So, I'm interested in trying to build my own eReader. I'd like for it to run linux, so that it can run KOReader, Plato. I'd like for it to have about a 6 or 7 inch screen, which a backlight. I think a touchscreen would be great, but maybe buttons to start with... I want to chase down a few different options - [Inkplate](https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-6plus#products): they're an open hardware and software product from Soldered sold on CrowdSupply, but runs ESP32 - [OpenBook](https://www.oddlyspecificobjects.com/projects/openbook/), this is what started my interest in this, but again targets ESP32 or pico - MNT Reform: lots of open source hardware running linux, but targeting a much faster experience - [TRMNL](https://usetrmnl.com/) new product that's eInk + esp32 + API server they run (or you can run) - [PineNote](https://pine64.org/devices/pinenote/), pine makes lots of kind of meh but open devices For now, I'm just going to dump links and stuff in here as I find them. ## Inkplate 6Plus [Inkplate 6Plus](https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-6plus#products) looks really cool, may order one just to have a comparison device / working hardware. There's this repo [Soldered-Inkplate-6PLUS-hardware-design](https://github.com/SolderedElectronics/Soldered-Inkplate-6PLUS-hardware-design) which seems to have some automatically uploaded files, and this maybe older but manually created one [Inkplate-6PLUS-Hardware](https://github.com/SolderedElectronics/Inkplate-6PLUS-Hardware) [Good looking schematic](https://github.com/SolderedElectronics/Inkplate-6PLUS-Hardware/blob/main/Schematics%2C%20Gerber%2C%20BOM/v1.0/Inkplate%206PLUS%20Schematics%20v1.0.pdf) and [BOM](https://github.com/SolderedElectronics/Inkplate-6PLUS-Hardware/blob/main/Schematics%2C%20Gerber%2C%20BOM/v1.0/Inkplate6PLUS%20BOM.CSV). Includes this TI PMIC for E-Ink [TPS65186RGZR](https://www.ti.com/product/TPS65186/part-details/TPS65186RGZR) which implies eInk / ePaper needs special power circuitry > - Single Chip Power-Management Solution for E Ink Vizplex Electronic Paper Displays >- Generates Positive and Negative Gates, Source Driver Voltages, and Back-Plane Bias From a Single, Low-Voltage Input Supply There's an i2c bus and 4 other pins that go to the ESP32 One thing that stood out, that I am still trying to understand is more about eInk ## eInk This seems to be the brand name for "ePaper", although I suspect they're pretty synonymous at this point. "Vizplex" is apparently the name for first gen panels. Pearl was next, then Carta (and Carta HD). There's a bunch of stuff about colour that I am not interested in at the moment. [eInk Wikipedia page seems worth reading](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_Ink) [MobileRead wiki on E Ink Displays](https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E_Ink_display) also a good read [EPD Controller](https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EPD_controller), this is of interest to me because I noticed that some i.MX SoCs (for running linux) claim to have an EPD Driver already and I want to dive more into that... but I need to answer questions like 1. How do you get pixels onto an EPD display? 2. Is it always SPI (which is what some small panels I've played with use) or something else? 3. Where do you need the weird power for Apparently EPD is the name for the specific thing E-Ink makes Old article (2007?) from LWN on [Supporting electronic paper](https://lwn.net/Articles/259210/) ## Waveshare Seems like TRMNL and others often talk about Waveshare, but what are they? Seems like a "Waveshare is a leading global provider of electronic components and modules...", so like Adafruit ish? They do seem to make a lot of epaper things though, why is that? Next time, I'll dig into wareshare more and the tech required to drive epaper.