[HN Gopher] Modos Paper Monitor Pre-Launch on Crowd Supply
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Modos Paper Monitor Pre-Launch on Crowd Supply
Author : dotcoma
Score : 135 points
Date : 2024-05-21 03:23 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.modos.tech)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.modos.tech)
| promiseofbeans wrote:
| How have they managed to get such smooth video/scrolling on an
| e-ink screen? All the other things I've seen have this jarring
| black flash every refresh.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| The flash kind of "resets" each pixel. You can update without
| the flash (and some e-readers support this) but artifacts
| slowly accumulate.
|
| In the video they show a mode where it is B&W while scrolling,
| but after stopping the scroll it flashes and renders in gray-
| scale. The narrator mentions several possible modes; noting
| that 16-shade gray-scale is too slow for any interactive use
| (including typing), but 4-shade can allow typing and B&W can
| allow fast scrolling &c.
| toast0 wrote:
| They discuss a lot of this in their linked readme:
| https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider?tab=readme-ov-file#low-...
| JonChesterfield wrote:
| Sounds great. Emacs in the sun, hope it comes to pass. Nice to
| see the fpga playground too.
| lsb wrote:
| Looks similar to the Dasung monitor latency. Would be interested
| to see a comparison, both for features and performance and price
| promiseofbeans wrote:
| For those interested, their readme file has a really great
| explanation of how e-ink displays work, the ideas behind them,
| and how they compare to LCDs at various tasks:
| https://github.com/Modos-Labs/Glider
| dang wrote:
| Discussed recently:
|
| _Glider - open-source eInk monitor with an emphasis on low
| latency_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40358309 - May
| 2024 (146 comments)
|
| Also related:
|
| _Modos Paper Monitor (2022)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37740483 - Oct 2023 (73
| comments)
|
| _The Modos Paper Monitor_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31899012 - June 2022 (1
| comment)
|
| _The Modos Paper Monitor_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31858659 - June 2022 (82
| comments)
|
| _The Modos Paper Monitor_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31837548 - June 2022 (1
| comment)
|
| _Would You Buy the First Laptop with an E-Paper Screen?_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31750028 - June 2022 (15
| comments)
|
| _The Modos Paper Laptop_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31394226 - May 2022 (224
| comments)
|
| _Modos: The World's First E-ink Laptop_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29929446 - Jan 2022 (13
| comments)
| chias wrote:
| I know the Crowd Supply part isn't live yet but I wish this had
| some kind of ballpark cost, at least to an order of magnitude.
| Are we talking $300 or $3000?
| 1d22a wrote:
| To give an indication, similar e-ink panels (the likely most
| expensive single component) to what they seem to be using can
| be found on AliExpress for a bit below 200usd.
| GrantMoyer wrote:
| Given that a 13in e-ink display is 450$ by itself[1], and the
| FPGA costs about 75$[2], I'd guess north of 600$. I've no
| thoughts on an upper bound though.
|
| [1]:
| https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/13.3''ePaperDisp...
|
| [2]: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/AMD-
| Xilinx/XC6SLX16-3CS...
| devsda wrote:
| For the complete monitor, a 13.3 e-ink screen alone has a
| retail cost of around 350-400 USD depending on where you look.
| There's also the FPGA and other components.
|
| We have commercial displays of similar size available around
| 800 usd. So, adding up the manufacturing, development and other
| overheads my guess is it could be around 1000 USD.
|
| The dev kit should cost less if we can source the monitor &
| enclosure ourselves.
|
| I didn't go through the complete list of supported hardware but
| if we can get the dev kit work with old kindle or kobo 6"
| displays it should be an interesting diy to work on.
| ggm wrote:
| I'd love to have one, I have glare issues at work and home where
| this would hopefully help, being unwilling to simply black out
| the window.
|
| I like having both a sky, and somewhat changing digital artifacts
| in my field of view.
|
| A minor concern is that there are so few supply chains for the
| underlying technology. This is a bit like "that screen really
| came from Samsung like all the others" or the more real world of
| where disk platters come from (Thailand, for almost everyone, at
| one point if not continuously)
| cinbun8 wrote:
| From looking at the demo, you might still have glare issues.
| You want this display if you'd like one that goes easy on your
| eyes.
| imp0cat wrote:
| I have my screen placed on a table that sits right next to a
| window and use motorized blinds that have slats which can be
| tilted for adjustable light control. These let me have both a
| great view and some protection from the direct sunlight.
| _giorgio_ wrote:
| I've stopped having eye strain issues since I've started using
| night mode 24/7.
|
| Before that, sometimes I worked using my kindle as a screen
| connected to the computer. Which was a nice distraction free
| environment.
| barelyusable wrote:
| How did you connect Kindle to your computer ?
| _giorgio_ wrote:
| It depends on the kindle. I had an old jailbroken kindle.
| Maybe that more modern ones work without jailbreaking.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/kindle/comments/17uf45p/kindle_as_c.
| ..
| geraldwhen wrote:
| IDEA needs to create a theme or mode built for e ink displays.
| That would be something.
| robxorb wrote:
| If you only want a demo with explanation of its features:
|
| https://youtube.com/watch?time_continue=97&v=pXn-bAwzNv4
|
| (Links to 1m 37s in the video on the submission page.)
| Weryj wrote:
| Absolute massive fan of E-Ink and quite disappointed it's been on
| the back burner for so many years. I imagine it being one of the
| perfect devices for a software developer.
| throwaway81523 wrote:
| 13.3" but the github page lists some alternative, larger
| displays. Supports some interesting interfaces. Seems to need USB
| PD power so it sounds power hungry. Regular 5 volt USB would be
| nice, for this to be a good companion display to a Raspberry Pi
| or the like. Otoh it sounds like the complete monitor will cost
| around $1K based on comments below.
|
| I'm still mostly interested in an Inkplate 10 though 13.3" is a
| better size for an e-reader. For a desktop monitor I really want
| 20" or larger. For E-ink that would be super expensive.
| tecleandor wrote:
| I guess it's not exactly that it _needs_ USB PD, but that it 's
| pretty convenient.
|
| Also, it seems like large panels could be relatively power
| hungry, at least on peaks, to be powered by a classic 5V USB
| brick, when the standard is limited from 55mA to 1.5A (rarely)
| [0].
|
| The CrowdSupply page says it includes an "E-paper power supply
| with up to 1 A peak current on +/-15 V rail supporting large
| panels sizes".
|
| 0:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#Allowable_current...
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(page generated 2024-05-21 12:00 UTC)