This example displays the names of just some of the Black people injured or killed by police brutality in the United States. For more information about Adafruit's response to racial injustice, visit our dedicated Black Lives Matter page.
This particular example is designed to use the Adafruit 2.7" SHARP Memory Display.
Installing Project Code
To use with CircuitPython, you need to first install a few libraries, into the lib folder on your CIRCUITPY drive. Then you need to update code.py with the example script.
Thankfully, we can do this in one go. In the example below, click the Download Project Bundle button below to download the necessary libraries and the code.py file in a zip file. Extract the contents of the zip file, open the directory CircuitPython_SharpDisplay_Displayio/ and then click on the directory that matches the version of CircuitPython you're using and copy the contents of that directory to your CIRCUITPY drive.
Your CIRCUITPY drive should now look similar to the following image:
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2020 Limor Fried for Adafruit Industries
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2020 Jeff Epler for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
import random
import time
import adafruit_display_text.label
from adafruit_bitmap_font import bitmap_font
import board
import displayio
import framebufferio
import sharpdisplay
## When making several changes, this ensures they aren't shown partially
## completed (except for the time to actually update the display)
class BatchDisplayUpdate:
def __init__(self, the_display):
self.the_display = the_display
self.auto_refresh = the_display.auto_refresh
def __enter__(self):
self.the_display.auto_refresh = False
def __exit__(self, unused1, unused2, unused3):
self.the_display.refresh()
self.the_display.auto_refresh = self.auto_refresh
# https://saytheirnames.com/
# real people, not just #hashtags
names = [
"Rodney King",
"Abner Louima",
"Amadou Diallo",
"Sean Bell",
"Oscar Grant",
"Eric Garner",
"Michael Brown",
"Laquan McDonald",
"Freddie Gray",
"Antwon Rose Jr",
"Ahmaud Arbery",
"Breonna Taylor",
"John Crawford III",
"Ezell Ford",
"Dante Parker",
"Michelle Cusseaux",
"Laquan Mcdonald",
"George Mann",
"Tanisha Anderson",
"Akai Gurley",
"Tamir Rice",
"Rumain Brisbon",
"Jerame Reid",
"Matthew Ajibade",
"Frank Smart",
"Nastasha McKenna",
"Tony Robinson",
"Anthony Hill",
"Mya Hall",
"Phillip White",
"Eric Harris",
"Walter Scott",
"William Chapman II",
"Alexia Christian",
"Brendon Glenn",
"Victor Maunel Larosa",
"Jonathan Sanders",
"Freddie Blue",
"Joseph Mann",
"Salvado Ellswood",
"Sanda Bland",
"Albert Joseph Davis",
"Darrius Stewart",
"Billy Ray Davis",
"Samuel Dubose",
"Michael Sabbie",
"Brian Keith Day",
"Christian Taylor",
"Troy Robinson",
"Asshams Pharoah Manley",
"Felix Kumi",
"Keith Harrison Mcleod",
"Junior Prosper",
"Lamontez Jones",
"Paterson Brown",
"Dominic Hutchinson",
"Anthony Ashford",
"Alonzo Smith",
"Tyree Crawford",
"India Kager",
"La'vante Biggs",
"Michael Lee Marshall",
"Jamar Clark",
"Richard Perkins",
"Nathaniel Harris Pickett",
"Benni Lee Tignor",
"Miguel Espinal",
"Michael Noel",
"Kevin Matthews",
"Bettie Jones",
"Quintonio Legrier",
"Keith Childress Jr",
"Janet Wilson",
"Randy Nelson",
"Antronie Scott",
"Wendell Celestine",
"David Joseph",
"Calin Roquemore",
"Dyzhawn Perkins",
"Christoper Davis",
"Marco Loud",
"Peter Gaines",
"Torry Robison",
"Darius Robinson",
"Kevin Hicks",
"Mary Truxillo",
"Demarcus Semer",
"Willie Tillman",
"Terrill Thomas",
"Sylville Smith",
"Sean Reed",
"Alton Streling",
"Philando Castile",
"Terence Crutcher",
"Paul O'Neal",
"Alteria Woods",
"Jordan Edwards",
"Aaron Bailey",
"Ronell Foster",
"Stephon Clark",
"Antwon Rose II",
"Botham Jean",
"Pamela Turner",
"Dominique Clayton",
"Atatiana Jefferson",
"Christopher Whitfield",
"Christopher Mccovey",
"Eric Reason",
"Michael Lorenzo Dean",
"Tony McDade",
"David McAtee",
"George Floyd",
]
# A function to choose "k" different items from the "population" list
# We'll use it to select the names to display
def sample(population, k):
population = population[:]
for _ in range(k):
j = random.randint(0, len(population)-1)
yield population[j]
population[j] = population[-1]
population.pop()
# Initialize the display, cleaning up after a display from the previous run
# if necessary
displayio.release_displays()
bus = board.SPI()
framebuffer = sharpdisplay.SharpMemoryFramebuffer(bus, board.D6, 400, 240)
display = framebufferio.FramebufferDisplay(framebuffer, auto_refresh = True)
# Load our font
font = bitmap_font.load_font("/GothamBlack-54.bdf")
# Create a Group for the BLM text
blm_group = displayio.Group()
display.show(blm_group)
# Create a 3 line set of text for BLM
blm_font = [None, None, None]
for line in range(3):
label = adafruit_display_text.label.Label(font, color=0xFFFFFF)
label.anchor_point = (0, 0)
label.anchored_position = (8, line*84+8)
blm_font[line] = label
blm_group.append(label)
# Get something on the display as soon as possible by loading
# specific glyphs.
font.load_glyphs(b"BLACK")
blm_font[0].text = "BLACK"
font.load_glyphs(b"ISEV")
blm_font[1].text = "LIVES"
font.load_glyphs(b"RMT")
blm_font[2].text = "MATTER"
font.load_glyphs(b"' DFGHJNOPQUWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz")
# Create a 2 line set of font text for names
names_font = [None, None]
for line in range(2):
label = adafruit_display_text.label.Label(font, color=0xFFFFFF)
# Center each line horizontally, position vertically
label.anchor_point = (0.5, 0)
label.anchored_position = (200, line*84+42)
names_font[line] = label
# Create a Group for the name text
name_group = displayio.Group()
for line in names_font:
name_group.append(line)
# Repeatedly show the BLM slogan and then 5 names.
while True:
display.show(blm_group)
# Show the BLM slogan
with BatchDisplayUpdate(display):
blm_font[1].color = blm_font[2].color = 0 # hide lines 2&3
time.sleep(1)
with BatchDisplayUpdate(display):
blm_font[1].color = 0xFFFFFF # show middle line
blm_font[0].color = blm_font[2].color = 0 # hide lines 1&3
time.sleep(1)
with BatchDisplayUpdate(display):
blm_font[2].color = 0xFFFFFF # show last line
blm_font[0].color = blm_font[1].color = 0 # hide lines 1&2
time.sleep(1)
with BatchDisplayUpdate(display):
for line in blm_font:
line.color = 0xFFFFFF
time.sleep(2)
# Show 5 names
display.show(name_group)
for name in sample(names, 5):
print(name)
lines = name.split(" ")
with BatchDisplayUpdate(display):
for i in range(2):
names_font[i].text = lines[i]
time.sleep(5)
names_font[0].text = names_font[1].text = ""
