# What happened to this SSD1306 display?
**URL:** https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [3 March 2022 12:46 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321 "2022-03-03T12:46:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rinat191554](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Rinat191554)
#### Post date: [3 March 2022 12:46 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/1 "2022-03-03T12:46:34Z")
Hey there people. š
Bought my first SSD1306 recently and been using it for maybe around a week. Did a few tests depleting my battery to zero in two days ā¦ twice. So display was always on for at least four days. This shouldnāt be a problem right? People use these for years ā¦
It renders weird now. I donāt think Iāve changed any code related to the display and use the same library. But the visual difference is apparent. Iāve moved the text around and the āmissing pixelsā seem to be moving around with the text.
I use this with ESP32, PlatformIO, C++, U8g2 library for rendering. The only code that changed since I last seen this display was related to deep sleep ā¦
Before
After
This almost looks like lower resolution font TBH. But Iām pretty sure I didnāt change it.
Can the hardware glitch this way?
I understand the conditions arenāt exactly same on these photos but you should see how 5ās are rendered differently. With āpowerā line being cut off due to screen refreshing while I took video.
Anyone sees what this might be?
---
### Author:  [@Jeff105671](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Jeff105671)
#### Post date: [3 March 2022 20:51 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/2 "2022-03-03T20:51:35Z")
> [@Rinat191554](#):
>
> This almost looks like lower resolution font TBH
To me it looks more like a lower resolution display, rather than a different font. Like it has changed from a 64-line display to a 32-line. Have you recompiled the code? Is it possible the library got automatically updated and changed the default size of the display?
---
### Author:  [@Rinat191554](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Rinat191554)
#### Post date: [3 March 2022 23:09 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/3 "2022-03-03T23:09:03Z")
Probably.
I definitely recompiled the code. While I see some recent commits to the libraryās main branch, it seems release havenāt been done since 23 Jan. (Their recent change log is rather vague, but I found this version match PlatformIO in their tooling code ā¦)
Iāve checked programmatically the width and height of the screen are reported as 128x64.
I will also probably be trying another library just in case. The fact that that ā5ā renders same way wherever I put it indicates that this is probably software.
Itās unfortunate that I didnāt init a git repo and canāt just revert ā¹ never make this mistake people.
---
### Author:  [@Liam](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Liam)
#### Post date: [3 March 2022 23:21 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/4 "2022-03-03T23:21:30Z")
Hi Rinat,
Welcome to the forum!!
Looks like an awesome project! OLEDs should last years if pixel burn-in is handled (I like the analogy of each pixel having health points and as you use it the HP goes down).
That looks very odd, if you have a Pico on hand Iād do a quick test with the example code: [PiicoDev OLED Display Module (128x64) SSD1306 | Core Electronics Australia](https://core-electronics.com.au/piicodev-oled-display-module-128x64-ssd1306.html)
Let us know how you go!
Liam.
---
### Author:  [@Jeff105671](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Jeff105671)
#### Post date: [4 March 2022 00:25 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/5 "2022-03-04T00:25:47Z")
> [@Rinat191554](#):
>
> Iāve checked programmatically the width and height of the screen are reported as 128x64.
But is your code driving it like itās 64x32? If the code assumes a default configuration and if the library has changed the default then that could happen. For instance, if the update made the library inaccessible for some reason, and the compiler loaded a different library.
---
### Author:  [@Rinat191554](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Rinat191554)
#### Post date: [4 March 2022 01:34 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/6 "2022-03-04T01:34:00Z")
Hey Jeff, thanks for your response!
This is basically the only place where I specify width/height anywhere.
I believe Iām using the right constructor. I understand that it could have changed internally. But itās unlikely, considering that PlatformIO recorded the library version as below, at the moment I added it:
```auto
lib_deps =
...
olikraus/U8g2@^2.32.10
...
```
I definitely started my project after their last release date (23 Jan).
Iāve already tried different version (`olikraus/U8g2@2.32.6` - 5 months old) of the same library with no luck but yet to try completely different library from Core Electronics and let you know how it goes. š
Cheers!
---
### Author:  [@Rinat191554](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Rinat191554)
#### Post date: [5 March 2022 02:15 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/7 "2022-03-05T02:15:17Z")
@Liam I failed to notice that I need a special MCU for that example project.
I donāt have Pico on hand unfortunately.
So I tested with Adafruit SSD1306 C++ library and the results arenāt better. So on the photo below it says `HELLO WORLD` 10 times using font of 6px height (which actually looks like 3 pixels if we count the dots).
The text becomes legible and predictable (you donāt see some of the lines get squished) if I enable font scaling over y axis that this library allows you to do:
I get similar effect if I set height to 32 in the display constructor of this library.
I donāt think this is the code anymore. It was very humid recently and Iām thinking maybe this display just broke ā¦ If you look at H and compare horizontal density vs vertical density you will see holes in vertical axis and less of those in horizontal axis. š¤·āāļø
Iām thinking of ordering another one of these to compare.
---
### Author:  [@Rinat191554](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Rinat191554)
#### Post date: [6 March 2022 01:45 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/8 "2022-03-06T01:45:04Z")
@Liam can I use regular Raspberry Pi 4b to try that example code? Or do you think I could flash MicroPython on my ESP32 to try it?
---
### Author:  [@Liam120347](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Liam120347)
#### Post date: [6 March 2022 01:56 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/9 "2022-03-06T01:56:26Z")
Hi Rinat,
Both are definitely options, the RPi 4 SBC has been tried and tested so to save time Iād go for that. Iāve done a couple of tests with other PiicoDev modules on different ESP32ās and theyāve worked but canāt confirm that the OLED works.
---
### Author:  [@Rinat191554](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Rinat191554)
#### Post date: [6 March 2022 09:56 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/10 "2022-03-06T09:56:52Z")
@Liam Thanks. Iāve tested the `main.py` with the counter. This is how it looks:
I think itās the device. Iāve already ordered a replacement.
---
### Author:  [@Anthony164590](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Anthony164590)
#### Post date: [9 March 2022 09:38 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/11 "2022-03-09T09:38:52Z")
I donāt have one of these displays to check, but are you sure youāre passing the constructor parameters in the right order? The source of U8g2lib.h shows thisā¦
```cpp
U8G2_SSD1306_128X64_NONAME_F_HW_I2C(
const u8g2_cb_t *rotation,
uint8_t reset = U8X8_PIN_NONE,
uint8_t clock = U8X8_PIN_NONE,
uint8_t data = U8X8_PIN_NONE) : U8G2() { ... }
```
REF: [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/olikraus/u8g2/master/cppsrc/U8g2lib.h](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/olikraus/u8g2/master/cppsrc/U8g2lib.h)
---
### Author:  [@Rinat191554](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Rinat191554)
#### Post date: [9 March 2022 10:03 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/12 "2022-03-09T10:03:22Z")
@Anthony164590 thanks! Thatās a good find. Iām pretty sure copy-pasted it from somewhere š¤¦āāļø Iāve corrected it ā¦ nothing changed in behavior š¤·āāļø ā¦
Anyway, the new display has arrived and works perfectly. Just hope that it wonāt get to the same state and itās due to high humidity ā¦
---
### Author:  [@Robert93820](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Robert93820)
#### Post date: [9 March 2022 10:49 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/13 "2022-03-09T10:49:20Z")
Hi Rinat
If it is humidity that affects these displays a thin coat of a conformal coating as used to tropic proof boards may not go astray. I think such material is commercially available but if not a very thin coat of Araldite will probably do the job. I think that is what very early coatings were anyway. I nightmare to replace components back in the days when we had to do that but could be done with care. There were several techniques for that. The Marconi method used clean automotive grease, a very hot soldering iron and a stiff tooth brush. Very effective. Ahhh, werenāt those the daysā¦
Not the display screen obviously.
Cheers Bob
---
### Author:  [@Liam](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/u/Liam)
#### Post date: [11 March 2022 03:03 UTC](https://forum.core-electronics.com.au/t/what-happened-to-this-ssd1306-display/13321/14 "2022-03-11T03:03:05Z")
Hi Rinat,
Glad to hear the new display is working! It sounds like there might have been an issue with the display, feel free to get in touch with us by replying to your order confirmation email!
PS: we stock some conformal coating here: [https://core-electronics.com.au/search/?q=conformal+coating](https://core-electronics.com.au/search/?q=conformal+coating)
I havent had the chance to tinker around with it just yet so wont be able to confirm its effectiveness.
Note that the main driving IC lives inside the black cover and the supporting components live on the PCB
Liam.