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The company that provided these (Visionect) also sells affordable e-ink developer kits [1]. The best part is that you can build apps in plain HTML, JavaScript a

The company that provided these (Visionect) also sells affordable e-ink developer kits [1]. The best part is that you can build apps in plain HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Disclosure: I worked with Visionect a few years ago to develop an e-ink restaurant menu. [1] https://www.visionect.com/development_kits https://www.visionect.com/development_kits

aleem 11y ago
Got me excited there for a minute until I checked the price. I can't help but think this is way over-priced. The 6" DIY kit from Visionect is ~$600. The latest 6" Kindle with WiFi is ~$80 (on Prime Day it was going for ~$50). Given that it has WiFi and there are some Jailbreaks for Kindle you could get a Kindle to do this same thing. If you want better contrast you could upgrade to the Kindle Paperwhite for $120. That's anywhere from 8% to 20% of the cost of the Visionect system. EDIT: Turns out the Kindle can do quite a bit including running a web server, web browser, SSH and much more so this should be easily doable. [1]: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128704 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128704
- some1else 11y ago
  You do know that the Kindle is subsidized by book sales, right? That and the fact that Amazon has both economies of scale and a zero-profit/market-domination strategy. The Visionect kit is cheaper, more capable and better supported than comparable dev kits.
  - dublinben 11y ago
    The Kindle might be subsidized in a general sense, but Amazon does not sell the devices at a loss. The base hardware cost is roughly equal to the selling price.[0] I would expect something similar from a barebones developer kit. [0] https://www.mainstreet.com/article/exclusive-amazon-s-79-kindle-touch-costs-84-make https://www.mainstreet.com/article/exclusive-amazon-s-79-kin...
- ska 11y ago
  I don't really see the equivalence. The dev kit may be overpriced, but the price of a kindle isn't really a good indicator, to me. They seem like very different products. How long do you think a kindle would last out in the elements? What is the battery like? What is the I/O like? Security (physical and software)? Is the screen contrast similar? SDK support? Customizability? 60601 ? All of these things are potentially expensive to provide. Anyway, it may not be the right dev kit for your applications, but the fact that they share a display technology is a tiny piece of the puzzle. As you note, for you, the kindle might do a lot more for less cost (in which case, why not just use one?) In my experience, looking at mass produced consumer electronics is a pretty terrible way to spitball the cost of anything that isn't mass produced consumer electronics.
- TTPrograms 11y ago
  The DIY kit cost is sort of irrelevant if you're making a product. It's the large quantity cost that sits at the top of the BOM. It's very common for these companies to sell dev kits at high cost because the volume is tiny and the overhead of filling the order for them is large. This is nothing new.
dbot 11y ago
Off-topic: how did the e-ink menu concept turn out? I feel that a lot restaurants that change menus frequently pride themselves on printing new menus every day. When you get the menu, it seems to reinforce the idea that everything - the menu, the ingredients, etc. - is fresh. Not sure that holding an e-ink reader that's been handled thousands of times by others would give the same feeling, but maybe I'm wrong?
- some1else 11y ago
  It was water-proof and washed in the dish-washer at the end of the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2hv7iGNKLY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2hv7iGNKLY The company seems to have pivoted to a more lucrative business model though (Slovenian population is 2MM, with GDP per capita somewhere around 17000 EUR).
donatj 11y ago
Why are the prices so insanely high? I can get Linux onto a kindle and poke that for under a hundred.
- vacri 11y ago
  They're targetted at government and enterprise, not hobbyists.
billhathaway 11y ago
Adafruit sells small eInk screens (1.3"-2.7")[1] that you can attach to microprocessors for $30-$40. They also have Arduino libraries and tutorials. [1] http://www.adafruit.com/category/150 http://www.adafruit.com/category/150

aleem 11y ago

Got me excited there for a minute until I checked the price. I can't help but think this is way over-priced. The 6" DIY kit from Visionect is ~$600. The latest 6" Kindle with WiFi is ~$80 (on Prime Day it was going for ~$50). Given that it has WiFi and there are some Jailbreaks for Kindle you could get a Kindle to do this same thing. If you want better contrast you could upgrade to the Kindle Paperwhite for $120. That's anywhere from 8% to 20% of the cost of the Visionect system. EDIT: Turns out the Kindle can do quite a bit including running a web server, web browser, SSH and much more so this should be easily doable. [1]: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128704 http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128704

some1else 11y ago
You do know that the Kindle is subsidized by book sales, right? That and the fact that Amazon has both economies of scale and a zero-profit/market-domination strategy. The Visionect kit is cheaper, more capable and better supported than comparable dev kits.
- dublinben 11y ago
  The Kindle might be subsidized in a general sense, but Amazon does not sell the devices at a loss. The base hardware cost is roughly equal to the selling price.[0] I would expect something similar from a barebones developer kit. [0] https://www.mainstreet.com/article/exclusive-amazon-s-79-kindle-touch-costs-84-make https://www.mainstreet.com/article/exclusive-amazon-s-79-kin...
ska 11y ago
I don't really see the equivalence. The dev kit may be overpriced, but the price of a kindle isn't really a good indicator, to me. They seem like very different products. How long do you think a kindle would last out in the elements? What is the battery like? What is the I/O like? Security (physical and software)? Is the screen contrast similar? SDK support? Customizability? 60601 ? All of these things are potentially expensive to provide. Anyway, it may not be the right dev kit for your applications, but the fact that they share a display technology is a tiny piece of the puzzle. As you note, for you, the kindle might do a lot more for less cost (in which case, why not just use one?) In my experience, looking at mass produced consumer electronics is a pretty terrible way to spitball the cost of anything that isn't mass produced consumer electronics.
TTPrograms 11y ago
The DIY kit cost is sort of irrelevant if you're making a product. It's the large quantity cost that sits at the top of the BOM. It's very common for these companies to sell dev kits at high cost because the volume is tiny and the overhead of filling the order for them is large. This is nothing new.

dbot 11y ago

Off-topic: how did the e-ink menu concept turn out? I feel that a lot restaurants that change menus frequently pride themselves on printing new menus every day. When you get the menu, it seems to reinforce the idea that everything - the menu, the ingredients, etc. - is fresh. Not sure that holding an e-ink reader that's been handled thousands of times by others would give the same feeling, but maybe I'm wrong?

some1else 11y ago
It was water-proof and washed in the dish-washer at the end of the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2hv7iGNKLY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2hv7iGNKLY The company seems to have pivoted to a more lucrative business model though (Slovenian population is 2MM, with GDP per capita somewhere around 17000 EUR).

donatj 11y ago

Why are the prices so insanely high? I can get Linux onto a kindle and poke that for under a hundred.

vacri 11y ago
They're targetted at government and enterprise, not hobbyists.

billhathaway 11y ago

Adafruit sells small eInk screens (1.3"-2.7")[1] that you can attach to microprocessors for $30-$40. They also have Arduino libraries and tutorials. [1] http://www.adafruit.com/category/150 http://www.adafruit.com/category/150