The Diptyx E-reader is essentially a foldable piece of hardware that mimics the simple pleasure of tearing open a paperback. Martijn den Hoed, a Dutch developer, created this open-source gadget that fits in your purse like an old favorite novel, ready to unfold into something way more personal than the usual slab of glass and glow.
Den Hoed started this project when his Kobo Clara BW died on him one too many times. Instead of spending money on another locked-down reader from a large company, he decided to build his own. When you open the Diptyx, you’ll be greeted by two 5.83-inch black-and-white E Ink panels that span nearly nine inches, like the spread of a worn book. Each screen is 648 by 480 pixels, or roughly 137 pixels per inch, so the text is definitely sharp enough for lazy afternoons. The entire thing is hinged in the middle and folds down to 4.7 by 5.9 by 0.6 inches, weighing 10.5 ounces.
- Our fastest Kindle ever – The next-generation 7“ Paperwhite display has a higher contrast ratio and 25% faster page turns.
- Ready for travel – The ultra-thin design has a larger glare-free screen so pages stay sharp no matter where you are.
- Escape into your books – Your Kindle doesn’t have social media, notifications, or other distracting apps.
Inside, den Hoed kept it simple and fixable. An ESP32-S3 microcontroller hums along at 240 MHz, with 16 megabytes of flash and 8 megabytes of RAM – plenty for flipping through chapters without a stutter. Storage is via a user-swappable 2-gigabyte SD card, enough for a personal library of DRM-free EPUBs. Dual 1,500 milliamp-hour lithium-polymer batteries will keep it going for weeks on a charge, months in standby when you close it. A USB-C port handles both charging and drag-and-drop file transfers, turning the device into a simple thumb drive when plugged in.
Den Hoed’s firmware is uncluttered. Load up your EPUBs – no accounts, no subscriptions, no nagging updates – and get started. Buttons along the edges for page turns and menu hops, so no more swipe-and-pinch frustrations of touch-only devices. Adjust font sizes, margins or line spacing from the onboard menu and those changes will stick even after a full shutdown. Bits borrowed from open projects like Atomic14’s EPUB reader provide a solid base, but den Hoed customized every line to feel intuitive, like the device knows you’re here to read, not tinker.
The software is released under the MIT licence, which means that anyone can examine at the source, make changes, and even add new features. That ESP32 chip has sleep mode for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so it’s pretty quiet out of the box, but if you’re feeling curious, you could poke around in the code and wake ’em up – maybe get some RSS feeds or even set it up to read you a bedtime story by pairing it with some wireless headphones. Following the crowdfunding phase, outputs on hardware schematics, PCB layouts, and case files will be released, utilizing just standard parts readily available in most electronics stores.
Head over to Crowd Supply and check out the preview page; individuals can sign up now for when the campaign officially launches. Den Hoed has been putting this thing through its paces for weeks, smoothing out all of the last-minute issues, such as battery calibration and hinge smoothness.
[Source]
