5 ms·

Looks like my post got a second chance. I'm not affiliated with the project, but I am an interested e-ink monitor enthusiast. You may be interested to know tha

Looks like my post got a second chance. I'm not affiliated with the project, but I am an interested e-ink monitor enthusiast. You may be interested to know that this project is a fully open project, all source code, verilog, algorithm documentation and hardware design files are on github: https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider https://gitlab.com/zephray/caster https://gitlab.com/zephray/caster

Forgeties79 1y ago
I talked to my wife constantly about how badly I want an e-ink monitor, they’re just still so expensive for the specs I want haha. I’d take a solid 24”, maybe 21”, b&w 30hz at this point if the price was right (sub-$500).
- alex-a-soto 1y ago
  Yeah, to get a 24" e-ink monitor anywhere near that price, we’d need much higher production volumes. Right now, it just isn’t mass-produced enough to bring costs down to the sub-$500 range.
  - Forgeties79 1y ago
    I totally understand the limitations there, i’m just spelling out what I’d like!
  - 4gotunameagain 1y ago
    Since you are really into that stuff, could you please share your opinion about the widely shared view that e-ink remains artificially expensive due to patents ? Or point to reading material you find truthful. Thanks !
alex-a-soto 1y ago
Three years ago, I posted about modding a ThinkPad T480 into an e-ink laptop: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26245563 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26245563 That turned into a community project and eventually into building our own FPGA-based e-ink display controller to improve refresh speed and reduce ghosting. The result is a dev kit and monitor: open hardware, supports 6–13" monochrome and color e-ink panels over HDMI or USB-C, up to 75 Hz with sub-100 ms latency, and includes a C API. Hardware, firmware, docs and schematics: https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider
- Palomides 1y ago
  I'm probably getting one for desktop use, but I'm also curious for other use cases, what's the power usage like? while idle or doing high frame rate video?
  - alex-a-soto 1y ago
    Great! The board uses about 1-1.5W under continuous use with no OS/kernel power optimizations.

Forgeties79 1y ago

I talked to my wife constantly about how badly I want an e-ink monitor, they’re just still so expensive for the specs I want haha. I’d take a solid 24”, maybe 21”, b&w 30hz at this point if the price was right (sub-$500).

alex-a-soto 1y ago
Yeah, to get a 24" e-ink monitor anywhere near that price, we’d need much higher production volumes. Right now, it just isn’t mass-produced enough to bring costs down to the sub-$500 range.
- Forgeties79 1y ago
  I totally understand the limitations there, i’m just spelling out what I’d like!
- 4gotunameagain 1y ago
  Since you are really into that stuff, could you please share your opinion about the widely shared view that e-ink remains artificially expensive due to patents ? Or point to reading material you find truthful. Thanks !

alex-a-soto 1y ago

Three years ago, I posted about modding a ThinkPad T480 into an e-ink laptop: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26245563 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26245563 That turned into a community project and eventually into building our own FPGA-based e-ink display controller to improve refresh speed and reduce ghosting. The result is a dev kit and monitor: open hardware, supports 6–13" monochrome and color e-ink panels over HDMI or USB-C, up to 75 Hz with sub-100 ms latency, and includes a C API. Hardware, firmware, docs and schematics: https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider

Palomides 1y ago
I'm probably getting one for desktop use, but I'm also curious for other use cases, what's the power usage like? while idle or doing high frame rate video?
- alex-a-soto 1y ago
  Great! The board uses about 1-1.5W under continuous use with no OS/kernel power optimizations.