inky:bit

A 250x122 pixel, tri-colour e-ink display for low frequency, high visibility status display.

This extension adds support for the Pimoroni inky:bit to makecode.microbit.org.

A inky:bit is required to use this extension, grab yours here: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/inky-bit

To use this extension, go to https://makecode.microbit.org/, click "Advanced" then "Add Package" and search for inky:bit.

JavaScript Reference

inky:bit has a 250x122 pixel display, each pixel can be set to white, black or red.

Text Size

There are four text sizes available, all using the built-in 5x5px micro:bit font:

1. TextSize.Regular - 2x - each font pixel is 2x2 real pixels
2. TextSize.Tiny - 1x - each font pixel is a single pixel
3. TextSize.Medium - 3x - each font pixel is 3x3 real pixels
4. TextSize.Large - 4x - each font pixel is 4x4 real pixels

Get the size of your inky:bit

The blocks width and height return the width and height of inky:bit in pixels respectively.

Use these in your loops and flow control to draw amazing things!

Set a single pixel

Set a single pixel on inky:bit. Note, you must call show to display your changes.

• x is the x position, from 0-249
• y is the y position, from 0-119
• color is the color, one of inkybit.Color.White, inkybit.Color.Black, inkybit.Color.Accent

inkybit.setPixel(x: number, y: number, color: number)

For example:

inkybit.setPixel(5, 5, inkybit.Color.Black)

Display your changes

When you've finished setting pixels and drawing text, you must call show to display your changes.

inkybit.show()

Clear the display

To clear the display, you can call clear, you must also call show if you want to display your changes.

inkybit.clear()
inkybit.show()

Display an image

To show an image on inky:bit, use drawImage:

• image is the micro:bit image you want to display
• x is the x position, from 0-249
• y is the y position, from 0-119
• color is the color, one of inkybit.Color.White, inkybit.Color.Black, inkybit.Color.Accent
• size is the text size, one of inkybit.TextSize.Tiny, inkybit.TextSize.Regular, inkybit.TextSize.Medium, inkybit.TextSize.Large

inkybit.drawImage(image: Image, x: number, y: number, color: Color, size: TextSize)

Display a text string

To show a string of text on inky:bit you should use drawText:

• text is the text you want to show
• x is the x position, from 0-249
• y is the y position, from 0-119
• color is the color, one of inkybit.Color.White, inkybit.Color.Black, inkybit.Color.Accent
• size is the text size, one of inkybit.TextSize.Tiny, inkybit.TextSize.Regular, inkybit.TextSize.Medium, inkybit.TextSize.Large

inkybit.drawText(text: string, x: number, y: number, color: Color, size: TextSize)

For example:

inkybit.drawText(0, 1, "Hello World")

Measure a text string

It can be useful to know how long a string of text might be, in pixels, on inky:bit. Use measureText to find out:

inkybit.measureText(text: string, size: TextSize)

For example:

let width: number = inkybit.measureText("Hello World")

This will return a number of pixels corresponding to the length of the text as it's displayed on inky:bit (using the built-in 5x5 micro:bit font at the size you specify).

Icons & Arrows

You can use icons and arrows in your text, just place their name in curly brackets like so: "Hello {Heart} World" or: "Boo! Went the {Ghost}" or: "{Heart}{SmallHeart}{Heart} Happy Birthday! {Heart}{SmallHeart}{Heart}"

Here's a list of icons you can use:

• Heart
• SmallHeart
• Yes
• No
• Happy
• Sad
• Confused
• Angry
• Asleep
• Surprised
• Silly
• Fabulous
• Meh
• TShirt
• Rollerskate
• Duck
• House
• Tortoise
• Butterfly
• StickFigure
• Ghost
• Sword
• Giraffe
• Skull
• Umbrella
• Snake
• Rabbit
• Cow
• QuarterNote
• EigthNote
• Pitchfork
• Target
• Triangle
• LeftTriangle
• Chessboard
• Diamond
• SmallDiamond
• Square
• SmallSquare
• Scissors
• North
• NorthEast
• East
• SouthEast
• South
• SouthWest
• West
• NorthWest

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2020 Pimoroni Ltd.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Supported targets

• for PXT/microbit

inkybit=github:pimoroni/pxt-inkybit