Embedded Computing

Pervasive Displays E-Paper Display Pico Kit

11/11/2021

How to start exploring e-paper technology?

The Pervasive Displays E-Paper Display Pico Kit (or EPDK) provides everything to start with. The kit includes a 2.66" screen, an e-Paper EPD Extension Kit Gen 3, a 20-way cable and a Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040. Library, documentation and examples are available online.

Read the full review.

Connecting the EXT3 to the Espressif ESP32

10/18/2021

The boards based on the Espressif ESP32 are very popular. Here is the procedure to connect the ESP32-DevKitC to the Pervasive Diplasy EXT3.

Thank you to W. Shepherd Pitts and Joe Harrison from NCSU for the idea.

Read more at Connecting the EXT3 to the Espressif ESP32.

Pervasive Displays e-Paper Screen with Fast Update

10/6/2021

One of the major complain about e-paper screen is the slow update.

Here is an interesting solution from Pervasive Displays: a new version of the 2.71" e-paper screen with embedded fast update.

How faster does it perform? Read the full test.

Farewell embedXcode

9/27/2021

After almost ten years, the adventure of embedXcode comes to an end.

The long term support period has terminated, with all the services closed and the related data deleted.

New horizons

I ditched Apple for Linux.

On the hardware side, I picked an Intel NUC. This compact and affordable PC comes with many USB ports, all the required documentation to install memory, SSD and HDD, and a standard three-year-long warranty period.

On the software side, the Debian distribution with Gnome desktop supports all the applications I was using previously. I picked the excellent Visual Studio Code IDE with the C/C++, Cortex Debug, Astyle and Doxygen extensions.

Porting embedXcode to the new environment was very easy with virtually no changes. Only the paths needed to be adapted.

Thank you!

I want to thank all the users who enjoyed embedXcode and supported the project by making donations and reporting issues, allowing to reach a high level of stability.

Pervasive Displays 2.71" Fast Update

9/3/2021

The new 2.71" panel from Pervasive Displays referenced E2271PS091 brings fast update. Screen refresh takes less than one second!

The library has been adapted accordingly, with the PDLS_EXT3_Basic_Fast version.

Pervasive Displays explores new retailers, with the panel available at Amazon.

Connecting the Pervasive Displays EXT3 to the Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040

5/23/2021

I started investigating the Raspberry Pi Pico RP2040 with the newly released Arduino mbed OS RP2040 boards core version 2.1.0.

The issues I experienced with SPI on the previous 2.0.0 version seem to be gone.

With just setting CONFIGURATION_OPTION to CONFIGURATION_EXT3_PICO_ARDUINO, the same sketch drives the Pervasive Displays e-ink screens throught the EXT3 extension board.

Read more at Connecting the EXT3 to the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Leaving Apple for Linux

5/23/2021

In 2006, I switched from Windows to Apple. In 2021, I'm switching again, this time from Apple to Linux.

The change was prompted by the repeated hardware failures I've experienced with the last two MacBooks (with an MTBF of 4 months) and the disastrous Apple customer service, resulting in a very high total cost of ownership (TCO of USD2,737 per year).

The switch to Linux was surprisingly quick and easy.

I chose Debian with default Gnome, mainly due to my prior experience on the Raspberry Pi boards. Gnome offers a clean interface with few distractions.

As IDE, I picked the excellent Visual Studio Code and kept the GCC tool-chain.

Adapting embedXcode to Linux required very few changes, thanks to the technologies it relies on. As a benefit, debugging is now internal.

Adding memory to the EXT3

3/24/2021

The Pervasive Displays e-Paper EPD Extension Kit Gen 3 includes two slots for memory. The first one is populated with a 1 Mb or 128 k x 8 Flash, and the second is free. All the pads for another SOIC-8 memory are exposed and ready to use.

The section Expanding the e-Paper EPD Extension Kit Gen 3 reviews different options of additional memory, Flash, SRAM or FRAM, and explains how to manage the SPI bus.

Remote e-Paper Messages Panel - An update

3/22/2021

Here is an example of a more advanced version of the Remote e-Paper Messages Panel project posted on Hackster.io. This version combines different options.

The nice case fits perfectly in the living room!

Remote e-Paper Messages Panel

3/5/2021

How to display messages on a remote screen? The project combines two technologies, e-paper screen and IoT, to solve this problem.

Read the full project on Hackster.io or in this website.

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