Soldered Electronics has launched a crowdfunding marketing campaign for the most recent within the Inkplate household of sensible ePaper shows, the Inkplate 4 TEMPERA — providing Arduino and MicroPython compatibility, a built-in battery, and a 3.8″ upcycled square-aspect E Ink touchscreen show.
Inkplate 4 TEMPERA is an easy-to-use, all-in-one gadget that places the ability of ePaper know-how within the palm of your hand,” the corporate claims of its newest product design. “Behind its 3.8-inch, 600×600-pixel ePaper touchscreen, it packs the next options into one compact, elegant package deal: frontlighting, an abundance of sensors, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a built-in battery, and a low-power working mode.”
The show within the Inkplate 4 TEMPERA is price a re-evaluation: it is an uncommon sq. side ratio with a 600×600 decision, whereas most ePaper shows use a paper-like rectangular side ratio to higher mimic books and magazines. They’re additionally uncommon: “These ePaper screens have been initially made by the E Ink Company for a now-discontinued product,” Soldered explains, “and can be found in restricted portions.”
How restricted? Soldered says it has simply 370 with a glass panel and an additional 300 with the naked display protected by a plastic cowl, all “rescued from a tragic future as e-waste.” Each fashions embody touchscreen performance and a entrance lighting system for viewing in darkness, and are pushed by a customized board based mostly on an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller and with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, microSD storage, a Broadcom APDS-9960 gesture, proximity, and lightweight sensor, an LSM6DS3 gyroscope and accelerometer, a Bosch Sensortec BME688 air high quality and environmental sensor, and a buzzer.
On the software program aspect, the Inkplate 4 TEMPERA shares a socket stack with Soldered’s earlier Inkplate fashions, coming with out-of-the-box help for Arduino and MicroPython and neighborhood help for the ESPHome firmware. The gadget additionally features a “Peripheral Mode,” which accepts instructions from exterior units over a UART bus to replace its show.
The board features a wealth of on-board sensors, with growth pins so as to add extra. (📷: Soldered Electronics)
The built-in battery, in the meantime, gives a 1.2Ah capability and hyperlinks to charging circuit with gas gauge. Actual battery life will rely on how a lot time the radio spends related to a community and the way typically the show is refreshed, with Soldered claiming a 18µA present draw whereas operating in low-power mode.
The Inkplate 4 TEMPERA is now accessible to again on Crowd Provide, priced at $149 with plastic cowl or $169 for the model with a glass panel; each fashions are anticipated to ship in March subsequent yr, Soldered has confirmed.