Arduino e-Paper/e-Ink Buying Guide

In the year 2012, we discussed about e-Paper. Basis of electronic paper is 1970s technology from Xerox Corporation. Since 1970s, people are saying “electronic paper will be future technology”. e-Paper had the bad luck of being in competition with some other display at that time which is not exactly much costly than e-Paper. Here is Arduino e-Paper/e-Ink Buying Guide. e-Paper Still Costly, Offers Slower Refresh Rate, Yet it is Great For Some Project Where Paper Look Adds Beauty. Another limit of e-Paper is ghosting even after 2-3 times refreshing screen. To avoid it, all pixels of the screen needs to made white, then black, then again white, then load new image. e-Paper is great for paper looking wooden framed photo offering some information – it may can weather or notice or may be line art. You should be super careful while deciding to buy particularly if your budget is restricted for electronics hobby works. Graphical LCD costs lower, durable and can be used for various purposes. e-Paper really soothing to eye somewhat like paper.

 

Arduino e-Paper/e-Ink Buying Guide

 

Major criterion of selecting shields, sensors prototyping boards is how many users purchase the product. When many users purchase, you’ll have lot of libraries, lot of examples and projects. Arduino e-Paper projects are not huge in number despite various sellers including Adafruit tried to push it.

e-Paper usually has two variants – monochrome and 3 color e-Paper. 3 color e-Paper has black, red and white colors. 3 color e-Papers really look beautiful.

Among manufacturers, WaveShare is commonly known. They have extensive helpful text for individual type of display, for example this is for 7.5 inch e-Paper :

Connection is shown on that web page :

e-paper’s 3V3 will got to Arduino’s 3V pin
e-paper’s GND will got to Arduino GND
e-paper’s DIN will got to Arduino’s pin 11
e-paper’s CLK will go to Arduino’s pin 13
e-paper’s CS will got to Arduino’s pin 10
e-paper’s DC will got to Arduino’s pin 9
e-paper’s RST will got to Arduino’s pin 8
e-paper’s BUSY will got to Arduino’s pin 7

You need to install the library from your e-Paper manufacturer’s website. Here is WaveShare’s library on GitHub with examples :

You’ll notice that there are model numbers based on size ending with letters like A,B. I found the below image which will help you understand which they are pointing towards :

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