from the lib drawer #include "SdFat/SdFat.h" // import contributed library from the lib drawer #define SD_CS A0 // choose your own chip select pin for SD card #define cs D5 // choose your own chip select pin for display #define rst D6 // choose your own reset pin for display #define dc D4 // choose your own data/command pin for display #define sclk SCLK // shared hardware SPI pins #define mosi MOSI // // forward declarations (needed due to SPARK_NO_PREPROCESSOR) void bmpDraw(char *filename, uint8_t x, uint8_t y); uint16_t read16(File f); uint32_t read32(File f); // instanciate an SD object SdFat SD; ``` ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 12:15am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/9 "2016-03-22T00:15:57Z")
![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/particle/original/2X/b/b26228a84e91517f1c9e145b2381e63f64428948.JPG) With your code I did get it to compile, but unfortunately I just have a blue screen. ☹ I noticed your pin setup is different form the main code (such as you don’t use cs\_oled). You also use “MOSI” and “SCLK” for pins. What pins are those on the Photon? Thanks again for your help! ---
**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 7:12am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/10 "2016-03-22T07:12:08Z")
These are exactly the same pins but saves me to remember which A??#! was it again 😉 One pin can have multiple aliases (e.g WKP=A7, DAC=A6, A3=SCLK=DAC2, …) The other difference in pin mappings comes from the fact that I modified this sketch so that it built [https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-SSD1351-library/blob/master/examples/bmp/bmp.ino](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-SSD1351-library/blob/master/examples/bmp/bmp.ino) What do your `Serial.print()` statements tell you? Add some more if this is still inconclusive? ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/11 "2016-03-22T14:40:14Z")
Oh, that makes sense. I’m a little confused what Serial.print() does exactly. I’m running the test demo that comes with Adafruit\_mfGFX, and everything runs fine except the Serial.Print() statements. Are these suppose to show up on my board, or on my Particle Dev Serial monitor? ---
**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/12 "2016-03-22T14:55:15Z")
`Serial.print()` sends these messages down the USB Serial interface to your computer where you can read it out with any serial monitor like _Particle Dev_, _PuTTY_ or even CLI via `particle serial monitor`. ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/13 "2016-03-22T15:06:53Z")
Got it! Well then I guess the code is fine. Makes a ton of sense why my screen just stayed blue (I don’t have a picture on my SD yet). I was expecting all those statements to print to my OLED. So I guess my “real” problem is I don’t know how to see serial.print statements. I have my Serial monitor pulled up in Particle Dev, and it says I’m connected, but nothing shows up. Is there some setup I missed maybe? ---
**Author:** ![MikeSeeH](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/mikeseeh/32/7974_2.png) [@MikeSeeH](https://community.particle.io/u/MikeSeeH)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 3:33pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/14 "2016-03-22T15:33:47Z")
In principle this should be correct. The print statements show up on the serial monitor. If you are on the Mac try the software CoolTerm ( [http://freeware.the-meiers.org](http://freeware.the-meiers.org) ). I find this easier for debugging. If you have a working code in the end feel free to send a pull request. I will check my code and try to update it in the next weeks. Currently I am super busy ☹ ---
**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/15 "2016-03-22T15:36:14Z")
If you are one of those “poor” individuals (or stubborn like me) who stick with Windows, then you’d need to have the USB Serial drivers installed. [https://s3.amazonaws.com/spark-website/Particle.zip](https://s3.amazonaws.com/spark-website/Particle.zip) ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/16 "2016-03-22T16:45:41Z")
I will! Thanks for putting this up to begin with. You have no idea how much time you’ve saved me! ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/17 "2016-03-22T16:53:41Z")
I am, haha. I think I got it working, but it seems a little wonky. The only way it works is disconnecting (from COM3), flashing my code, then while it’s flashing connecting back. Once connected, if I re-flash new code or restart my Photon nothing happens. I also can’t seem to connect when it’s done flashing and running the code. Is this normal? ---
**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/18 "2016-03-22T18:26:33Z")
That’s also a nice Windows “perk”. If you keep the connection open from one end if the other end goes offline it won’t be able to reconnect and will demand a new COM port. So close the connection before reconnect. PuTTY or CLI do this automatically, but with my current version of Dev it also seems to work well - what version are you on? ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/19 "2016-03-22T20:51:24Z")
Oh yeah? Yup, working perfect following your instructions. Kind of a pain, but doable. I’m using the latest, 1.5.1. I followed these steps: [https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/connect/photon/](https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/connect/photon/) Did installing CLI garble things up with Dev? ---
**Author:** ![jahydin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@jahydin](https://community.particle.io/u/jahydin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145/20 "2016-03-25T15:24:35Z")
Finally got a MicroSD to USB so I could put a picture on my card to test the code. Sad to report nothing gets drawn though. ☹ According to my serial messages everything loads okay, just doesn’t seem to change my screen at all. [Next page](https://community.particle.io/t/particle-photon-oled-screen-and-sd-card-demo/18145.md?page=2)