What is it?

This is a ready-to-use epaper display with a driver PCB designed for connection to a microcontroller, such as ESP32, via SPI. The E-paper display features a 152x152 pixel 1.54" screen capable of displaying white, black, and red colors. It operates at extremely low current levels, making it suitable for battery-powered applications. The display don't need any power to maintain the image on the screen.

Why did you make it?

These displays have been repurposed from shelf label displays that I had lying around. They have been tested using the exact driver board you will receive. The driver board has been designed by me, based on a commonly known schematic for driving these displays.

The driver board is a 0.6mm pcb, and completely flat on the bottom, allowing for easy attachment using double-sided tape to combine the PCB and the display (if you don't let any header pins stick out the bottom). This results in a compact size for the E-paper display plus driver, measuring only 38mm x 32mm x 3.7mm.

The PCB is designed for an almost 1:1 straight connection to an ESP32 Lolin board. No additional components are required to make it work. For ESP32 family MCUs, you can utilize the Adafruit_EPD library to drive the display. Examples for Arduino and PlatformIO can be found in the repository linked in the 'documentation' section below. If you intend to use it with older MCUs, please note that it operates on 3.3V only, not 5V.

What makes it special?

This is a low cost way to experiment with epaper displays, or to use it in one of your projects. Also check the price tiers: if you buy multiple, you get extra discounts.