11 ms·

E-ink wifi display project

263 points by ck2 10y ago

ovi256 10y ago
I wanted to create one of these out of a Kindle. The easiest way would be to display a custom page in the Kindle's browser and use the meta refresh property to reload the page periodically. This would not have good battery life. A better way would be a custom program running on a kindle that would: enable the wifi, load the content to be displayed from a server as an image, disable wifi, save the image as a custom screensaver, turn off until it's time to redo it. The custom screensaver is displayed with the Kindle turned off, which would lead to very good battery life. There are people building custom firmwares for the kindle, I wonder how difficult it would be to code this.
- lhl 10y ago
  If you jailbreak your Kindle [1] running a VNC viewer [2] might be a good option as well. There are also several terminal emulators, but no X Window server: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Hacks_Information http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Hacks_Information [1] http://www.epubor.com/how-to-jailbreak-kindle-paperwhite.html http://www.epubor.com/how-to-jailbreak-kindle-paperwhite.htm... [2] http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150434 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150434
- netsharc 10y ago
  This guy did that (sort of, but he keeps the Kindle running): https://mpetroff.net/2012/09/kindle-weather-display/ https://mpetroff.net/2012/09/kindle-weather-display/ , does the Kindle have a power-on timer?
- dTal 10y ago
  Answer: not that difficult. Knocked this shell script together just for you. Totally untested, and as it doesn't use the screensaver the Kindle itself might stomp on it going in and out of suspend, but it should get you started. #!/bin/sh sleeptime=600 #seconds url="http://whatever/formatted-for-kindle.png" tmp_image="/tmp/image.png" wifienable() {lipc-set-prop com.lab126.cmd wirelessEnable 1} wifidisable() {lipc-set-prop com.lab126.cmd wirelessEnable 0} sleepfor() {lipc-set-prop -i com.lab126.powerd rtcWakeup $1} wait_for_wifi() {return `lipc-get-prop com.lab126.wifid cmState | grep CONNECTED | wc -l`;} #return true if keyword not found wait_for_ready_suspend() {return `powerd_test -s | grep Ready | wc -l`;} while true; do wifienable while wait_for_wifi; do sleep 1; done wget -O $tmp_image $url eips -g $tmp_image wifidisable while wait_for_ready_suspend; do sleep 1; done sleepfor $sleeptime done
bigredhdl 10y ago
Very nice. This kind of thing has been on my vaporware todo list for a while. I'm glad someone just did it. I really like your frame builder concept.
nicpottier 10y ago
I'd pay real money for something like this that had an open API so you could build your own widgets or hack it to do other things. Double bonus if it had say 3 buttons on it (or d-pad and two buttons for generic navigation).
- Sgt_Apone 10y ago
  Agreed. This has so many possible applications for me and it could only get more interesting when color e-ink finally arrives.
  - luka-birsa 10y ago
    You can already get color e-Ink screens and not only that - they are super large (32"). Currently they are still priced a bit steep but the prices will drop. We provide development kits [1] if you want to try and build any of the applications you have in mind. [1] https://www.visionect.com/blog/32-inch-eink-development-kit-by-visionect https://www.visionect.com/blog/32-inch-eink-development-kit-...
- Natanael_L 10y ago
  If this could act as a mix between a Chromecast with screen (remote controlled browser) and a bigger smartwatch, it could be fairly useful. Pretty much an energy efficient "thin client" with some degree of autonomy.
- jimmcslim 10y ago
  Displio might be what you want: http://displ.io http://displ.io
  - kingosticks 10y ago
    If they could swap out that humongous bezel for a larger screen they'd have a winner. Great link. Edit: actually, having just read the backer comments on kickstarter you almost certainly don't want one of these. Shame.
benmcnelly 10y ago
I really want to get my hands on some flexible Color ePaper displays whenever those come out :D
- Someone1234 10y ago
  Me too my friend, me too. E-ink usage has been underwhelming/disappointing. When the technology was first announced I thought it would take the world by storm, but all we wound up with was eBook Readers and little else. I really hope that color is the missing piece of the pie, and we'll wind up with color e-ink photo frames, LCDs in adverts displaced by color e-ink, and even secondary screens which are e-ink based. It is such a cool technology, almost zero energy use between updates, that has been ignored and under-used. It legitimately makes me sad. I guess nobody wanted to be that "dated" manufacturer who used a black & white screen on something in 2016, no matter what the benefits.
  - sk8ingdom 10y ago
    I think the best use case is overlay screens particularly for backpacking or travel--really anytime battery is a concern.
  - nextos 10y ago
    For academia, a decent A5 or A4 b&w eink would be good enough and probably a game changer. It's very disappointing Kindle DX was discontinued and nothing replaced it. Now we have a Sony and an Onyx. Let's see if things improve...
  - jkestner 10y ago
    Even with color, it just won't be anywhere as good as the screens we're used to now. There are two things holding E-Ink back: 1) Battery life alone is not worth the tradeoff for the consumer market. 2) The flexibility of the form factor could've taken E-Ink places that others couldn't go, but: a. The company makes it very difficult for startups to work with them on non-stock sizes/shapes. b. The manufacturing process hasn't improved enough to bring the promised cost within reach. All the R&D money in the display industry is being invested elsewhere, and people will get affordable, flexible, and high-contrast OLED screens sooner than E-Ink can check off two of those boxes.
zwieback 10y ago
Why remove the SD socket? It makes sense to get rid of the NAND to cut down on power but it seems like the SD socket could be useful and that STM32 has a built-in SDIO controller.
lhl 10y ago
For the longest while I wanted a portable e-ink display for outdoor use (just something good enough for terminal, text editing, maybe some light browsing), but sadly nothing ever really materialized. There are larger panels available [1] but require enough low level work that nothing's ever really materialized. There's one Chinese company that's shipping a 13.3" USB display ($1300 for the first gen [2] or $799 to pre-order a second-gen product [3]) and surprisingly enough, 10" Pixel Qi screens are also being sold, with some support for about $400 [4] or for about $150 from random Chinese retailers. [5] Currently, the easiest/most cost effective options for getting a large e-ink display showing content are either buying a used 9.7" Kindle DX (around $150-200) and hacking VNC onto it [6] or doing running VNC on the 13.3" Onyx BOOX MAX (~$650, in short supply, it runs Android 4.0 and has wifi, BT and a pressure sensitive touchscreen/stylus so has some potential) [7] [1] https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=84926 https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=8492... [2] http://www.solcomputer.com/sol-cvs-e-ink-monitor.html http://www.solcomputer.com/sol-cvs-e-ink-monitor.html [3] http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/05/26/dasung-paperlike-e-ink-monitor-up-for-pre-order-on-indiegogo-799/ http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/05/26/dasung-paperlike-e-... [4] http://www.solcomputer.com/pixel-qi-display-2.html http://www.solcomputer.com/pixel-qi-display-2.html [5] https://www.google.com/search?q=pixel+qi+display&oq=pixel+qi+display&tbm=shop https://www.google.com/search?q=pixel+qi+display&oq=pixel+qi... [6] https://tinyapps.org/docs/e-ink-monitor.html https://tinyapps.org/docs/e-ink-monitor.html [7] http://www.onyx-international.com/index.php/en/boox-products/max http://www.onyx-international.com/index.php/en/boox-products...
- lj3 10y ago
  There are some interesting options coming out. Both of these are fully funded and should be out sometime in the next year. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/paperlike-world-s-first-e-ink-monitor-13-3#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/paperlike-world-s-first-e... https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/13-3-inch-android-e-reader#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/13-3-inch-android-e-reade...
- giancarlostoro 10y ago
  I would love this, every time I'm reading off my Kindle I wish that it could go online so I could read blog posts and some websites. I don't like the eye strain I get after being on the computer for far too long.
frik 10y ago
A "third screen" e-ink monitor would be great.
- Eric_WVGG 10y ago
  here you go — https://tinyapps.org/docs/e-ink-monitor.html https://tinyapps.org/docs/e-ink-monitor.html
  - frik 10y ago
    Kindle DX is from 2008/09!
andraz 10y ago
A ready-made platform is offered by Visionect - their dev kits for system integrators: https://www.visionect.com/development_kits https://www.visionect.com/development_kits . Meant for professional use and thus the price. It works by using the display purely as a framebuffer, everything is rendered on server and sent over wifi/3g. It gets you amazing autonomy times and is easily powered by solar in outdoor installations. disclaimer: founders are friends
- gh02t 10y ago
  Wow, those are really cool and pretty much what I had in mind. It's a shame that the prices are so... extravagant. I understand that they don't care about the hobby market, but it still sucks they don't have one for around $100-$150.
ps4fanboy 10y ago
I would love a poster sized module, do they exist?
DenisM 10y ago
I dream of a lightweight e-ink typewriter. Sometimes I want to write without all the distraction of the "normal" devices.
- Johnny555 10y ago
  Sounds like what you want is a TRS-80 model 100: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100 Though maybe it's not quite as light as you were hoping (at least, not by modern standards)
- hug 10y ago
  You might want one of these, then: https://getfreewrite.com/ https://getfreewrite.com/ $500 for a mechanical keyboard strapped to an eink display. Syncs with Dropbox. Sounds right up your alley.
  - TylerE 10y ago
    Funny how they define it as a hardcore device for professional/serious use, and then define 'typical usage' as 30 minutes per day for purposes of being able to claim a seemingly absurdly long battery life. But I guess "about 15 hours" sounds a lot less impressive than "3-4 weeks".
  - phate 10y ago
    I'm actually intrigued by the concept but sweet jebus that thing is ugly.
tannerc 10y ago
Where would someone with zero hardware experience start to work on projects like this? I have a vision of a modern sticky note powered by your phone that can relay information to this type of small, e-ink display. But I have no idea how to go about developing it... any pointers?
- luka-birsa 10y ago
  You could try using our development kit [1] which is a production ready version of OPs system. [1] https://www.visionect.com/development_kits https://www.visionect.com/development_kits
  - rvdmei 10y ago
    Maybe SeeNote [1] could be what you are looking for. Only preorder now, but looks really nice. I would really like give it a go, but I don't like preorders. [1] https://www.getseenote.com https://www.getseenote.com
    - tannerc 10y ago
      This is exactly what I want to build but not something I want to buy. The reason is because I feel like SeeNote is overkill, like they took the elegant idea of modernizing the sticky note and added things like weather and prompts for no apparent reason. If I could build a stripped-down version of this myself, that would be ideal. I just don't have any clue where to start.
      - benmcnelly 10y ago
        Nobody does, because there is no open source "visionect", but there really should be. They have put in the work to make a simple stack (dev kit) for working with the tech, but you can't just borrow that stack and source cheap panels. I would say the market is wide open for someone to do what they are doing, but crowd fund it, open source the controllers, hardware, software etc
hmottestad 10y ago
I made something similar, or with the similar intent at least. Turned my old sony ebook into a "wifi-display". I simply disabled sleep, opened up a website and put it in a frame. http://fluffyelephant.com/2015/12/reuse-my-ebook-reader/ http://fluffyelephant.com/2015/12/reuse-my-ebook-reader/ Now it shows the weather and the subway times. It also doesn't flash the entire screen when updating the subway times, because Sony optimised that in their web browser.
- lentil_soup 10y ago
  that looks really cool! any chance of you putting the code you used for that website somewhere?
Nr7 10y ago
Too bad this never amounted to anything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwGO2Ky-b8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwGO2Ky-b8k
dmritard96 10y ago
we are doing something similar (ESP and Eink) but wrapped up in a nice package and (for now) focused on sensors/controls. we are considering an sdk and hdk possibly to open it up for some custom applications/builds/apps https://flair.co/products/puck https://flair.co/products/puck
luka-birsa 10y ago
I'm very impressed that you managed to create a nice DIY replica of our development kit. https://www.visionect.com/development_kits https://www.visionect.com/development_kits We do the same in our Visionect Platform - a server component streams images to a WiFi, 3G or ETH enabled E-Ink device. We do sizes from 6" (proper device in casing) to 32" (in color as well).
- lhl 10y ago
  Super neat stuff, looks like you guys have a solution that fills a big gap (the big disconnect is that you have hardware hackers who don't build up the stack or high level devs who have things they want to build but don't want to bring up panels to do it). What's the refresh rate/interactivity/frame rate for your devices? Looks like you guys have lots of awesome options - are there videos of the devices in action or the dev environment? Are the high prices of devkits primarily driven by the panel cost or for other reasons?
  - luka-birsa 10y ago
    Refresh rate: ~750 ms for 4 bit and up to ~125 ms for 1 bit Videos of device in action: https://www.visionect.com/blog/kindle-users-can-your-reader-do-this-flappy-bird-on-e-paper https://www.visionect.com/blog/kindle-users-can-your-reader-... (our previous generation device) High prices are driven due to price of screens and the amount of support we provide. It's a development kit, intended for customers building products. We're not that much of DIY (like a hacked Kindle or the OPs solution), but rather a production ready solution that you can use to prototype and later deploy in field. Examples [1], [2], [3]: [1]: https://www.visionect.com/blog/joan-honored-for-its-eco-design-at-ces-2016 https://www.visionect.com/blog/joan-honored-for-its-eco-desi... [2]: https://www.visionect.com/blog/smart-shelf-labels-on-electronic-paper https://www.visionect.com/blog/smart-shelf-labels-on-electro... [3]: https://www.visionect.com/blog/electronic-paper-at-london-bus-stops https://www.visionect.com/blog/electronic-paper-at-london-bu...
    - wastedhours 10y ago
      Really interesting product selection - obviously on the pricey end when the market here is looking for hacky project type prices, but an open version of Joan for people to get playing with your stack at that £299/$350 price point might work for feeding dev support further up the chain?
teekert 10y ago
So cool. Wish the Raspberry Pi foundation came up with a Pi0 compatible e-ink display. I get the hacking fun part but it would be so nice.
- gangadhargs 10y ago
  Don't know if you saw this - https://www.pi-supply.com/product/papirus-zero-epaper-screen-phat-pi-zero/ https://www.pi-supply.com/product/papirus-zero-epaper-screen.... I get that it is not from the foundation but it is Pi0 compatible.
- raphman_ 10y ago
  off-topic: gangadhargs, FYI, your comments are shown as [dead] (since about four years ago).
  - raphman_ 10y ago
    (apparently no longer)
- kingosticks 10y ago
  Like this? https://www.pi-supply.com/product/papirus-epaper-eink-screen-hat-for-raspberry-pi/ https://www.pi-supply.com/product/papirus-epaper-eink-screen...
- pantalaimon 10y ago
  Well as the STM32F103ZE has some external memory connected to it (hopefully several MB of it), you could get Linux running on it directly - who needs a Raspberry Pi ;)
Already__Taken 10y ago
E-ink seems very underused. What I want is a smartwatch whose face is just an e-ink display with a single, mechanical hand on top. With those I can program the face and hand motion myself. Rarely updating the face to save as much power as possible yet cheap always on display from the physical hand.

263 points by ck2 10y ago

I wanted to create one of these out of a Kindle. The easiest way would be to display a custom page in the Kindle's browser and use the meta refresh property to reload the page periodically. This would not have good battery life. A better way would be a custom program running on a kindle that would: enable the wifi, load the content to be displayed from a server as an image, disable wifi, save the image as a custom screensaver, turn off until it's time to redo it. The custom screensaver is displayed with the Kindle turned off, which would lead to very good battery life. There are people building custom firmwares for the kindle, I wonder how difficult it would be to code this.

lhl 10y ago
If you jailbreak your Kindle [1] running a VNC viewer [2] might be a good option as well. There are also several terminal emulators, but no X Window server: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Hacks_Information http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kindle_Hacks_Information [1] http://www.epubor.com/how-to-jailbreak-kindle-paperwhite.html http://www.epubor.com/how-to-jailbreak-kindle-paperwhite.htm... [2] http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150434 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150434
netsharc 10y ago
This guy did that (sort of, but he keeps the Kindle running): https://mpetroff.net/2012/09/kindle-weather-display/ https://mpetroff.net/2012/09/kindle-weather-display/ , does the Kindle have a power-on timer?
dTal 10y ago
Answer: not that difficult. Knocked this shell script together just for you. Totally untested, and as it doesn't use the screensaver the Kindle itself might stomp on it going in and out of suspend, but it should get you started. #!/bin/sh sleeptime=600 #seconds url="http://whatever/formatted-for-kindle.png" tmp_image="/tmp/image.png" wifienable() {lipc-set-prop com.lab126.cmd wirelessEnable 1} wifidisable() {lipc-set-prop com.lab126.cmd wirelessEnable 0} sleepfor() {lipc-set-prop -i com.lab126.powerd rtcWakeup $1} wait_for_wifi() {return `lipc-get-prop com.lab126.wifid cmState | grep CONNECTED | wc -l`;} #return true if keyword not found wait_for_ready_suspend() {return `powerd_test -s | grep Ready | wc -l`;} while true; do wifienable while wait_for_wifi; do sleep 1; done wget -O $tmp_image $url eips -g $tmp_image wifidisable while wait_for_ready_suspend; do sleep 1; done sleepfor $sleeptime done

bigredhdl 10y ago

Very nice. This kind of thing has been on my vaporware todo list for a while. I'm glad someone just did it. I really like your frame builder concept.

nicpottier 10y ago

I'd pay real money for something like this that had an open API so you could build your own widgets or hack it to do other things. Double bonus if it had say 3 buttons on it (or d-pad and two buttons for generic navigation).

Sgt_Apone 10y ago
Agreed. This has so many possible applications for me and it could only get more interesting when color e-ink finally arrives.
- luka-birsa 10y ago
  You can already get color e-Ink screens and not only that - they are super large (32"). Currently they are still priced a bit steep but the prices will drop. We provide development kits [1] if you want to try and build any of the applications you have in mind. [1] https://www.visionect.com/blog/32-inch-eink-development-kit-by-visionect https://www.visionect.com/blog/32-inch-eink-development-kit-...
Natanael_L 10y ago
If this could act as a mix between a Chromecast with screen (remote controlled browser) and a bigger smartwatch, it could be fairly useful. Pretty much an energy efficient "thin client" with some degree of autonomy.
jimmcslim 10y ago
Displio might be what you want: http://displ.io http://displ.io
- kingosticks 10y ago
  If they could swap out that humongous bezel for a larger screen they'd have a winner. Great link. Edit: actually, having just read the backer comments on kickstarter you almost certainly don't want one of these. Shame.

benmcnelly 10y ago

I really want to get my hands on some flexible Color ePaper displays whenever those come out :D

Someone1234 10y ago
Me too my friend, me too. E-ink usage has been underwhelming/disappointing. When the technology was first announced I thought it would take the world by storm, but all we wound up with was eBook Readers and little else. I really hope that color is the missing piece of the pie, and we'll wind up with color e-ink photo frames, LCDs in adverts displaced by color e-ink, and even secondary screens which are e-ink based. It is such a cool technology, almost zero energy use between updates, that has been ignored and under-used. It legitimately makes me sad. I guess nobody wanted to be that "dated" manufacturer who used a black & white screen on something in 2016, no matter what the benefits.
- sk8ingdom 10y ago
  I think the best use case is overlay screens particularly for backpacking or travel--really anytime battery is a concern.
- nextos 10y ago
  For academia, a decent A5 or A4 b&w eink would be good enough and probably a game changer. It's very disappointing Kindle DX was discontinued and nothing replaced it. Now we have a Sony and an Onyx. Let's see if things improve...
- jkestner 10y ago
  Even with color, it just won't be anywhere as good as the screens we're used to now. There are two things holding E-Ink back: 1) Battery life alone is not worth the tradeoff for the consumer market. 2) The flexibility of the form factor could've taken E-Ink places that others couldn't go, but: a. The company makes it very difficult for startups to work with them on non-stock sizes/shapes. b. The manufacturing process hasn't improved enough to bring the promised cost within reach. All the R&D money in the display industry is being invested elsewhere, and people will get affordable, flexible, and high-contrast OLED screens sooner than E-Ink can check off two of those boxes.

zwieback 10y ago

Why remove the SD socket? It makes sense to get rid of the NAND to cut down on power but it seems like the SD socket could be useful and that STM32 has a built-in SDIO controller.

lhl 10y ago

For the longest while I wanted a portable e-ink display for outdoor use (just something good enough for terminal, text editing, maybe some light browsing), but sadly nothing ever really materialized. There are larger panels available [1] but require enough low level work that nothing's ever really materialized. There's one Chinese company that's shipping a 13.3" USB display ($1300 for the first gen [2] or $799 to pre-order a second-gen product [3]) and surprisingly enough, 10" Pixel Qi screens are also being sold, with some support for about $400 [4] or for about $150 from random Chinese retailers. [5] Currently, the easiest/most cost effective options for getting a large e-ink display showing content are either buying a used 9.7" Kindle DX (around $150-200) and hacking VNC onto it [6] or doing running VNC on the 13.3" Onyx BOOX MAX (~$650, in short supply, it runs Android 4.0 and has wifi, BT and a pressure sensitive touchscreen/stylus so has some potential) [7] [1] https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=84926 https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=8492... [2] http://www.solcomputer.com/sol-cvs-e-ink-monitor.html http://www.solcomputer.com/sol-cvs-e-ink-monitor.html [3] http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/05/26/dasung-paperlike-e-ink-monitor-up-for-pre-order-on-indiegogo-799/ http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/05/26/dasung-paperlike-e-... [4] http://www.solcomputer.com/pixel-qi-display-2.html http://www.solcomputer.com/pixel-qi-display-2.html [5] https://www.google.com/search?q=pixel+qi+display&oq=pixel+qi+display&tbm=shop https://www.google.com/search?q=pixel+qi+display&oq=pixel+qi... [6] https://tinyapps.org/docs/e-ink-monitor.html https://tinyapps.org/docs/e-ink-monitor.html [7] http://www.onyx-international.com/index.php/en/boox-products/max http://www.onyx-international.com/index.php/en/boox-products...

lj3 10y ago
There are some interesting options coming out. Both of these are fully funded and should be out sometime in the next year. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/paperlike-world-s-first-e-ink-monitor-13-3#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/paperlike-world-s-first-e... https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/13-3-inch-android-e-reader#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/13-3-inch-android-e-reade...
giancarlostoro 10y ago
I would love this, every time I'm reading off my Kindle I wish that it could go online so I could read blog posts and some websites. I don't like the eye strain I get after being on the computer for far too long.

frik 10y ago

A "third screen" e-ink monitor would be great.

Eric_WVGG 10y ago
here you go — https://tinyapps.org/docs/e-ink-monitor.html https://tinyapps.org/docs/e-ink-monitor.html
- frik 10y ago
  Kindle DX is from 2008/09!

andraz 10y ago

A ready-made platform is offered by Visionect - their dev kits for system integrators: https://www.visionect.com/development_kits https://www.visionect.com/development_kits . Meant for professional use and thus the price. It works by using the display purely as a framebuffer, everything is rendered on server and sent over wifi/3g. It gets you amazing autonomy times and is easily powered by solar in outdoor installations. disclaimer: founders are friends

gh02t 10y ago
Wow, those are really cool and pretty much what I had in mind. It's a shame that the prices are so... extravagant. I understand that they don't care about the hobby market, but it still sucks they don't have one for around $100-$150.

ps4fanboy 10y ago

I would love a poster sized module, do they exist?

DenisM 10y ago

I dream of a lightweight e-ink typewriter. Sometimes I want to write without all the distraction of the "normal" devices.

Johnny555 10y ago
Sounds like what you want is a TRS-80 model 100: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_100 Though maybe it's not quite as light as you were hoping (at least, not by modern standards)
hug 10y ago
You might want one of these, then: https://getfreewrite.com/ https://getfreewrite.com/ $500 for a mechanical keyboard strapped to an eink display. Syncs with Dropbox. Sounds right up your alley.
- TylerE 10y ago
  Funny how they define it as a hardcore device for professional/serious use, and then define 'typical usage' as 30 minutes per day for purposes of being able to claim a seemingly absurdly long battery life. But I guess "about 15 hours" sounds a lot less impressive than "3-4 weeks".
- phate 10y ago
  I'm actually intrigued by the concept but sweet jebus that thing is ugly.

tannerc 10y ago

Where would someone with zero hardware experience start to work on projects like this? I have a vision of a modern sticky note powered by your phone that can relay information to this type of small, e-ink display. But I have no idea how to go about developing it... any pointers?

luka-birsa 10y ago
You could try using our development kit [1] which is a production ready version of OPs system. [1] https://www.visionect.com/development_kits https://www.visionect.com/development_kits
- rvdmei 10y ago
  Maybe SeeNote [1] could be what you are looking for. Only preorder now, but looks really nice. I would really like give it a go, but I don't like preorders. [1] https://www.getseenote.com https://www.getseenote.com
  - tannerc 10y ago
    This is exactly what I want to build but not something I want to buy. The reason is because I feel like SeeNote is overkill, like they took the elegant idea of modernizing the sticky note and added things like weather and prompts for no apparent reason. If I could build a stripped-down version of this myself, that would be ideal. I just don't have any clue where to start.
    - benmcnelly 10y ago
      Nobody does, because there is no open source "visionect", but there really should be. They have put in the work to make a simple stack (dev kit) for working with the tech, but you can't just borrow that stack and source cheap panels. I would say the market is wide open for someone to do what they are doing, but crowd fund it, open source the controllers, hardware, software etc

hmottestad 10y ago

I made something similar, or with the similar intent at least. Turned my old sony ebook into a "wifi-display". I simply disabled sleep, opened up a website and put it in a frame. http://fluffyelephant.com/2015/12/reuse-my-ebook-reader/ http://fluffyelephant.com/2015/12/reuse-my-ebook-reader/ Now it shows the weather and the subway times. It also doesn't flash the entire screen when updating the subway times, because Sony optimised that in their web browser.

lentil_soup 10y ago
that looks really cool! any chance of you putting the code you used for that website somewhere?

Nr7 10y ago

Too bad this never amounted to anything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwGO2Ky-b8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwGO2Ky-b8k

dmritard96 10y ago

we are doing something similar (ESP and Eink) but wrapped up in a nice package and (for now) focused on sensors/controls. we are considering an sdk and hdk possibly to open it up for some custom applications/builds/apps https://flair.co/products/puck https://flair.co/products/puck

luka-birsa 10y ago

I'm very impressed that you managed to create a nice DIY replica of our development kit. https://www.visionect.com/development_kits https://www.visionect.com/development_kits We do the same in our Visionect Platform - a server component streams images to a WiFi, 3G or ETH enabled E-Ink device. We do sizes from 6" (proper device in casing) to 32" (in color as well).

lhl 10y ago
Super neat stuff, looks like you guys have a solution that fills a big gap (the big disconnect is that you have hardware hackers who don't build up the stack or high level devs who have things they want to build but don't want to bring up panels to do it). What's the refresh rate/interactivity/frame rate for your devices? Looks like you guys have lots of awesome options - are there videos of the devices in action or the dev environment? Are the high prices of devkits primarily driven by the panel cost or for other reasons?
- luka-birsa 10y ago
  Refresh rate: ~750 ms for 4 bit and up to ~125 ms for 1 bit Videos of device in action: https://www.visionect.com/blog/kindle-users-can-your-reader-do-this-flappy-bird-on-e-paper https://www.visionect.com/blog/kindle-users-can-your-reader-... (our previous generation device) High prices are driven due to price of screens and the amount of support we provide. It's a development kit, intended for customers building products. We're not that much of DIY (like a hacked Kindle or the OPs solution), but rather a production ready solution that you can use to prototype and later deploy in field. Examples [1], [2], [3]: [1]: https://www.visionect.com/blog/joan-honored-for-its-eco-design-at-ces-2016 https://www.visionect.com/blog/joan-honored-for-its-eco-desi... [2]: https://www.visionect.com/blog/smart-shelf-labels-on-electronic-paper https://www.visionect.com/blog/smart-shelf-labels-on-electro... [3]: https://www.visionect.com/blog/electronic-paper-at-london-bus-stops https://www.visionect.com/blog/electronic-paper-at-london-bu...
  - wastedhours 10y ago
    Really interesting product selection - obviously on the pricey end when the market here is looking for hacky project type prices, but an open version of Joan for people to get playing with your stack at that £299/$350 price point might work for feeding dev support further up the chain?

teekert 10y ago

So cool. Wish the Raspberry Pi foundation came up with a Pi0 compatible e-ink display. I get the hacking fun part but it would be so nice.

gangadhargs 10y ago
Don't know if you saw this - https://www.pi-supply.com/product/papirus-zero-epaper-screen-phat-pi-zero/ https://www.pi-supply.com/product/papirus-zero-epaper-screen.... I get that it is not from the foundation but it is Pi0 compatible.
raphman_ 10y ago
off-topic: gangadhargs, FYI, your comments are shown as [dead] (since about four years ago).
- raphman_ 10y ago
  (apparently no longer)
kingosticks 10y ago
Like this? https://www.pi-supply.com/product/papirus-epaper-eink-screen-hat-for-raspberry-pi/ https://www.pi-supply.com/product/papirus-epaper-eink-screen...
pantalaimon 10y ago
Well as the STM32F103ZE has some external memory connected to it (hopefully several MB of it), you could get Linux running on it directly - who needs a Raspberry Pi ;)

Already__Taken 10y ago

E-ink seems very underused. What I want is a smartwatch whose face is just an e-ink display with a single, mechanical hand on top. With those I can program the face and hand motion myself. Rarely updating the face to save as much power as possible yet cheap always on display from the physical hand.