E-Radionica's Inkplate 10, an Affordable 9.7" ESP32-Powered ePaper Display, Hits Crowd Supply
With a 9.7" 1,200x825 display, recycled from discarded Kindles, the Inkplate 10 is bigger and better than its 6" predecessor.
The Inkplate 10, a 9.7" easy-to-use Espressif ESP32-powered ePaper display first unveiled late last year, has launched on Crowd Supply at $129 bare or $169 with 3D-printed enclosure — and has already nearly reached its funding goal.
"Inkplate 10 is a powerful, energy-efficient, Wi-Fi enabled ESP32 board with a recycled 9.7" ePaper display," creator E-Radionica writes of the device. "It’s open hardware supported by an open source software library, and it’s easy to program, regardless of whether you prefer MicroPython or the Arduino IDE."
"Inkplate 10’s little brother, Inkplate 6, was our first attempt to create a smart ePaper display for everyone. And it was a success! In just over a month, we received nine times the level of support we expected, and we’ve since shipped all crowdfunded Inkplates to their new owners. Satisfied backers have commented on the versatility and simplicity of the display, but they’ve also asked for more: a bigger display, faster speeds, and additional functionality. Well, we’ve been listening."
Compared to its predecessor, Inkplate 10 has a larger 9.7" display with 1,200x825 resolution, additional general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins, a real-time clock, a USB Type-C port for data and power, lower power consumption, and a 38 percent improvement in refresh time per-pixel — always a bugbear for ePaper displays, which are sunlight-readable but slow to refresh. The design also includes a charging circuit for a lithium battery, not supplied, a microSD card reader, three capacitive touch-pads, and two physical buttons.
On the software side, the Inkplate 10 comes with support for the Arduino IDE and MicroPython as well as an ESP-IDF driver, along with an online image converter for converting graphics and a tool for designing graphical user interfaces. The display can also be used in "peripheral mode," which accepts commands over UART to display shapes and text.
Full details are available on the Inkplate 10 Crowd Supply campaign page.