Although ebooks and e-readers have a number of benefits over reading an analog paper book as well as on more common electronic devices like tablets, most of them are locked behind proprietary systems like Kindle which make it difficult to take control over your electronic library. While there are a few off-brand e-readers that allow users to take a bit of control back and manually manage their files and libraries, there are few options for open-source solutions. This project aims to provide not only a free and open e-reader from the hardware to the software, but also a server to host a library as well.
The goal of most of the build is to keep everything as FLOSS as possible including the hardware, which is based on a Raspberry Pi compute module. The display comes from Good Display, which includes a built-in light and a touchscreen. There’s a lithium battery to power the tablet-like device with a number of support chips to charge it, handle the display, and interface with the Pi. On the software side, the system uses MuPDF which has support for most ebook file types while the server side is based on Calibre and the Open Publication Distribution System.
A subsection of the build log discusses a lot of how the code works for those looking to build their own similar system based on this project. The project code is even hosted on GitLab, a more FLOSS-y version of GitHub. Free and open ebook readers have been a goal of a number of builders for some time now, as we’ve seen projects going back at least a few years now and others that hope to make the Kindle hardware a little more open instead.
Could you post it on tindie without rpi?
Rpi is NOT open source.
literally the dumbest take on FOSS.
by that logic then FOSS is a myth and none of the open source projects that are available are open source because the hardware isn’t open source.
If not then, where do you draw the line? Should the network card you use to download the source be FOSS? Maybe the router firmware? How about the switches from your ISP? The servers the source is hosted from?
You’re dumb and you should feel dumb for putting that dumb idea into the world.
wow needlessly insulting much?
Theres such a thing as open source hardware. That is different from FOSS which is free and open source SOFTWARE. The idea presented is not dumb for pointing out the discrepancy when the headline claim was a non-specific ‘free and open source’ while the article utilizes a large amount of proprietary hardware that is running FOSS.
The raspi isn’t very open source at all, even in software.
It relies heavily on firmware running on the VPU core (to which you or I have zero access) to boot the system and it’s main cores and provide a rainbow of runtime services through a mailbox interface. It’s closed source, and both the raspi foundation and bcom have been rather tight lipped about what it does and how it works. Attempts at understanding it and replacing it have been fairly unsuccessful. It also has a very high degree of privilege over the system, even at runtime.
It is, for all intents and purposes, the Intel Management Engine of the raspi platform.
“keep everything as FLOSS as possible including the hardware, which is based on a Raspberry Pi compute module”
Not that I have a big problem with the PI but it’s just objectively not FOSS hardware which is what the writer is indicating, and that does actually make a difference.
When I read the first part of that quote I was hoping that this project would be based on a RISC-V board which would be really cool, FOSS hardware has exactly the same benefits as FOSS software its just way harder to make use of them because A: tweaking and changing embedded electronics and microcontrollers is a teensy bit harder than changing code B: risc-v and associated open source hardware basically didn’t exist 10 years ago so the community and resources/tooling that could make it more accessible doesn’t exist yet.
But it’s still worth trying to use FOSS hardware and trying to build that community to get those benefits and potentially amazing future knock-on benits given the embedded electronics and microcontrollers in so many products andpotentiallyes, so its kinda annoying to see someone claim they’ve gone as “FLOSS” as possible only to go with the Windows 11 of SBCs.
And unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.
OK that’s the end of my rant
Your 555 or Atmega and any other IC is not opensource either and also relies on proprietary manufacturing techniques using proprietary machines.
Neither of them are running large volumes of privileged closed-source code to boot the system and at runtime to make it work. See comment about the VPU above.
True, but super low-energy, drive-by post.
“From the ground up” would include making your own epaper, methinks. Since that’s the most expensive and difficult to source part of this, this is not exactly ground-breaking. See also: drikti’s comment above.
So presumably nothing you’ve ever done ever has been “from the ground up” because you didn’t make your own phone, pc, webbrowser, email client, compiler, desk, etc. and you’ve never ever used that phrase to describe any undertaking you’ve engaged in ever. Not to be pedantic or anything.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe”
Yea this is true. Its starting from significantly higher than the ground level.
The PI kills the mobility aspect, too power hungry.
It’s a good prototyping system though, with a compute module you can work on your software even while iterating on hardware.
Kindle itself is a very odd duck. They took the things epaper had going for it: legible without power and long battery life. And threw it out the window by putting in a backlight and using a tiny battery that needs charging all the time. One of these days I’m going to modify mine with a 4x larger battery.
As regards this. I’m curious if a RP2040 has enough power to run it (probably). And if it can sleep at a low enough current to work.
Interestingly enough flash is getting so cheap now that a lot of things we would want the processing power for can be done server side at the cost of a larger file size.
For example for me an e-ink is not about mobility and battery life at all (2 day battery life would suffice) but about an *extremely* pleasant readability. It must not have a frontlight enabled (or have it at all) though. (Even at night with a small warm light lamp it brings a very book like reading experience.)
I would give much to have at least 10″ (or even 25″ as a non-mobile desktop display) general purpose reader which could run a webbrowser for reading static pages with documentations and tutorials and schematics and a terminal for reading manpages and infopages directly – which does not need any conversion BS like Calibre but is general purpose computer itself.
Since PineNote is not available (and I would gladly give even 1000e to buy such thing if it was available and had a standard EU warranty for its hardware) I decided to write my own *kernel* display driver for 10″ eink from Waveshare with IT8951 controller connected via its *USB* interface instead of using its SPI in userspace like everybody does and disgustingly hacking it via some fake VNC display server like PaperTTY does. I have a very rudimentary version which can display SwayWM with Alacritty and Firefox. It does not have a touchscreen though but I plan to use “soft keys” around the screen + maybe a small full alphanumeric keyboard and a browser (extension) capable of keyboard only navigation.
(Not being sarcastic or otherwise demeaning)
I wish you success in that project!
That seems like a good material for an article!
Do you have a blog or do you explain more in details this project womewhere?
I’m still trying to figure out “The project code is even hosted on GitLab, a more FLOSS-y version of GitHub.” I saw that and thought ‘that sounds interesting, I should take a look at “GitLab” ‘ (expecting it to like github but stripped of anything like paid services). Instead… I find gitlab.com which is just the exact opposite: It’s a giant advertisement page for some kind of paid services like “AI Powered DevSecOps” and there’s a huge button that says “Get free trial”. Yikes. That’s clearly *NOT* a “more FLOSS-y version” of the default place where most open-source projects live and where no one has to have an account (paid or ‘free trial’) to access it all – what it *IS* isn’t clear, at least from the main page with all it’s buzz phrases — but it is clearly a product or line of products and/or services of some kind…. that’s pretty much when I closed the tab.
Aren’t highly efficient paper-like Ereader screens still patent encumbered and stupid expensive? Until that gets fixed – IMHO FOSS, no matter how good, is sort of a waste.