Micro:bit + eink display?

I am wondering if anyone has come across any projects (or has any advice) on attaching an e-ink display to the BBC micro:bit. There seems to be a lot of eink displays specifically for the Raspberry Pi but my son really likes the micro:bit so I’d like to get something working with it for him to learn with.

G’day,

That’s an interesting question. I’ve got some BBC micro:bit and have taught school children with them at a once a week volunteer lesson, using MakeCode.

From a hardware perspective, the E-Ink/E-Paper displays could be connected; such as

but they don’t come with instructions specifically for the micro:bit, and nor does the usual micro:bit software environment MakeCode cover the devices.

New instructions could be imagined, by using Adafruit eInk Display Breakouts tutorial as a basis.

Let me make a quick estimate. Faced with a specific need to drive one of these E-Ink displays from a micro:bit, I’d be using PlatformIO and fairly complex firmware engineering skills. As a professional, I’d budget about three hours full time to get comfortable with the combo on my lab bench. Not impossible for children, but will require a lot of work for anyone mentoring or teaching them.

Watch out; the displays can’t be updated safely more than once every three minutes. We’d find this terribly restrictive in class, so we’d probably never use the combo there, even if MakeCode somehow grew support.

Thanks for the reply. This looks like it will be much more complex than I had hoped. Interesting that the displays can’t be updated more than every 3 minutes. That may rule them out for the project anyway.

I’ve just noticed something new. If your son is enjoying MakeCode, and needs a step up, have a look at;

I’ve not personally tried this product pair.