Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
You make it sound so easy  . Have you ever heard of anyone successfully doing this? I haven't. |
It would be straightforward if you've done that kind of thing before. I once did something similar for a living.
The e-ink display driver hardware is available in two forms: either a separate controller chip, or integrated onto a SoC - the version of the latter I found in a few minutes is an ARM core + an EPD driver. And you need a slightly different board layout (from the LCD version) to support a different electrical interface to the display itself.
On the software side, you run into the same issue to support new video (or printer) hardware - you have to take the graphics engine (page / screen layout) output and get it onto the physical display or page. Since there are a number of smaller players already making these e-readers, either it is inexpensive (therefore easy) to do, or they are buying generic hardware and software designs, probably from Chinese manufacturers, and putting their brand on it, with maybe their own reader software sitting on top. The manufacturers of the display controller can provide reference driver implementations, and/or tell you who has already done it and will help you, if you want such.
There are physical packaging changes, of course, if the panel is of different dimensions.
Simple? No, there are a lot of details to take care of. Easy? Most of it, yes, if you are "skilled in the art". There are usually some tricky bits in the software to get the best results; all in a day's work.