Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

dang74 — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 21:10:04 GMT

I remember reading a blurb on e paper maybe about 15 years back. I remember thinking it sounded pretty interesting at the time, but I never did get around to exploring it further. I really like how you go into the details in how this technology differs from LCDs.

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

Workshopshed — Thu, 23 May 2019 14:54:21 GMT

I do like the E-Ink displays. The refresh is a little strange, particularly if you do a partial refresh (for example flashing the : on a clock). But otherwise they are good to work with.

Here's one I setup for a mate to report the room temperature.

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x822/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-99b30597-1dfd-43cd-810c-f14bc9a02ab4/5164.contentimage_5F00_186113.jpg:620:822]

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

freddy1404 — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 23:12:02 GMT

Hi Shabaz,

thank you so much for posting this article. It has helped me a great deal!

I do however have a little problem: The text doesn't fully go to the right side, there is a gap of about 9mm, which would equal about 40px. It is always there, no matter the text size. Do you have any idea how could write letters onto the whole screen, getting rid of that gap?

Thank you,
Regards,
Frederik

[View:/resized-image/__size/500x448/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-99b30597-1dfd-43cd-810c-f14bc9a02ab4/contentimage_5F00_186110.jpg:500:448]

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

psitech — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 15:42:19 GMT

Hi Shabaz,

Thanks for posting this interesting article!

While [partially] porting your code to a Teensy 3.1/3.2, I found a bug in displaying the characters "gjpg". The bottom part of these characters is flipped up, see:

[View:/resized-image/__size/378x357/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-99b30597-1dfd-43cd-810c-f14bc9a02ab4/contentimage_5F00_186108.png:378:357]

Found the solution by modifying line 1011 of ep29.cpp [function 'ep_write_text']:

else

{

if (py == -1)

{

py = 32767;

}

else

{

py = 0 - ipy; << this line should be py = 0 + ipy; [plus instead of minus]

}

Now it looks OK:

[View:/resized-image/__size/372x330/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-99b30597-1dfd-43cd-810c-f14bc9a02ab4/contentimage_5F00_186109.png:372:330]

Regards,

Paul

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

mcb1 — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 05:41:40 GMT

[mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] You might like some of these

https://www.waveshare.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=e-ink

Mark

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

mustafa404 — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 17:42:50 GMT

Hi Shabaz,

Very knowledgeable article this. I was now curious to integrate the epaper with xbee modules.

Just a question regarding this. Will it be possible to integrate it with Xbee modules which have a RAM of 2kb and Flash memory of 32Kb.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Mustafa

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

luislabmo — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 15:16:56 GMT

Hi [mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05], nice article.

I'm wondering, is that a fritzing diagram ?

Luis

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

abrain — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 22:42:50 GMT

Hi [mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05], nice article!

I had a play with an STM32L0 discoverySTM32L0 discovery board with one of these on a while back, to see if it was going to be any good with a portable measurement device.... as you note, the display can't be updated that quickly, and you need to consider what to display just before you get switched off, as it really does hold that image, but it was fun learning about the technology.

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

gpolder — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 18:37:12 GMT

thanks a lot for sharing,

I was looking at eInk for quite some time already but thought it was still expensive. But this one is very affordable and looks great. Speed is quite slow, so it is for projects with not to much updates.

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

Workshopshed — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 17:13:16 GMT

Excellent project and demo of this tech.

Other things good for eInk

Weather forcast

Upcoming Train / Bus arrivals

Andy's book sales (a stone tablet would also work for this task)

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

ninjatrent — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 16:19:25 GMT

The eink display for the pi zero looks interesting.

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

neilk — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 15:16:03 GMT

Very nice project [mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-99b30597-1dfd-43cd-810c-f14bc9a02ab4/3058.contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16].

I didn't even know that e-paper displays were available and modestly priced!

It's very tempting

Neil

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

gadget.iom — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 14:36:49 GMT

Nice write-up [mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05]. [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-99b30597-1dfd-43cd-810c-f14bc9a02ab4/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

I have often been tempted to experiment with E-Ink/E-Paper, now have one on the way.

Paul

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

genebren — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 20:50:11 GMT

Hi Shabaz,

Very nice write-up. This looks like a really nice screen. I played around with a bunch of LED/LCD displays, with and without touch screens for a project a while back, but this is so much cleaner looking. Keep up all of the good work!

RE: Experimenting with E-Paper Displays: Building a Clock!

ninjatrent — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 15:33:42 GMT

Hi Shabaz

Great post and explanation of this tech.

Thanks for sharing this post with us.

Very interesting content.