Inky Developer

by Pimoroni

A powerful modular system for developers who want to be able to mix and match microcontroller/SBC host boards and different ePaper or E Ink® displays.

Developed in conjunction with our friends at Ineltek, Inky Developer allows developers plenty of flexibility to demonstrate concepts and showcase various types of ePaper displays. It consists of two parts - a host board which connects by cable to a display board. There's just one kind of host and display available right now, but there are more in the pipeline!

Inky Developer includes some extra functionality that you won't find on our standard Inky range. As well as providing a sturdy base for the ePaper panel, the display board has four buttons for inputs, four RGB LEDs for visual feedback and it supports a low power sleep mode. All these functions are connected up via an I2C I/O expander so they use up a minimum of pins on your host microcontroller or SBC. We've also broken out headers for as many pins as possible on both boards, so there's plenty of options for connecting up extra hardware.

Find out more about Inky Developer in this video by GSeph Electronics!

Host boards and displays are sold separately so make sure you pick up one of each! Each host board comes with a JST-SH cable.

Mini HAT (Host) Features

  • 14 pin JST-SH connector for attaching to display
  • Additional headers broken out (display pins and remaining Pi pins)
  • M2.5 mounting holes
  • Pre-soldered socket header for attaching to Raspberry Pi
  • Compatible with all models of Raspberry Pi with a 40 pin header.
  • Fully assembled
  • No soldering required (unless you want to use the broken out headers).
  • Python library
  • Schematic

5.7" Display Features

  • 5.7" EPD display (600 x 448 pixels), driven via SPI
    • E Ink® Gallery Palette™ 4000 ePaper
    • ACeP (Advanced Color ePaper) 7-color with black, white, red, green, blue, yellow, orange.
    • Ultra wide viewing angle – >170°
    • Dot pitch – 0.1915 x 0.1915mm
  • Four tactile buttons
  • Four RGB LEDs (APA102)
  • Buttons, LEDs and low power mode driven through an IO expander (TCA9554A)
  • 14 pin JST-SH connector for attaching to host
  • Additional pins broken out (display pins and additional APA102 output)
  • M2.5 mounting holes
  • Schematic

Mini HAT (Host) Includes

  • Inky Dev HAT Mini
  • 14 pin JST-SH cable (300mm, same side connectors)

Notes

  • Host and display boards both have broken out headers for the display pins, so you can connect them with alternate wiring if you don't want to use a JST-SH cable.
  • The Mini HAT includes unpopulated headers to provide easy access to unused Raspberry Pi pins (plus power and ground).
  • The display boards include a set of headers for the APA102 pins, so it's possible to add more LEDs onto the chain that's on the front of the board!