# Wanted Kindle Eink display for use with Raspberry Pi credit card sized computer.



## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

Hi Everyone,
I know this would normally be posted in the "Buy, Sell, Trade" area of the KB site, but I was hoping that by posting it here, that I might reach more Kindle owners.

What I am looking for is a dead Kindle with a 6" Eink display that has not been damaged.  I want to use the display with a $35.00 credit card sized Linux computer, called RASPBERRY PI, which was just released in the last month.  My goal is to use the computer and Eink display for programming.  I am not going to be using anything other than a command line prompt, so the display will work just find for what I am wanting to do.  Please contact me at [email protected] if you have a Kindle you are willing to part with.
Thanks, Gene


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## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

I guess the other question I should also ask is: Can the Kindle DX, or any other Eink Kindle for that matter, or the Kindle Fire, be hooked up via USB to allow me to use either device as a display?
Gene


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

Best bet for answers would be to ask on the mobileread.com forum.  That forum is better for hacking/technology questions.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Agree with Chickie. . .the folks who like to take the things apart mostly don't hang here. . . 

As to the first question. . .I'm not even sure I understand what you're asking.

As to the second. . . .as far as I know when you plug in any kindle to a computer the computer sees it as a drive.  Period.  Whether that can be changed by messing about in its innards, I don't know.  But. . .again, there are folks at MobileRead who, no doubt, have tried it.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

There are different chipsets used for USB Host and Slave operation. The Kindle seems to have a chipset that does not operate in Host mode, so you can't control things with it.

As far as using it as a display for an external device, the video circuitry is not directly addressable through the USB port, so I'd say no to this unless you are prepared to rewrite portions of the BIOS and do your own drivers.

You'd have more success removing the display from the Kindle and wiring directly to it. The driver chips may be an integral part of the display, which would make things easier, but you'd still have to provide the circuitry for the computer to display interface.

Just a guess, based on my years in the high-tech electronics industry.

Mike


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

I'd agree with jmiked, I really think you'd be looking at a lot of work to get the composite video or HDMI output from the Pi to work with a Kindle display.

I can't see that anybody has a commercially available e-ink display with a video input so that's not really an option either.

The only route that I can think you might possibly get to work is that if you were to use a *working *Kindle 4, this does include a debug mode which enables ethernet over USB - search for information on the screensaver hack for the K4 to understand how to do it. With Ethernet over USB Drivers on the Pi (which I guess you'd have to code yourself) you could use the Kindle as a console to the Pi.

It's a very complicated way of working, though, and definitely not cheap. I notice one Pi user http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5726 who is using this £20 TFT panel from Amazon:










Unless you really desperately want e-Ink this would be a lot cheaper and easier.


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## kb7uen Gene (Mar 13, 2009)

Thanks to all of you for you responces.  I was thinking of the Eink display because visually, it is very easy on my eyes.  Low vision tends to be very unforgiving when it comes to glare and contrast, and I have found the Eink and the, iPhone only so far, Retina display to be the easiest to deal with visually.  Low power consumption is also a major benefit of Eink technology.  Of course the Kindle 4 in some ways wouldn't be a bad way to go because it does have it's own power source and is very small and thin.  And while I wouldn't have issues with just text on that display, I wouldn't be able to run he program, which would have graphics, with that same display, so the Retina display is probably the best way to go in the end.  I'll continue with my research, and if I find a way to use Eink, I post the results here.  Also thanks for the info on the portable TFT composite display. - Thanks again, Gene


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

I thought about this again late last night, and realised that I'd perhaps overlooked one important point - although the K4 can do networking over USB, it's only designed for an engineer on a PC to debug the Kindle, not the other way round.

So, there may well not be any sort of client (eg telnet) built into the Kindle.

If you're thinking about this solution, look *very *carefully into it to make sure it will do what you want before you buy anything.


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