Arduino Library & Examples

For all of the different kinds of small OLED monochrome displays, you'll need to install the Arduino libraries. The code we have is for any kind of Arduino, if you're using a different microcontroller, the code is pretty simple to adapt, the interface we use is basic bit-twiddling SPI or I2C

Install Adafruit SSD1306 Library

Start by installing the support library for the OLED display, you'll need it to talk to the OLED controller chip. We have the Adafruit SSD1306 library repository on GitHub if you're interested in looking at the code.

Start by downloading the library. You can do that by visiting the github repo and manually downloading or, easier, just click this button to download the zip:

Download Adafruit_SSD1306 Library

Rename the uncompressed folder Adafruit_SSD1306 and check that the Adafruit_SSD1306 folder contains Adafruit_SSD1306.cpp and Adafruit_SSD1306.h

Place the Adafruit_SSD1306 library folder your arduinosketchfolder/libraries/ folder.
You may need to create the libraries subfolder if its your first library. Restart the IDE.We also have a great tutorial on Arduino library installation at:
http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-all-about-arduino-libraries-install-use

Install Adafruit GFX

You will need to do the same for the Adafurit_GFX library available here

Download Adafruit GFX Library

Rename the uncompressed folder Adafruit_GFX and check that the Adafruit_GFX folder contains Adafruit_GFX.cpp and Adafruit_GFX.h

Place the Adafruit_GFX library folder your arduinosketchfolder/libraries/ folder like you did with the SSD1306 library

Run Demo!

After installing the Adafruit_SSD1306 and Adafruit_GFX library, restart the Arduino IDE. You should now be able to access the sample code by navigating through menus in this order: File→Sketchbook→Libraries→Adafruit_SSD1306→SSD1306...

After you've finished wiring the display as indicated on the following pages, load the example sketch to demonstrate the capabilities of the library and display.

The OLED SSD1306 driver is based on the Adafruit GFX library which provides all the underlying graphics functions such as drawing pixels, lines, circles, etc. For more details about what you can do with the OLED check out the GFX library tutorial

The library cannot determine the screen size via software. You have to specify it in the header file. Go into the library folder and open the file Adafruit_SSD1306.h. Toward the top you'll see a section of comments that tell how how to edit the file for different kinds of display.

Create Bitmaps

You can create bitmaps to display easily with the LCD assistant software. First make your image using any kind of graphics software such as photoshop or Paint and save as a Monochrome Bitmap (bmp)