There’s no shortage of eReaders featuring E Ink displays. But the Diptyx eReader stands out in a few ways: it has two E Ink displays and a hinge in the middle that lets you open and close the device like a book. And it’s designed as an open source project: the firmware and hardware designs will both be available for users to inspect and modify.
Developer Martijn den Hoed has been working on the design for a while, and now there’s a preview page on Crowd Supply for an upcoming crowdfunding campaign.
The Diptyx is about the size of a paperback book, measuring 120 x 150 x 14mm (4.7″ x 5.9″ x 0.6″) when closed, or 226mm wide (8.9″) when opened. It weighs 300 grams, or about 10.5 ounces.
Its two screens are 5.83 inch, 640 x 480 pixel black and white E Ink displays, which are… cheap, I guess. Those screens should each have about 137 pixels per inch, which is a lot lower than the 300 ppi you’d get from even an entry-level Kindle. But given that this is a custom design made by a hobbyist using off-the-shelf components, these screens should help keep the Diptyx affordable… although den Hoed hasn’t announced how much the device will cost or when it will be available yet. You can sign up at Crowd Supply to be notified when the campaign goes live.
Other features include a 240 MHz ESP32-S3-N16R8 microcontroller, a 2GB user-replaceable SD card for storage, dual 1500 mAh batteries, and a USB-C port for charging and data.
The firmware is designed for reading DRM-free EPUB files and not much else. But the software will be released under an MIT license, so users can modify it to add features.
Out of the box, the firmware also doesn’t support WiFi or Bluetooth. But since the ESP32 chip has native support for WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE, it’s theoretically possible that users could modify the firmware to enable those features to enable internet access, local wireless network connectivity, or support for Bluetooth headphones or keyboards, among other things.
via NotebookCheck and /r/ereader
