Research: Drivers for Eink displays

[alexsotodev]

Status: Approved
Name: Research: Drivers for eink displays
Objective: This working group’s objective is to explore the different ways to drive an eink display, focusing on using a system on a chip with an integrated controller; i.MX7/8 and RK3566 family of microcontrollers. Evaluation kits and boards will be purchased to be distributed, and shared among group members. The research from this group will support future/current working groups.
Timeline: Ongoing
Members: @alexsotodev, ZephRay Looking for members.
Contact: @alexsotodev, Zulip
URL: https://github.com/EI2030/drivers-for-eink-displays
Hardware:

• i.MX7Dual: MCIMX7SABRE from NXP.
• i.MX 8ULP: Color EPDC, expected to be released at the end of the year.
• RK3566: (Pending, Pine64 Quartz64 Model A release)

Looking for:
All skills are welcomed! We are also looking for folks who have:

• Experience with:

  • Embedded Development
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Software Developers
  • Reverse-Engineering
  • Writers/Researchers

• Donations allocated for hardware and shipping.

[alistair23]

I’m working on upstreaming Linux support for the reMarkable 2. It uses the i.MX7D CPU and is fairly open for a consumer device. You can SSH as root to the device by default and it’s possible to get a TX UART port without hardware modifications. The factory image is built with OE and the Linux and U-boot sources are open sourced. It might be a good starting point.

You can see the current upstream patches here: https://github.com/alistair23/linux/tree/rM2-mainline. This is just basic support currently, a lot more work is required and help would be appreciated.

There is a working tree based on the NXP 5.4 kernel as well: https://github.com/alistair23/linux/tree/5.4-rM2-2.2.x-imx. This is ready for daily use, but still has a few issues.

[scrunch]

Welcome @alistair23!

[alexsotodev]

@alistair23

I’m working on upstreaming Linux support for the reMarkable 2. It uses the i.MX7D CPU and is fairly open for a consumer device. You can SSH as root to the device by default and it’s possible to get a TX UART port without hardware modifications. The factory image is built with OE and the Linux and U-boot sources are open sourced. It might be a good starting point.

You can see the current upstream patches here: https://github.com/alistair23/linux/tree/rM2-mainline . This is just basic support currently, a lot more work is required and help would be appreciated.

There is a working tree based on the NXP 5.4 kernel as well: https://github.com/alistair23/linux/tree/5.4-rM2-2.2.x-imx . This is ready for daily use, but still has a few issues.

Welcome @alistair23 Thank for your the information you’ve shared about the Remarkable 2. We are considering using the i.MX7D, I will definitely review this information.

Also, I apologize for all the jumping around with messaging platforms, but we’ve finally have landed on using Zulip which is FOSS. If interested, check out https://ei2030.zulipchat.com/register/

Thank you for your time and support