It’s not the easiest to set up yourself - need to generate Spotify API keys and build the unnecessary separate binary for dithering, but here’s the project if anyone is interested!
You can use any raspberry pi to drive it (or any microcontroller really) which is pretty cheap too.
I like e-ink, but not that much.
You could make one of these frames and save 400-500$
https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper/13.3inch-...
^ Here is a 13inch high resolution epaper screen that I found.
I am curious what volumes you are buying and which panels and how you're judging whether something is expensive or not.
> I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the panels.
I would ask that these repeated claims would come with some evidence. The previous times I asked the respondents just did patents.google.com/search?eink and treated that as evidence.
For an analogy, if I said something like: Coca cola is just really expensive right now. I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the syrup.
or
Windows is just really expensive right now. I believe that it’s heavily patented and only one or two places produces the operating system.
would you feel my claim was accurate?
There's another persistent display technology, cholesteric displays. These seem to have disappeared. Sparkfun used to sell small ones.[1]
[1]https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/LCD/LCD-09560-25075g_240...
The ArtFrame 6": - Has a 166 PPI 6 inch eInk screen - Can store 150 pictures (let's be generous and presume it has 1 GB of internal storage) - Costs €349
The Kobo Clara HD ereader: - Has a 300 PPI 6 inch eInk screen - Has 8 GB of internal storage - Costs €140
6" is also really small for an art display IMO. Even 13.3" is kinda small. If they would be offering a much larger 40" art display I might consider it for €900, depending on picture quality. But at this price 150/166 ppi display is just bonkers.
loosely related is inkplate, which is a wall-mountable DIY e-ink project:
I don't know how far away that is from (1) looking as good as color print (2) being relatively sturdy (3) being under $300 so I can buy several.
I got rid of all my books at one point and at the time I'd wished I could have scanned all the art books (didn't have the time to arrange it)
Eink has been around for several years now but apparently they are unable to just make a big panel? That combined with their idiotic pricing scheme makes me think their management is just stupid
The problem isn't inability to make them or "stupid management", just that there isn't a whole lot of demand for these sizes. E-ink displays are great but come with some serious limitations and trade-offs: colour displays are in its infancy at best and refresh rates are an issue. This limits its usage to cases where colour and refreshing isn't very important, but where good legibility and power usage are. The two most common are e-readers and store signage, but the demand for very large displays in that area is very limited.
For an art display the refresh rate isn't a big issue and low power would be a huge boon, but lack of good colour would be more of an issue.
[1]: https://shopkits.eink.com/product/31-2%cb%9d-monochrome-epap...
[2]: https://shopkits.eink.com/product/42%cb%9d-monochrome-epaper...
[3]: https://shopkits.eink.com/product/31-2%cb%9d-color-epaper-di...
Several years? They've been around for 25 years!
> but apparently they are unable to just make a big panel?
Yes, that's how supply and demand works. Very few people are willing to buy big electrophoretic panels with all their limitations so there's no demand, so there's no volume, so there's no justification for a factory for it so the stackup for it is handmade, hand kerfed and such so the price will be high.
> That combined with their idiotic pricing scheme makes me think their management is just stupid
What pricing scheme are you talking about? I'd love to see the details you are basing your judgement on.
https://shopkits.eink.com/product/42%CB%9D-monochrome-epaper...
Very few companies are making eInk like displays which is why prices are so high.
Very few customers are buying electrophoretic displays because of their many limitations. That's the real reason why prices are so high.
In 2006, a 6" display would have cost maybe 10 grand, maybe even more. Today it is in the order of $25 in volume and that's purely because of the volume behind it. Step off the volume path and into hand kerfed like the 42" you mentioned and suddenly it'll be $2000. It is all about volume.
If you want it cheaper, put an order in for a million displays and that'll justify someone's effort to build an actual automated production line for it and it will drop the price by an order of magnitude.
But they are not there yet.
I love black and white but this is not much better than framing a page from a newspaper -- which has an appeal this does not.
The main different compared to the physical bookshelf is that it is always updating (round-robin, moving, rotating, etc) thus it can display all your books in a limited e-paper physical gallery space (depending on the installed e-paper size and dimension) but should cover all your ebooks over time.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/09/turning-an-eink-screen-into...
It has been a great way to subtly discover new art.
As everyone has said, eink is amazing - but the price is ridiculous.
Wouldn't be as pretty as this but it's much higher resolution at 227ppi.
Maybe that's the unique selling point of this; a nice presentable frame and photo matte.
Not arguing my aunt would build this, just that a lot of the HN crowd could and often are of the tinkering type to find that sort of project enjoyable :)
The compliments from friends/family have been insane. It looks like I cut out the page and put it on the wall. Unfortunately the Visionect solution is fairly cost prohibitive and seems like ArtFrame is in the similar price ballpark.
[1] https://alexanderklopping.medium.com/an-updated-daily-front-...
Reminds me of this: https://www.technologyreview.com/2016/05/04/245988/the-world...
I also tried to build this myself, and nothing happened but my Raspberry pi started to overheat
Very much a plus. No cloud means these won't magically stop working at some random time in the future. Also means my picture frame is (probably) not spying on me.
Just anecdotally I found it pretty fascinating that I bought a new Kindle some three months ago and it still hasn't run out of batteries (came with 76% and now at 16%).
Admittedly I haven't been using it a lot though.
