e-ink News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 5, 2026February 5, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Review of XIAO ePaper DIY Kit EE02 13.3-inch color E-Ink display with SenseCraft HMI and Arduino

Seeed Studio has sent us a sample of the XIAO ePaper DIY Kit EE02 for review. The kit is comprised of an ESP32-S3 board driving a 13.3-inch Spectra 6 color E-Ink display with 1600 x 1200 resolution. It supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 (LE) wireless connectivity, and features a USB Type-C port for power and programming, a battery connector with an on/off power switch, a built-in charging circuit, a Reset button, and three user buttons. In this review, we will test the XIAO ePaper DIY Kit EE02 with the SenseCraft HMI platform and the Arduino IDE. But first, let’s go through an unboxing. XIAO ePaper DIY KIT EE02 unboxing We received the XIAO ePaper DIY Kit EE02 in a cardboard box with foam to protect the display. The package includes the 13.-inch ePaper display, the XIAO ePaper Display EE02 board, an external antenna, and a set of two 60-pin adapters […]

January 10, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

XIAO ePaper DIY Kit – EE02 – An ESP32-S3 board designed for 13.3-inch Spectra 6 color E-Ink display

XIAO ESP32-S3 13.3-inch E-ink Spectra 6 color display kit

Seeed Studio’s XIAO ePaper DIY Kit EE02 is an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth board designed specifically for the 13.3-inch Spectra 6 color E-Ink display provided by the company. It’s based on a similar design as the XIAO ePaper DIY Kit-EE04 (ESP32-S3) and XIAO ePaper DIY Kit-EN04 (nRF52480) introduced last December, which are suitable for smaller 1.54 to 7.15-inch ePaper displays. Like the previous models, the new EE02 model also includes a battery connector with a power switch, a built-in charging IC, and comes with one reset and three user buttons. With support for a larger 13.3-inch color ePaper display, it’s especially well-suited for digital frames and information boards. XIAO ePart DIY kit – EE02 specifications: Wireless board – XIAO ESP32S3 Plus SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration Memory – 8MB PSRAM Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth […]

December 18, 2025December 18, 2025 by Debashis Das - 6 Comments

REETLE SmartInk I – An AI-powered E-Ink phone case with voice recording (Crowdfunding)

The REETLE SmartInk I is a phone case with a touch-enabled E-Ink display and built-in AI features. It features a secondary screen on the back for reading text, viewing notes, recording voice, and displaying to-do items, allowing basic tasks to be completed without using the phone’s main display. In the back, you have a 3.97-inch E-Ink touchscreen with one-press voice recording, AI-based transcription, summarization, and smart to-do display, all synced to a companion mobile app via Bluetooth 5.0. It supports iPhone 13–17 series and a wide range of Android phones, features a 300 mAh battery with 10W MagSafe wireless charging, and delivers up to 10 hours of reading, 8 hours of recording, and over 2 weeks of standby time. Weighing around 55 grams with a total thickness under 4 mm, it includes military-grade drop protection, tempered glass, widget switching (QR codes, notes, schedules), a thin design, and a 10°C to […]

December 9, 2025December 10, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

7.3-inch full color e-paper wooden photo frame is designed for the Raspberry Pi Zero

Waveshare RPi-Zero-PhotoPainter-ACCE is a 7.3-inch color e-paper photo frame designed for the Raspberry Pi Zero family. It’s an 800×480 resolution display based on E-Ink Spectra 6 (E6), and housed in a wooden frame. The display also features an RTC with backup battery support, a LiPo battery connector with “UPS circuitry”, a USB-C port for power, a 3-pin debug/serial header, a power button, and a charging LED. It supports portrait and landscape orientation on the desk thanks to a rotatable stand and wall mounting through a hook hanger. RPi-Zero-PhotoPainter-ACCE specifications: Display – E-Ink Spectra 6 (E6) Full-color display with Black, White, Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow Resolution – 800×480 pixels Pixel Pitch – 0.2 x 0.2mm Viewing Angle – > 170° Refresh Time Full refresh – 12s Partial refresh – Not supported Grayscale – Two shades of gray Dimensions – 160 x 96mm Expansion – 40-pin HAT connector to connect Raspberry […]

September 15, 2025September 15, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Android 14 smartphone offers 6.13-inch E-Ink color display, 5G cellular connectivity

Bigme HiBreak Pro Color is an Android 14 smartphone with 4G LTE and 5G cellular connectivity, and a more unique feature: a 6.13-inch E-Ink color display. We had seen a few smartphones with E-ink grayscale displays in the past, with products such as the Hisense A5 or YotaPhone 3, but phones with an E-Ink color display are more of a rarity, and the Bigme HiBreak Pro Color adds to the Hisense A7CC. Other key features include a MediaTek Dimensity 1080 octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB UFS flash. Bigme HiBreak Pro Color specifications: SoC – MediaTek Dimensity 1080 Octa-core CPU – 4x Arm Cortex-A78 cores @ 2.6 GHz, 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G68 MC4 VPU Video decoding – H.265, H.264, MPEG-4, VP9 up to 4K @ 30 FPS Video encoding – H.265, H.264 up to 4K @ 30 FPS System Memory […]

September 14, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

M5Stack Air Quality Kit v1.1 features Sensirion SEN55 environmental sensor and SCD40 CO2 sensor

M5Stack Air Quality Kit v1.1 is an ESP32-S3-based air quality monitor equipped with Sensirion SEN55 and SCD40 sensors capable of monitoring PM1.0, PM2.5, PM4, PM10 particulates, temperature, humidity, VOC, and CO2 concentration in the air. The first version was introduced in January 2024, but M5Stack just introduced the v1.1 model with Stamp-S3A master control, power consumption optimizations, an improved Wi-Fi antenna design, and a larger button for a “better feel”. M5Stack Air Quality Kit v1.1 specifications: Wireless module – M5Stack StampS3A WiSoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN8 CPU Dual-core 32-bit Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with AI vector instructions up to 240MHz RISC-V ULP co-processor Memory – 512KB SRAM Storage – 8MB flash Wireless – 2.4GHz WiFi 4 (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh Connectivity 2.4 GHz WiFi 4, 20 MHz and 40 MHz bandwidth, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n protocol, up to 150 Mbps Bluetooth 5, Bluetooth Mesh, with support for 125 Kbps, 500 […]

August 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

FPGA-based Modos Paper Dev Kit supports a wide range of E-Ink displays, up to 75 Hz refresh rate (Crowdfunding)

Modos Paper Grayscale or Color E-Ink displays

Modos Paper Dev Kit helps users create an open-hardware E-Ink monitor with a fast 75 Hz refresh rate and low latency thanks to a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA driver board, and compatibility with a wide and of E-Ink displays between 4-inch and 42-inch in size. The resulting grayscale or color E-ink monitor can be connected through HDMI or USB and works on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Modos Paper driver board specifications: FPGA – AMD/Xilinx Spartan-6 LX16 FPGA running Caster gateware Memory – DDR3-800 framebuffer memory MCU – STMicro STM32H750 Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller for USB communication, firmware upgrades, and standalone applications. Processing rate up to 133 MP/s when error-diffusion dithering is enabled, and 200 MP/s when disabled Supported Displays – 4-inch to 42-inch E-Ink displays without integrated TCON; See long list on GitHub Video Input USB Type-C DisplayPort Alt-Mode with on-board PTN3460 decoder microHDMI connector for DVI video input with on-board ADV7611 […]

June 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

TRMNL customizable 7.5-inch wireless E-Ink display supports plugins for greater ease-of-use

TRMNL is a 7-5-inch wireless E-Ink display based on an ESP32-C3 RISC-V WiFi and Bluetooth SoC and designed to be customizable, allowing users to disassemble their device, modify the (open-source) firmware, and retrieve API keys without voiding the warranty. The default 1,800 mAh battery is good enough for over 3 months on a charge, but the company also provides an option for a 2,500 mAh battery that is said to last for more than 6 months (not sure how the math works here). The wireless display can be placed on a desktop, or mounted on a wall or a fridge. TRMNL specifications: Wireless MCU – Espressif ESP32-C3 Display – 7.5″ black and white E-Ink display with 800 x 480 resolution Battery – 1,800mAh rechargeable lithium (2,500mAh upgradeable for 6+ months on a charge) Dimensions – 171 x 116 x 10mm Weight – 165 grams Enclosure – Soft-touch ABS (Black only), […]