This is a complete reimagining of the Open Book Project, but the original mission remains: As a society, we need an open source device for reading. Books are among the most important documents of our culture, yet the most popular and widespread devices we have for reading are closed objects, operati...
This is a complete reimagining of the Open Book Project, but the original mission remains:
As a society, we need an open source device for reading. Books are among the most important documents of our culture, yet the most popular and widespread devices we have for reading are closed objects, operating as small moving parts in a set of giant closed platforms whose owners' interests are not always aligned with readers'.
The Open Book aims to be a simple device that anyone can build for themselves. The Open Book should be comprehensible: the reader should be able to look at it and understand, at least in broad strokes, how it works. It should be extensible, so that a reader with different needs can write code and add accessories that make the book work for them. It should be global, supporting readers of books in all the languages of the world. Most of all, it should be open, so that anyone can take this design as a starting point and use it to build a better book.
DIY is like that. If you look up how to make a birdhouse they will tell you you need a saw, a hammer, nails, drill, paintbrush and something to measure with. Having a 3d printer and a soldering iron nowadays is pretty low entry, you can get into it cheaper that buying the saw, hammer and drill for the birdhouse. You don't have to buy the bambulab printer and the weller / hakko iron. You can print this case on an ender 3 you found in the dumpster. Or pay 10 bucks for someone and they will print it for you.
On the other hand you will have a device you can infinitely repair unlike the kindles that are kicking the dust every few year for everyone.
It sounds wild to think about making your own electronic device, but after getting into woodworking I think it could be simpler to build this than a quality birdhouse lol.
A friend of mine was showing me around a maker space when I was on a trip to where he now lives. They had an entire room full of various 3D printer. They've really gone mainstream in a big way. Getting a hold of one isn't out of the question for a lot of people.
Right! I believe that assumes you already have necessary tools, and it certainly can't take into account the cost of your time or the cost of mistakes along the way.
It's a fair call from a practical point of view. But I'll also say you're very likely to keep using your 3d printer for all other things, so not fair to put all costs into this one project.
Besides there alternatives to buying the printer: friends and print shops. Besides where I live a few libraries let you use their printers (and I believe materials) at no cost.
For the people commenting about prices and comparing it to kindle:
Unfortunately, open source hardware is in its infancy, and faces severe barriers of entry, but projects like this one are really nice in order to further develop the concept and make working prototypes, proving its viability.
I don't understand, it seems perfectly reasonable - people are just so used to these products being sold at a loss or at cost and subsidised by huge companies.
I would happily pay extra to not be tied to a massive corporation.
And if we think about it, it would only cost more at first, because open hardware would last longer and be repairable, costing much less in the long run.
Yeah, products like a Kindle or Kobo e-reader are sold to be paired with the company's e-book market. It makes sense for them economically I kind of view it as a win-win because I use it both for their books and for other reading material.
This is a great question. I don't believe it can reach the point of any person simply being able to create their own hardware, unless we're talking about an utopic future with multimaterial 3d printing in small scale, but I can see small businesses being able to manufacture custom open source hardware on demand, based on open standards. For me, the ideal scenario would be something like going into an open hardware service shop and asking for a device with your requirements, and they creating it for you, or repairing/upgrading yours.
There's slowly starting to be more options for this. The reMarkable devices seem pretty good, but they're a little pricey (though, I'm pretty sure they're not owned by Amazon, so it might technically fit your requirement).
I just bought their kindle and never connect it to WiFi. Just load some books on it with USB once in a while. Works great, was cheap, and is waterproof.
I've been kind of hoping for a e-ink based laptop device for amateur radio to email via the WinLink system. Emergency communications need to send messages for very extended periods of time without resupplying, so they must take as little power as possible. An e-ink screen could stretch a single charge over weeks.
Rakuten Kobo is a good alternative to Amazon Kindle. I can just drag and drop books, no internet connectivity necessary, no DRM... I have no problems with it at all. Would be cool to be able to load custom firmware, but I do not need to since it already doesn't spy on me and doesn't force DRM (3rd party book imports).
I've been using kobo. The integration with pocket and Libby is the killer feature for me. Checking out library books right on the device? Game changer.
You can do this with a kindle, too. I'm not advocating for them specifically, just pointing out that you can use a Kindle in a similar way. I've never even enabled WiFi on it. Just drag and drop some epubs on it via USB once in a while. Works great, is cheap, and is waterproof.
It's true. Counterpoint: if you move places a lot (let's say if you happen to belong to a generation of people who will never be able to afford a place - which is a huge amount of people), your library needs to fit into a small tablet sized reader. Can store 5000 books, I do not have the means to move that amount of books every time my landlord decides to make my rent more unaffordable. An ereader fits in my pocket.
On the Open Book GitHub I have collections of free books and short stories that are digital only from Tor.com. That’s actually why I wanted to get an eReader, digital only online short stories are winning Hugo Awards now, and then couldn’t decide and got involved with the Open Book is that I wanted a little device to load up with them.
I have a Kobo with KOReader installed and Calibre with the DeDRM plugin for managing eBooks and it's pretty great! It'll open just about anything you throw at it and is pretty customizable.
I need something in between this and a Kindle. I don't want to build my own electronics, I just want to buy them from somewhere without sketchy ulterior motives for how they'll use their control over my device.
I haven't been keeping tabs on this, but if you appreciate the legacy of pine64 (hardware kill switches on phone, Linux everywhere, etc.) They did release an epaper device:
I love the hell out of the circuit board labeling. Absolutely wonderful for the hobbyist diyer. Well done. o7
This is such a cool project. I think I might give this a go once I look into the details a little more.
I've been tinkering with ESP32 as a main component of a 50WPC a2dp Bluetooth receiver / amplifier. These SoCs are so incredibly capable. I'm eager to use them for a bunch of other things, now.
IDK. Building your own is cool in theory, but there are a bunch of options that aren't that bad price wise that run Android.
The issue is that they're made by random Chinese companies and the software support is of varying quality. A focused community effort to support an Android build explicitly for readers and to hack their way to being installable on as many as possible seems like a better plan.
I have two (13" boox max 3, 6 inch reinkstone r1 that I just grabbed because it was $140 with color) and even with the mediocre software support the reading experience is pretty decent.
For anyone interested our Discord is here! We’re a fun group of folks and have a couple of other projects. The project is mostly for fun and definitely centered around folks who are maybe trying to break into the hardware and software space with something tangible that they can use and show off, it certainly isn’t financially the best option out there but to learn and grow it’s great fun!
I'm all for the fun aspect, and would love better panel availability. I will definitely look closer at some future point to explore projects for some of my pis.
They both still have basic device for about 100$ ( cnd ) sure it more than 30$ but i still have a 10 years old kindle tha work flawlessly so worth the price. And since i own every book i ever got on amazon thx calibre ( even tho amazon working real hard to make it stop )
The open book would be nice if overdrive/libby would work on it because i hate kobo but it's the only way i can borrow ebook in canada
For anyone interested our Discord is here! We’re a fun group of folks and have a couple of other projects. The project is mostly for fun and definitely centered around folks who are maybe trying to break into the hardware and software space with something tangible that they can use and show off, it certainly isn’t financially the best option out there but to learn and grow it’s great fun!
The screen looks like absolute trash sadly. Doesn't even compare to what was available 5 years ago. I wish hobbyists had access to even somewhat modern technology...
The case doesn’t need any special material so whatever’s cheapest usually works, especially if all you’re worried about is protection and not style. In face you technically don’t even need the case, the one I develop the firmware on is bare, but still, you shouldn’t have to spend more than probably $10 USD, maybe cheaper if you can find a local maker space to help you print it.
I don't know the exact cost, but there are online services to do 3D printing for you, like Shapeways. I've used it before. It made more sense than buying my own printer. I downloaded a design from Thingiverse.com, uploaded to Shapeways.com and ordered the print. They will give you the price before you order.
You can get a reliable plug and play printer for as little as $500-600, though it will take 15-20 hours, if you’re technically minded, to learn to get the files to print. The material will be around $30-40 at retail prices (it’s generally only sold by the kg).
You can likely send the files to a print house and get them printed for just $100-200.
(Someone will claim that the $99 Ender and a roll of $9.99 genetic PLA will work. They are technically correct in the same way that your grandmother can edit photos for free by setting up Arch Linux on a $100 PC from Goodwill.)
Maybe a friend or maker space or local library would have the printer and not cost much at all. Idk how much an online print place would charge, apologies.