Adafruit 128x64 OLED Bonnet for Raspberry Pi

by Adafruit

If you'd like a compact display, with buttons and a joystick - we've got what you're looking for.

The Adafruit 128x64 OLED Bonnet for Raspberry Pi is the big sister to the mini PiOLED add-on.

This version has 128x64 pixels (instead of 128x32) and a much larger screen besides. With the OLED display in the center, there was some space on either side so Adafruit added a 5-way joystick and two pushbuttons. Great for when you want to have a control interface for your project.

These displays are small, only about 1.3" diagonal, but very readable due to the high contrast of an OLED display. This screen is made of 128x64 individual white OLED pixels and because the display makes its own light, no backlight is required. This reduces the power required to run the OLED and is why the display has such high contrast; we really like this miniature display for its crispness!

Please note that this display is too small to act as a primary display for the Pi (e.g. it can't act like or display what would normally be on the HDMI screen). Instead, we recommend using pygame for drawing or writing text.

Using the display and controls in python is very easy, Adafruit have a library ready-to-go for the SSD1306 OLED chipset and the joystick/buttons are connected to GPIO pins on the Pi. Their example code allows you to draw images, text, whatever you like, using the Python imaging library. They also have example code for using the joystick/buttons/OLED together. Their tests showed 15 FPS update rates so you can do animations or simple video.

Comes completely pre-assembled and tested so you don't need to do anything but plug it in and install the Python code! Works with any Raspberry Pi computer, including the original Pi 1, B+, Pi 2, Pi 3, Pi 4, and Pi Zero.

Instructions, software, downloads and more in the Learning Guide!

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Revision History:

  • As of July 7, 2020 Adafruit now include a handy rubber knob cover for the joystick to make it easier to use!

Product Dimensions: 65.3mm x 30.7mm x 15.5mm / 2.6" x 1.2" x 0.6"

Product Weight: 11.4g / 0.4oz

11 customer reviews

2 years ago
ARRR GEEE BEEEE! I'm driving it with a microcontroller + circuitpython by adapting an Adafruit LCD library for the ST7565 (almost the same as the ST7567 in the GFX hat) and porting the Pimoroni SN3218 library to circuitpython. Works great! I don't need capacitive touch so not bothering with that.
by Tobias about GFX HAT - Retro LCD with RGB Backlight via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Prompt delivery. Worked out of the box with their examples. Great price at discounted price of £9. Perhaps some more detailed documentation would be useful.
by Andrew about GFX HAT - Retro LCD with RGB Backlight via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
An incredibly priced device, great screen, the buttons work very well and the LEDs for each buttons are very appreciated. The RGB backlight with individually control zones is a great touch. I am currently using it with a pi to received and display SMS messages.
by Ryan about GFX HAT - Retro LCD with RGB Backlight via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Lovely upgrade to my display-o-tron, and inky phat... and though it’s not as higher resolution as the inky Phat, the ability to refresh the data quicker makes it much more useful
by neil about GFX HAT - Retro LCD with RGB Backlight via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Just bought my second one of these, great for small embedded projects. Pimoroni is becoming a favourite here too, I've bought quite a few things now and the goodies have always arrived quickly.
by Brian about GFX HAT - Retro LCD with RGB Backlight via REVIEWS.io

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