Very cool project! Love seeing a device like this in the DIY space. Personally, I would've just gone with a generic controller for the epaper display with a video out, and an infrared touchscreen, that way you could send the video signal and touch input to something like a Raspberry Pi or other single board computer and run Android or Linux. You could also just use it as an external display this way. I hope it being open source will lead to these ideas becoming reality.
LIKE I love the idea. Because I hate how Amazon put the idea of e-ink display in a jail!!!! Forcing everybody who wants to read books to chain themselves to this evil Corp :(
The concept is an 11/10. I just wish it was bigger. I use an old rooted Nook for reading right now and even that could be like half an inch bigger (so I can read comic books and manga :))
good luck. watch out for amazon, among others, of whom dont particularly appreciate the idea of potential competitors that may pose a threat to their market control. also, you should really make a way to either convert from pdf/epub or read pdf/epub, whether by partitioning pages into subsections or otherwise; many textual archives are primarily created/saved in such formats, so i feel it's important to consider for such a thing. also, when the technology comes around in the not so distant future, keep an eye out for higher resolution displays; this would make use of epubs and pdfs much easier on such a device (as opposed to being confined to the likes of a 400x300 resolution). anyways, cant wait to see where this goes! keep up the great work!
I was all set to order the parts and build one, but the epaper is out of production and out of stock. Are there any other part numbers that are cross refrenced? GDEW042T2
"Hello, first of all, thank you for your efforts! I haven’t made a PCB board yet, it’s built with discrete components. esp32-s3-wroom-1 n16r8. Now why does my e-book stop at the ‘flashing language chip’ screen, the circuit has been checked and there is no problem. The TF card has also copied the ‘babel.bin’ file. The file system of the TF card is FAT32."Thank you again!
I love this projects. What would be great is a library of interface boards that would allow it to use salvaged displays from faulty Kindle or Kobo readers that have very little value when faulty or simply old.
this could teach the world to read, to program, to think... this is the future and gives me hope where once it seemed lost. Especially if you can change the powersource from a lithium battery to something more environmentally friendly
Oh, this is _beautiful._ Assuming the capabilities of such devices improve in the future (people here are mentioning links and similar navigation features; and possibly Epub or PDF support [though I'm not sure the micro used would be capable of such things] or some sort of basic markup language at least), this is how I want technology to present itself. Open hardware, open software, assembly instructions built-in; designed to be made, repaired, and used by real human beings, respecting them all the way... it's just a beautiful artifact, even separate from its utility.
This is amazing !! I have been looking for a simple pocket e-reader that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Then this pops up where you get to make it yourself and I can use my 3d printer as well I'm in !
To be fair, as far as I can tell, it seems that the biggest problems are with Amazon and their Kindle ecosystem. Pretty much every other ereader out there on the market allows you to put EPUB and other files on it directly without ever connecting it to the internet. This is an interesting project, though I'm a little wary of the fact that it seems that some of the parts have to be obtained from sources like AliExpress.
I can't tell how hard it would be, but I think it's possible to rewrite the device for a Waveshare screen - I'm waiting for an answer from the creator on that one. What other parts are from AliExpress?
It's a cool idea but how exactly would that help authors? Sure, at least you can keep daddy Bezos from seeing how many pages of fifty shades of grey you've read but where are you getting the books from? If you need to pirate books in order to use this and you want to actually support the author than honestly just buy physical books instead. Still a cool project though.
