The video below should be used in conjunction with this article, it contains information that is not available below.
E-Paper (or E-Ink) displays are remarkable devices. They require very little power when up-dating and no power at all once updated. The also provide a paper like contrast and clarity. Which is why they were adopted by e-readers a long time ago. Here we look at hooking them up to ESP32’s. Other articles for Arduino will be available shortly. Because of the no power requirement they are perfect when you want to only update a display every now and then and then power your MCU down into a deep sleep for a while, making interesting battery projects feasible where you can still see the results on screen even when there is no power.
The downside is the display is relatively slow to update (on some colour modules up to 8 seconds!). So high speed moving graphics are out of the question. But for the right application they are perfect! The video above takes you through getting the displays up and running on an ESP32. Affiliate links for the displays used are available at the end of the article.
The simplified demo
The demo that comes with the Arduino library is somewhat complex, showing all the features that the display can do, but can be overwhelming if you just want to get started and display some simple text. Below is the simple demo sketch I showed on screen.
Affiliate links for the items shown: Clicking these costs you the same price but gives me a small commission, please consider supporting this channel by using them 🙂
Black and white : Black and White E-Paper on Amazon
Red/Black/White “Colour” module : Amazon Colour Module