Monochrome OLED Displays Low-Power Tests
I have not been able to get ‘next to zilch’ results here. See below. Maybe redo some tests?
I performed tests on 9 OLED I2C display modules. 6x SSD1306 0.96" 128x64, 2x SSD1306 0.91" 128x32 and 1x SH1106 1.3" 128x64. Tests were performed with two different libraries: U8x8 (U8g2) and Adafruit SSD1306 + Adafruit GFX Library. The libraries made no difference for power usage.
Tests were performed with OLED display modules powered from 3.7V Li-Ion battery via HT7333 3.3V voltage regulator (different power source than MCU). Currents were measured with EEVBlog uCurrent Gold (mA range used for display on, uA range used for display off/power-save).
Results:
Display Type All pixels off 50% pixels on 100% pixels on
Display on/off Display on/off Display on/off
A 0.96" 128x64 1.4mA / 13.7uA 8.7mA / 13.7uA 11.4mA / 13.7uA
B 0.96" 128x64 1.5mA / 12.8uA 9.6mA / 12.8uA 13.2mA / 12.8uA
C 0.96" 128x64 1.6mA / 7.7uA 14.7mA / 7.7uA 24.3mA / 7.7uA
D 0.96" 128x64 1.5mA / 32.5uA 9.9mA / 32.5uA 14.1mA / 32.5uA
E 0.96" 128x64 1.5mA / 7.0uA 16.4mA / 7.0uA 29.4mA / 7.0uA
F 0.96" 128x64 1.5mA / 8.4uA 16.1mA / 8.4uA 27.9mA / 8.4uA
G 1.3" 128x64 2.2mA / 7.4uA 22.4mA / 7.4uA 30.1mA / 7.4uA
H 0.91" 128x32 2.2mA / 8.3uA 16.7mA / 8.3uA 21.8mA / 8.3uA
I 0.91" 128x32 2.0mA / 8.1uA 18.7mA / 8.1uA 33.1mA / 8.1uA
Conclusions
- It does not matter how many pixels are on when display is off/in power-save (as expected).
- Quite some differences in power usage, both in normal display mode and with display off/low-power.
- Lowest power usage of the 9 displays with display off/in power-save is 7.0 uA.
- Highest power usage of the 9 displays with display off/in power-save is 32.5 uA.
- For best low-power results one should switch off the display power.