Aclaratory notes about e-ink

[TechDragon]

Well, regardless of individual hardware devices, if DES displays start shipping, they are going to easily complete with the overpriced eInk displays and provide much needed competition in the “e-paper” market which is great news for everyone!

[fasani]

As for your question about the screen, all eInk screens are made by precisely one company. In essence, if you have seen a 10.3 inch eInk display, you know exactly which one it uses.

Sorry to jump on this one, but I am one of the backers of the Reinkstone R1 and that one uses Display Electronic Slurry (DES) and is a different technology than current screens.

Correct me if I’m wrong here, DES screen resolution is:



1680*2232
But that screen has a color filter on top that is always there, which enables the color part, down the filter is still a 16 grayscale Eink.
Which leads me to believe that using color you have really that resolution/3

Note extracted from https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-...-kaleido-2
The Onyx Boox Nova 3 Color for example has a color resolution of 624×468, and can display black and white content at 1872×1404 with 300 PPI. One of the drawbacks of his CFA is that color cannot be turned off and on larger screens, the color gamut gets deluded, making everything everything a bit washed out. 

The Onyx Boox Nova 3 Color for example has a color resolution of 624×468, and can display black and white content at 1872×1404 with 300 PPI. One of the drawbacks of his CFA is that color cannot be turned off and on larger screens, the color gamut gets deluded, making everything everything a bit washed out. 

[jiyong]

As for your question about the screen, all eInk screens are made by precisely one company. In essence, if you have seen a 10.3 inch eInk display, you know exactly which one it uses.

Sorry to jump on this one, but I am one of the backers of the Reinkstone R1 and that one uses Display Electronic Slurry (DES) and is a different technology than current screens.

Correct me if I’m wrong here, DES screen resolution is:



1680*2232
But that screen has a color filter on top that is always there, which enables the color part, down the filter is still a 16 grayscale Eink.
Which leads me to believe that using color you have really that resolution/3

Note extracted from https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-...-kaleido-2
The Onyx Boox Nova 3 Color for example has a color resolution of 624×468, and can display black and white content at 1872×1404 with 300 PPI. One of the drawbacks of his CFA is that color cannot be turned off and on larger screens, the color gamut gets deluded, making everything everything a bit washed out. 

The Onyx Boox Nova 3 Color for example has a color resolution of 624×468, and can display black and white content at 1872×1404 with 300 PPI. One of the drawbacks of his CFA is that color cannot be turned off and on larger screens, the color gamut gets deluded, making everything everything a bit washed out. 

I'm not sure what exactly you are trying to tell me, but just because they have similar resolutions, doesn't necessarily mean they are the same kind of display. DES is a different screen technology and not the same as Kaleido.

From your link:
"The DES display module adopts a new display structure which is completely different from the current micro-cup and micro-capsule structure. The structure forms a layer of cofferdam structure on the surface of the TFT by forming a cofferdam around the periphery of a single pixel electrode, and the bank covers the source and gate lines on the TFT. The patterned structure is characterized in that each pixel electrode is surrounded by a cofferdam, the microstructure is not visible on the front side, and the number of layers is reduced, thereby obtaining the higher definition and resolution display effect. In order to distinguish it from the traditional micro-cup and micro-capsule technology. Basically this tech uses 3 stages, ITO Glass, Plasma and a TFT. E INK uses TFT, adhesive, the EINK Panel, Color Filter Array, ITO film, adhesive and a protected layer. There is often an additional layer of glass, protecting everything."

[fasani]

Yes sure is completely different technology. The only similar thing is that both have a RGB color filter on top.

DES uses a mosaic RGB pattern. And that is a bit more efficient in terms of equivalent resolution. Here are more information: wiki.laptop.org/go/Display . OLPC happens to use a screen with same arrangement so the info there applies.
I've one of this DES displays lying around since last September or so and I was waiting that someone releases a controller when I spotted Pine64.
This is how the RGB matrix looks like in the Microscope:

But I guess first will get the PineNote and experiment with existing epaper and then at some point try to see if I can modify the driver to drive the color one.
If the resolution is like they claim with the formula of the laptop that uses the same pixel arrangement, it would be:

1680/ sqrt(3) = 969
2232/ sqrt(3) = 1288   but I will confirm this once I get it to refresh

[fasani]

By the way, can anyone tell me how does the PineNote Eink works in Linux?
Would like to try the Ubuntu version. Is possible to boot with Eink enabled at this point?

Seen only this video and looks usable already… I really want to give it a try!

[quantumjelly]

This video says the Pine Note has 60Hz refresh rate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwMKfQtSXPE

Does it mean that the screen is continuously refreshing like a LCD/OLED smartphone? Isn't e-ink supposed to stay put forever unless it's changed? I say that because backlight PWM is bad for the eyes.

Also, would like to know how good is this screen compared to Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. I want the thing closes possible to a real book.

As far as I know, it can make changes to the screen at 60Hz, but it needs multiple passes for a proper refresh.
But when the content is static, there will be no updates to the screen.
So the 60Hz is the maximum speed, but only when needed.
And don't expect to watch video in flawless 60Hz.

E-ink doesn't have a backlight, so it isn't using backlight tricks to lower the brightness.
The PineNote will have a frontlight, but that is not aimed at changing the brightness, but being able to read in the dark.

Good E-Reader says the PineNote is the Bigme B1 without colour.
One other major difference is that the BigMe B1 ships with Android and the PineNote will ship with Linux.

I just saw the BigMe B1 coloured is launching on the US and recognized the design. Is colour the only difference? Is the internal hardware the same/very similar to the point software from the pinenote could be flashed into the BigMe (display driver would need to be changed at least I guess)?

And is there an avenue for a future colour display upgrade compatible with current hardware or would that be a major hardware change/revision?