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Train and Weather Tracker with Raspberry Pi and E-Ink

(sambroner.com)
133 points tosh | 3 comments | 29 Mar 25 18:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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mtlynch ◴[02 Apr 25 12:19 UTC] No.43555848[source]▶
The Waveshare e-ink display he's using is $172.99.[0] The one that jgrahamc used in a sibling comment is about $200.[1]

It's a shame that it's not easier to pull the e-ink displays out of used e-readers because you can buy old Kindles on eBay for about $20-40. I know you can jailbreak them and achieve something similar to OP, but it'd be neat if you could just drop the vendor's e-reader firmware entirely and run your own software.

[0] https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/9.7inch-e...

[1] https://soldered.com/product/inkplate-10-9-7-e-paper-board-c...

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1. mattmanser ◴[02 Apr 25 17:29 UTC] No.43559109[source]▶
I have an old kindle I was keeping in a draw as I planned to do something similar as the OP when I had time.

I've done no research yet though, what's the problem of reusing a kindle screen? It's not like old displays where you can plug a ribbon into something else?

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2. mtlynch ◴[02 Apr 25 17:38 UTC] No.43559184[source]▶
Maybe you can, but I haven't seen anyone do that. It is tricky because the cases are apparently glued shut, so you need to do some delicate surgery to access the screen without breaking the device.[0, 1]

[0] https://blog.lidskialf.net/2021/02/08/turning-an-old-kindle-...

[1] https://www.instructables.com/Amazon-Kindle-e-ink-Screen-Tra...

3. nyrikki ◴[02 Apr 25 17:52 UTC] No.43559324[source]▶
No connection to this project, but I also have a couple sitting around for "some day" The biggest issue is that most of the adapter boards that are often available are not that great, so having a board built from EDPiy is an option.

https://github.com/vroland/epdiy

For the kindles that have wifi, custom firmware is probably easier?