Ardoise: e-paper/e-ink monitor

Goal:

Create a e-paper/e-ink monitorfor linux. My personal use is a typewriter. Written in Rust

Latency is 0,2s when the zone to update is small (ex: characters) , sufficient to create a typewriter.

Mouse cursor isn't displayed

There is no e-Paper update if there is no movement

I confirm this is working fine, see the photo in resources/

Idea behind

• Screenshoot a linux desktop
• Compare with previous screenshoot
• convert in greyscale colors the modified zone
• Update only the modified zone of e-Paper
• Repeat...

Prerequisites:

• Raspeberry Pi 4 (not 3 ! Display isn't big enough)
• Usb-c 5V power
• Micro SD Card (8 Go minimum)
• 1872×1404, 10.3inch flexible E-Ink display HAT for Raspberry Pi found here

Steps to install:

Install Raspbian

Install official Raspbian distribution for Raspberry Pi 4:

And connect it to wifi.

BMC2835 library

Download the latest version of the library, say bcm2835-1.xx.tar.gz bcm2835

tar zxvf bcm2835-1.xx.tar.gz
cd bcm2835-1.xx
./configure
make
sudo make check
sudo make install

Build Ardoise

Install Rust:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

open a new terminal or reboot

in ardoise dir:

cargo build --release
sudo copy target/release/ardoise /usr/local/bin/

Load at startup

copy resources/.xprofile in /home/pi/

Not sure if this works:

sudo copy resources/ardoise.service /etc/systemd/system/

But I'm sure this works:

sudo copy resources/launch_ardoise.sh /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/launch_ardoise.sh

And make it load at startup in LXDE settings.

Tip for writers:

Install FocusWriter, make it load at startup in LXDE settings.

Enjoy !