I bought my reader over a month ago (2nd Oct) and have been using it every day - my friend got her reader today and as I saw her screen, it looked a lot brighter. I put both the readers side by side and my reader screen has become considerably duller just in the past one month.

This can't be good - anyone else face a similar issue !!!

I bought my reader over a month ago (2nd Oct) and have been using it every day - my friend got her reader today and as I saw her screen, it looked a lot brighter. I put both the readers side by side and my reader screen has become considerably duller just in the past one month.

This can't be good - anyone else face a similar issue !!!


Is the battery almost finished? I noticed that when the battery gets low the screen gets duller. After I charged it it was much better. ;)

I've only had mine for a few days but had noticed the ink was less "contrasting" than it had been but chalked it up to eyestrain due to massive reading and playing around.

Then it decided to restart in the middle of a document (well, it is a Sony product after all). After a couple minutes so it could reindex (about 1500 items in it---lotsa maps and manga) it came back and was clearly brighter than it had been before. Clear enough that a friend saw it a few minutes later and asked me how many of "these things" I was going to get.

Perhaps every now and then it just has to clear out its head. Hope that's all that is wrong with yours.

Just a question like that.

Eink is composed of tiny particles floating in a liquid. Is it possible that this liquid can leak or that it could slowly permeate through the retaining membrane? If so, logically the missing fluid would create a resistance for the grids that would prevent the particles from turning completely vertical ie. giving a grey tone instead of black.

An other idea is that the capacitor or whatever component giving the charge to the grids, is deteriorating and preventing a proper discharge.

Note that I have only basic knowledge of electronics. Is there someone here that could explain the working properties of eink displays? Also I would like to know how greytones are achieved .

Just a question like that.

Eink is composed of tiny particles floating in a liquid. Is it possible that this liquid can leak or that it could slowly permeate through the retaining membrane? If so, logically the missing fluid would create a resistance for the grids that would prevent the particles from turning completely vertical ie. giving a grey tone instead of black.

An other idea is that the capacitor or whatever component giving the charge to the grids, is deteriorating and preventing a proper discharge.

Note that I have only basic knowledge of electronics. Is there someone here that could explain the working properties of eink displays? Also I would like to know how greytones are achieved .


Greytones? Maybe when the particles are on their side? So the're black and white and dus creating a grey illusion.

Like I said before, when my battery was low the screen started to be dull. The black status bar was showing grey spots. As soon as I attached it to the AC it started slowly getting better until all was fine.

This may be a silly question, but I notice huge difference in contrast and color of the background based on what kind of light I use. Not the brightness, necessarily, but the kind of light. For example, my nightstand halogen seems to make everything look crisper.

Is it possible that people noticing a duller screen are looking at it in a different light source?

This may be a silly question, but I notice huge difference in contrast and color of the background based on what kind of light I use. Not the brightness, necessarily, but the kind of light. For example, my nightstand halogen seems to make everything look crisper.

Is it possible that people noticing a duller screen are looking at it in a different light source?

That might be it. In broad daylight the display looks as brilliant as ever. Maybe it's because the days are getting darker and shorter?

Nope, with me has nothing to do with the used light. The screen with me gets duller when the battery gets low. The statusbar is full with grey/white shadows. After recharge there gone.

Is it possible to tell if the duller look is because ghosting is worse?

Nope, with me has nothing to do with the used light. The screen with me gets duller when the battery gets low. The statusbar is full with grey/white shadows. After recharge there gone.

I'm no expert, but conceivably this makes sense - perhaps the voltage level affects the contrast, and that drops as the battery gets low.

I'm also just guessing without basis, but since the display keeps it's image without power due to the little balls being rotated in the proper direction, I'm thinking that the contrast wouldn't be affected directly by the voltage levels. Maybe indirectly by ghosting or by incomplete rotation of the little colored spheres due to not enough power.

I wonder if anyone has read the tech info on e-ink enough to know what's going on...

I'm also just guessing without basis, but since the display keeps it's image without power due to the little balls being rotated in the proper direction, I'm thinking that the contrast wouldn't be affected directly by the voltage levels. Maybe indirectly by ghosting or by incomplete rotation of the little colored spheres due to not enough power.

I wonder if anyone has read the tech info on e-ink enough to know what's going on...


I think that is the problem. The charge needed to switch pages is not enough. Resulting in grey and white areas. Maybe someone with a almost depleted battery can check it also?

I'm an electronic engineer so I think it is time for me to read some datasheets on the e-ink technology. :P

I think that is the problem. The charge needed to switch pages is not enough. Resulting in grey and white areas. Maybe someone with a almost depleted battery can check it also?

I'm an electronic engineer so I think it is time for me to read some datasheets on the e-ink technology. :P

Seems like you really love your Reader. I've never been able to run the battery down below 3 blocks. I do keep it charged via USB almost constantly, though.

Seems like you really love your Reader. I've never been able to run the battery down below 3 blocks. I do keep it charged via USB almost constantly, though.


I forced the battery to drain with playing Mp3's. Just to get at least one cycle before hooking it up to the USB all the time. It's better for the battery to do at least on full cycle before recharching at will.

I think that is the problem. The charge needed to switch pages is not enough. Resulting in grey and white areas. Maybe someone with a almost depleted battery can check it also?

I'm an electronic engineer so I think it is time for me to read some datasheets on the e-ink technology. :P
This is why I was suggesting capaciting errors and liquid drain. We could add to that liquid density.

Does any one know someone at Eink that could write a paper for us?

Diablo: This was addressed in other threads, but never got a definitive answer regarding the battery life listening to mp3's.

How long did it take to drain the Reader's battery with music playing?

Diablo: This was addressed in other threads, but never got a definitive answer regarding the battery life listening to mp3's.

How long did it take to drain the Reader's battery with music playing?

To be honest I don't know for sure how long it was because I did it in multiple times and not in one go. If I would have to give you a rough estimate it would be around 15 hours or so. The half of that there were no headphones attached. Remember that the battery gets to his full capacity after around 3-4 full cycles. This figure was with the first cycle.

Throughout this time the display showed the Mp3 player so parts of the screen were refreshed every second. I don't know how much power this cost but if you want to be on the safe side then put the Reader in the main menu when your not changing songs. ;)

I don't think its the battery - I recharged the reader fully but the screen still looks dull compared to a new screen. I'll try and recharge the battery fully and see if that helps

i notice that a newly refreshed page appears to have better contrast than a page that has been sitting for a while.

i notice that a newly refreshed page appears to have better contrast than a page that has been sitting for a while.
This is also what the guy from ConsumerReports (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=8717) observed: We also noticed that a page displayed for several minutes got perceptibly darker in the white space.

The small white and black pigment spheres inside E-ink are positively and negatively charged. In the page-turning process, an electric field is applied to the E-ink. The pigment spheres will either be drawn toward or away from the charge, which forms the image on the screen. However, when the electric field is not present (no page-turn in progress) then the pigment spheres are merely held in place by the viscosity of the suspension fluid. Furthermore, if you recall the white and black pigment spheres are oppositely charged. Thus, over time I suspect that they will eventually drift toward each other.

Take a look at the attached eink.jpg diagram.

These are cross-sections of the E-ink capsules. On the left, the capsule is being subjected to an electric field (a page change). The colored arrows represent the forces on the pigment spheres due to the electric field. Note that all the white pigment spheres (titanium dioxide, I think) are forced against the surface-side of the capsule. On the right, there is no electric field. The pigment spheres, being oppositely charged, slowly begin to migrate toward the center. This manifests as a loss in contrast.

This is also what the guy from ConsumerReports (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=8717) observed: We also noticed that a page displayed for several minutes got perceptibly darker in the white space.

I definately notice this.. If I forget to turn off the reader, when I pick it back it it's much darker... one good way to test - bookmark and un-bookmark a page that you've been sitting on for a while. the area under the bookmark marker will be much whiter when you unbookmark it...
-mark

Then is it possible that this deterioration is similar to magnets loosing their magnetism over time or is the grid recharging the pigments?

Then is it possible that this deterioration is similar to magnets loosing their magnetism over time or is the grid recharging the pigments?
The deterioration is unlike magnets losing their magnetism. Without delving too much into the science of it, magnetism is caused by the the spin of electrons in the atoms of the material. When the spins are aligned, they all contribute to create the large magnetic field. Loss of magnetism can be due to various factors as stress on the magnet, or high temperatures.

In this case, we're talking about electric charge, not magnetic field. There should be no risk of the pigment spheres losing their charge, as they are wholly individually charged. The grid does not recharge the individual pigment spheres themselves, it just resets the spheres back to the desired locations in the e-ink capsule.

So it's just a question of brownian motion.

( That's possibly the only time I've used the term brownian motion since I left school.)

The colour differentiation between the two Readers the original poster saw may be just that. I compared a friend of mine's Reader to my Reader, and the colour of the page and "ink" is VERY diffferent between the two.

(That's possibly the only time I've used the term brownian motion since I left school.)I've only ever used it when discussing HHG novels. :nice: