Non-Kobo E-Ink Device That Plays Well With Calibre

[sweth]

My Kobo Aura H20 died this morning, after less than a year of owning it, and the abysmal support experience I've received today from Kobo has me loathe to give any more $$ to that company, and I've cancelled the plans that I had to purchase Formas as gifts for folks this coming XMas. So I'm looking for a new e-ink ereader that plays well with Calibre--ie one where I can fully manage the contents, which I couldn't do w/ for example my old Kindle Paperwhite. I've seen some mention in the fora of an Onyx e-ink ereader that may run Android and thus be usable w/ Calibre Companion; does anyone know which specific model that is, and whether in addition to CC, it can also just be managed directly from Calibre via USB? Any other suggestions for eReaders to look at?

[Ryzir]

I been using Calibre Companion on a Nook Glowlight 3. It works really well except that occasionally it doesn't refresh the screen properly while navigating.

It completely bypasses the terrible Nook library software so no database corruption for side loaded books.

Barnes and Noble support is probably worse than Kobo though I've never had to use it with the three different readers I've got from them.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by sweth

My Kobo Aura H20 died this morning, after less than a year of owning it, and the abysmal support experience I've received today from Kobo has me loathe to give any more $$ to that company, and I've cancelled the plans that I had to purchase Formas as gifts for folks this coming XMas. So I'm looking for a new e-ink ereader that plays well with Calibre--ie one where I can fully manage the contents, which I couldn't do w/ for example my old Kindle Paperwhite. I've seen some mention in the fora of an Onyx e-ink ereader that may run Android and thus be usable w/ Calibre Companion; does anyone know which specific model that is, and whether in addition to CC, it can also just be managed directly from Calibre via USB? Any other suggestions for eReaders to look at?

When you say died can you elaborate as to what happened. It's possible it might just need the SD card being reimaged

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[meeera]

Originally Posted by PeterT

When you say died can you elaborate as to what happened. It's possible it might just need the SD card being reimaged

Plus if it died (as opposed to being killed (display fracture)) after less than a year it should be under warranty.

[james_]

Best thing I ever did with Calibre was to put the library on my Synology NAS on a shared drive and then run COPS on the NAS device. This is a somewhat nerdy approach but it means that I can manage Calibre from my PC, my library is presented on a web page from COPS and then... you can browse the library and read on anything with a browser. With Synology it doesn't require you to be a linux genius to install the COPS package, just click a few buttons and you're done.

Which means you can choose pretty much any android or iOS tablet you like out there, or indeed read on your PC. All these e-Ink devices we get seem to be designed to be disposable so you can't rely on them to store your books!

[sweth]

Originally Posted by Ryzir

I been using Calibre Companion on a Nook Glowlight 3. It works really well except that occasionally it doesn't refresh the screen properly while navigating.

It completely bypasses the terrible Nook library software so no database corruption for side loaded books.

Barnes and Noble support is probably worse than Kobo though I've never had to use it with the three different readers I've got from them.

Hmm, do you have any pointers for getting CC running on a Glowlight? I have an old Glowlight Plus, but didn't find any mention of CC+Glowlight when I Googled for that combo.

(I'm using the Glowlight for now as a fallback, but the UI is annoying, and for some reason its sync w/ Calibre via USB is much slower than Kobo or Kindle devices.)

[sweth]

Originally Posted by PeterT

When you say died can you elaborate as to what happened. It's possible it might just need the SD card being reimaged

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

No SD card. I woke up one morning and the "Sleeping" message was there but the device wouldn't wake up. Holding down the power button and/or doing the paperclip reset just causes the light in the power button to blink for a minute, but the device never resets; I talked to Kobo support, who confirmed that it's bricked and said the only thing to do is replace it--but that since I live in Mexico, they can't process a warranty replacement, and since I bought it via Amazon (since the model I wanted wasn't for sale at a bricks-and-mortar shop here), I'm not eligible for warranty replacement regardless. Hence my desire to find an alternative device rather than giving them more of my $$...

[sweth]

Originally Posted by james_

Best thing I ever did with Calibre was to put the library on my Synology NAS on a shared drive and then run COPS on the NAS device. This is a somewhat nerdy approach but it means that I can manage Calibre from my PC, my library is presented on a web page from COPS and then... you can browse the library and read on anything with a browser. With Synology it doesn't require you to be a linux genius to install the COPS package, just click a few buttons and you're done.

Which means you can choose pretty much any android or iOS tablet you like out there, or indeed read on your PC. All these e-Ink devices we get seem to be designed to be disposable so you can't rely on them to store your books!

Hmm. I have my lib (taking up waaaay too much space) on my laptop so that it syncs via dropbox so I can always access my lib while out and about, but I do have a QNAP NAS and it would be nice to free up 100+ GB of space on the laptop... let me see if I can easily set up COPS *and* sync to dropbox on the QNAP.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by sweth

No SD card. I woke up one morning and the "Sleeping" message was there but the device wouldn't wake up. Holding down the power button and/or doing the paperclip reset just causes the light in the power button to blink for a minute, but the device never resets; I talked to Kobo support, who confirmed that it's bricked and said the only thing to do is replace it--but that since I live in Mexico, they can't process a warranty replacement, and since I bought it via Amazon (since the model I wanted wasn't for sale at a bricks-and-mortar shop here), I'm not eligible for warranty replacement regardless. Hence my desire to find an alternative device rather than giving them more of my $$...

I don't mean an external SD card; I mean the internal card where the firmware and books are stored. There are threads in the Kobo forums here where you can request an image for your device, and also instructions on how to open your device and reflash the card.

[Ryzir]

Originally Posted by sweth

Hmm, do you have any pointers for getting CC running on a Glowlight? I have an old Glowlight Plus, but didn't find any mention of CC+Glowlight when I Googled for that combo.

(I'm using the Glowlight for now as a fallback, but the UI is annoying, and for some reason its sync w/ Calibre via USB is much slower than Kobo or Kindle devices.)

You have to side load using ADB. You will also need a launcher, I use Zeam Launcher 3.1.10. I don't know if the version makes a difference but I'm using Calibre Companion 5.4.3.3.

ADB Glowlight 3 Guide (Windows):

1. Go to Settings, About
2. Tap on the Nook icon a couple of times until a new screen comes up with several options.
3. Tap on Android Development Settings.
4. Select USB Debugging. (Make sure the box is ticked)
5. Connect the Nook to your computer. Eject it from your computer so it's not connected as a USB drive.
6. Download the Android SDK Tools for your platform. (search for "Android SDK Platform-Tools")
7. Run ADB in the terminal ('adb devices') to ensure you see your NG3 connected.
8. You may need to go back to the screen in step 2 and select 'Allow Debugging'.
9. Get Zeam Launcher and Calibre Companion APKs.
10. Run 'adb install FILENAME-PATH-TO-ZEAM' to install Zeam Launcher.
11. You can install other APK's the same way.

[james_]

Originally Posted by sweth

Hmm. I have my lib (taking up waaaay too much space) on my laptop so that it syncs via dropbox so I can always access my lib while out and about, but I do have a QNAP NAS and it would be nice to free up 100+ GB of space on the laptop... let me see if I can easily set up COPS *and* sync to dropbox on the QNAP.

That sounds like a good plan. Once you get COPS running, you could always VPN back into your network and access the library on the Qnap. My last Nas was a qnap, but as it is way too old I doubt I could get COPS on it. The problem with both qnap and synology is that their OS are proprietary which is a pain. Worst case you can always buy a raspberry pi and map a drive back to your Nas and run ubooquity as an alternative.. Personally I prefer Cops. Good luck!