SSD1306 Display Tool

A command-line tool for displaying text on SSD1306 OLED displays via I²C interface. This tool supports multi-line text display, persistent buffering, and line-specific text placement.

Features

Display text on SSD1306 OLED displays (128x64)
Multi-line text support (up to 5 lines)
Persistent display buffer with file-based state management
Line-specific text placement
Clear display functionality
Input from command line arguments or stdin

Requirements

Go 1.23.4 or later
SSD1306 OLED display connected via I²C
I²C interface enabled on your system

Installation

go mod download
go build -o display main.go

Usage

./display [OPTIONS] [TEXT]

Command Line Options

Flag	Short	Description	Default
`--device`	`-d`	Path to I²C device	`/dev/i2c-1`
`--line`	`-l`	Line number to start printing (1-based, max 5)	`1`
`--buffer`	`-b`	Path to buffer file for persistent display state	(none)
`--clear`	`-k`	Clear the display and buffer	`false`

Examples

Display simple text:

./display "Hello, World!"

Display text on a specific line:

./display --line 3 "This is line 3"

Use persistent buffer:

./display --buffer /tmp/display.txt --line 1 "Line 1"
./display --buffer /tmp/display.txt --line 2 "Line 2"

Clear the display:

./display --clear --buffer /tmp/display.txt

Read from stdin:

echo -e "Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3" | ./display --buffer /tmp/display.txt

Buffer File Management

When using the --buffer option, the tool maintains a persistent state of the display content:

Text is stored line by line in the buffer file
New text updates specific lines without affecting others
The --clear option removes the buffer file and clears the display
Buffer files are plain text with newline-separated content

larsks/display1306