Modos Color Monitor Pushes E-Paper Displays Further

VVinnl about 4 hours ago 21 commentsRead Article on spectrum.ieee.org

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Discussion (21 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

varun_ch•about 2 hours ago

There is an awesome YouTube video about this from the person who made it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nHbA2-_qzH4

nzach•about 2 hours ago

This link is way more interesting than the original ieee.

It was submitted to HN 2 times already but unfortunately it flew under the radar: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwa...

ckemere•23 minutes ago

Upvoted them both. I’m an ECE prof, and the video summed up why working with students is so rewarding.

dleeftink•7 minutes ago

> Don’t make yourself regret the things you didn’t do

Nothing to add, but it bears repeating. A shimmer of indie tech resilience

xnx•about 2 hours ago

> two-person startup is back fund-raising for Modos Flow, a 13.3-inch color e-paper monitor with a higher native resolution of 3,200 x 2,400, touch input, and a 60Hz refresh rate

Those are some mighty specs. Godspeed.

user_7832•about 1 hour ago

If I had the 600-odd dollars, I'd absolutely buy this. It's a damn shame it's so expensive.

acc_297•about 1 hour ago

I think the 600 dollar price is more than double the price of the same diplay as a mass-produced product it's a price for enthusiasts of the technology

and it's open source so nothing stops a bigger producer of copying the exact technology with institutional funding and manufacturing expertise

jackb4040•31 minutes ago

Between this, the Daylight computer (I know it's RLCD), and some of the flagship Boox devices, I'm very excited for where alternative display technology is going in the next couple years. Displays that you can use outside and that drain the battery way slower open up so many possibilities for auxiliary devices. My ideal device would be an ultralight android tablet with a keyboard case and an outdoor display good enough to watch youtube on, that needs to be charged less than once per day. Hopefully this product is super successful and Modos move on to standalone devices next.

There are counter trends, like Garmin discontinuing their e-paper smartwatches. But hopefully that has more to do with that market being too narrow for viable alternatives, and not a fundamental issue with the economics of the displays themselves.

afandian•26 minutes ago

Pebble is back, with MIP reflective LCD. I have one. It's great.

https://repebble.com/

functionmouse•about 4 hours ago

Unfortunately the pen is probably USI, making it borderline useless as a pen. This will not be like S-pen or Apple Pencil.

zipy124•about 2 hours ago

Although I can't find an authoritative source on it the indications do support that assumption that it is USI. Technically USI doesn't have to be bad, it just appears that quality control on the standard is bad (similarly to how USB cables often don't meet the spec and can cause troubles as a result).

Firmware can be checked here: https://gitlab.com/zephray/enchanter

functionmouse•about 1 hour ago

Sure. But USI is bad unless the OEM goes out of their way to make it good, whereas EMR is good unless the OEM goes out of their way to make it bad. EMR is the better tech, and with patents expired, and numerous other benefits such as no batteries needed in the pen, it should be standard now.

varun_ch•about 2 hours ago

I think this device isn’t so much about a pen. It seems like it could be a really nice typing or coding or reading display. Maybe a future model could improve on the pen

WillAdams•about 1 hour ago

The thing is, to get a pen right, all that they have to do is license Wacom EMR/Samsung's S-Pen (Samsung owns a 40% stake in Wacom, hence using their stylus tech).

Styluses w/ batteries/capacitors were okay once upon a time, but Wacom EMR "just works" and makes my life simpler/nicer (I couldn't count how many styluses I have around my house/in my bags so as to allow me to use my Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, Galaxy Note 10+, Kindle Scribe Coloursoft, and Wacom One display (attached to a MacBook).

functionmouse•about 1 hour ago

EMR patents and design specs expired. It's free. China's tooling simply hasn't caught up, because the output doesn't have to feel or work good, it simply has to look good in a kickstarter. Conjecture: I feel like this is like half the reason styluses as a technology are dying; the other half is the untimely death of the resistive display.

Bring back resistive touch!

throwwwll•about 2 hours ago

Price?

nzach•about 1 hour ago

U$ 619 for the black and white model and U$ 719 for the color model

https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-flow#products

good8675309•about 1 hour ago

Not bad considering this is a niche specialty product and cutting edge. The price will come down if the demand and market grow. Assuming raw hardware costs stop rising

throwwwll•about 1 hour ago

thumbs down

acc_297•about 1 hour ago

that is almost guaranteed an at-cost production figure for the limited run of kickstarter funded displays there isn't a production line producing these things - watch the youtube video this guy quit his job for over a year to build a passion project into a prototype