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Teensy E-Paper Adapter Board

The Simplest Way To Start Playing With A Fascinating New Low-Power Screen!

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Buy me: https://www.crowdsupply.com/soniktech/e-paper-shield-kit

Library and examples: https://github.com/jarek319/EPD215

E-Paper is not a simple display to drive. With manual temperature compensation, onboard power regulation requiring external capacitors, and setting up a step-up circuit, there are many factors to consider when working with this display, with the large benefit of not requiring any power to maintain its image once written.

I have created the simplest possible circuit necessary to drive the Pervasive Displays E2215CS062 , available from your favorite distributor. Certain parts from the reference design were substituted with US-available equivalents with assistance from the Pervasive Displays engineering team.

This is just a jumping off point :) A more thorough library is in the works, but feel free to grab t

The necessary schematic, board files, and test code can be found below. The entire design has been validated, and is set up for production using OSHPark's PCB service, with parts all available from Digikey.

The board was made using entirely 0805 passives to make hand-soldering possible. The connector can be attaching using the "flood-and-wick" technique ( use plenty of flux! ).

x-zip-compressed - 17.14 kB - 11/04/2016 at 18:18

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  • 1 × Teensy 3.2
  • 1 × Pervasive Displays E2215CS062
  • 1 × E-Paper Adapter Board PCB
  • 1 × Assorted Components From E-Paper Reference Circuit

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Earl Baugh wrote 02/01/2022 at 22:04 point

I pulled this out of my project box (I had it working before, but didn't have a good application that I wanted to use it for.... now I do)..   I loaded up the recent Teensy Duino, downloaded the llibraries, re-compiled the EpaperQuoteDisplay (since I wasn't sure in what state I left it) and the only output I see is : Beginning SPIResetting screenwaiting for busy signal

I got all the latest libraries.  I've verified that I have the Teensy Epaper Adapter properly aligned (at least w.r.t the 3.3V and GND listed on the Teensy LC).   Has something broken while I had this in my box?  (could I have possibly had the adapter on wrong once?  )   Have I killed it? :-(

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jareklupinski wrote 02/05/2022 at 07:50 point

"Waiting for busy signal" means that the software is waiting for the screen to tell the software that it is ready to continue. I would double check the screen connection.

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oshpark wrote 02/10/2017 at 06:16 point

@jarek319 is there an EAGLE .lbr file with the Hirose connector?  I'm trying to do a similar design in KiCad and SnapEDA can convert from EAGLE to Kicad if I upload at .lbr.

Thanks!
Drew

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Ariane Nazemi wrote 11/11/2016 at 07:42 point

Excellent project! Any plans on creating a way to display bitmap images on the display? I believe one other display company uses XBM files?

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jareklupinski wrote 11/11/2016 at 14:44 point

I've used LCDAssistant to convert BMP to code and have had success that way. I wrote my own mini-library for rendering bitmaps and that works fine too, but now I'm looking at integrating this into Adafruit's GFX library so I can leverage their existing BMP rendering code and all the other drawing functions.

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Ariane Nazemi wrote 11/11/2016 at 22:36 point

I see. And do you know if it's possible to perform partial updates with this display? That would help tremendously for animations and such.

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jareklupinski wrote 11/11/2016 at 23:32 point

It's possible, I'm just not allowed to release the code under NDA :( hopefully if enough people support this open-source project, manufacturers will be more willing to part with their LookUp Tables!

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alan_r_cam wrote 11/02/2016 at 12:01 point

I have several Teensy boards, including the latest 3.6 which runs on 3.3V -
My most common use for the Teensy is driving mechanical keyboards. Adding a display to a keyboard is appealing, but  I'd want:
1 - A bigger display [in dimensions and resolution], and
2 - A slimmer [low profile] layout.

So:
Does this run on a V3.6 [3.3V] Teensy?
Can I use the adapter with a different [larger] screen?
Can the adapter be connected beside a Teensy, instead of on top?

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jareklupinski wrote 11/02/2016 at 14:14 point

Yes, the E-paper Adapter does support the newer Teensy. I am writing an update and will post it to the CrowdSupply page soon.

I have not tested with a larger screen, but the driving circuits for the larger screens seem very similar to the circuit I'm using right now, but with different values for the capacitors and resistors. If this project gets funded, I'll take that as a sign that there is enough interest to look into bigger and more expensive screens :)

The pre-soldered adapter has female headers which accept standard hook-up wire, and the unsoldered version can be placed anywhere and have wires soldered to it that run back to your target microcontroller. In the gallery for this project you can see one example where I soldered male pins to the epaper shield and plugged it into a breadboard.

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Sean Hodgins wrote 09/10/2016 at 23:01 point

Great project. There are so many uses for displays like this, I want them to gain more popularity so there are more options. Good work, I will probably make a variation of your board. 

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jareklupinski wrote 09/10/2016 at 23:23 point

Thanks for the kind words :) Add in a solar cell, a battery, and an aggressive power management strategy, and you've got a perfect platform for extremely-low refresh rate dashboards and info displays: https://hackaday.io/project/10000/log/43672-solar-powered-and-ready-to-last-forever

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oshpark wrote 09/04/2016 at 17:47 point

Hi @jarek319, is the resistor actually 2.2Ohm?  That seemed like a low value, so I wanted to double check if it was 2.2KOhm.

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jareklupinski wrote 09/05/2016 at 22:08 point

yup, it's a 2.2Ohm resistor. It's likely used as some reference by the epaper's onboard regulator?

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oshpark wrote 09/06/2016 at 05:55 point

ok, thanks!

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K.C. Lee wrote 09/05/2016 at 23:47 point

Inductor current feedback for the current-mode boost supply.  It is used to generate the ramp for the PWM signal.

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oshpark wrote 09/06/2016 at 05:55 point

thanks for the insight!

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jareklupinski wrote 08/30/2016 at 13:27 point

First I got the reference schematic from the datasheet for the display, and I redrew the schematic in Eagle. Then I created a board from the schematic using Eagle's Board Editor, and then I sent the Board file to OSHPark for fabrication. When it came back in I soldered the components to the board and wrote a quick test program :)

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qquuiinn wrote 08/29/2016 at 22:52 point

Can you drive smaller displays with this driver board without having to tweak the values of the passives?

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jareklupinski wrote 08/30/2016 at 01:15 point

I would double check the datasheet of the display you want to use. I got the values for the passives from that specific display's reference schematic, and there should be one in the datasheet/online/from the manufacturer.

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pieterkockx wrote 08/29/2016 at 05:13 point

Are these difficulties also the reason you don't see e-readers with a large display?

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jareklupinski wrote 08/29/2016 at 13:01 point

I haven't played with larger ones yet, but that's because of cost... these things get a little pricey at larger sizes...

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pieterkockx wrote 08/29/2016 at 13:23 point

This article is interesting too:

http://essentialscrap.com/eink/software.html

Perhaps it's possible to drive multiple displays using a shared framebuffer?

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deʃhipu wrote 08/29/2016 at 15:27 point

you can actually get kindle displays relatively cheap -- possibly because of their popularity

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drojf wrote 08/26/2016 at 14:28 point

A couple years ago I was interested in e-paper displays, but it was too expensive to buy the dev boards/displays for it and too much effort to work out how to drive them without one...thanks for this project, I'll definitely look into it if I have the time. 

It would be nice if you uploaded a PDF or image version of the schematic, so it can be viewed without Eagle (I use Kicad).

The e-paper display is available from digikey at $16 USD, qty 1: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/pervasive-displays/E2215CS062/E2215CS062-ND/5975949

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jareklupinski wrote 08/26/2016 at 16:02 point

There is a image version of the schematic in the gallery, send me a msg if you can't make out some of the values and I'll upload a PDF too :)

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drojf wrote 08/27/2016 at 00:53 point

ah sorry, I assumed the hackaday thumbnail images (which are cropped) represent the gallery images, but the gallery images are clearly full size and not cropped. There is even a "view full size" button on the bottom right which I have never seen before, and it shows the original image (which is huge!). Thanks!


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jareklupinski wrote 08/27/2016 at 01:18 point

no problem, good luck! feel free to message :)

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oshpark wrote 08/26/2016 at 13:22 point

Thanks, this is awesome!

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