[HN Gopher] Challenges Building an Open-Source E Ink Laptop
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Challenges Building an Open-Source E Ink Laptop
Author : alex-a-soto
Score : 227 points
Date : 2021-04-22 12:02 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (alexsoto.dev)
(TXT) w3m dump (alexsoto.dev)
| alex-a-soto wrote:
| Hey HN, I'm the project lead at EI2030, and we are working on
| building an open-source eink laptop.
|
| From the day-to-day conversations with community members from
| EI2030, we've identified some challenges with building an eink
| laptop.
|
| We've decided to write an article to introduce EI2030, discuss
| the challenges of building an open-source eink laptop, and hear
| from others.
|
| If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please feel
| free to reach out.
| ddevault wrote:
| Hi Alex! Please, please, please do not use Discord to organize
| your open source project's community. Open source projects
| should rely on open source infrastructure. Discord is a
| proprietary platform, with a proprietary client, using a
| proprietary protocol, and has no business being involved in
| FOSS projects.
|
| Please consider using IRC or Matrix.
| zepto wrote:
| > Open source projects should rely on open source
| infrastructure.
|
| Can you say why?
| pabs3 wrote:
| Mako Hill covered this in his essay entitled "Free Software
| needs Free Tools":
|
| https://mako.cc/writing/hill-free_tools.html
| ddevault wrote:
| It seems tautologically obvious, but I can elaborate
| anyway.
|
| The benefits that led this project to choose an open source
| approach applies to other domains as well. If they believe
| in those merits, then they should naturally be apparent in
| the other systems that they would rely on, such as their
| collaboration tools. If you want the advantages of open
| source to proliferate, you have to cast your lot with more
| open source tools. They're equally suited to the task as,
| say, Discord.
|
| Choosing proprietary tools and platforms can also easily
| serve to reduce your pool of potential contributors who
| don't want to use proprietary tools, and especially those
| who don't want to install proprietary software on _their
| own_ computers, like the Discord client.
|
| Some people simply cannot use something like Discord at all
| - it has a high hardware requirements floor, poor to
| mediocre Linux support and completely absent support for
| systems like BSD, not to mention grave accessibility
| problems. Only an open protocol enables anyone to build the
| clients that suit their needs, and are not dependent on the
| whims of some corporate board of director's determination
| of your merit (i.e. financial exploitability) as a
| participant.
| zepto wrote:
| > not to mention grave accessibility problems.
|
| This might be true of Discord, which I guess is an
| Electron App, and is a strong reason to eschew Elecron
| (which ironically _is_ open source), but it's pretty hard
| to claim accessibility as a win for open source with a
| straight face.
|
| > Only an open protocol enables anyone to build the
| clients that suit their needs, and are not dependent on
| the whims of some corporate board of director's
| determination of your merit (i.e. financial
| exploitability) as a participant.
|
| This doesn't really seem true at all. An open protocol is
| necessary but very far from sufficient.
|
| In order to build and maintain software, you need
| hardware, expertise, and time, and often it is simply
| impossible to do alone.
|
| These cost money, and getting this money means _someone_
| determines your merit, in the case of open source
| development that is in fact _typically although not
| exclusively_ corporate boards.
|
| I'd like what you are saying to be true, but it just
| doesn't seem to be in our current world.
|
| I take it as an expression of an unproven ideal.
| playpause wrote:
| As an open source developer I use some tools that are not
| open source, and which I would not even want to be open
| source. It doesn't have to be an ideological battle. It's
| just different distribution models with different
| benefits.
| alex-a-soto wrote:
| Hi, we are working on setting up a Matrix server with bridges
| to other platforms. If you have suggestions or experience in
| this, I would appreciate your support.
| ddevault wrote:
| I don't have any specific experience with Matrix to share
| suggestions from, unfortunately. But that's a good
| solution! Thanks for looking into it.
| neolog wrote:
| Imho, the best chat platform is Zulip. It has channels,
| named threads, good search, and persistent history. It's
| also open source. IME, it's way better for communities than
| Discord, IRC, Slack.
| hasmanean wrote:
| Is the display fast enough to be used as a laptop?
|
| I wonder if using an eink display as a detachable auxiliary
| display to show static data such as calendars, todo lists,
| chats and system monitoring would be more useful.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| Using a Mobius e-Ink device, a bigger issue is the ghosting.
| The discussion of RLCD with up to 60 fps refresh is
| interesting.
|
| For console work, the ghosting is acceptable. For full-screen
| GUI, it would likely become distracting if windows are moved
| frequently or contain animated graphics. For reading text,
| the quality of e-Ink displays is excellent. And outdoor
| visibility is incorrectly discounted in the article.
|
| As a standalone display, such as you describe, e-Ink should
| be quite well suited.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Dasung makes e-ink monitors and it looks like they can get
| something like 20 fps, which is pretty good. Probably just
| enough to use a mouse without going mad. Maybe.
|
| https://youtu.be/AeC3LIFTaho?t=208
| Qwertious wrote:
| Please note that:
|
| 1. There is such thing as an e-ink screen that doesn't hold
| its image (and that the fastest-refreshing screens in R&D
| are this type). In other words, beware if someone says
| "this e-ink screen can refresh at 60FPS" as it might have
| sacrificed its power usage in order to achieve this (those
| screens are still useful if you only care about
| eyestrain/sunlight readability though). 2. 'Good Ereader'
| makes all his money selling the devices he reviews, which
| is a HUGE conflict of interest, AND HE IS NOT TRANSPARENT
| ABOUT THIS. Seriously, the dude generally either mentions
| it at the _end_ of the video /article or not at all.
| Usually not at all. That's super scummy, and as such you
| shouldn't trust him or his videos. 3. Note that technically
| fast-refresh mode isn't getting 20 frames so much as
| refreshing a fraction of the screen at a time, so you have
| 10 pixels at 2Hz rather than each pixel refreshing at 20Hz.
| You could call it an interlaced refresh or dithered
| refresh, I'm not sure what the exact technical term is. The
| reason this matters is that we can't actually make
| electrophoretic pixels refresh any faster and they probably
| won't ever refresh the same pixel repeatedly at e.g. 60Hz -
| you're working against physics when you're shaking your ink
| up and down that fast, and you're talking about at _least_
| an order of magnitude more than you 're getting right now.
| marcodiego wrote:
| What I'd love: a common chassis that includes:
| - Some usb devices: keyboard, touchpad, camera and internal usb
| hub for additional devices and external ports. -
| HDMI screen with amplified speakers. - Battery
| charger and internal power source for internal devices.
| - Internal space for HD, SSD, eMMC, WiFi antenna adapter and
| most common ARM SBCs.
|
| This would allow me to buy a cheap ARM SBC and "build" my own
| laptop. Except for the battery and internal hub, CrowPi2 is
| almost like that[0] but CrowPi2 is a toy. We need something
| that is a tad better than CrowPi2 and not a toy.
|
| [0] https://www.elecrow.com/crowpi2-raspberry-pi-portable-
| laptop...
| mntmn wrote:
| I am thinking to adopt a SOM standard like Qseven or
| COMExpress etc. in the (a bit more far) future. What do you
| think about that? SBCs are not really a good fit for laptops
| in my opinion because you have to adapt everything with
| individual cables that are meant for external use. And: are
| there any SBCs you would like to use except for the Raspberry
| Pi?
| marcodiego wrote:
| >What do you think about that?
|
| I understand that the Raspi form factor is not the most
| adequate for a laptop, but it is a very common form factor.
| Anything else doesn't even comes close to its popularity.
| So I think we have to adopt what we have. The only other
| possibility I can think of is the 96boards standard.
|
| >SBCs are not really a good fit for laptops in my opinion
| because you have to adapt everything with individual cables
| that are meant for external use
|
| The CrowPi2 seems to work well around that. Never seen one
| personally but it seems good enough for me.
|
| >are there any SBCs you would like to use except for the
| Raspberry Pi?
|
| Yes. I want to use a Rock-Pi-4. AFAIK it is the only ARM
| SBC that is 100% functional without any proprietary blob.
| jbotz wrote:
| I think the same is true for the Rock64 from Pine64 and
| the Libre Computer Board ROC-RK3328-CC. And probably
| others based on the Rockchip SOCs.
| myself248 wrote:
| EOMA68 is/was another attempt at this concept, and worth
| looking into the challenges they faced and addressed.
|
| IMHO it's a brilliant idea hobbled by bad thermals and not
| quite enough pins.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| Qseven won't get you much in terms of performance, neither
| in available CPU/GPU nor in features (only 4 x1 PCIe
| lanes)... if you want actual beasts go for Comexpress Type
| 6 (or, if you're willing to deal with embedding a GPU
| yourself and need more PCIe lanes, Type 7) but be prepared
| the connectors aren't cheap, the standard isn't open
| (although there are some copies floating around on the
| 'net) and routing all the high frequency stuff is a pain
| that requires at least three if not four layers.
| mntmn wrote:
| The MNT Reform motherboard has 6 layers, which I consider
| a small number. Also, I was thinking about adopting MXM
| for a GPU slot.
| mntmn wrote:
| Hi, I'm the project lead of MNT Reform, an open hardware laptop
| that just started shipping (link:
| https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform)!
|
| We would be interested in an e-Ink experiment. During the
| initial prototyping this was one of the options we considered,
| but back then it would have been prohibitively expensive and we
| decided to focus on an IPS display and to get to ship a viable
| product as quickly as possible -- with a tiny team.
|
| Adapting an e-Ink display to MNT Reform would mostly be about
| designing/adapting the screen housing and introducing a signal
| path to an e-Ink driver: options could be MIPI-DSI, eDP, USB,
| or SPI, for example.
|
| Edit: My email is lukas@mntre.com if you want to get in touch
| directly. We also have a community over here:
| https://community.mnt.re/
| baybal2 wrote:
| Wow, such people here.
|
| Hello Lukas,
|
| I will say MNT reform was probably the best shot at
| "artisanal laptop" I've ever seen.
|
| It's a good, good balance on ones ambitions, and reasonable
| expectations of what a small team can manufacture, while
| still feeling very unique, and original.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| I just want to say that I love your work! I have been
| following on Mastodon and watching the MNT Reform project
| with considerable interest, and the possibility of an E-Ink
| option really helps sweeten the pot. At this point I'm pretty
| certain I want my next new laptop to be a Reform.
| tyler109 wrote:
| +1
| alex-a-soto wrote:
| Hey Lukas, Thank you for your comment and for reaching out.
| I'm a big fan of MNT Reform, and it's great to hear of your
| interest in doing an e-ink experiment. We are interested.
| I'll send you an email later today to talk further.
| ryukafalz wrote:
| This is awesome! As someone with a Reform on the way, I'd
| be very interested in a conversion kit to install a
| daylight-readable display. :)
| an_opabinia wrote:
| How do you know you are succeeding?
| baybal2 wrote:
| I feel the project outline is very idealised, without any much
| regard to how manufacturing will be done.
|
| Massive component shortages are a life, and death matter for
| small companies now, and it's not only about IC shortage.
|
| What we had in the industry for last 5-6 year is a chronic
| shortages, and interruptions of supplies of passives for
| example.
|
| Redesigning entire power supply circuit, and re-layouting the
| PCB because one can't find a high spec capacitor? Happened many
| times on my watch.
|
| Doing design is only like 10% of time one spends to manufacture
| anything, and because of that it's not rational to obsess over
| it.
|
| For an enthusiast team, just getting anything, even a prototype
| run coming out of a factory is where 9 out of 10 projects
| stall.
|
| People run out of the financial runway thinking the factory
| gate being the finish point... and then they get an email like
| "Please redesign all your design, and do it 1 week or loose the
| manufacturing time slot"
| rrmm wrote:
| Yeah,the technical challenge of getting something working
| usually end up being the easier part. Manufacturing ends up
| being very difficult: at a small scale, it's super expensive
| and at a medium to large scale, logistics becomes difficult.
|
| At every scale changes to the design (either for enhancements
| or EOL parts) is expensive. Injection molding dies require
| significant engineering, setup, and futzing-with to bring to
| production. More recent innovations in mfr'ing can be helpful
| (speed up prototyping and lower the cost of spinning molds or
| dies) but can't completely liberate you from the
| difficulties.
|
| I would love to see stuff like this succeed, but the
| difficulty can't be underestimated.
| alex-a-soto wrote:
| Thank you for your feedback. I agree with your points;
| manufacturing is an essential part of the process that I
| neglected to include in the article. Thank you for bringing
| it up. When we are at that stage, I would appreciate your
| feedback and suggestions.
| baybal2 wrote:
| Can only tell there is no easy way.
|
| Either you have lots of trial, and error yourself, or you
| pay somebody for a bit less of it, but still nowhere near a
| complete assurance.
|
| An experienced contractor may keep burning your money, but
| deliver something in the end.
|
| If you yourself is not confident in your experience, there
| is a risk your team just running out of enthusiasm, and
| patience, if not money without seeing the light in the end
| of the tunnel.
| tyler109 wrote:
| Direct invite link to EI2030 community discord for anyone that
| doesn't want to search: https://discord.gg/nnxKnxh
| mitchs wrote:
| From what I've seen working on an e-reader, a big problem for any
| open source e ink product is the things EIH wants to keep secret
| about their displays. If you want to use the nice partial refresh
| waveform, the open source aspect of this is going to run face
| first into secrecy requirements. The company selling you the
| display controller may be willing to build you an out of tree
| kernel module, and you can totally figure out what it does, but
| it won't be open source at that point.
| tediousdemise wrote:
| I'm looking forward to the day we get 60Hz and 120Hz e-ink
| panels.
| Solocomplex wrote:
| A mouse based interface is a non-starter for sure.
| thescriptkiddie wrote:
| E Ink can do 15-30 Hz refresh rates as long as you are only
| updating a small portion of the screen every frame.
| ece wrote:
| This seems perfect for editing/programming, but I'm wondering
| what the limitation is?
| tyler109 wrote:
| They are quite expensive
| bogwog wrote:
| There's a company called Dasung which sells eink computer
| monitors that refresh fast enough for full-screen video
| playback: https://youtu.be/AeC3LIFTaho?t=249
| sarabad2021 wrote:
| $1000+ price tag O-o -- Hopefully there will be enough
| demand to eventually make e-ink monitors mainstream so we
| can see the prices come down
| MrJagil wrote:
| Is it possible that an e-ink monitor could be an incidental
| offspring product of this project?
|
| I'm super eager to get one but most are either terribly small or
| prohibitively expensive.
|
| I'm a sound designer. I just need to see the meters bouncing in
| my DAW and a reasonably updating zoom function and mouse
| movement. I dont need awesome fps and i dont need amazing colors.
| I think there's an abundance of similar professionals. E-ink is
| not just for writers and coders as many seem to claim :)
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| That's a rather poor use case for e-ink screens. Bouncing
| meters would be pretty confusing when they blink between white
| and black while being updated (and an LCD would likely consume
| less power for that anyway), and mouse movement is pretty much
| the worst thing to handle for e-ink screens. I'd say that this
| use case is on the opposite end of usefulness spectrum for
| those screens than writing text or coding.
| MrJagil wrote:
| Ah, the refresh rate is that bad? I recently watched the
| preview video for dasungs new monitor and was hoping we'd be
| there soon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRvlJ2HjH30
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| While that is certainly impressive, try writing a simple
| app that hides the system cursor and renders its own one
| with such low FPS - you'll get tired of it very quickly
| (and I'm sure all game developers out there will agree
| without second thoughts :)). It may be good for
| occasionally clicking something to change the screen, but
| surely not for working with mouse in a DAW. You'll even
| have troubles with accurate targeting unless you move
| really slowly.
| MrJagil wrote:
| Yeah, just saw someone playing call of duty on e-ink:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RQFYVfIgz0
|
| Despite looking plausible, I think it would actually end
| up more straining on the eyes than just an lcd. Maybe in
| a few years...
|
| Edit: it's interesting, it looks great when he's writing
| on the screen with a stylus. Wonder why a mouse would be
| so much worse.
|
| Edit 2: this is what a dasung monitor looks like
| scrolling, mouse cursor etc:
| https://youtu.be/5pevlmk5kQs?t=655
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| It's simple - writing on the screen with a stylus is a
| perfect use case for e-ink screen because the latency
| doesn't really matter that much (I mean, the threshold
| where it becomes unacceptable is much higher) and you're
| just drawing on the screen as opposed to moving something
| that was already drawn there. I have played with simple
| drawing apps on a jailbroken Kindle many years ago.
|
| Mouse requires low latency to be useful as a pointing
| device. Do the exercise I've outlined in my earlier
| comment and you'll see for yourself why, really.
|
| That said, this Dasung screen has a really impressive
| latency for a e-ink screen. DAW work would still be
| tiring with it, but it feels like it's already unlocking
| lots of other possibilities (even though those fast modes
| leave lots of visual artifacts, but that's to be
| expected).
| solarkraft wrote:
| A friend and I have had somewhat concrete plans for a Linux
| (Pine64 SOPINE SoM) based e-Ink tablet for a while, but aren't as
| involved in supply chain stuff. Are the prices you get for orders
| of new screens in the same ball park as the old Kindle DX display
| stock? Are my fears that supply will dry up soon (in part due to
| new popularity) unfounded?
| devmor wrote:
| I've been trying to do some E-Ink stuff lately and prices seem
| to get higher the bigger you go and then drop off. Maybe I'm
| looking in the wrong places, but my experience is something
| like:
|
| 2.5 inch display - $1
|
| 6 inch display - $400
|
| 12 inch display: $1200
|
| 36 inch display: $1400
| Qwertious wrote:
| FWIW a 6-inch display is available for $100ish, because
| that's what Kindles use.
| devmor wrote:
| Seems you have to roll your own controller hardware though.
| jonathonlui wrote:
| Waveshare sells 1 to 13-inch panels for 7 to 540 USD:
| https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper.htm
|
| Pixel density isn't as good as say a nice Kindle, but they
| are usable. I've played around with one of their 1.5 inch
| module
|
| You can buy old 6" e-reader panels for ~22+ USD
| https://www.ebay.com/b/ed060sc4/bn_7024905630
|
| See https://spritesmods.com/?art=einkdisplay for how to drive
| them.
| devmor wrote:
| Oh the e-reader panels and that link are a godsend. Thank
| you!
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| Indeed and the biggest one is in fact much cheaper than
| 540USD (more like 180). The 540 is HDMI based.
| grogenaut wrote:
| Where have you seen a 36" screen for $1400
| devmor wrote:
| I don't remember exactly which one, but one of the big
| Chinese wholesalers. Alibaba, DHGate, etc.
| skerit wrote:
| Yes, please! (I just want any laptop that lets me actually use it
| outside and not be priced ridiculously.)
| tppiotrowski wrote:
| I heard e-ink displays use virtually no power except when they
| are refreshing. Say you're running an e-ink display that
| refreshes 60 times per second, is it still significantly more
| energy efficient than an LCD?
| Qwertious wrote:
| >Say you're running an e-ink display that refreshes 60 times
| per second, is it still significantly more energy efficient
| than an LCD?
|
| No.
|
| E-ink displays are more efficient because if they refresh e.g.
| 1 time a minute instead of 60 times a second, then they are
| refreshing 3600x less often. Even if they took 100x more power
| per refresh, they'd still end up using 36x less power overall.
| It gets even nuttier when you go to e.g. refreshing once a day
| instead of 60Hz (60 * 3600 * 24 = 5 184 000 refreshes, over
| FIVE MILLION).
|
| Please note that "e-ink" is basically a blanket term and
| contains a dozen different technologies (although almost all
| the screens that are actually sold at actual stores are
| electrophoretic displays), it's basically a genericized term
| based on E-Ink Corp so anything I say here is a sweeping
| summary.
| input_sh wrote:
| Refresh rate on e-ink displays is still nowhere near
| 60x/second, so we can only guess.
|
| Also in e-inks there's a difference between refreshing the
| entire screen and a part of it, depending on the
| implementation.
| jrrrr wrote:
| This is great!
|
| For years when discussing displays and computing ergonomics, I've
| claimed that I look forward to the day when my screen doesn't
| need to emit light, and maybe using it can feel more like paper.
|
| Reading this makes it seem less sci-fi future, and possible today
| if we can get enough interest/momentum.
|
| I'm trying to think of practical places to start for a sellable
| product. I love the Paperterm idea, but recognize that it's super
| niche. Maybe something focused on distraction-free writing?
| initramfs wrote:
| Hi jrrr! I am co-developer of PaperTerm- I agree it is very
| niche right now. The Pomera DM30 is a distraction free
| typewriter- it is relatively new (there is also much older
| options like the AlphaSmart Neo2)- I hope to develop something
| similar to that with a laptop and some more office apps. I also
| research solar power managers, as the low power is definitely
| feasible with e-ink.
| jfim wrote:
| > Pomera DM30
|
| Wow, thanks for the heads-up that they actually released
| this! I backed their Kickstarter a few years ago (which
| didn't raise enough money), but you'd think they'd send an
| update after releasing the actual device.
| jseliger wrote:
| There is also https://getfreewrite.com.
| torgoguys wrote:
| Yes, PaperTerm is niche, but the more you look around, the more
| you see people suggesting a portable terminal-only device, so I
| don't think the niche is all too tiny. The e-ink screen and
| battery life are the killer features.
|
| Plenty of us around here basically live in the terminal and if
| such a device existed at a reasonable price, I think uptake
| would be pretty good. It presents itself as a _tool_ , not a
| do-everything panacea. It could be extended in small ways to
| fit the distraction-free-writing crowd and the like without
| compromising on its killer features. Basically a tool for a few
| niches--sysadmins/devops, developers, embedded device
| communications, distraction-free writing. Put a good terminal-
| based browser on a server (e.g., further develop brow.sh) and
| it opens up a huge number of other niches.
| fortran77 wrote:
| Actually, PaperTerm + offline eBook and PDF reader would be a
| great compromise. It can be useful when you're connected and
| when you're not.
| jaypeg25 wrote:
| I'd love to see some cross between a Kindle and iPad..something
| focused on reading, but not necessarily books. At night I tend
| to browse various sites ranging from WaPo, Defector, The
| Athletic, and New Yorker, and others on my RSS feed and if I
| could do so on a simple eink tablet I'd probably reach for that
| more often than my phone or laptop.
|
| Honestly if Feedly or a similar RSS reader came out with a
| dedicated eink reader it'd probably be a day one purchase for
| me, but maybe I'm in the minority.
| hashmymustache wrote:
| Is the reMarkable 2 tablet not a fit for that? Haven't tried
| it myself so not sure what its limitations are.
| breck wrote:
| Yes. I got a reMarkable 2 recently and use it all the time.
| Mostly for note taking and thinking, but recently to read
| PDFs as well. ePubs are next. And I'm exploring ways to
| read RSS feeds/blogs on there too.
|
| Highly recommend it. I consider it a breakthrough tool for
| thought.
| mattm wrote:
| Check out Onyx Max Lumi. It runs Android so you can install
| apps on it. I have the Feedly app installed and it works
| pretty good.
| jaypeg25 wrote:
| Oh man this seems great...very interested. Might give it a
| shot, thanks for the heads up!
| tyler109 wrote:
| That's a good point, what is the first adressable market for
| such a product to gain first momentum before it can become
| mainstream. Those seem to be low hanging fruits:
|
| -Writers -Coders/Terminal Users like sysadmins -DIY/Hardware
| Hackers/Raspberry PI/ESP32/Cyberdeck folks -Productivity
| Hackers -Health Tech folks -Gadget Lovers -Limited
| Functionality Devices for Education -Folks with medical pre-
| conditions who need to use eink (e.g. https://dasung-
| tech.myshopify.com/blogs/news/how-dasungs-e-i...)
|
| I think there is a market, I am just surprised that we take
| usual monitor like eye-strain as well as the blue light for
| granted and haven't done anything against it for years. Even
| though we are having more display usage than ever.
| offtop5 wrote:
| I'd have no problem paying 1500$ for this. As many of us age ,
| EInk feels much better to read.
| neolog wrote:
| Is that a solar panel on top? Can it power the computer?
| initramfs wrote:
| Hi, neolog! I lead the solar/low-power OS group. The picture in
| the article is from a Samsung NC215S from 2011, though few, if
| any laptops have been made to run solar. I am researching ways
| to use microcontrollers to run a limited form of linux as well
| as drive a basic e-ink display like a solar calculator, rather
| than long recharging times as in the Samsung, which used an
| Atom cpu. In this video I was able to power a microcontroller
| on just indoor light:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ztj_MDNRcI I've tried to put
| together a laptop with a solar panel, but of course it is not
| yet practical:
| https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1784621#p...
| Our discord group is here: https://discord.com/invite/nnxKnxh
| Feel free to check out our #solar & #paperterm projects!
| babyshake wrote:
| I've been looking for a good color e-Ink picture frame with WiFi
| to hack on. It seems like with component shortages this would not
| be possible with my target price point of $200?
| seba_dos1 wrote:
| AFAIK Inkplate (https://inkplate.io/) is supposed to get a
| color version later this year.
| mg wrote:
| I wonder if it would be possible to build a "Mobile outdoor e-ink
| workstation" by combining some of the shelf components:
|
| - A Raspberry Pi
|
| - A keyboard
|
| - A mobile E Ink monitor
|
| - A USB power bar
|
| I imagine the Raspberry and the power bar in a case with two USB
| ports. Then one cable goes to the monitor and another to the
| keyboard.
|
| This might have the additional benefit that one can put the
| monitor on something when working. So it is more ergonomic than
| looking down to a laptop.
| skykooler wrote:
| The Raspberry Pi may be a poor choice as it does not support
| power management; there are other SBCs which would get
| significantly improved battery life when not at 100%
| utilization, with similar performance.
| RealStickman_ wrote:
| IIRC pine64 aim to provide an e-ink display to accompany their
| next SBC.
| chaostheory wrote:
| I just want a kindle with a much larger screen. I don't care
| how thick or heavy it is. I would just buy a Sony if the
| software was better.
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