While I would have preferred to start on a breadboard or protoboard, the fine pitch FFC on E-Paper displays pretty much rules that out. Instead, I started on the paper I've scanned in and dropped into the article above.

The way I see it, there are four parts of this project:

Power Supply

This actually might be the hardest part of the project - you need to generate a hodgepodge of random voltages to drive a screen like the ED060xxx or ED097xxx:

• +22V
• -20V
• +15V
• -15V
• 3.3V (Logic)
• Somewhere between 0 and -2.5V (a common/contrast/reference)

Great fun. My first shot will emulate some of the SMPS -> Linear regulator designs from other examples I've seen.

Driver Logic

The driver will both switch on and off the various power supplies and well as generate the data and latch combinations needed to get data onto the screen.

The lowest risk move here is probably to get a fast, high resourced microcontroller. The project examples I linked use the ESP8266 and various STM32xxx products here.

I think I lean a microcontroller with sufficient pins in case I do try to juice the refresh rates - we need about 15 outputs or so and I'd prefer not to push them through a GPIO expander. Maybe ESP32 here?

Input Logic

For my first effort, this will probably be Logic Level Asynchronous Serial. However, my final target, and what will motivate my entry is using a common display interface as input.

I think one of DVI-A or VGA would be the most fun, since it'd require an A/D converter and reversing some timings. DVD-D (or HDMI) would require just the second bit. Of course, most modern computers will output all of those, but analog display interfaces are on the way out and dongles/converters are hated. I'll think on the fun/product/'why not both?' aspects of this one.

If I'm particularly ambitious, maybe NTSC or PAL? Those protocols have everything mixed into the same signal, so it's add some fun analog to the project - separating color, sync, etc. I wouldn't count on this one though, even if I worked on that you'd still have pretty low resolutions. Also they're old. Give me some feedback below if you think they deserve their renaissance.

Case / Presentation

My 2015 entry didn't really need a case - it was just a video card on a PCB, haha. This time I'll need to take it seriously and take my first shot at what's sure to be some clumsy industrial design.

A stand for sure, but I'd love to log some frustrating hours with the 3D Printer. Any words of wisdom here? This category has the potential to dominate all others, haha.

For other parts of the presentation in general, I'll work up to them. As I get closer, that'll be writing up a guide, creating the video(s), packaging everything up - and possibly a web site and supporting documentation as well. Que sera, sera.