Installing an OLED display on a MMDVM repeater

Bron: F5UII

After the article on the configuration and installation of a Nextion screen on a MMDVM repeater, let’s see together how to integrate a small OLED display on MMDVM.

This type of display is known by the reference SSD1306, it measures 27 millimeters for a display definition of 128 x 64. There are two variants of the SSD1306 display, one running on SPI bus and the other on I2C. I chose the I2C bus model, recognizable by these SCA and SCL pins. It is monochrome but also exists in a yellow and blue two-color version. Only the lines on the top of the display are yellow. This is the model I use.

OLED SSD1306 display

Software prerequisites

You are connected to Raspberry Pi.

First of all, we will validate the SPI and I2C buses of the Raspberry Pi, thanks to the configuration menu.

 

We now install software packages to manage these buses.

In order for the modules to start we must indicated them in the modules file

You must have these two lines

(Exit with Ctrl-X and Yes to save)

We restart the Raspberry Pi

After reconnecting, we must find the ports i2c and spi

Connecting the Display

The SSD1306 is an I2C bus version. The connection is made as shown below.

Detection Test

We will check that the wiring is correct and that the screen is detected on the I2C bus.

Start the following command.

 

Equipment 3c appears. This is the SSD1306 screen.

Installing the OLED Display Communication Library

If you did not install git on your Raspberry Pi, I suggest you run this command.

Download now the ArduiPi_OLED library (directly on github).

then run the software compilation

Recompiling MMDVMHost

Let’s update MMDVMHost with these few instructions. The compilation will take several minutes.

Updating the MMDVMHost Configuration File

Here is the final step. Now, in the [General] section of the MMDVM.ini file, we have installed an OLED screen

It refers to the OLED section that we do not have to change

Finally, we need to restart the Raspberry Pi

Result

The display SSD1306 lights up. It is waiting for traffic

SSD1306 I2C display connected to Raspberry Pi, and driven by MMDVMHost

On the talk group TG2, WA4BPS is displayed, it is retransmitted on the Time Slot 2 in DMR

 

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