Hi everyone, i discovered a undocumented register that turns on a 128x32 grayscale mode on the ssd1306
i am looking for volunteers to test if this works on every ssd1306
the demo is configured for megas2560, the i2c ports can be changed in tinymulios.h
demo and registersettings:
no, its a undocumented register, i can unplug the i2c
the resolution is 128x32, two pixels on y get summed up to one, so its 3 gray levels.
up until now i have 1 report of this working on a other ssd1306.
This sounds interesting! Some questions:
Summoning @brow1067 
Holy moly! Yeah how did you find this?
How is the pixel color sent in the data?
Should be easy to set the register thatâs just a command in spi but the display() function would have to be rewritten (obviously)
i only tested it on i2c,
i did the following, i send invert + command + un-invert
if the uninvert does not work i add a byte after the command⊠until it works
then i wrote 0,255, 1, 2,4,8⊠to these parametersâŠ
i found several registers, but this one is the only one that seems to do something usefull, but there are more, including several registers taking 3 bytes as parameter, one has a slight effect on the brightness, but i am not yet finished probing, so i might find more
this is one of the registers where i do not know what is really happening:
the pixel format is simple 2 pixels on y become one, summed up pixel at (0,0) = 1 , pixel at (0,1) = 0 â both pixels get 0.5 brightness if both are 1 its 1 brightness for both (and for 0 the same)
So itâs got like a virtual 128x128 buffer that is summed down to 128x64?
EDIT: I suppose itâs probably doing the summing in line, so probably wrong to call it a true virtual size, but this is how many pixels you would send out
the display function is just my dithering engine, it should be enough to send:
0x9a,2,0xd6,1 and have a image in a correct format in the vramâŠ
128x64 becomes 128x32, by joining line 0 and 1, line 2 and 3 and so on
Haha wow, incredible, so like itâs â2-bit vertical interleavedâ? is maybe what it could be called?
in this test i switch it on and off:
image:
i think the movement is caused by some bug in my code, probably i set some register to a bad value.
the adressing mode is irrelevant, i work in vertical, but it just depends on the contents of the vram, no matter how you write them.
Nice !! I always hoped someone would fuzz the chip! 
Thereâs some rumoured instructions: to do a hard reset without using the electrical reset pin, also to do single pixel scrolling.
one more test:
i found several registers for scrolling on the y axis. probably placing a window in the center of the screen and scrolling it is no problem, i am just not interested in scrolling, because my engine allways writes the whole screen.
I have just granted you the newly created badge:
https://community.arduboy.com/badges/137/hardware-grayscale-prophet
Hardware grayscale prophet. You have shown us the way.
First person to get it working on arduboy hardware can also get the badge!
The Arduboyâs SSD1306 is SPI rather than I2C, but hopefully that wonât make a difference.
Presumably:
| Even Y Bit | Odd Y Bit | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | Black |
| 0 | 1 | Grey |
| 1 | 0 | Grey |
| 1 | 1 | White |
I.e. when only one bit is set it produces the same colour, regardless of which bit is set.
Iâm checking because thereâs another meaning to âsummingâ bits, and because having three shades rather than four is a bit surprising.
Considering the screen has 128x64 physical pixels, does that mean:
I skimmed the code briefly, but itâs quite a complex example so I wasnât able to discern much from such a quick look.
What are the actual commands involved in terms of opcode value and payload?
(Preferably in hex, but decimal is fine too.)
Oh I didnât catch that! Itâs vertically doubled pixels!! Ok very weird indeed!
EDIT: I wonder if what the hardware is doing is just drawing a row of 2 pixels and just flipping back and forth between the data from either row.
UPDATE: Iâll email https://www.solomon-systech.com/
Bear in mind that the SSD1306 actually draws rows of columnsâŠ
Or at least thatâs how the frame buffer is laid out so I presume thatâs the order that the screen processes the pixels in.
