Customer:
How can I get Inkplate 6? I live in Spain mainland. I have a few questions as I’m new to open source devices. Can it read any ebook format? Can I control it only with an external interface? Do I need to install anything from Linux?
Originally submitted via email support on 21 July 2020. Migrated to the forum for community visibility.
Soldered Support:
You can get Inkplate 6 from various sources, listed here: Inkplate-Arduino-library/README.md at master · SolderedElectronics/Inkplate-Arduino-library · GitHub
The Inkplate is not an out-of-the-box e-book reader. It is an e-paper display that enables you to use e-books, but you need to manually program the code to do that. It is a DIY (Do It Yourself) device which can have many capabilities, but does not come with many preinstalled.
You can control it only with an external interface using “slave mode”, so you don’t need to program if you don’t want. Some basic documentation is here: https://github.com/e-radionicacom/Inkplate-6-Arduino-library/blob/master/examples/3.%20Others/1-Inkplate_Slave_Mode/Inkplate_slave_mode_documentation.txt
Customer:
I want to learn coding, starting with baby steps. Can I code for any Linux distro? Can I control it from another ARM motherboard? If I control it externally, can I display from any device and system - Android, postmarketOS, etc.? I saw it has controls to advance or back page, but if I control it remotely, can I still preload an ebook and then disconnect the cable while keeping control of ebook navigation with the Inkplate buttons? Can I have e-reader software preinstalled on Inkplate and running smoothly?
Is there a community for Inkplate? Any group online?
Soldered Support:
Yes, you can code using Arduino on any Linux. You don’t even need to code it - you can use slave mode and control it via just some commands. Find documentation here: https://github.com/e-radionicacom/Inkplate-6-Arduino-library/blob/master/examples/3.%20Others/1-Inkplate_Slave_Mode/Inkplate_slave_mode_documentation.txt
Basically, you can control it using anything that can send UART.
There’s no ebook reading code yet. We plan to make it but it’s a huge job considering the need to encode the PDF/mobi format. So right now, you cannot use it out of the box as an ebook reader.
A forum for Inkplate discussion is being set up.