Just discovered how insanely readable e‑ink is in bright sun and now I’m obsessed: has anyone actually built an e‑ink cockpit instrument or mini‑chart display for offshore use?
I knocked together a proof‑of‑concept with an ESP32, a 7.8″ e‑ink panel, and an NMEA 2000 → CAN transceiver, and the thing sips under 1W while staying perfectly legible in direct sun. It even “remembers” the last screen if you kill power. I’m thinking a low‑power “watchkeeper” screen for multi‑day passages: wind, depth, SOG/COG, AIS CPA/TCPA, and simple alarms.
Questions for anyone who’s tried similar or knows the gotchas:
- Refresh rates: Can partial refresh modes keep up with 1-2 Hz wind/depth updates without ghosting? Any waveform tricks or panels that behave best underway?
- Temperature: How bad does refresh lag get in cold/wet conditions? Anyone add a tiny heater or choose a panel rated for sub‑zero?
- Waterproofing/condensation: Best practices for sealing e‑ink behind glass/acrylic without fogging? Gore vents? Conformal coating the driver board?
- Sun/heat: Do dark bezels cook the panel? Mounting tips to avoid thermal damage in the tropics?
- Controls: Capacitive touch in the wet is sketchy-are physical buttons/rotary encoders the way to go?
- NMEA 2000: Isolation and power-safe to power the device off the N2K bus, or better to isolate and feed separately? Any PGN/licensing pitfalls for a homebrew display?
- Night use: Side-LEDs vs full backlight for e‑ink? Readability with red headlamps?
- UI: What layouts work best on a boat in motion-big digits, minimal data, or analog wind/depth arcs?
- Alternatives: Anyone compare e‑ink to memory‑LCD or transflective TFT in real sea state (glare, spray, vibration)?
If you’ve taken an e‑ink display offshore-or decided not to after testing-I’d love to hear why. Any “don’t do this” lessons before I pot the next prototype and cut a hole in the pod?