Case + OLED display for Raspberry Pi with status panel

I was tempted to just switch cases from my Raspberry Pi 4 to the Raspberry Pi 5, but look at it…

16×2 LCD display from an Arduino Starter Kit
C++ program with the WiringPi library
DIY case

I was really proud of it at the time and it was good learning back in 2020, but surely I could do better. Surely I could do a cool status panel!!

Components

Raspberry Pi (probably compatible with any of them)

OLED display (RGB 1.5 inch size is ideal)

PCB prototype board

Jumper cables

Soldering iron

(courtesy of epiCRealism model in ComfyUI)

Casing (3D printed or handcrafted)

Software config

I'll configure the Raspberry to interact with this display using python, with the Adafruit Circuitpython library for the SSD1351 display controller:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-1-5-color-oled-breakout-board/python-wiring-and-setup#setup-3042417

It's as simple as installing Circuitpython with the following command:

sudo pip3 install --upgrade click setuptools adafruit-python-shell build adafruit-circuitpython-rgb-display

If you find issues with your python version not finding a compatible circuit python version, include --break-system-packages at the end. (It wont break anything today, but don't get used to it...)

sudo pip3 install --upgrade click setuptools adafruit-python-shell build adafruit-circuitpython-rgb-display --break-system-packages

Wiring

Now wire your display according to the manufacturer guidance. Mine is this one from BuyDisplay:

https://www.buydisplay.com/full-color-1-5-inch-arduino-raspberry-pi-oled-display-module-128x128

OLED Display	Raspberry Pi (pin #)
GND	GND (20)
VCC	3V3 (17)
SCL	SPI0 SCLK (23)
SDA	SPI0 MOSI (19)
RES	GPIO25 (22)
DC	GPIO 24 (18)
CS	SPI0 CE0 (24)

Use a site like pinout.xyz to find a suitable wiring configuration.

You're ready to do some tests before making your final move to the PCB.

Script config

You can try Adafruit's demo script. Just make sure that you choose the right display and update any changes to the ping assignment (use IO numbers/names rather than physical pin numbers):

# Configuration for CS and DC pins (adjust to your wiring):
cs_pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.CE0)
dc_pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D24)
reset_pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D25)

# Setup SPI bus using hardware SPI:
spi = board.SPI()

disp = ssd1351.SSD1351(spi, rotation=270,                         # 1.5" SSD1351
    cs=cs_pin,
    dc=dc_pin,
    rst=reset_pin,
    baudrate=BAUDRATE
)