Seeking unconventional e-reader solution.

I want an e-reader that: - is durable and repairable - has buttons - and does minimal damage to my eyes. It doesn't have to have an e-ink screen, it doesn't have to display pictures or color. I'm willing for it to be a hacky solution.

>>82314 Bump. Curious too. Doing to research some people say it's hard to read on a palm, but they come in many screen types so I'm unsure which palm that person had. Maybe you can look into old tablets linkrel: https://www.hpcfactor.com/hardware/devices/default.asp?page=images&class=tablet Also old e-paper e-books readers go for cheap on used buy and sell sites. I don't know why anybody needs the new ones with color, fast processor, wifi, web browser, and other fancy features that have nothing to do with readin.

I am an embedded systems engineer. I design low power rf nodes for a living. I can design something similar. What more would you like?

https://www.vice.com/en/article/anyone-can-build-this-open-source-drm-free-kindle-alternative/ You gotta assemble it yourself but I hope everyone here is at least comfortable with a soldering iron

>>82352 >Linking to a soykafty (outdated) article instead of to the project's page https://www.oddlyspecificobjects.com/projects/openbook/ https://github.com/joeycastillo/The-Open-Book It doesn't (yet?) run koreader, unfortunately. And it's a bit more involved than just using a soldering iron as you'll need to make the boards yourself (or get them made)

>>82351 Sorry for taking so long to reply, lainon Make it have two buttons on each side for moving forward one page and back, like the older Kindles. Let it have USB-C charging. It being waterproof would be nice, but I could live without that. The more physical buttons, the better, it would be cool if there was a switch to switch off the Wifi. Don't worry about it being thick, regular books are also thick. It would be really nice if it could be charged by AAA batteries. But if not, let the batteries be replaceable easily. >>82354 Why couldn't it be made to run KOReader?

>>82376 Can it be airgapped? I ned a proper one that isn't making outbound connections when I'm inawoods All the ones I have looked up require de-soldering

>>82352 >>82354 Interesting project. Using a pi pico is a strange choice, I would have used a pi zero so as to benefit from the niceties of a linux OS. >>82376 It certainly could, but noone did it afaik. It would probably take a lot of work since the openbook doesn't run linux. >>82377 What would it be connecting to when you're innawood? No e-reader I know of connects to phone networks. >All the ones I have looked up require de-soldering git gud glitterboy

>>82378 Pi Pico is much better, just costwise. Pi zeros cost way too much.

>>82379 That's true, though I would also have used a better display (4.2'' / 120dpi is ridiculous), which would dwarf either cost. A 300dpi e-ink display (I like my letters sharp and well rounded) easily goes for 100€ or more. If the objective was to make a low-cost e-reader, it certainly does the job. You could make one for less than 50€. That said, you can find second hand kobos (with a much better screen) in that price range.

>>82315 I want one with the ability to play high bitrate audio over bluetooth and drag-and-drop functionality. the only use case I can see for an ereader with an internet connection would be for torrenting/downloading new books and music, e-ink's refresh rate simply isn't good enough for browsing and soykaf posting and quite frankly most people don't buy e-readers for such distractions anyway. but listening to music while reading can be relaxing.

>>82383 >A 300dpi e-ink display (I like my letters sharp and well rounded) easily goes for 100€ or more. Do you know where consumers can purchase these screens? The only ones I found online are those toy ones with 2 inch screen sizes. I've wanted to build my own e-reader for so long but could just never find a screen, and I assume any secondhand one I could buy would have little info on interfacing.

>>83635 Afaik, only eink makes them. They don't sell to consumer, but a second-hand display would be one of theirs, so you can find manuals on their site.

>>83636 Hm, I was afraid of this. I've got an old secondhand Kindle I'd be fine with ripping apart. I'm gonna check online if any autists have made some useful info for it.

>durable and repairable lmao >has buttons don't they usually?

maybe this https://pine64.com/product/pinenote-community-edition-coming-soon/ or compromise your morals somewhat and get this https://shop.boox.com/products/poke5

DS Lite or DSi XL, dslibris or IkuReader. You'll need an R4 cartridge and an SD card; for the DSi, the cartridge is optional, as it has a SD card slot, while the DS Lite does not. However, you'll have to jailbreak the DSi. The aforementioned software are homebrew ebook readers for the DS; installing them is as simple as copying them to the SD card. dslibris does not know of any directory other than the "book" directory which it supplies, and wherefrom it reads ebooks that can be either in epub, fb2 or txt formats. IkuReader is more flexible: it reads books from a "Books" directory but it can also read from other folders. It supports the same ebook formats as dslibris. The DS Lite and the DSi XL are durable, have buttons and a great battery life. I prefer the former to the latter. The screen is comfortable to read on.

>>82874 I am also looking for such a device. I don't need or want wifi, nor do I want speakers or microphones unless they're bluetooth or wired, either through a headphone or USB port. Wireless charging would be nice just in case the USB port fails but these things usually last so long enough that you don't have charge them frequently enough for the ports to fail. I personally don't even care if it doesn't have drivers to run a wifi/cellular dongle that would help me pirate new books off libgen without connecting to my laptop, I have enough books on the damn thing that I need to read first. Ideally, there should be a physical cut-off switch for the BT module. >>83638 a lot of newer ones just have an e-ink touchscreen

>>84351 >DS Lite ... [is] durable Normally yeah but watch the hinges, that's the structural weak point. I know this because that's how I managed to destroy my original ds lite ( ._.)

I know OP has probably already bought a kindle at this point but still I don't think there is any commercial option that checks the three boxes. you can make your own depending on how much money and time you are willing to spend on it. you can buy e-paper displays from china with adapters for hobbyist boards (esp32 and such). the three main time sinks I can imagine would be 1. the battery. the easiest but less elegant approach would be to just use a holder for rechargeable aa or aaa batteries 2. writing a small OS, UI and reader if you go with anything "below" a pi. this isn't as hard as it sounds though 3. designing a pcb to hold everything together. check >>82354 for a reference it will cost you (including shipping but not taxes) between 40 to 100 usd for the screen, 5 to 50 usd for the SoC, and then around 20 usd for the miscellaneous parts and the pcb board unless you can find some very good libraries, formats like pdf will be out of the question. maybe you can write some rudimentary support for epub, but the two easiest formats to handle will be plain text and fb2. if anyone here decides to go through with something like this please post. imo the weaker the soc the easier it is to write software for it because there is less stuff going on