Over on the Projects site, [Jaromir] has created a tiny device with an OLED display, three buttons, and a USB port for storing text files, be it for saving a shopping list, a cheat sheet, or the most unusable e-reader ever made.
The front of the device is simply a 96×32 pixel OLED and three buttons for ‘up’, ‘down’, and ‘open/close’. The reverse side is where the magic happens with a PIC24 microcontroller that sets up a file system on the chip, allowing [Jaromir] to write 64kB of data on what is actually a Flash drive with a pitiful capacity. Text files are viewable on the OLED, with the video below showing the front page of Wikipedia being displayed in a glorious 16×4 text mode.
It’s not a very useful device by any means, but for some reason it’s garnered a lot of skulls and followers over on Hackaday Projects. In response to that, [Jaromir] is working on version two with a new PCB and a design for a 3D printed case. Not bad for what [Jaromir] himself describes as worse than just about any phone or tablet.
MCU – Check
OLED – Check
USB – Check
FAT FileSystem – Check
LiIon Battery + Charger – Check
DIY PCB Design, SMD design – Check
No Ardiuno – Check
Maybe not very useful but you could base a complete course or book using the design of this device to teach various aspects of gadgetry. Many have been there, done that, if not – very interesting for a novice to follow.
Afaik, Ardiuno doesn’t exist.
Someone should make an Arduino clone and call it Ardiuno.
Love it. Have been thinking about this for a while actually. Think it can be made for under $20? I want to combine it with http://www.spritzinc.com/ and make a cheep e-reader for underprivileged students…
I thought that a device like this would be useful for people who commute on trains, etc. If I got off my ass, it would have been called the Bookee (sold as a keychain fob e-reader). Word speed and direction controlled by a gyro or touchscreen. It seems simple enough, but maybe too niche to make money.
Same thought I’ve had…keychain! If you can get it to $10-$20 then schools would buy them like they do memory sticks.
I don’t know what I’d do with that, but it’s a good proof of concept and proof of skills.
Agree completely with the above comments, this is a project and not a product, therefore the journey is the reward; intersting stuff can be learned just by studying it.
Thanks for selecting my project here and nice writeup.
Just minor correction – the files are actually storerd on I2C EEPROM (not FLASH), sharing the I2C bus with display. This EEPROM is accessible as normal USB mass storage, ready to be formatted as FAT drive, so copying files from PC is simple.
Neat project. Was there a particular reason for choosing the small display? On eBay, at least, those small OLEDs are not really much cheaper than a large one.
I actually had a little cheap chinese MP3 player/Memo taker than had an ereader just like this in it.
You are right, much bigger displays are only slightly more expensive.
I chose that display just for its physical dimensions. My aim was to squeeze it as much as possible, into really tiny reader.
E-Reader. When I hear (or read) that word, I think of the e-Reader for GBA.
With some work it could be a decent speed reader; one of those things that flash words in sequence. Though an encoder knob would be nice addition for that use.
This may be good with Spritz applicatation http://www.spritzinc.com/
That’s what I love about HAD – I had never heard of Spritz – I just discovered I can speed read at 700 WPM – piece of cake… now if only I could type at that speed.
Had the exact same thought, hope the original creator explores this idea!
I totally like it. It could be a great candidate for this kind of speed reading: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/27/spritz-reading_n_4865756.html
It would be super great if you could fit a joystick or some sort of pressure sensitive button that could control the speed. Alternatively an accelerometer could control the speed by tilting. or just don’t control it…
I wish we had small and affordable epaper displays, that wold be a perfect screen for this project.
Seriously… I would buy cheap epaper displays by the dozen and use them in everything. What is taking China so long to start cranking them suckers out en masse? Is it a patent troll situation? (Does China even legally recognize patents?)
You mean like this one for $10?
http://parts.arrow.com/item/detail/pervasive-displays-inc/ek014as014#FgQQ
Can it run GNU emacs?
I don’t get it. I read very positive articles on hackaday about crappy projects almost every day. That project is definitely more useful that some crap that has been posted lately and I don’t understand why it deserves so many negative adjectives in the article.
THE worst E-Reader? It sounds like a challenge :D. Probably device with one diode which sends morse-code would be even worse. Or maybe device which sends data in binary, that way you would need a reader to read your reader!
Make this diode an IR one and you won XD
Already been done. Someone on the web, or maybe Usenet, long time ago. Made a text editor with a button and an LED, for taking notes in Morse. Controlled by an 8-pin something, probably was a PIC. Actually a dead good idea, really. If you can learn Morse you’ve got just about the simplest interface short of embedding a breadboard on your cerebral cortex.
Seriously? I like the Shopping-List idea. You could simply put that in a USB-Stick like case. Some Bluetooth functionaltiy would be great. So you don’t need to carry your phone all the time while checking your shopping list. Or pen&paper, cause it’s really a tiny device.
Man, i have been dreaming to transform one of those cheap usb-mp3 players into this, but with a spritz speed read algorithm. Thanks and please keep developing it!
If you would manage to get one of those SanDisk Sansa Clip (used, so you can get them quite cheap), you could flash Rockbox, a custom firmware. It has a Text-Reader, and I guess, you can even write your own Software. Just as an idea. ;)
THIS WOULD WORK GREAT WITH SPRITZ
http://x3.cdn03.imgwykop.pl/c3201142/comment_tPbiITlxalT7qSO84bGu2wAcFLqs3FkY.gif