Soldered Inkplate ESPHome

ESPHome external component for Inkplate e-paper displays.

Important

This repo will be migrated to the official ESPHome repo, until then use this one.

Supported boards

Parallel (non-SPI) — inkplate component

Model	Resolution	Colors	Partial update	Grayscale	MCU
Inkplate 6 V2	800 × 600	Black / White	Yes	8 levels	ESP32
Inkplate 6 V1	800 × 600	Black / White	Yes	8 levels	ESP32
Inkplate 6 PLUS	1024 × 758	Black / White	Yes	8 levels	ESP32
Inkplate 6 FLICK	1024 × 758	Black / White	Yes	8 levels	ESP32
Inkplate 5 V2	1280 × 720	Black / White	Yes	8 levels	ESP32
Inkplate 5 V1	960 × 540	Black / White	Yes	8 levels	ESP32
Inkplate 4	600 × 600	Black / White	Yes	8 levels	ESP32
Inkplate 10	1200 × 825	Black / White	Yes	8 levels	ESP32

SPI — inkplate_spi component

Model	Resolution	Colors	Partial update	MCU	PSRAM
Inkplate 13	1200 × 1600	6-color ACeP	Yes	ESP32-S3	Octal, 80 MHz
Inkplate 6 Color	600 × 448	7-color ACeP	No	ESP32	Quad, 40 MHz
Inkplate 2	104 × 212	Black / White / Red	No	ESP32	Quad, 40 MHz

Warning

PSRAM is required on all boards — framebuffers are too large for internal RAM.

---

Usage

Add to your ESPHome .yaml:

external_components:
  - source:
      type: git
      url: https://github.com/SolderedElectronics/Soldered-Inkplate-ESPHome
      ref: main

---

Parallel boards (Inkplate 6 V2 / V1 / 6 PLUS / 6 FLICK / 5 V2 / V1 / 4 / 10)

Parallel boards use the inkplate platform. They require an I2C bus (for the TPS65186 PMIC and PCAL6416A GPIO expander) but no SPI.

esphome:
  name: my-inkplate6
  on_boot:
    priority: -100    # run after all components initialised
    then:
      - component.update: my_display

esp32:
  framework:
    type: esp-idf
  variant: esp32

psram:
  mode: quad
  speed: 40MHz

i2c:
  sda: GPIO21
  scl: GPIO22
  frequency: 100000

pca6416a:
  id: inkplate_pcal
  address: 0x20

display:
  platform: inkplate
  model: inkplate6v2      # inkplate6v2 | inkplate6v1 | inkplate6plus | inkplate6flick | inkplate4 | inkplate5v2 | inkplate5v1 | inkplate10
  id: my_display
  address: 0x48           # TPS65186 PMIC I2C address
  pca6416a_id: inkplate_pcal
  update_interval: 60s
  lambda: |-
    it.fill(COLOR_OFF);
    it.print(400, 300, id(my_font), COLOR_ON, display::TextAlign::CENTER, "Hello!");

The on_boot trigger is needed because the display does not draw automatically on startup — component.update kicks off the first refresh after all components have initialised.

Grayscale mode

Parallel boards support 8-level grayscale. Enable it in the display config:

display:
  platform: inkplate
  model: inkplate6
  grayscale_mode: true
  lambda: |-
    it.filled_rectangle(0, 0, 100, 100, Color(3, 3, 3));  # mid-gray (0–7 range)

Partial update

Partial update refreshes only changed pixels — much faster than a full refresh but can accumulate ghosting over time. A full update clears ghosting.

// inside a lambda or interval action
if (!id(my_display).is_refreshing()) {
    id(my_display).print(10, 10, id(my_font), "updated");
    id(my_display).display_partial();
}

Note

The first update after boot is always a full refresh — partial is blocked until a full update establishes a known panel state.

Configuration options

Key	Required	Default	Description
model	yes	—	Board model (see table above)
pca6416a_id	yes	—	ID of the PCAL6416A expander component
address	no	0x48	TPS65186 PMIC I2C address
update_interval	no	—	How often to trigger a full refresh
full_update_every	no	1	Force full refresh every N updates
grayscale_mode	no	false	Enable 8-level grayscale drawing
rotation	no	0°	Display rotation (0 / 90 / 180 / 270)
lambda	no	—	Drawing lambda

---

SPI boards (Inkplate 13 / 6 Color / 2)

esphome:
  name: my-inkplate
  on_boot:
    priority: -100
    then:
      - component.update: my_display

spi:
  clk_pin: GPIOX
  mosi_pin: GPIOX    # MISO not needed — display is write-only

display:
  platform: inkplate_spi
  model: inkplate13         # inkplate13 | inkplate6color | inkplate2
  id: my_display
  update_interval: never    # trigger manually; use a time interval for auto-refresh
  lambda: |-
    it.fill(Color(255, 255, 255));
    it.print(10, 10, id(my_font), "Hello!");

update_interval: never is recommended for battery-powered use and for ACeP panels where refresh rate must be controlled. Use a time component or interval: block to trigger updates instead.

Inkplate 13 — partial update

Inkplate 13 supports refreshing a subregion without a full-panel redraw:

// inside a lambda or interval action
if (!id(my_display).is_busy()) {
    id(my_display).filled_rectangle(x, y, w, h, Color(255, 255, 255));
    id(my_display).print(x, y, id(my_font), "updated");
    id(my_display).display_partial(x, y, w, h);
}

Configuration options

Key	Required	Default	Description
model	yes	—	Board model (see table above)
update_interval	no	—	How often to trigger a full refresh
full_update_every	no	1	Trigger full refresh every N updates
rotation	no	0°	Display rotation (0 / 90 / 180 / 270)
lambda	no	—	Drawing lambda

Pin defaults match stock Inkplate hardware. Override any pin by adding e.g. pin_rst: GPIO4 to the display block.

Caution

Inkplate 13 enforces a 30 second minimum between full refreshes. The component will reject a shorter update_interval at config validation time. ACeP panels can be permanently damaged by too-frequent refreshes.

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