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I’ve had an OpenSprinkler running for a few years, and the OLED has burn-in from the default display info. Our power goes off a few times a year, and the OpenSprinkler gets a new IP address on my wifi after restarting. When I click the top button to see the new address, the burned in lines make it hard to read the number.
I found a tip on this forum and ordered a replacement screen, but I wonder if a timeout feature for the display could be added. There’s no need to have the screen on all the time, no one is looking at it in the garden shed. I suggest you click the top button to wake up the display and show the default info, then you could click the buttons as usual to toggle it. After 30 seconds or so with no clicks, it could blank out.
Hi, the latest firmware 2.1.9(7) supports LED dimming. In fact, if you go to Edit Options -> Advanced -> LCD brightness, you can change that to 0, that way after 20 seconds of inactivity it will turn completely off. Pressing any button will activate the screen again. If you set the brightness to anything above 0 it will dim to that brightness after inactivity, but the difference may not be that obvious.
Besides, as you noticed, the OLED used on OpenSprinkler 3 is a very common inexpensive one that’s widely available for just a few bucks. So in the case the OLED burns out eventually, it’s fairly cheap to replace.
I should mention to anyone finding this in the future that replacing the OLED screen is very easy. I have one of the older versions of the case, it was clear acrylic that had been laser cut into pieces I assembled. I unplugged the unit, unscrewed the face plate and took it off, then I just pulled the old screen off the board and plugged the new screen in. I didn’t have to remove the unit from the wall in the shed, I just put the face plate back on and plugged it back in. The current firmware was already on it and I could see that it times out the screen in 20 seconds.
These OLED displays (SSD1306) are quite reliable and long lasting. This Russian guy did a burnin test for over a year of
a bunch of the displays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWOFF5tMv_A&t=493sIt seems that their life depends on brightness and time, not how frequently the pixels are changed.
If you do replace the OLED display be careful to note positions of the power pins on the 4 pin header connector.
The power pins are reversed on a lot of the displays.My OLED screen has become unreadable because it always displays the IP address. The screen should only come on when a button is pushed. Static text or images is a great way to burn out an OLED screen like what happened to mine. Not being able to read the IP address can be a huge problem.
Look at the technical support page:
https://openthings.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000859137-troubleshooting-and-technical-help
and scroll down to the question about “My controller’s LCD went bad. How can I get it replaced?”.Here’s a link to the right type on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-Serial-128X64-Display-Color/dp/B06XRBTBTB/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=I2C+OLED+0.96&qid=1627195847&sr=8-5You can find the same thing on ebay or AliExpress for much less but then it’s shipped from China and it takes about a month to arrive.
Also, update your controller’s firmware to the latest version – they added a feature that turns off the OLED screen unless a button is pushed.
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