I fancied getting an eink screen to use for future projects. I bought a wee one with a raspberry pi “hat” attached. However, I realised later that I could maybe just re-purpose an old Amazon Kindle ebook reader.
I’ve messed with Kindles before, ages ago: I ported an Infocom interpreter and a Manga reader to it. I managed to get Amazon’s own software to load them as “Kindlets” and show them integrated into their ebook reader. However, now I just want a nice cheap Linux based eink development platform.
Cheap Kindle From Ebay (and why)
So, off to ebay I went! I saw a number of really cheap ones marked “BLOCKED BY AMAZON”; I decided not to go for these since theoretically they might have been stolen. In the end, I went for £7 Kindle 4 “non-touch”.
A few days later, it turned up. And I discovered why it might have been so cheap: its stuck in some sort of unquittable demo mode:
I did some googling and although it seems later Kindle versions can be un-demo-mode-ed, nothing seemed to work for this version. I don’t actually care though; I don’t want to run the original Kindle ebook software on this.
So, the next step is to gain access. Browsing the mobileread forums showed it has a debug serial port: time to open the case!
Physical Access Granted!
This was kinda tricky! There are multiple clips all round it and the case is glued onto the battery compartment, so judicious application of a Big Knife was required to persuade it to let go. I cleaned the glue up with some Acetone.
Red: annoying clips
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