Adding OLED to Pod?

moonfriend · December 17, 2021, 6:01pm

Hi all,

Short version: I built a DIY POD on protoboard, is it possible to add an OLED with the unused pins on the Daisy Seed? Is it possible to get preexisting software (specifically, Pollen(8)) to output useful info?

Long version: I am absolutely clueless when it comes to programming etc. I bought a Daisy Seed to see how I could implement preexisting software into my music-making setup. I built a Pod from scratch (I already had most of the parts so it would be cheaper for me that way) and it all works well. I loaded the Pollen(8) synth and I love it! It’s great! Big shout out to Jason Long aka hammondeggsmusic for making it.

Now I’m hoping to improve my “diy pod” in some way. I have an OLED laying around and I was wondering how simple it would be to add it to my POD. I see that there are open pins on my Daisy, and in other hardware, such as the Field, these same pin are used to interface with an OLED, so in theory I could hook it up.

However, am I correct in thinking that this would be essentially useless? More questions:
-Since I’m running my Daisy as a “Pod”, there doesn’t seem to be any built in OLED support, right?
-On top of that, none of the software has any information to send to the OLED?
-If I wanted to use an OLED, would I have to “build” a Patch or a Field and use software specifically for that platform? This is a possibility for me, I’m looking at the schematics and I know that I could build a Field or a Patch on protoboard, but I don’t really want to go down that path if I can already use the “pod” that I have.

This may all sound basic and I apologize for my ignorance when it comes to software, etc. Any guidance on this would be great.

StaffanMelin · December 17, 2021, 9:15pm

Hello @moonfriend and welcome to the forum!

Congrats on building your own pod! Like you, I can’t afford the larger Daisys so I work with the Seed and an LCD screen:

If you attach on OLED you can use the OLED support in libdaisy:

github.com

electro-smith/libDaisy/blob/master/src/dev/oled_ssd130x.h

#pragma once
#ifndef SA_OLED_SSD130X_H
#define SA_OLED_SSD130X_H /**< & */

#include "per/i2c.h"
#include "per/spi.h"
#include "per/gpio.h"
#include "sys/system.h"

namespace daisy
{
/**
 * I2C Transport for SSD1306 / SSD1309 OLED display devices
 */
class SSD130xI2CTransport
{
  public:
    struct Config
    {
        Config()

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Look at the init source for the Daisy Patch to see how it is used:

github.com

electro-smith/libDaisy/blob/master/src/daisy_patch.cpp

#include "daisy_patch.h"
#include "dev/codec_ak4556.h"

using namespace daisy;

// Hardware Definitions
constexpr Pin PIN_ENC_CLICK  = seed::D0;
constexpr Pin PIN_ENC_B      = seed::D11;
constexpr Pin PIN_ENC_A      = seed::D12;
constexpr Pin PIN_OLED_DC    = seed::D9;
constexpr Pin PIN_OLED_RESET = seed::D30;
constexpr Pin PIN_MIDI_OUT   = seed::D13;
constexpr Pin PIN_MIDI_IN    = seed::D14;
constexpr Pin PIN_GATE_OUT   = seed::D17;
constexpr Pin PIN_GATE_IN_1  = seed::D20;
constexpr Pin PIN_GATE_IN_2  = seed::D19;
constexpr Pin PIN_SAI_SCK_A  = seed::D28;
constexpr Pin PIN_SAI2_FS_A  = seed::D27;
constexpr Pin PIN_SAI2_SD_A  = seed::D26;
constexpr Pin PIN_SAI2_SD_B  = seed::D25;

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Method InitDisplay().

Then you can study an example for the Daisy Patch to see how to use it eg:

github.com

electro-smith/DaisyExamples/blob/master/patch/vco/ex_vco.cpp

#include "daisysp.h"
#include "daisy_patch.h"
#include <string>

using namespace daisy;
using namespace daisysp;

DaisyPatch patch;
Oscillator osc;
Parameter  freqctrl, wavectrl, ampctrl, finectrl;

static void AudioCallback(AudioHandle::InputBuffer  in,
                          AudioHandle::OutputBuffer out,
                          size_t                    size)
{
    float  sig, freq, amp;
    size_t wave;

    patch.ProcessAnalogControls();

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As I have only worked with LCDs myself, I can’t really give you more help, but this is how I would do it!

moonfriend · January 22, 2022, 6:15am

Sorry for super late reply. I appreciate your help. I’ll dive into this and see if I can’t figure something out.
Thank you!