ElixirConf 2023 - Jason Axelson - Drawing to 7-color e-ink screens with Scenic and Nerves

Elixir

Learn how to draw vibrant 7-color images on e-ink displays using Scenic and Nerves, exploring the challenges and solutions for multi-color displays in this ElixirConf 2023 talk.

Key takeaways

E-ink displays are great for single-color displays, but can be challenging for multi-color displays.
Multiple-color displays use electro-phoretic particles that are controlled by electric fields.
The Inky Impression 7.3 inch display is an example of a multi-color e-ink display.
Nerves is a framework that allows you to create firmware for embedded devices, including e-ink displays.
Scenic is a library for creating user interfaces for embedded devices.
To use Scenic with Nerves, you need to create a custom config.txt file and a edited.dat file.
The config.txt file specifies the font and layout of the display, while the edited.dat file specifies the data to be displayed.
The Nerves framework uses the ScenicDriver to draw images to the display.
The ScenicDriver uses the microcapsule technology in the e-ink display to draw images.
To draw images, the ScenicDriver uses a frame buffer to store the pixels and then transfers the pixels to the e-ink display.
The frame buffer is important because it allows the ScenicDriver to draw images quickly and efficiently.
The pixel data is then read from the frame buffer and applied to the e-ink display, which is controlled by electric fields.
The display uses sub-pixel hinting to reduce the appearance of jagged edges.
The Nerves framework uses the fwup.conf file to specify how the firmware is built and loaded.
The fwup.conf file is used to specify the files that are used to build the firmware, including the edited.dat file and the custom config.txt file.
The edited.dat file contains the data to be displayed, while the config.txt file specifies the layout and font of the display.

ElixirConf 2023 - Jason Axelson - Drawing to 7-color e-ink screens with Scenic and Nerves

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