Did I miss something? Title is “DIY” but it looks like a sales page?
this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2025
411 points (93.3% liked)
Technology
78024 readers
3395 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Welcome to modern astroturfing in the social media age.
There is a build page on the github for the device.
I see no link to GitHub, but I do see two links to crowd supply.
There's no such link. Can't even find one through Google
Is there? Mind sharing the link?
I'll find it after Christmas. I got a fork a bit ago when looking at the code.
I think its based on https://github.com/atomic14/diy-esp32-epub-reader
Build logs: https://hackaday.io/project/204323-diptyx-e-reader
Those aren't build logs. Those are "I took an open source software package and put commercial hardware around it."
Which is fine, since it's MIT software (and why I push for GPL, personally). What's not fine is a creator calling their commercial product "open" or "DIY" without a BOM or build log.
I would revise the post title regardless of what the author calls it, personally.
I posted this as a comment on the creator's post. Will have to see if they respond.
I see "open" in the title, but no git or Bill of Materials (BOM) links. Is this actually open? Or based on other's open efforts?
Looks really nice. How much do you want for one? Surely not more than twice as much as the competition needs. /s
I'll wait until they make one with 300 screens I can flip like a book.
And each screen has infinite battery life! Oh and each is as flexible and light as I dunno, a sheet of paper maybe!
imagine a book you could plug in to change into a different book
I want VR recreations of famous libraries with full on books you can take off the shelves to read and homeless people washing their feet in the bathroom sinks
I don't like the fact that it has two displays. It's unnecessary and makes it thicker and heavier.
I like the concept. I have a e-ink reader where I removed the hull because it's annoying, but at some point I must have damaged the display a bit and now it has a little black spot. With this the added bulk also doubles the area available for text. Maybe not that useful for novels that you read through linearly, but for non-fiction it would be nice to see other chapters, glossaries, etc. on one display while keeping the other at the page you were reading. Mainly a problem of software and enough buttons to be able to comfortably use that.
Though the low-res displays of this prototype look atrocious to me (pixelation and uneven blackness), maybe a later version will improve on that.
How else would it recreate a book unless it had a folding display which would be even worse?
Books are made like this because it's impossible to make them any other way, but a digital device can have just one "page" since you read one page at time like Kindles and Kobos
The other option is a scroll. historicaly I'm told a book was always a scroll and the factor we now call a book was a codex. (I don't know how to verify this)
For some people, recreating the form factor of a book is the point, regardless of its convenience or cost. I'm sure whoever put this thing together was quite aware of how mainstream e-readers are built and didn't want that, or they would have bought a Kindle or a Kobo.
I can imagine a future device with an e-ink page that's so thin and flexible that it looks and feels like a paper book with magic changing text. I don't know how many consumers would pay a premium for that, but I would definitely buy my wife one.
Go old school and have it recreate a scroll. Really, not having to shift your head/eyes when reading is a plus with r-readers.
Nevermind the fact most readers and tablets come -with- a cover ... So its almost like a book anyway. Which people fold behind the page. Like a book. What was that extra screen doing again?
a cover ... Which people fold behind the page. Like a book.
Ho ho hold the fuck up
Mind blown.
It’s too bad this isn’t actually “DIY”, because I have been mulling over building a dual screen e-ink sheet music reader for a while. Dual screens definitely have a place, it’s just niche.
Not a big fan of having 2 screens.
A huge fan of ESP32 DIY E-Reader!
Great. Now i can get that "real book feeling" of wrestling the books pages to lie flat enough for me to read them as I lay down.
The only reason I'd want 2 "pages" is so I could close it to protect the screen(s)... but that's exactly what covers are for.
Apart from the tiny minority of people who might prefer the form factor/"book feel", are there any actual advantages to having 2 screens for general reading?
Could also be useful for doing research with ebooks. Maybe show a list of bookmarks or the table of contents on one screen and the text on the other screen. Or you could compare different texts easier, showing one on one screen and one on the other. Or use one screen for notes. But I guess people that need to actually do productive research will use a desktop anyways.
Yes! This exactly. I'm learning Italian and having a dictionary open on one side would be awesome.
It’s probably just for the people who want it. I have thought about how much nicer two pages would be in the past for this reason and for displaying sheet music.
I did consider less common uses like that, which is why I specified "general reading". I prefer paper for my sheet music, but I'd choose something with a faster refresh rate than e-ink if I had to use something with a screen anyway.
I would like to be able to get comics and manga in ebook form. I’ve always had to go with the print versions because two-page spreads end up looking bad/being more confusing to read on my ereader thanks to the single page display.
It would probably work really well for graphic novels, since they do occasionally have panels or illustrations that span both pages.
Look. Hackaday... If it's a slow week... We get it. Take a day off. We still like you. Just... Less of this please.
Why not hundreds of screens so you can present all pages of a book at the same time and you just skip through the screen? Would be so much more convenient and innovative!
I'd get a whole bunch of these and keep a different book on each one, so you could just pick it up and read it. But it'll never work, it's too much trouble to keep them all charged.
That's very smart!
I think I see a business opportunity here. One could Design covers for each device so that you can identify them easily when they are standing next to each other. I bet these can be placed a lot a similar price as phone shells. If only we could find a solution to the charging problem.
oo we can bring back 2 page spreads, probably 2x price though.
Great idea. Less having to turn pages.
I read for hours on my tablet just fine. I don't even see the need for e-ink displays, let alone this form factor. Also, I find the tablet easier to hold for hours, compared to a book.
In spite of all that, I kind of want one, I'll admit. I have a 3D printer, maybe I'll make one.
E-paper is easier to use outside or in bright light, and the battery tends to last longer. Anecdotally, it also doesn't hurt my eyes as much.
And by "tending to last longer" it is good to note that it almost always lasts 5x-10x longer, as in you only need to charge it once a month instead of every few days with medium reading, depending on backlight usage.
When I only read a few pages a day because of my schedule, my battery lasts over 6 months easily. Meanwhile my unused iPad has to be charged every week or so even if it is used 0 minutes.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, it depends a little bit on the model of the e-reader (color takes more out of it, etc), but I only charge my Boox every other week, and I take notes on it, read on it, the works.