Waveshare 7.5" E-Paper HAT V2

Technical reference for the display used in the eink training display spec.

Specifications

Spec	Value
Resolution	800 × 480 px
Colors	Black/White + 4 grayscale levels
Dot Pitch	0.205 × 0.204 mm
Interface	SPI (mode 0: CPHL=0, CPOL=0)
Voltage	3.3V or 5V

Refresh Performance

Mode	Time	Use Case
Full refresh	4s	Clear ghosting, daily reset
Partial refresh	0.4s	Quick updates
Fast refresh	1.5s	Balance speed/quality
Grayscale	2.1s	Images with shading

Power

• Refresh: 26.4mW typical
• Standby: <0.01µA (effectively zero)

The display draws almost nothing when not refreshing — the image persists with no power.

Critical Constraints

Partial refresh accumulates artifacts. After several partial refreshes, you must do a full refresh to clear ghosting. The mendhak dashboard does a full refresh at 2 AM daily.

Don’t leave powered on. When not refreshing, put the display in sleep mode. Continuous power without refresh can damage the display.

Minimum refresh interval: 180 seconds recommended. At least one full refresh per 24 hours.

Python Setup

# Dependencies
sudo apt install python3-pip python3-pil python3-numpy
sudo pip3 install RPi.GPIO spidev

# Clone driver
git clone https://github.com/waveshare/e-Paper.git
cd e-Paper/RaspberryPi_JetsonNano/python/examples
python3 epd_7in5_V2_test.py

Display Driver Pattern

from waveshare_epd import epd7in5_V2
from PIL import Image, ImageDraw

epd = epd7in5_V2.EPD()
epd.init()

# Create image
image = Image.new('1', (800, 480), 255)  # White background
draw = ImageDraw.Draw(image)
draw.text((10, 10), "Hello", fill=0)

# Display
epd.display(epd.getbuffer(image))

# Always sleep when done
epd.sleep()

Gotchas

• If you ran C demos with BCM2835, reboot before Python demos
• V2.1+ driver boards have level shifters for 3.3V/5V compatibility
• SPI must be enabled via raspi-config