DIYmall 0.96" inch yellow and blue OLED display module review

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this product for free so that I could provide product feedback to the company and post a product review. I was not required to write a positive review and I do not rate products higher than they should have been. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's requirements.

I recently received a DIYmall 0.96" inch yellow and blue OLED display module for a product review. The package just included the display itself, nothing else.

Size comparison with a quarter

The display is very small, and this model has a strip of yellow on the top part of the display and the rest is blue, but DIYmall does have other options if you don’t like that.  After doing some guesswork and research, I was able to get the display working using method 1 below but after reading other review comments, it seems method 2 below also works.

Method 1)

Here are the steps I took to get my display working for some simple steps (I think I wrote down all the steps NOTE: The steps are for an Arduino Uno):

1) Download documentation from website on Amazon listing
2) Extract Files
3) Open the folder that ends with (SSD1306), it should be the only folder
4) Open the folder that starts with Arduino and ends with (UNO)
5) Open the top of the two folders, it should have a "Adafruit_ssd1306syp"
6) Copy the "Adafruit_ssd1306syp" and paste it in the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\libraries" folder
7) Open the Arduino app, go the menu "File > Examples > Adafruit_ssd1306syp" and choose "ssd1306syp_test"

Once the software is ready, wire up the hardware as follows:

VCC <> 5V
GND <> GND
SDA <> Digital 8
SCL <> Digital 9

Method 2)

In the Arduino app
- Go to menu option "Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries" and install "Adafruit GFX Library" and "Adafruit SSD1306"
- Go to menu option "File > Examples > Adafruit SSD1306 > ssd1306_128x64_i2c"
- In the example, find the line with "display.begin(SSD1306_SWITCHCAPVCC, 0x3D);" and changed it to "display.begin(SSD1306_SWITCHCAPVCC, 0x3C);"

Once the software is ready, wire up the hardware as follows:

VCC <> 5V
GND <> GND
SDA <> A4
SCL <> A5

After following either method, you should be able to load and run the sample.  They both worked fine for me.  I think method 2 takes up more space when you compile but gives more functions - seems like method 1 has less capabilities, but for simple text output it works fine.  Part of the fun of all this is figuring things out, so try them both.

Simple volt meter

Once I finished my initial function test, I modified the code for method 1 to make a simple volt meter (0-5V) that would read the voltage and display it on the screen.  I connected the voltage input to a potentiometer, and was able to see the voltage change on the screen as I adjusted it.

Overall, it worked and was really simple to wire up the hardware.  Figuring out the software was a bit more interesting, and I still need to do more research to find other examples of what you can really do but for anyone doing projects this is a great way to display variables or even status messages.

Bottom line: If you are looking for display options for your microcontroller project, this is a really neat option.

DIYmall Product Page: http://www.diymalls.com/product/modules/16.html
Amazon Product Page: http://amzn.com/B00O2LLT30