Hello everyone,

We are happy to report that, aside from a few orders for which we are waiting on updated shipping information, all crowdfunded Inkplates have now gone out, and backers all over the world have reported receiving theirs. A few Inkplates were damaged in transit, but we have already shipped replacements (and have asked Mouser to increase the amount of padding they use) so all is well. Pre-orders are now being prepared for shipping, and we’ll let you know when they start going out.

Meanwhile, we’ve been busy getting our Forum up, improving the Inkplate 6 Arduino libraries, and putting together some new sample code.

Inkplate Forum

We have set up a forum for everything Inkplate. If you’re looking for support or want to discuss project ideas or development challenges, come check it out! In order to post to the forum, you’ll need to register (brief instructions are here).

Arduino library development

We’ve recently added some features to our Arduino libraries:

• Drawing bitmaps directly from the Web: You can now draw bitmaps directly from a URL with the drawBitmapFromWeb function. For this purpose, a new example has been added: 10-Inkplate_Download_And_Show.
• Support for 4-bit and 8-bit bitmaps: Previously, only 1-bit and 24-bit BMPs were supported. With this update, you can load 4-bit and 8-bit BMPs as well. This support is included in both drawBitmapFromWeb and drawBitmapFromSD.
• Native dithering support: You can now use dithering when displaying photos from the Web or from an SD card. This works for 1-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit, and 24-bit BMPs.
• BMP loading speed increase: Optimizations to our image loading algorithm have decreased BMP load time from 4.2 seconds to 2.1 seconds.

New Sample Code

Using these examples is super simple. Put your Inkplate 6 to use just by adding your Wi-Fi credentials!

• Add Varipass example: Varipass.org is a data logging website for IoT . With this new example 3-Inkplate_VariPass_Graphs you can show graphs directly from your Varipass account on the Inkplate 6!
• 3-day Weather station: Show the local 3-day weather report on your Inkplate just by adding your Wi-Fi SSID and password alongside the name of your city!
• Daily Weather station: Show the local daily weather report on your Inkplate!
• Google Calendar: Display Google Calendar events for today, tomorrow, and the next day. Shows event name, time, and location in portrait orientation.
• Cryptocurrency tracker: A very nice-looking tracker for current cryptocurrency prices.

Other Stuff

• 3D-printed case improvement: we have added indication for the switch, making it easier to know whether your Inkplate is on or off.
• cale.es support: cale.es is a website that is able to generate BMP images containing info acquired from various sources. It can also be used to generate BMP images for display on e-paper screens. It now officially supports Inkplate!

What’s Next?

We haven’t slowed down and are still working on a lot of different things:

• Documentation - We are writing documentation using the readthedocs.org system. We aim to provide all Inkplate 6 information in one place.
• Off-the-board image converter - Want to lighten the load on Inkplate's processor and convert your images elsewhere? We are working on a browser converter as well as an offline converter. A simple script is already available. There's 3rd party LCD image converter already available.
• Micropython support - As promised, micropython support is coming soon. Thorsten has been doing some great work on this.
• Platform.io support - Has already been prepared by the community (thanks, Martin!). We are now looking to verify and officially announce support for Platform.io.
• UI builder - Writing your own UI can be time-consuming if you have to do it line by line. We are working on a simple UI generator that allows you to drag and drop objects and retrieve finished code for Inkplate UI elements.
• ESP-IDF support - Looking to work Inkplate into a commercial project? ESP-IDF support might come in handy!

Feedback

Now that many of you have received your Inkplate, we would love to hear about how you are using then. What was easy? What was hard? Did it meet your expectations? Come visit us on our forum and let us know what you think!

Until next time,
David & the e-radionica.com team