M5Stack PaperColor, or M5Paper Color, is an ESP32-S3 development kit with a 4-inch E Ink Spectra 6 full-color display with a resolution of 600×400, designed to offer both low power consumption and high visibility under strong lights.
While the color ePaper display is the start of the show, the devkit also features a microSD card slot for storage, a microphone with echo cancellation, a 1W speaker, a temperature & humidity sensor, a few buttons, two RGB LEDs, an IR transmitter, and a Grove connector for expansion. With regards to power, a 1250 mAh battery is included, rechargeable through the device’s USB Type-C port.
M5Paper Color ESP32-S3 Dev Kit specifications:
- SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8
- CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration
- Memory – 8MB PSRAM
- Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh connectivity
- Storage
- 16MB SPI flash
- MicroSD card socket
- Display – 4-inch E Ink Spectra 6 Full-Color E-Paper Display (ED2208-DOA)
- Resolution – 600×400
- Refresh rate – About 15-19 seconds (TBC, assumption from my side based on our experience with other E Ink color displays)
- Audio
- ES8311 audio codec
- ES7210 audio ADC
- 1W @ 8Ω 2520 speaker with AW8737A audio amplifier
- MEMS microphone with integrated AEC circuit
- USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming
- Sensor – SHT40 Temperature & Humidity Sensor
- Expansion – 4-pin Grove connector
- Misc
- 3x user buttons, 1x Power button
- Infrared emitter
- 2x RGB LEDs
- RX8130CE Real-Time Clock (RTC)
- Power Supply
- 5V via USB Type-C port
- Built-in 1250mAh Battery
- Consumption
- Standby: 92.53uA
- Full Load: 211.97mA
- Dimensions – 103.9 x 70.8 x 8.5 mm
- Weight – 73.3 grams
M5Stack provides instructions to program the PaperColor devkit using the Arduino IDE using the M5Unified, M5GFX, and M5PM1 libraries, along with code samples, and additional technical information on the documentation website. Strangely, there’s no mention of the ESP-IDF framework or the UIFlow2 visual programming IDE compatible with most M5Stack devices. Target applications include smart digital photo frames, data display panels, and electronic signage.
While it’s the first color ePaper devkit from M5Stack, it already has some competition with products such as the Seeed Studio reTerminal E1002, which features a larger 7.3-inch color E Ink display driven by an ESP32-S3, all housed in a plastic enclosure. There are even more color ePaper devkits without enclosure, but that’s the most direct competitor I could think of.
M5Stack sells the PaperColor ESP32-S3 E Ink color devkit for $75 on AliExpress or the M5Stack store. The price looks reasonable, as by comparison, the 4-inch Spectra 6 E Ink display alone sells for $40 on AliExpress (or $50 with driver board), while the reTerminal E1002 with a larger 7.3-inch display goes for around $118 on AliExpress before shipping and taxes.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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It actually has a very simple GPIO expansion, a two-lane Grove connector.
Ah.. Somehow I completely missed that one. It was not listed in the specs, and I failed to see it in the diagram.
Are there any epapers with faster changeover times? Maybe around 5 s or less?
Black and white ones can be quite fast (many are under one second and/or have partial refresh).
If you need color, some can be pretty quick, but require a more powerful CPU and the Colors are pretty washed up. The Spectra range has good colors but is indeed very slow.
You can check the selection guide at the bottom of each of the Waveshare e-ink product pages (e.g. https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/4.26inch-e-paper-hat-plus-g.htm) it lists most screens with all details including refresh time, partial refresh, etc.
Thanks for your explanation.
I was actually thinking for some sign that changes from a red symbol to a green symbol. Today again played with the price tags in the supermarket, they have some for i.e. bread, that show the ingredients when you press a button. But those take 10-20s to change and flicker as if they would explode any time.
I just checked the selection guide and it seems 8f red and green is what I need and some reasonable refresh timing, maybe it would worth an experiment using a BW one with 2 colour LED backlight, but as I’m clueless I would have to try 😀
Contrary to LCDs, e-Ink screens are opaque. And a backlight (if it worked) would kill the low-power consumption which is the main feature of such screens. If you have an external power source, just go for LED displays. If not, it’s either B&W or very slow 🙁
Hmmm i see, actually I like the sharpness of epaper, but maybe for the coming years better oled or tft…
I need umac or cydintosh on it.
😉