OLED Shield Quick Start Guide
This is a guide to setting up the OLED Shield Arduino Shield to connect an Arduino to a Freetronics OLED128 display.
What's in the box
- OLEDShield PCB
- Joystick rubber knob
- 10 pin IDC cable
You will also need an Freetronics OLED128 Module and an Arduino-compatible board (such as the Freetronics Eleven) to make use of the OLED Shield. Neither of these items are included with the shield itself.
Assembling the joystick
The rubber knob for the joystick presses into the body on the OLED Shield. The knob has a keyed slot in it, so it will only fit in one orientation.
As a precaution, mount the OLED Shield on an Arduino-compatible board before starting so that you can't bend any pins when you press it on:
Attaching the screen
The OLED128 screen can be connected in one of two ways - directly on top of the OLED Shield, or mounted separately via a 10 pin IDC cable (included.)
Option 1 - Direct Mounting the Screen
The screen mounts directly to the OLED Shield by pressing down into the 10 pin connector on the top left corner of OLED Shield:
The screen will not work in any other orientation.
There are two mounting holes in the OLED Shield that can be used to securely bolt down the OLED128 to the shield, if necessary.
Option 2 - Remote Mounting the Screen
Remote mounting the screen involves connecting the included 10-pin IDC cable between the right-angle connector on the OLED Shield and the connector on the back of the OLED128:
Cable alignment is important. The red mark on the cable indicates "pin 1" and it must be aligned as shown in these photos. There are labels on the OLED Shield and OLED128 showing the location of pin 1.
OLED Shield end:
OLED128 end:
If using a longer cable than the supplied 15cm one, bear in mind there are some restrictions on cable length. The MicroSD card slot on board the OLED128 is known to have problems with cables longer than 15cm. The OLED128 display by itself is happy with good quality cables up to 75cm, possibly longer.
Software Setup
That's it for hardware setup - head over to the OLED128 Getting Started Guide and continue from there to install the FTOLED library and get started using your display!
All of the FTOLED example sketches are configured to use the same pins as the OLED Shield, so they don't need any customisation in order to work.
Joystick & Piezo
The Joystick on the OLED Shield is connected to pin D6 (for the Joystick button), and analog pins A2 & A3 (X & Y axes.)
The Piezo on the OLED Shield can be used as a buzzer, and is connected to pin D9. You can use the Arduino tone function to make sounds with the piezo.
Advanced Users
For a full OLED Shield pinout and information on customising the onboard connections, take a look at the OLED Shield Customisation Guide
