Handheld gadgets surround us, but often these
slabs of glass and silicon feel like they arrive
fully formed in our lives. We don’t often get
the chance to understand how, say, a Kindle
works — or even better, how we might make one
ourselves! The Open Book Project aims to create
a simple, comprehensible device for reading texts
in all the languages of the world
—
an e-reader
that can be built by hand with the tools in the
average maker’s workshop.
The E-Book FeatherWing is the simplest
version of the build. Functionally it’s a “wing” —
an accessory board that pairs with an Adafruit
Feather M4 Express, which provides the
microcontroller and the battery charging circuitry.
Almost all of the E-Book wing’s surface-mount
parts are reasonably large and easy to solder by
hand, which makes it a great project for getting
started with surface-mount soldering.
In this guide, you’ll build your own E-Book
FeatherWing. With its 4.2" e-paper screen and
seven clicky buttons on the front, it’s a great
device for reading, but it’s also a highly capable
platform for doing more! You can use it to play
sound from the headphone jack, display sensor
data from the trio of STEMMA ports, or even stack
an AirLift FeatherWing to connect to the internet.
1. PREPARE FOR THE BUILD
You’ll need the E-Book FeatherWing printed
circuit board. You can order one on Tindie, or send
the board design files to a PCB fabrication house
like OSH Park.
You’ll also need to order the parts that go on
the board. Almost all of these parts are available
at Digi-Key; you can use the one-click bill of
materials, or BOM, at Kitspace to order almost all
of them in one fell swoop. The screen will come
direct from the manufacturer, Good Display.
Make sure you have the Arduino IDE installed
on your computer, along with Adafruit’s SAM
Board support package, which will support the
Feather M4 Express. In addition, make sure you
have installed the following Arduino libraries:
• Adafruit GFX
• Adafruit BusIO
• Adafruit MCP23008
• Adafruit EPD
• Adafruit SPIFlash
JOEY CASTILLO is a
Brooklyn-based maker and
software engineer.
TIME REQUIRED:
1–2 Hours
DIFFICULTY:
Intermediate
COST:
$90–$120
MATERIALS
See the complete interactive BOM at kitspace.org/
boards/github.com/joeycastillo/the-open-book/
ebook-wing
» Custom circuit board, E-Book Wing PCB tindie.
com/products/19994
» Adafruit Feather M4 Express microcontroller
board adafruit.com/product/3857
» E-paper display, 4.2", 400×300 pixels Good
Display #GDEW042T2
» Resistors: 0.47
Ω
(1), 100
Ω
(2), 1k
Ω
(2), and
10k
Ω
(8)
» Capacitors, ceramic: 4.7µF (1), 1µF (12),
10µF (2), and 100µF (1)
» Zener diodes, 3.6V 500mW (2)
» Schottky diodes, 30V 500mA (3)
» Ferrite beads, 1k
Ω
(2)
» Power inductor, 10µH 1.3A 170M
Ω
» Transistor, MOSFET N-channel 100V 1.6A
» I
2
C interface IC chip for GPIO expansion
» Memory IC chip, NOR flash
» Memory IC chip, serial SRAM, 256K
» Headphone jack, 3.5mm
» MicroSD card slot
» Female headers for connecting the Feather
» JST-PH connectors: 4-pin (1) and 3-pin (2)
aka STEMMA ports
» Various connectors, buttons, and switches
see BOM for details
» Thin solder
» Flux
» Solder wick
TOOLS
» Soldering iron, fine tipped
» Tweezers, fine tipped
» Multimeter
» Magnifying glass, loupe, or microscope
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