The Worst E-Reader Ever

oled

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.

29 thoughts on “The Worst E-Reader Ever

  1. 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.

      1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

    1. 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.

  4. 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.

    1. 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.

    1. 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?)

  5. 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.

  6. 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!

    1. 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.

  7. 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.

    1. 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. ;)

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