So... I made my own e-ink tablet...

Details

I wanted to have things like theses:

For the hardware part:
- 10 inch e-ink,
- RAM : 4 Gb,
- Emmc : 16Gb,
- a SDcard reader
For the software part:
- linux <3
- read every sort of books (mainly pdf and ebook),
- install some manga readers like tachiyomi or komikku,
- install koreader (it was not mandatory but it is a nice all-in-one reader).

At first the perfect candidate was the PineNote but the overall price was a bit expensive if I wanted to import it here.

The others, at that time, were :

the Onyx Boox Note Air2, the Onyx Boox Note 5 which were hard to find,
the Boyue Likebook P10 2 which has Android 8 and only 2 Gb of RAM and hard to find here,
the Kobo Elipsa with a closed OS (so long for installing my apps XD),
the Bookeen Notéa V2 but has only 3 Gb of RAM and 32 Gb of storage.

The main drawback was : impossible to customize the OS or install everything I want.

So now, what's next ? Well, I decided to make my own.

Files

VID_20230305_121133.mp4

Koreader

MPEG-4 Video - 27.93 MB - 05/21/2023 at 14:48

Download

IMG_20220923_113156.jpg

The "inside". As you can see, from up to bottom (and left to right) : - the eink driverboard - the touchscreen driverboard - the radxa zero - the wifi antenna - the powerboard

JPEG Image - 6.21 MB - 05/21/2023 at 14:48

Preview

VID_20230305_121300.mp4

Wifi + bluetooth (sorry it's small a bit quick)

MPEG-4 Video - 27.38 MB - 05/21/2023 at 14:48

Download

IMG_20230305_155118.jpg

Final rear picture. I know it's still opened but it's for a good cause. I had to put and remove the microsd card somewhere ;)

JPEG Image - 9.43 MB - 05/21/2023 at 14:48

Preview

VID_20230305_121435.mp4

XFCE Whisker menu

MPEG-4 Video - 35.92 MB - 05/21/2023 at 14:48

Download

Project Logs

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Epilogue
mengpo1 • 03/05/2023 at 21:38 • 0 comments
The result is not as good as I could imagine however it is perfect for its functionnality <3
- The goods :
  - Large screen : 10.3 inches
  - everything I wanted plus :
    - a full USB port which I can use to make my backup, to put some books, etc.
- The bads :
  - a bit thick (but as expected),
  - the battery lasts 6 hours (also expected),
  - the touchscreen was very glossy. I had to put a mate protection,
  - I must turn off the device with physical button because devices like radxa and other raspberry pi consume battery while halted (https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#typical-power-requirements)
  - the sdcard is not accessible (although it is possible te remove it and insert it. it's just it is very hard to have access).
I can share the software parts if someone needs it :)
Second Step: the Software
mengpo1 • 03/05/2023 at 21:36 • 0 comments
For the software part :
- - Manjaro arm64 (https://github.com/manjaro-arm/radxa-zero-images/releases)
  - XFCE4 panels : to create and manage big icons,
  - i3 : to use the tiling manager and to close the applications,
  - jgmenu : to make sub-menus, ie rotate the screen, send to other workspace
First step: the hardware
mengpo1 • 03/05/2023 at 21:35 • 0 comments
Three things I never doubt about : the device won't be any cheaper , it won't be as thin and the battery life won't be as long as the industrial prototypes.

Now, what did I use ?
- For the hardware part :
  - a radxa zero,
  - a touchscreen (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001166217016.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.0.0.33e8f19cQXYw0B),
  - a flat external battery 26800mAh (but I used only the charger part and one li-po part),
  - a e-paper screen (https://www.welectron.com/Waveshare-18436-103inch-e-Paper_1) + the HDMI driver board (directly bought from waveshare)
  - some cables, ribbons, a micro usb expansion and 2 hdmi mini/micro adapters,
  - a 128Go micro-sd card
  - 3D printed parts
- Final dimensions : L 22.2 x l 18.2 x h 1.8

View all 3 project logs

Discussions

anmolblouch92 wrote 08/13/2023 at 01:21

amazing project.

Are you sure? yes | no

mengpo1 wrote 06/06/2023 at 21:52

Thanks very much!

The longest things were to decide: which SBC to use, which hdmi adapters to use and how get the cheapest waveshare (because the 10.1 is very expensive).
The trickest thing was to twist and fold the FPC ribbon to be in the good direction (the hdmi board and the FPC connector are in the opposite directions) ^^'
For the rest (touchscreen, 3D parts, battery), I already had the idea on how assemble them.

In short: it took me 2-3 weeks to figure out these things and when I received them I found out to assemble the whole fairly quickly (3 days). The FPC thing took me 2 hours to fold it without hurting the cable and the fpc was so long so I had to folding it on itself!

Are you sure? yes | no

Waldo Wolmarans wrote 06/06/2023 at 19:45

Very cool project. How long did it took you to figure out what to get and put it all together?

Are you sure? yes | no

So... I made my own e-ink tablet...

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