4 ms·

There are a few rakes there, yeah. 1. The age of Thinkpad Hackintoshes is sunsetting, and the chips that support it are getting long in the tooth. You can't bu

There are a few rakes there, yeah. 1. The age of Thinkpad Hackintoshes is sunsetting, and the chips that support it are getting long in the tooth. You can't buy recent Intel chips and expect them to work flawlessly, and the laptops old enough to work are slow and hot. 2. The refresh rate of E-ink screens is painfully slow and also visually distressing (since the screen inverts color temporarily). This effect isn't a real issue on Kindles or digital signage, but will absolutely be a problem for professional development. All I'll say is this - many a fool has set out on the road to make E-ink living room televisions just because color E-ink exists. You will find no success stories on YouTube or HN or Reddit because the tech just isn't there yet (sadly). Alternatively: consider finding one of these on Ebay if you can for an "official" E-ink Thinkpad: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkbook/thinkbook-plus/lenovo-thinkbook-plus-gen-4-13-inch-intel/len101b0031 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkbook/thinkbook-p...

singlepaynews 2y ago
Thank you—#1 is what I was most concerned about, especially with M1/2/3/4 chipsets making hackintoshing less viable. I’m confident enough that if there’s a git repo I can install an OS, but if I need to write the driver personally then I’m going to be up a creek. How much would it cost to hire an OS Engineer to write a new hackintosh package? Would it be possible to do in 9 months of full time work? Could 9 women make a baby in a month? Re: #2, I’m setting the upper bar for my performance expectation at the DASUNG 25” monitor, which I did love, but couldn’t fit in a backpack. My use case is in the “viability valley”—I’m happy to give up on video, but not happy to give up on vsCode. COTS e-ink devices don’t fit my professional needs, even though the e-ink screens themselves wouldn’t have an issue. Alternatively to hackintoshing, how viable would it be to simply buy a 13” M2 MacBook and just install the screen? I’m sure a driver needs to be written, but I imagine “write a display driver” is a more common job description than “write a hackintosh package”?
- talldayo 2y ago
  > I’m setting the upper bar for my performance expectation at the DASUNG 25” monitor, which I did love, but couldn’t fit in a backpack. I haven't used one, so I can't speak specifically to how good it is. I can say that most of the e-ink displays you will find will not have a comparable refresh rate and be absolutely useless for any form of text editing. Your only choice will be sourcing a sketchy knock-off Chinese panel or hacking together some form of overclocked solution, similar to what DASUNG appears to have done. > I imagine “write a display driver” is a more common job description than “write a hackintosh package”? I dunno man, you're using MacOS. None of this stuff comes with any warrants or guarantees. What works with SIP enabled today might break the system and require SIP disabled next week. I'm not making any confident assessments on what the scale of work is because you're asking a lot here. Especially if professional use is your goal. I haven't seen people running custom Mac hardware at work in half a decade at least.
  - singlepaynews 2y ago
    You clearly know more than me about it—can I pay for an hour of your time to noodle on what DASUNG appears to have done? Based on my use of the 25” monitor, whatever they did is adequate, so if it can be replicated with a 13” panel (which based on specs uses the same driver chip: https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/CONCERTODrivingBoard https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/CONCERTODrivingB...) and bolted to a 13” M2’s hinge then we’re off to the races.
- fragmede 2y ago
  You could find a properly sized USB-C based eink screen and do some very tricky rewiring and not mess with macOS software at all.
  - singlepaynews 2y ago
    I think USB-C is the bridge between this [driver chip](https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/CONCERTODrivingBoard https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/CONCERTODrivingB...) and the motherboard; that said yes you’re understanding my intent perfectly, but the only plug-and-play screen I’ve been able to find is [B&W only](https://www.amazon.com/DASUNG-Paper-Front-Light-Touch-Monitor/dp/B09VLDK58C/ref=asc_df_B09VLDK58C https://www.amazon.com/DASUNG-Paper-Front-Light-Touch-Monito...), and I’d like to support color.
    - fragmede 2y ago
      https://www.ebay.com/itm/267086324420 https://www.ebay.com/itm/267086324420 seems like such a display, and wires over to a raspberry pi hat, which at least means it's drivable, though I don't know what kinds of resolution and refresh you'd get over that.
      - singlepaynews 2y ago
        You’ve got the right idea, that’s a similar-but-different screen manufactured by the same company; the on I’m linking to in OP has a faster refresh rate with the tradeoff of less color saturation. Edit: importantly, the screen you’ve linked(spectra) has been announced to have a new version with a backing plate of the same material as the one I linked in OP(Kaledo); which would allow a higher voltage and therefore a similar refresh rate to Kaledo with the higher color saturation of the Spectra panel. Would you be available to buy a panel and write a driver this upcoming year?
singlepaynews 2y ago
Re: Alternatively buy an “official” e-ink thinkpad (and the Lenovo link): This is very likely the best idea. In my perfect world though I’m running OSX to support iMessage, etc. Maybe this is my sign to get off of iPhone; there are many phone-sized e-ink devices running android that I could start building on. My general theory of useability is that A4 paper and 3x5 index cards were popular before computers for a reason, and one of each of those sizes as an e-ink screen is the longer-term ideal.

singlepaynews 2y ago

Thank you—#1 is what I was most concerned about, especially with M1/2/3/4 chipsets making hackintoshing less viable. I’m confident enough that if there’s a git repo I can install an OS, but if I need to write the driver personally then I’m going to be up a creek. How much would it cost to hire an OS Engineer to write a new hackintosh package? Would it be possible to do in 9 months of full time work? Could 9 women make a baby in a month? Re: #2, I’m setting the upper bar for my performance expectation at the DASUNG 25” monitor, which I did love, but couldn’t fit in a backpack. My use case is in the “viability valley”—I’m happy to give up on video, but not happy to give up on vsCode. COTS e-ink devices don’t fit my professional needs, even though the e-ink screens themselves wouldn’t have an issue. Alternatively to hackintoshing, how viable would it be to simply buy a 13” M2 MacBook and just install the screen? I’m sure a driver needs to be written, but I imagine “write a display driver” is a more common job description than “write a hackintosh package”?

talldayo 2y ago
> I’m setting the upper bar for my performance expectation at the DASUNG 25” monitor, which I did love, but couldn’t fit in a backpack. I haven't used one, so I can't speak specifically to how good it is. I can say that most of the e-ink displays you will find will not have a comparable refresh rate and be absolutely useless for any form of text editing. Your only choice will be sourcing a sketchy knock-off Chinese panel or hacking together some form of overclocked solution, similar to what DASUNG appears to have done. > I imagine “write a display driver” is a more common job description than “write a hackintosh package”? I dunno man, you're using MacOS. None of this stuff comes with any warrants or guarantees. What works with SIP enabled today might break the system and require SIP disabled next week. I'm not making any confident assessments on what the scale of work is because you're asking a lot here. Especially if professional use is your goal. I haven't seen people running custom Mac hardware at work in half a decade at least.
- singlepaynews 2y ago
  You clearly know more than me about it—can I pay for an hour of your time to noodle on what DASUNG appears to have done? Based on my use of the 25” monitor, whatever they did is adequate, so if it can be replicated with a 13” panel (which based on specs uses the same driver chip: https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/CONCERTODrivingBoard https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/CONCERTODrivingB...) and bolted to a 13” M2’s hinge then we’re off to the races.
fragmede 2y ago
You could find a properly sized USB-C based eink screen and do some very tricky rewiring and not mess with macOS software at all.
- singlepaynews 2y ago
  I think USB-C is the bridge between this [driver chip](https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/CONCERTODrivingBoard https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/CONCERTODrivingB...) and the motherboard; that said yes you’re understanding my intent perfectly, but the only plug-and-play screen I’ve been able to find is [B&W only](https://www.amazon.com/DASUNG-Paper-Front-Light-Touch-Monitor/dp/B09VLDK58C/ref=asc_df_B09VLDK58C https://www.amazon.com/DASUNG-Paper-Front-Light-Touch-Monito...), and I’d like to support color.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/267086324420 https://www.ebay.com/itm/267086324420 seems like such a display, and wires over to a raspberry pi hat, which at least means it's drivable, though I don't know what kinds of resolution and refresh you'd get over that.
    - singlepaynews 2y ago
      You’ve got the right idea, that’s a similar-but-different screen manufactured by the same company; the on I’m linking to in OP has a faster refresh rate with the tradeoff of less color saturation. Edit: importantly, the screen you’ve linked(spectra) has been announced to have a new version with a backing plate of the same material as the one I linked in OP(Kaledo); which would allow a higher voltage and therefore a similar refresh rate to Kaledo with the higher color saturation of the Spectra panel. Would you be available to buy a panel and write a driver this upcoming year?

singlepaynews 2y ago

Re: Alternatively buy an “official” e-ink thinkpad (and the Lenovo link): This is very likely the best idea. In my perfect world though I’m running OSX to support iMessage, etc. Maybe this is my sign to get off of iPhone; there are many phone-sized e-ink devices running android that I could start building on. My general theory of useability is that A4 paper and 3x5 index cards were popular before computers for a reason, and one of each of those sizes as an e-ink screen is the longer-term ideal.