Blog Posts

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.

Connecting the EXT3 as easy as counting from 1 to 10!

2/28/2021

Thanks to the use of the standard electronics colours, connecting the Pervasive Displays e-Paper EPD Extension Kit Gen 3 is faster and safer.

Go to the section Connecting the e-Paper EPD Extension Kit Gen 3 to get detailed instructions for popular boards.

Pervasive Displays EPD Extension Kit Gen 3

2/17/2021

Pervasive Displays has just released the third generation of the EPD Extension Kit Gen 3 (EXT3) for the large line of e-paper screens. The new kit brings interesting improvements.

The board is more compact, supports the iTC screens with 24- and 34-way flat-cables, includes a 1 MB Flash memory and provisions pads for a second memory IC.

The 20-way cable now comes with the standard resistor colours for easier identification and connection.

Read the full review and discover the library.

Portable Particulate Matter Monitor

1/18/2021

There are many ways of measuring air quality. One of them is based on concentration of particulate matter, or dust in plain English.

This project combines Grove devices with the Xiao board. The colour of the RGB LED changes according to the PM10 concentration.

Discover the full project.

The $5 programmer-debugger

12/24/2020

In my review of the Xiao Expansion Board, I praised the availability of the SWD signals but regretted the use of standard 0.1" pins instead of the secure SWD standard connector.

Why not use another Xiao board as a DAPLink programmer-debugger? DAPLink is an open-source initiative by mbed: it provides SWD and JTAG connections and reroutes the serial port.

Read the full story.

<<Previous

Forward>>