Driving e-ink display

[d_nitemarez]

Hi guys, I hope I'm not asking a repeated question. I have a gadget idea with an e-ink display but my problem is the display unit itself. I do not want to buy a kindle and root it because I want this to be an independent unit. After much searching online, seems like the Kindle 3 display (6") is quite available under $45. The part is known as ED060SC7. Here's an example of the product from a site (http://www.dhgate.com/original-pvi-ed06 ... d1b63.html)

Now, I have no idea on how to drive the device. The manual has quite detailed information about which input pin is for what but that doesn't help me to display "hello world" from my computer to the e-ink display. (Manual link: http://www.coscom.com.tw/manage/soft_do ... r%2020.pdf)

So, once I buy the display, I need to figure out how to drive the display unit. Can anyone help me with it? Thanks in advanced!

[GaspingSpark]

The kindle uses a dedicated chip for that: Epson KCRE7000

4th photo on this page: http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/kindlehack.html

I don't know where you can get one. There is some kind of calibration ROM on the display that works with that chip. The display might not even work without that controller. Epson has several other EPD (Electronic Paper Display) controllers listed here:

http://www.eea.epson.com/portal/page/po ... d_circuits (see S1D13521 and S1D13522)

I don't know if these are a compatible chip, but it doesn't look like they are generally available. I hate when it says "Contact your local Epson sales rep for more details."

This page lists E-Ink's Electronics partners:

http://www.eink.com/electronics.html

You could try looking on their sites for datasheets for their EPD controllers. They might reveal enough information for you to get the display working.

[d_nitemarez]

thank you for the excellent answer

Any thought on using a PIC i.e. an Arduino or MSP430 to drive the display?

[bakadave]

Hello!
My Kindle just broke, thought about reusing the display. Any success or progress so far?
-Dave

[st2000]

Microchip has published some stuff on the subject of interfacing a PIC to a display.
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/cn/DeviceDoc/cn556051.pdf
But it looks like you need an Explorer16 Microchip board. Not cheap. Further, it looks like the display is abstracted by being on an Epson board. This could possibly make understanding how the eink display actually works difficult. Which, in turn, will make it difficult to learn how to make use of raw eink displays.

Keep in mind the (really simple) Esquire eink display was driven using a PIC. So you could start there.
http://blog.makezine.com/2008/09/08/esquire-eink-cover-hackin/

-good luck