Hacking Esquire's E-ink Cover 205
ptorrone writes "I picked up the Esquire E-inked cover today and took a bunch of high res photos, for the makers out there. It has a programming header, 5-pin ISP, a Microchip PIC 12f629 which is flash programmable, 8 pin, 6 lithium coin cell CR2016s, 3 volts each. Two E-ink screens with flex connections — looks like it was made to be reprogrammed and different screens. The top screen has 11 segments, the bottom has 3. It was designed 2008-06-04. The PCB was made by Forewin, half thickness, 2 layer board (FR4). I think someone out there will likely reflash the PIC and make the segments go on / off at different times and perhaps put other displays on it, there's a little bit of hacking to be had but not that much really."
Recycling instructions (Score:5, Informative)
Re:what a waste (Score:5, Informative)
My guess would be that this "screen" is not able to display arbitrary images, rather it can only display those images pre-burned onto the "e-ink". The PIC controller merely flips switches on and off at set time intervals or by button presses. Although interesting and indeed hackable, the hardware necessary to do this stuff is already quite cheap (something like $25 for a USB pickit 1 from Microchip.com).
Re:What would happen (Score:5, Informative)
Re:what a waste (Score:5, Informative)
Right. The display is just like old Game & Watch games (or any other cheap LCD display). They have a bunch of segments (in this case mostly blocks of words) that can be turned on or off. I'd expect that just like LCDs the more segments you have the more expensive it is to manufacture the thing (not including the cost of controller).
If you watch the little video that the Make blog post links to, you can see how limited it is.
That said, it seems to refresh quite fast, which the e-books have problems with. I don't know if this is a consequence of the controller (I doubt it, Amazon/Sony would do better), the size of the pixels (smaller pixels switch slower for some reason, perhaps the small traces prevent higher current that can switch things faster), manufacturing (faster switching is too expensive to make an 800x600 screen), or just perception (since the elements are so large it's not noticeable like when you change small blocks of text).
Re:What would happen (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Recycling instructions (Score:5, Informative)
simple segments vs. dot matrix (Score:5, Informative)
Why are e-ink based e-books so expensive, while Esquire can afford to use it as a cover for their magazine? Something's missing here.
11 very large segments versus 480,000 very small segments. PIC programed to go "turn on segment 1, then 2, then 3. Pause. Switch all them off. Repeat"...versus "fully fledged operating system and electronic document presentation system."
Oh yes, and Equire printed roughly 233,300 of them (one in three of their circulation of 700,000) in one go. That's roughly equal to the 240,000 Kindle units Amazon has supposedly sold in about 10 months.
Still, the biggie is the simplicity...
Re:Great for the environment (Score:3, Informative)
Someone would have to be an idiot to throw these out when they can sell them for well over cover price. There's a large group of people who have been drooling over these for 2 months.
Re:Great for the environment (Score:1, Informative)
Another "wow that's great for the environment" note from Esquire:
"The ink draws more power at higher temperatures, so we needed to control the temperature the units were going to see from China to the newsstand." Which meant we needed refrigerated trucks.
So not only are they shipped all the way from China to the newsstand, but they're refrigerated along the way. I think that's a great way to burn as much fuel as possible.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
video slashdotted? defective? See youtube (Score:2, Informative)
The video on Esquire site never loads for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EWb1zHIx38 [youtube.com]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKS12PMdJ6w [youtube.com]
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=esquire+e-ink+cover&search_type=&aq=f [youtube.com]
E-reader. (Score:2, Informative)
*sigh*
All these comments and you all missed this beauty [nytimes.com] from the last story.
Re:what a waste (Score:2, Informative)
The problem with refreshing a pixel based e-ink display is that it has to be erased first (otherwise you get ghost images of the previous page). The erase setting has to be held long enough to achieve a stable and consistent state across the pixels. Some display modes of the ebook readers (eg, the mp3 player updating the play timer on the screen) don't do an erase first, and the update is quite fast (but you do get ghosting).
For a simple segment display, it doesn't matter if there is ghosting, especially if you are just blinking the display.
Just got one (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What would happen (Score:4, Informative)
Not so impressive (Score:4, Informative)
Re:what a waste (Score:3, Informative)
you can't "just" recycle them (Score:3, Informative)
All of it can be recycled through your local municipal waste program in the same manner as you dispose of household batteries.
I don't know about anyone else, but my town had an entire shed at the local transfer station for putting batteries.
Ie, you can't "just" throw them out, even into the recycle bin at the end of your driveway...at least, not in most municpalities. You're not supposed to dispose of batteries as part of regular trash, regardless of whether they're lead-acid car batteries, lithium, alkaline, etc.
I don't doubt them on the display, though. It really is just polarized particles that are white on one pole and black on the other, in a suspension, with electrodes...
Re:What would happen (Score:2, Informative)
...Could take the display and turn it into something else like "a dirt cheap e-book reader."
Not possible without dismantling the panel. What you need to remember about this screen is that it doesn't have the control matrix laid out in a grid (with each line 1px wide) like an ebook reader does. Instead, the matrix is composed of discrete sections. These sections cannot be changed without physically dismantling the screen and replacing the active layer, which can't easily be done without destroying the screen.
Re:Recycling instructions (Score:1, Informative)
The USPS does.
http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2008/pr08_028.htm
And so does one city library system near where I live - Burbank, CA.
Re:What would happen (Score:4, Informative)
Essentially, the paper itself could display individual pixels, in almost exactly the same way that sections of electroluminescent tape could individually light up, but they would need to be wired for it. The difference between running one magnetic inducing plane to the back of a specially-cut region of the paper and running hundreds of wires all crisscrossing them is significnat. And that, of course, is what separates 2 dollar a foot electroluminescent tape from hundred dollar per 3-inch electroluminescent displays. At the point where you've fabricated electromagnetic matrices to interact with the e-paper, you're far into the cost of a real ebook reader.
The writer there isn't thinking about the tools at hand in any realistic fashion. Realistic tech writers aren't interesting, hence only the fantastic (and ignorant) survive.
Re:What would happen (Score:3, Informative)
You can't display Goatse on these things. Each letter is one segment, even from the summary that's clear "The top screen has 11 segments, the bottom has 3".
I.e. it's not a matrix display.
Re:Recycling instructions (Score:5, Informative)
Sure. I used to work at Radio Shack and we had a battery recycling bin by the till. Every couple of weeks our manager would dump the contents into the trash. I protested, but he said that as long as people thought they were recycling, they felt good and they would come in and buy stuff.
Oh how I hated that job.
They're happy to have you hack it (Score:5, Informative)
Their website says they'd be interested to see what people do hacking it, and if you do something cool, please let them know. They say that it wasn't particularly designed to be easy to hack, and they don't know how, so you'll have to figure it out for yourself, but have fun.
More details (Score:5, Informative)
Firstly, they did not use the active matrix version of the E-Ink display. It is a segmented version. This means that you can not make it do kindle like things. You must use the existing segments. The magazine contains two of these 2x5" displays. The cover display has 11 segments while the inside display has 3. They are both black and 'white' (aka grey) displays although several shades seem possible by varying the switch voltage timing. The color areas are created with a transparent overlay that, of course, is always present.
(Note: These probably do not match the CN1 and CN2 pin outs)
COVER DISPLAY SEGMENTS
1. "THE 21ST CENTURY"
2. "BEGINS"
3. 1st box after "BEGINS"
4. 2nd box after "BEGINS"
5. 3rd box after "BEGINS"
6. Both boxes (left and right) of "NOW"
7. "NOW"
8. The circle arrow
9. Bottom box 1
10. Bottom box 2
12. Bottom box 3
INNER DISPLAY SEGMENTS
1. Left side + 2 of 6 'wheel' segments on both 'wheels'
2. Middle + 2 of 6 'wheel' segments on both 'wheels'
3. Right side + 2 of 6 'wheel' segments on both 'wheels'
The cover display uses a 12 line ribbon connector while the inner display uses a 6 line ribbon with only 4 lines that are completed. One line on each display is a common connection while the others are simple on/off lines.
THE ELECTRONICS
The circuit board is very simple with only a few components. There are six CR2016 3V batteries, 2 connectors, 2 HEF4094BT 8 stage shift-and-store bus register chips, 1 12F629 Flash based 8bit CMOS microcontroller, 26 resistors, 2 capacitors and 3 transistors. The 12F629 controls 3 transistors that drive the STROBE, DATA and CLOCK pins, at 15v, of the HEF4094BTs. The HEF4094BTs are connected in a cascade fashion to provide 16 latching registers that directly drive the EInk displays.
WHAT DOES IT ALL DO?
The Batteries:
5 of the 6 batteries (B1-B5) are connected in series to provide the 15v driver voltage that is used to change the segments from black to white and back. The other battery (B6) supplies the 3 volts needed to run the microcontroller. The B1-B5 series and B6 both share a common ground.
The PIC
U1 is the Microcontroller. This device controls the sequence of the changes.
Pin 1 is Vdd (+3vdc).
C1 is used as a noise filter for the power.
Pin 2 is not used.
Pin 3 is not used.
Pin 4 is used for initial programming only.
Pin 5 drives Q3 through R5.
This drives the U3 and U3 STROBE (STR) lines causing the shift register data to be stored in the storage register.
Pin 6 drives Q2 through R3.
This drives the U2 and U3 CLOCK (CP) lines which allows serial programming of each register bit prior to storage.
Pin 7 drives Q1 through R1.
This drives the U2 DATA (S) line. U3 Data is connected to the O's (PIN 10) of U2 which is a serial output.
pin 8 is Vss(GND).
The Transistors
Q1 drives the DATA (D) line of U2 and is driven by U1 Pin 7.
Q2 drives the CLOCK (CP) lines of U2 and U3 and is driven by U1 Pin 6.
Q3 drives the STROBE (STR) lines of U2 and U3 and is driven by U1 pin 5.
Q1-Q3 base pins are connected to common ground.
R1,3,5 are used for current limiting to protect U1 outputs.
R2,4,6 are pull-up resistors for Q1-3 causing
the output to be 15V when off and ground when on. C3 is a noise filter for the pull-up power rail.
The Shift Registers
U1 and U2 drive the displays. They are programmed by U1 via a serial bus. The parallel outputs we'll look at from the perspective of the CN1 and CN2 connectors. These work as a marching train of bits. When the clock goes HI all bits are shifted right and the first one is set the whatever DA
Recycling sucks! (Score:2, Informative)
I live near two little restaurants in Portland Oregon USA (the recycling capital of the USA). Every morning there are SIX loud 'big green trucks' that pull up next to my apartment between 5 and 7AM every single day to pick up the recycling. Three trucks for each restaurant: one for glass, one for paper, one for compost. Each loud truck with huge diesels shake the buildings of the entire apartment complex. We complain, but as typical of white-working-class people, the garbage drivers and managers just don't care. Pure redneck 'get 'er done, get 'er done...loud and proud' mentality is a true pain for really-productive people.
Recycling sucks. It is a sop to the upper-middle-class. The energy expended by driving all the extra 'big green trucks' around to pick up this stuff exceeds the energy saved by having the garbage go to different sections of the landfill. Recycling was a bold idea in the 1970s, it's obsolete now.
Recycling will only start to make sense in the era of $4.50/gallon diesel when people start bringing empty containers to the food store and refilling them with food. Things like thick, double-ply sugar bags and soy-sauce containers could be reused ten times
Re:Adn so it begins... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Recycling sucks! (Score:2, Informative)
If you're going to make a controversial statement like the energy cost of recycling is higher than disposing, please back it up with references.
Here's something I found about the energy benefits of recycling. From http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/0108.html [osu.edu].
"Energy
Recycling aluminum requires 95 percent less energy than producing aluminum from bauxite ore. Making paper from recycled stock requires 64 percent less energy than using wood pulp. Containers made from recycled plastic save up to 60 percent of the energy required to make the same product from virgin material. Recycled ferrous scrap consumes 75 percent less energy than new ore. Virtually every material recycled uses less energy than using virgin materials. How much energy is this? Using and discarding just two aluminum cans in one day uses more energy than is used daily by each of a billion people in less developed countries. The average saving, however, does not include added energy costs of collection and transportation. "