E-ink display

[the_count]

E-Ink displays seem a bit too slow for my liking, but I think Sharp's Memory LCDs would work well!
https://www.sharpsma.com/products?sharpC...parallel=0

[grego]

Are there any e-ink screens with public specifications and some open source support that would be suitable for a project like this?

[drpi]

E-Ink displays seem a bit too slow for my liking, but I think Sharp's Memory LCDs would work well!
https://www.sharpsma.com/products?sharpC...parallel=0

LCD displays (memory variant or not) do not have the same rendering than e-ink displays.
e-ink displays rendering is really like paper.

Don't expect good performance with a I2C link.

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Are there any e-ink screens with public specifications and some open source support that would be suitable for a project like this?

The main e-ink material manufacturer is https://www.eink.com. There are display module on their web site but they do not sell to individuals.

At work, I already used one display from https://www.pervasivedisplays.com They provided me with the datasheet, schematics and C source code. I don't know if they sell to individuals.

https://www.adafruit.com web site sells e-ink displays.

[poVoq]

Maybe with Pine64 experimenting with RISC-V on the Pinecil, a basic e-ink reader using a simple RISC-V platform could be the next step?

A relatively cheap and easy to use RISC-V device would certainly raise a lot of developer interest, but as it stands available RISC-V platforms are rather low performance so a device that doesn't need much performance like a ebook reader would seem like a good choice.

[eFqLLnGo]

I would be very interested in a e ink screen. It dramatically increases battery life while making the phone not too adictive and is easy on the eyes. Definite win.

[megous]

Most e-ink displays in ebook readers don't use SPI, but a set of some custom barely publicly documented protocols. It's also not exactly low speed. Displays are rated at 85 redraws of the screen per second, etc.

It could probably be driven by LCD interface of A64 SoC with the similar hack Pocketbook uses to drive their e-ink dispolays with A13 SoC that absolutely doesn't have a special controller to drive their proprietary e-ink displays. They just write a control pattern to DRAM and use LCD controller data lines to bitbang the protocol.

[HLing]

Has anyone considered making an alternative version of PinePhone with an e-ink screen?
In 2020, with phones like Hisense A5 released, it should be possible. And also much nicer to have this device run fully on OSS, instead of some manufacturer bloatware that all the present options are full of.

I think a simple black and white screen would be sufficient. Also screen latency would not be that much of an issue, as long as the basic phone functionalities are usable.
I believe it would be a perfect device for people who want to maintain the ability to call or text someone via the mobile network or the internet and do some occasional web browsing or navigation, while minimising the distraction and eye strain of their phone and also the amount of adversarial software they run on their device. Heck, it could even be a decent e-reader!

For people more familiar with PinePhone hardware, what would need to be done to make some e-ink screen compatible? How much change in hardware (and software) would it entail? In case this idea gains any traction, I would be very happy to participate on developing the software and testing it out (although I acknowledge this is quite premature and might be more appropriate to say among developers of some particular OS).

Anyway, I'm very interested in your stance on this.
(Apologies if this is a wrong section to post this, will be glad to move it into a more appropriate one.)


I have just such an e-ink phone just before I found the existence of the Pine Phone.  The battery life is incredibly long especially compared to the Pine Phone. https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/kin...one-review

"...The Kingrow K1 is trying to be a fully featured smartphone that has great specs, but falls short of being excellent. If it were a Linux phone, that just refined a few good apps and included an RSS Reader it would be awesome. Android, without an avenue to download apps, is beyond infuriating...."
I still have this K1.  If the frequencies were compatible with T-mobile in the US I would be happy with it still. 

[grego]

I have just such an e-ink phone just before I found the existence of the Pine Phone.  The battery life is incredibly long especially compared to the Pine Phone. https://goodereader.com/blog/reviews/kin...one-review

Hm, an interesting device. I would indeed prefer if it ran Linux, most Android apps are not optimised for the e-ink screen anyway.

[vinnie]

Probably with the new quartz64 it will be possible but I think it will take years of waiting

[biketool]

I got a few used 9" e-paper signs for a good deal, I could probably figure them out if I could capture the transmitter protocol and spoof it with a SDR transmitter but I am probably just going to de-solder the display and use an official serial driver board from e-paper.  The driver boards are about $20 but I was thinking to make a esp32 book reader or something with a few of them, I could probably have gotten by with a solar cell power and a attiny along with the driver but I really want to be able to beam books over via bluetooth or maybe wifi.
The other option is to get another epaper NFC driver board wihich is cool as it is powered form the NFC, this is something I hope to see as an add-on option fo rthe keyboard which I hope includes a i2c multiplexer so we can add stuff like that, I already have a i2c hub(cut the pogo pin traces and divert to hub then connect kb to the hub output), i2c nfc loop, and Qi charger loop waiting for a cram-in install once the pinephone keyboard is available form the store.