It's an interesting hack. I do wonder whether or not it's a little over-engineered. When you look at the costs of all the kit versus maybe an older OLPC type computer off ebay I'm not sure how well it stacks up.
Then again, it's probably pretty good in sunlight and despite the refresh rate issues considering idle time in an editor it might be a very good use of the e-ink screen. And as I said, it is a nice hack. Certainly better than most raspberry pi posts I've seen.
That said, I can certainly see the appeal of a device with a week-long battery life and a sunlight-readable screen for some sort of 'hacking retreats'. I could imagine writing something big on the Trans-Siberian Express with a similar rig.
Nice hack. I would have liked to see some power draw measurements on this. The LiPo battery is a good source of power, however if the draw is low enough, a portable solar power source would allow for indefinite usage (perhaps even charging the LiPo, which would be used as a night time power source only).
Its an awesome hack but i dont really see the benfit vs some ultrabook with a matte screen. Batterylife is worse sure, but most probably you wont be sitting somewhere without power for more than 4-5 hours anyway.
Perhaps you need to think of this hack as something that is useful not in the case of when you are stuck in a place for only 4-5 hours, but instead something for when you deliberately plan to be off the grid for more than 4-5 hours.
Such a fun idea. And I had no idea miniature USB-powered routers existed... definitely added to my wish list. I'm saddened to say that I haven't put my Pi to creative use since receiving it a few months ago.
If you buy this one(1) and load OpenWRT(2) on it, you can probably pretty much skip the RasPi, plus you can stick a 3G stick in the side and be online anywhere.
I'm convinced that e-ink displays will become ubiquitous in a not-so-far future.
A e-ink screen is a great idea for a workstation aimed at text editing, be it writing emails or programs or even using spreadsheet software.
I spend most of the day in front of a screen blasting light into my face and I find it very aggressive. I'd be ready to pay a good price for a 20"-ish e-ink display that i could plug into my PC.
He says the setup means terminal only. I'm not familiar with the Kindle, but there is a browser "built in". Perhaps it is very awkward to switch between the terminal and other apps, but it should be possible to do webdev with a server on the Raspberry and test in the Kindle browser.
i am not sure if that is possible actually, since the kindle's browser's connection is routed through amazon's servers to optimise the webpage for the kindle and to compress it. therefore it might not be possible to access local pages on it. although there could certainly be a hack allowing this.
The refresh rate problem possibly has a neat solution from computing history. Surely those people using punched card and paper tape have some ideas that could be useful?
Maybe instead of updating the screen every keypress it could update every time Enter is pressed?
I loved the screen of the OLPC XO laptop. I know we're really pushing for high resolution/Retina displays, but when it comes to laptop and mobile screens, usability in portable/mobile situations is desirable.
So funny that you mention this as I just today busted out my OLPC (first gen from the original G1G1) to do some hacking by the pool. It's still such a solid lil laptop, and the tiny keyboard is a small price to pay for such a beautiful screen in direct sunlight.
I'd take an underpowered laptop with a screen like that over a MBP retina any day.
The same people that designed the OLPC screen started up a company called Pixel Qi. I bought one of their screens and stuck in a Samsung netbook - it's pure heaven in sunlight.
Then again, it's probably pretty good in sunlight and despite the refresh rate issues considering idle time in an editor it might be a very good use of the e-ink screen. And as I said, it is a nice hack. Certainly better than most raspberry pi posts I've seen.