
Lego Macintosh Classic with e‑paper display - andrevoget
https://jann.is/lego-macintosh-classic/
======
antirez
Is somebody able to explain why certain e-ink displays are so slow to refresh
while others are much faster? For instance my Garmin Vivoactive HR e-ink
display, that is even capable of displaying 64 colors, is like an LCD display
in terms of refresh rate apparently, you can't see the difference easily,
while the one that was used to build this project takes a lot of time to even
show a single frame (see the Youtube video where the display is presented,
following the link Jann provided in the blog post). My best guess is that they
use completely different technologies.

EDIT: Vivoactive HR uses a Transreflective LCD actually. This web site
explains very well how it works:

[http://t17.net/transflectiveTFT/](http://t17.net/transflectiveTFT/)

~~~
crazydoggers
That's because your Garmin actually uses a type of 'transreflective' LCD and
not e-ink...

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transflective_liquid-
crystal...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transflective_liquid-
crystal_display)

~~~
antirez
Ok cool, thank you. The contrast is actually _not_ like an e-ink display, but
under sunlight it becomes excellent.

------
alexandros
Incredible work jayniz -- I guess everyone and their mother is suggesting
improvements, are you preparing a new version with the rpi zero W and non-cut
lego blocks?

Disclaimer: resin.io founder, we're so happy you chose resin for this awesome
project ;)

~~~
jayniz
Ha, exactly, but it's all good :) One guy actually made an LDD model that
would require no cutting. I'll post it as a follow up on my blog.

Also to everybody reading this: I'd respond to the other comments but hacker
news doesn't let me ("you're submitting too fast" even though I didn't write
anything since half an hour or so)

------
redsummer
I'd love a pi with an e-paper display (larger than the lego Mac) which just
booted into Raspbian CLI. Has such a thing been done?

~~~
lucaspiller
I'd also love something like that. It seems there is a lack of demand though,
as larger e-ink displays get expensive [0] and the only kits designed for the
Raspberry Pi are small (<3"), so you'd need to figure out the protocol
yourself.

That combined with a small keyboard and a phone for a hotspot would be
awesome, I'd love to be able to sit in a park and code in the summer...

[0] 7.4" for $122, they sell a 10" for $300 [http://www.digikey.com/product-
detail/en/SW074AS182/SW074AS1...](http://www.digikey.com/product-
detail/en/SW074AS182/SW074AS182-ND/4898789)

~~~
detaro
Look into jailbroken e-readers. Not as much freedom with the hardware,
potentially driver issues for peripherals, but cheap.

Recent relevant HN thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13863046](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13863046)

~~~
0942v8653
Hey, that's my thread! In case anyone's wondering, I ended up with a $25 Nook
Simple Touch. If you just want the screen and no touch capability, then look
through the rest of the thread. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to play
with it much yet, but I can tell you the rooting process works very smoothly
for the NST.

------
aphextron
It looks like there's a business opportunity here for someone to make a really
slick browser based LEGO editor that does cost estimates and orders all the
correct components for you when you're finished. I'm curious how large the
market for such a thing would be.

~~~
tyingq
There's this:
[https://www.mecabricks.com/en/workshop](https://www.mecabricks.com/en/workshop)

No integrated purchase though.

~~~
aphextron
I see. As with any decent obvious idea, it's already been done 10x better than
I could hope to. Thanks.

------
walrus01
The Mac 128k was not from 1988. In that time frame, The Mac plus was the first
really usable model with a 20MB HDD.

~~~
redacted
jayniz - all your comments on this post are dead, it looks like you may have
been shadowbanned

(apologies for hijacking the comment!)

~~~
jayniz2
Well that explains why my post of this story got no upvotes. Thanks for
telling me. No idea why my account would be shadowbanned. How do I unban it?

Anyways, here's my response to walrus01:

The Mac 128k is a different model, check out the floppy slot!

~~~
phpnode
> No idea why my account would be shadowbanned.

3 years ago you committed the offence of punning on HN,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5144413](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5144413)

~~~
StavrosK
Shunnnnnnnn

------
jordache
I don't get it.. is it just using e-ink to display greyscale image? So that's
just a screenshot of app chrome and the hello text?

------
mamcx
I wish exist a e-paper suitable for use as monitor (21" at least)

* I mean, not a prototype in a galaxy far away

~~~
jkaunisv1
My dream is an e-paper laptop

~~~
emptythought
Don't let your dreams be dreams: [https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/how-to-
install-pixel-qis...](https://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/how-to-install-
pixel-qis-3qi-display-on-your-netbook-and-why/)

(A friend of mine is about to order this, i've seen it, it's as awesome as
you'd imagine)

~~~
Sephr
That's not e-paper.

------
TheRealPomax
Now it just needs to accept "something" through the slot to trigger
"something" to happen on the screen.

------
rangibaby
Pics need a banana for scale

/E I'm serious though, it is hard to tell how large it is from the pics

~~~
TeMPOraL
In the colourful prototype picture there's a bottle cap for scale. It's a
breach of Internet etiquette, which would require a banana, but it works for
the purpose.

~~~
throwanem
"Banana for scale" is really just Reddit and Imgur.

~~~
TeMPOraL
And Reddit is the front page of the Internet ;).

------
doomslay
Cutting lego bricks? Eugh. There's specific bricks that would have worked
exactly.

~~~
jayniz2
Don't worry, I discussed this with the folks at LEGO already and we're good:
[http://imgur.com/dOkyl4S](http://imgur.com/dOkyl4S)

But yeah, after this post some nice folks showed me how a <2mm wall can be
achieved without slaughtering bricks (special wall pieces, mounted sideways to
allow for the left side of the display's board to disappear in in the Mac's
frame).

~~~
alexvoda
What bricks are those? I don't really see how you would build that wall. It
looks like it needs to be thinner than 1 unit.

Also can the floppy slot be used for the microSD card?

~~~
bullman
This brick:

NzRyg7XKhGLLe6BXzQn7p1wMA9PG1ouPG2a6DO1ey5gmlqqAT6YDwdTAjOXZGlZc6k8bYqlm2Q5DuHmtFj4oJWemEFmi9MhJ6h1Q

I think there others too

~~~
mynameisvlad
Um. Did you mean to post a link? All I see is garbled text.

------
maaaats
How powerful is this small replica compared to the original hardware?

~~~
giancarlostoro
8mhz vs 1.2GHz

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Classic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Classic)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi)

------
timvdalen
Looks really slick! Is there any way to interact with the system though?

Is the Pi actually running Mac OS or is it just a static image?

~~~
gryphel
It should be able to run Mac OS software using an emulator, similar to a
previous project that used a Raspberry Pi:

[http://retromaccast.ning.com/profiles/blogs/honey-i-
shrunk-t...](http://retromaccast.ning.com/profiles/blogs/honey-i-shrunk-the-
computer) [https://www.engadget.com/2013/08/28/mini-classic-
macintosh-m...](https://www.engadget.com/2013/08/28/mini-classic-macintosh-
made-with-raspberry-pi/)

------
ohitsdom
Awesome project!

Would anyone else chose a different software solution rather than Docker with
resin.io? I love working on projects like this but I've stayed away from
Docker so far. Docker plus a third-party service to manage it seems like it
could be overkill, but it obviously got the job done.

~~~
aroman
Speaking as a resin fan, you need to know 0 about docker to use it. It does
virtually everything for you, the fact that it's docker underneath is hidden
entirely except in that you can write a dockerfile.

It's like how you don't need to provision hardware with Heroku. You just git
push. And it works.

------
codecamper
That's awesome... but can you really play shufflepuck on eInk? I miss
shufflepuck too!

~~~
djsumdog
Yea, I was expecting he was going to run an emulator of some kind; was
confused about the docker image.

~~~
tedmiston
I'm also wondering if it's running software or displaying a static image.

------
NoGravitas
Now this really needs to be running Basilisk II and a System 7 ROM. Hook up a
Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and you're set.

------
AKifer
Probably that's how we will build computers in 20 years.

~~~
_sbrk
Docker emulator images on ARM hardware? Hardly.

------
amelius
Does it emulate the Macintosh Classic?

------
mproud
Why would you put an e-ink display on this if it’s not going to be used?

------
hilti
Pretty cool. I like it!

------
ge96
nice font

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ruthtaylor123
Thats a good loooking website. Thumbs up!

~~~
jayniz2
Thanks, it's just the default theme from ghost.org :)

------
jlebrech
no mac os?

