Simple e-ink bluetooth display?
March 15, 2025 11:28 AM Subscribe
The product I want is an e-ink screen with a bluetooth connection, whose contents I can frictionlessly change from my computer, and which will then display those contents indefinitely after the computer is off.
(The size of the screen doesn't much matter, as long as it can fit ~150 words of text. If it's Wifi or something instead of bluetooth that's fine, just so long as I don't have to attach a cable every time I change the contents. Color e-ink would be terrific but monochrome is fine.)
What I've found so far include:
> e-ink devices that can only be changed using a phone app
> do-it-yourself projects involving messing around with circuit boards and arduinos and raspberries pi
> phone apps that will import text from the computer to the screen of the cell phone. (I don't want them there, where I'd have to call them up on the phone app; I want them on a single dedicated physical object where they appear immediately and alone and continuously.)
The product I'm envisioning seems so straightforward that it's baffling to me that it wouldn't exist, but for about a decade now I've been searching for it without luck.
1. Does this device exist?
2. If my only hope is to bite the bullet and start learning about microcontrollers -- then what's the simplest possible path to the device I'm imagining, for someone who isn't interested in the hobby except in order to obtain one?
All insights welcome and appreciated!
(The size of the screen doesn't much matter, as long as it can fit ~150 words of text. If it's Wifi or something instead of bluetooth that's fine, just so long as I don't have to attach a cable every time I change the contents. Color e-ink would be terrific but monochrome is fine.)
What I've found so far include:
> e-ink devices that can only be changed using a phone app
> do-it-yourself projects involving messing around with circuit boards and arduinos and raspberries pi
> phone apps that will import text from the computer to the screen of the cell phone. (I don't want them there, where I'd have to call them up on the phone app; I want them on a single dedicated physical object where they appear immediately and alone and continuously.)
The product I'm envisioning seems so straightforward that it's baffling to me that it wouldn't exist, but for about a decade now I've been searching for it without luck.
1. Does this device exist?
2. If my only hope is to bite the bullet and start learning about microcontrollers -- then what's the simplest possible path to the device I'm imagining, for someone who isn't interested in the hobby except in order to obtain one?
All insights welcome and appreciated!
There's only type (2) answers.
With the caveat that I know very little about this myself - I think that's not true.
First of all, if this is something you know how to do on an android device, then this is probably something you can easily do on an eink Android device, of which there are many. There are also some devices that vanilla linux distributions have been successfully installed on (as opposed to the customized, locked-down linux that most of the non-android ones including kobos and kindles run to begin with).
Secondly, I've seen a lot of examples (that I don't have links to) where people have created hacks specifically for this on various consumer eink devices, including the popular non-android ones. Running VNC and doing screen mirroring on old ereaders is also not uncommon.
Every ereader from at least the past decade or so has wifi. Kindles are pretty locked down these days but at this specific moment all models can be jailbroken; I don't think any have built-in bluetooth support, though I couldn't swear to it. The latest Kobo devices do have bluetooth (though I think it might automatically disconnect fairly often). Kobos are less locked down than kindles and don't need to be jailbroken to run your own code (but like with other non-Android readers you do need to work around the existing OS). I don't know much about PocketBook readers but they're known for being relatively open too. Most other brands run Android.
E-ink will hold an image indefinitely, regardless of power supply, until that image is changed - that's an inherent property of the technology.
If you don't get more specific answers here, you could ask about this in the mobileread forums or maybe someplace like /r/eink. Neither place is primarily populated by devs/engineers and you're likely to get a bunch of annoying answers, but also some knowledgeable ones. Looking at /r/eink I see this post that's currently up that has specific instructions for the type 2 approach.
Most fruitful might be searching with terms like "dashboard", which seems to bring up a lot of results. People on /r/homeassistant seem to be doing stuff like this with some frequency.
posted by trig at 12:50 PM on March 15
With the caveat that I know very little about this myself - I think that's not true.
First of all, if this is something you know how to do on an android device, then this is probably something you can easily do on an eink Android device, of which there are many. There are also some devices that vanilla linux distributions have been successfully installed on (as opposed to the customized, locked-down linux that most of the non-android ones including kobos and kindles run to begin with).
Secondly, I've seen a lot of examples (that I don't have links to) where people have created hacks specifically for this on various consumer eink devices, including the popular non-android ones. Running VNC and doing screen mirroring on old ereaders is also not uncommon.
Every ereader from at least the past decade or so has wifi. Kindles are pretty locked down these days but at this specific moment all models can be jailbroken; I don't think any have built-in bluetooth support, though I couldn't swear to it. The latest Kobo devices do have bluetooth (though I think it might automatically disconnect fairly often). Kobos are less locked down than kindles and don't need to be jailbroken to run your own code (but like with other non-Android readers you do need to work around the existing OS). I don't know much about PocketBook readers but they're known for being relatively open too. Most other brands run Android.
E-ink will hold an image indefinitely, regardless of power supply, until that image is changed - that's an inherent property of the technology.
If you don't get more specific answers here, you could ask about this in the mobileread forums or maybe someplace like /r/eink. Neither place is primarily populated by devs/engineers and you're likely to get a bunch of annoying answers, but also some knowledgeable ones. Looking at /r/eink I see this post that's currently up that has specific instructions for the type 2 approach.
Most fruitful might be searching with terms like "dashboard", which seems to bring up a lot of results. People on /r/homeassistant seem to be doing stuff like this with some frequency.
posted by trig at 12:50 PM on March 15
Would an e-reader with a browser work? Then you just need to put your text on some web site.
posted by demi-octopus at 12:53 PM on March 15
posted by demi-octopus at 12:53 PM on March 15
Short path?: find someplace selling all the parts and hope for demo code connecting them that’s pretty close. Maybe this:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4687
Hackaday and Instructables and other forums will have examples connecting the parts they had. If you can’t get exactly those versions of parts you usually have to understand how the parts differ to make the (tiny!) tweaks between them. Worth checking for projects using things you can get.
posted by clew at 12:54 PM on March 15
https://www.adafruit.com/product/4687
Hackaday and Instructables and other forums will have examples connecting the parts they had. If you can’t get exactly those versions of parts you usually have to understand how the parts differ to make the (tiny!) tweaks between them. Worth checking for projects using things you can get.
posted by clew at 12:54 PM on March 15
Nb: e-ink devices usually turn *thrmsrlves* off to take advantage of their stable displays. As written I can’t tell if you need to ?remotely? turn it back on from your computer when pushing updates.
It doesn’t take many of these gotchas to warrant a whole little computer at the other end; hence raspberry etcs.
posted by clew at 12:58 PM on March 15
It doesn’t take many of these gotchas to warrant a whole little computer at the other end; hence raspberry etcs.
posted by clew at 12:58 PM on March 15
This may not quite fit, but want to be sure you've seen TRMNL.
posted by rdn at 2:02 PM on March 15 [4 favorites]
posted by rdn at 2:02 PM on March 15 [4 favorites]
This isn’t exactly right, but Waveshare makes NFC powered eink screens that power themselves wirelessly from the data transfer from your phone. There’s an app that lets you set the display, then you hold it against your phone for 30 seconds while it updates. It stays there until you update it again.
(Amazon link, no endorsement intended, they make other cheaper sizes.)
posted by bowbeacon at 2:42 PM on March 15
(Amazon link, no endorsement intended, they make other cheaper sizes.)
posted by bowbeacon at 2:42 PM on March 15
My prior gen Kindle Paperwhite does have Bluetooth, and so do current gen. Don't know about other models. (And that's the extent I'm useful in this conversation.)
posted by stormyteal at 2:49 PM on March 15
posted by stormyteal at 2:49 PM on March 15
(Sorry, I thought that kindles don't have Bluetooth, but apparently I was under that impression because without tampering the firmware restricts Bluetooth to audio output devices (and I think the kindle has to be registered to an Amazon account). Whereas kobos and other readers let you use Bluetooth for input.)
posted by trig at 4:06 PM on March 15
posted by trig at 4:06 PM on March 15
Does this fit your requirements ?
They also have a Github page that talks you through building your own device, because they are confident that you can't build it cheaper than they can sell you one for.
Also if you buy one, it will work out of the box as opposed to one you could potentially build out of parts yourself.
From the Github Page
I too know the pain of 'I need this simple thing surely it must exists' - only to be constantly frustrated so I wish you good luck in finding your 'Goldilocks' gadget.
I don't own a Trmnl myself, but it looks like it might tick some (most?) or your requirement needs
posted by Faintdreams at 5:32 PM on March 15 [3 favorites]
They also have a Github page that talks you through building your own device, because they are confident that you can't build it cheaper than they can sell you one for.
Also if you buy one, it will work out of the box as opposed to one you could potentially build out of parts yourself.
From the Github Page
"TRMNL is an e-ink display that connects with popular products and renders their most useful information. We believe this black & white, focused, hands-off approach is the best way to stay informed without getting distracted.
Our proprietary device is available for purchase at https://usetrmnl.com, however we also provide guides to build your own device, install and mod our open source firmware, and even point your own device (or ours) at your own web server for end-to-end privacy.
See the other repositories in this GitHub organisation and our API docs (https://docs.usetrmnl.com) to get started."
I too know the pain of 'I need this simple thing surely it must exists' - only to be constantly frustrated so I wish you good luck in finding your 'Goldilocks' gadget.
I don't own a Trmnl myself, but it looks like it might tick some (most?) or your requirement needs
posted by Faintdreams at 5:32 PM on March 15 [3 favorites]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
Look at Inkplate 6, 10 or 6 Color (available at Crowdsupply or soldered.com if in Europe) will need you to plug it in via USB and then use the code examples to display an image from storage. There are also examples for loading web items over WiFi if you're able to control where to download it from, say a web server in the cloud or that you run on your computer.
posted by k3ninho at 12:04 PM on March 15