Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display

by Pimoroni

Inky wHAT is a 400x300 pixel electronic paper (ePaper / eInk / EPD) display for Raspberry Pi, a larger version of our popular Inky pHAT display, with more than 5x the number of pixels, and available in three colour schemes - red/black/white, yellow/black/white, and black/white.

The larger display opens up many more possibilities, with significantly more space to display information. Like Inky pHAT, the display is crisp and readable in bright sunlight.

Use Inky wHAT as a detailed weather display, as a calendar, for daily news reports, to list household chores, or you could even use it as a tiny DIY e-reader to read your e-books. 

Features

  • 4.2" EPD display (400x300 pixels)
  • 40-pin female header included to boost height for full-size Pis
  • Standoffs included to securely attach to your Pi
  • Additional pins, including I2C and SPI, broken out
  • Inky wHAT pinout
  • Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi models
  • Python library
  • Comes fully assembled

Multi-colour EPD displays, like the one on Inky wHAT, use ingenious electrophoresis to pull coloured particles up and down on the display. The coloured particles reflect light, unlike most display types, meaning that they're visible under bright lights. It takes approximately 25 seconds to refresh the display.

Everything comes fully-assembled, and there's no soldering required! The display is securely stuck down to the Inky wHAT PCB and connected via a ribbon cable. Just pop Inky wHAT on your Pi and run our installer to get everything set up!

We've also broken out some handy pins including I2C and SPI, on the back of Inky wHAT, letting you connect additional devices like our breakouts and allowing you to show their data right on the display.

Inky wHAT work with any 40-pin version of the Pi, including Pi Zero and Pi Zero W.

Software

Our Python library takes the stress out of displaying text and images on Inky wHAT, and we've put together a few examples to show off Inky wHAT's capabilities. 

Notes

  • The Inky wHAT display is made from glass so it's pretty fragile. Be careful not to drop it or press too hard on it, or it will crack. When fitting the wHAT, grip at the edges of the board rather than pressing on top.
  • Overall dimensions: 91x77x8.5mm (WxHxD, depth includes header and display)
  • Display usable area dimensions: 84.8x63.6mm (WxH), 4.2" diagonal

35 customer reviews

6 months ago
I'm absolutely thrilled with this e-ink display! Despite not being a professional programmer, setting it up was surprisingly straightforward using the libraries provided on GitHub. I'm using it to monitor my VPN/ LAN and AdBlock stats etc.- it's perfect for this kind of monitoring.
by Guido about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io
7 months ago
Very clear epd, fast update of the screen, and if you send data to it as if it's the Black/White/Red version it also has a nice grey (modding the dither python example to include grey instead of red also works!)
by Anonymous about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Really cool display, but also the software and documentation that exists to support building projects with it makes it much more approachable than you might expect. Also excellent quality and really nice packaging.
by Samuel about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
A really fun piece of tech! Very easy to use. Note that the yellow color is more gold/sand colored in real life (but still pretty!).
by Anonymous about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Very easy to get up and running - I used it to provide a passive display of server metrics with face inspired by Gerty from the film "Moon"! Pictured is its "mild concern" face. When it frowns, I know action may be required! It's perfect for my use case.
by Paul about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
The product is great but the tutorial is not updated up-to-date. You should follow the instructions in the official github repo, not in the tutorial (it didn't work for me even with a brand new raspberry pi)
by Jeeyoon about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Love this display and the font options, brilliant for low refresh data display applications. Currently using with Pi zero as a weather display. :-)
by Alan about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Really easy to get up and running with good code examples in their github repo. Only docking one point because with the one I received, the mounting screws don't go in all the way except for one, but it doesn't affect things much.
by Mickey about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
The Inky wHAT was ridiculously easy to set up, a cinch to program, and looks gorgeous when displaying my solar panel data / weather / tide times. It would be 5/5 from me, but the refresh rate is quite slow for "yellow" mode, taking almost 30 seconds vs about 5 seconds or less for "black" mode.
by Rory about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS! This is the second Inky wHAT that I buy, and they are _amazing_. I used it as a screen for a small controller in my house automation project (as in *my* house's automation project I'm doing), and I just love that it's so low power consuming and really well visible. If you need to increase readability you could add a white led to provide some ambient lighting, or at least that's what I did and it works for me since I'm really into low power consumption.
by Savvas about Inky wHAT - Large e-Ink Display via REVIEWS.io

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