

Making ePaper easy to use for developers - syedkarim
http://repaper.org/

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hucker
So when is someone going to release a Kickstarter for a small laptop with a
10.2" [0] ePaper display so I can finally work out in the sun?

[0]: <http://www.pervasivedisplays.com/products/panels>

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syedkarim
Hell, if this comment gets enough upvotes, I'll launch the KickStarter.
Raspberry Pi-ePaper laptop?

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some1else
We'd also need an epaper aware Window Manager

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laurentoget
Out of curiosity and because i am too lazy to pretend i want some and request
a quote from the vendor, does anybody know what is a ballpark figure for the
cost of those displays?

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Groxx
<http://www.adafruit.com/products/1346>

2.7" with the dev kit for $40, so not too expensive overall. I'm requesting a
quote from another company at the moment since I'm curious :)

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Ecio78
Let us know what they say! :)

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Groxx
So far, $250 for the 7.4" "EVAL" kit (from pervasive displays). A heck of a
lot more reasonable than the last time I looked at e-ink screens ($10,000 for
a single 6" dev kit). I'm not quite sure I grasp what it includes, but it
sounds fairly barebone:

> _The 7.4” EVAL kit includes the 7.4” EPD panel, a timing controller, a
> pattern generator and interconnect cables_

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dustismo
Doesnt look like this supports displays larger then a couple inches. I would
love to get a largish e-ink display so I could code outside (slow refresh rate
is fine, just needs to support a terminal).

Anyhow, is a step in the right direction to have small hackable eink displays.

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Tcepsa
I noticed that there was a 10.2" display on the PDI website. It looks like
it's not supported by the current prototyping kits, but I am hoping that will
change down the road; I'd love to hack around with something that big!

On the other hand, it could be a fun challenge to try to integrate a bunch of
the smaller displays into a single large one--though I imagine the novelty of
coding on something like that would wear off pretty quickly ~wry grin~

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dustismo
I saw that, 10.2 would be a workable size I think. Then a bunch of smaller
ones surrounding, for a sort of tiled wm.

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toddmorey
> To get started with ePaper development you will need a display and the
> RePaper Extension board

As someone new to ePaper development, where/how do you get a compatible
display?

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pflats
The next sentence says:

"The EPD extension board supports driving PDI’s 1.44, 2.0, and 2.7 inch
E-Paper display (EPD) modules."

"PDI's" links to: <http://www.pervasivedisplays.com/products/panels>

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pepijndevos
"Get a quote", I bet you it's not easy to get _one_ display from them. Maybe
if you buy >100...

IMO RePaper should buy a batch of them and let me order it with a few simple
clicks.

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moskovich
We're selling our displays through Adafruit. Sorry that wasn't clear. I'll
rework the site's text. Appreciate the feedback.

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some1else
I worked with Visionect to create an interactive menu using their ePaper
Development Kit[1]. The ePaper technology itself has refresh speed
limitations, but great resolution & power-saving advantages. Their SDK exposes
a JavaScript API for handling display refresh, which was easy to implement in
Backbone.js render methods. You should try this if you want to build an MVC
App[2] on an ePaper device.

[1] [http://electronics.visionect.si/products-hardware/epaper-
dev...](http://electronics.visionect.si/products-hardware/epaper-development-
kits/6-rapid-epaper-development-kit/)

[2] <http://geoffrey.si/>

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phunge
Wonderful, wonderful stuff. ePaper has been an interesting technology paired
with a closed ecosystem for way too long.

I had seen the displays for sale on adafruit but to see the whole picture is
really great.

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pepijndevos
So far it has been really hard buying E-paper displays as a hobbyist, with
Sparkfun[1] being the only easy option. Crap, scrape that... it has been
retired.

I once tried to get some people together and make a kit[2], but that project
never went anywhere.

[1]: <https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10150>

[2]: <http://wishfulcoding.nl/epaper/>

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moskovich
Agreed. We're looking to change that. Hope you can try our kits and let us
know how to improve.

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codezero
Looks pretty neat. I can't find it on their site, but will this work with
Raspberry Pi? I presume so, but it's not listed under their fully supported
list.

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wcunning
It will, but they don't provide code examples. This display is interfaced via
a SPI connection, and the RPi has one SPI bus (see:
<http://elinux.org/RPi_SPI>). I expect that a community driver will be written
presently now that there are eyeballs on this project.

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moskovich
We are working on a proper Linux driver but it's a few months away. For now,
you can run the Sketches on Raspberry Pi. These guys did it based on our code:
[http://www.embeddedartists.com/products/displays/lcd_27_epap...](http://www.embeddedartists.com/products/displays/lcd_27_epaper.php)

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atgm
I've had a few things I've wanted to do with ePaper but have never found a
decent development kit -- everything I found when I searched last year was
along the lines of a small, thin strip. No big panels like you'd find in a
Kindle.

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gdonelli
I have always wanted a e-Ink display connected to my iPhone, perhaps now we
can make one ourselves! Interested helping me out? please email me at giovanni
dot donelli at gmail

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gdonelli
or even better connect with me here: <http://www.linkedin.com/in/gdonelli>

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Rickasaurus
What I really want is epaper that can refresh fast/high-res enough to code
with pen input. Any idea if this will ever happen?

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devindotcom
They were working on some interesting stuff at Bridgestone of all places,
called Aerobee, but that was two years ago.. it's not profitable when there
are only a couple big buyers of the things and you don't make much margin
since they're all budget devices. I think the tech will stay around in a low
key way until a major breakthrough, and you'll hear about it.

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jagermo
Qualcom has been working on Mirasol [0], an alternative to ePaper for a long
time now. I saw it 4 years ago at Mobile World Congress and it really looks
nice. Full colour screens and the more light you pump in, the better it looks.

Sadly, so far they are nowhere near a commercial rollout.

[0] www.qualcomm.com/mirasol

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pepijndevos
I thought they actually gave up on that product because the production costs
are to heigh.

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jagermo
i thought they started some small productions of products in asia, ereaders
etc. I think they still work in it, but there is no upcoming product.

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pdog
_> If the history of the Internet has proven anything, it is that open
technologies lead to unbounded innovation and unprecedented value added to the
entire economy._

When has that been true for _hardware_? It seems to me that the most exciting
hardware innovations have been proprietary models.

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ekianjo
So Arduino does not count for anything?

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u2328
Nor the Raspberry Pi?

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pdog
Agreed! Either would have been a better example for this project, I think.

