This is an incredible project! For someone looking to build their own Evertop using this repo, are there any specific hardware schematics, component lists, or 3D print files included or planned to be shared in the future to help with replication?
Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
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Re: Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
#122what's the rationale for x86? To run vintage software? I would love an eink laptop like this but with ARM, modern ports and linux
I think because the PCEmulator on the low power esm32 chip supports DOS and ELKS is just as limited and there is much less software for it.
As an alternative to DOS in the PCemulator that's running you could use FreeDOS or a port of Linux. https://github.com/ESP32DE/Boot-Linux-ESP32S3-Playground https://youtu.be/pj0a91vlcGo
While DOS is limited, you could port your most used tools or software to DOS or port them, there's a vim and emacs port, you can play interactive fiction, read e-books, program in Turbo Pascal 5.5/7.0, Turbo C / Borland C++ (1.x - 3.1), use hypertext, sqlite, markdown, perhaps use long filenames with FreeDOS or Calmira for windows 3.0?
Re: Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
#123> Note: if some videos won't play in Firefox, please try using Chrome.
No thanks.
Re: Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still, it's not emulating an XT. XT is a very specific PC configuration. Maybe they just wanted to emphasize that it was ancient.
Fully upgraded, my XT had VGA, 1MB including extended memory shenanigans, a sound card, a SCSI card, and Ethernet.
but no 80186 (not that it matters much, but you started it :)).
Re: Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
#125I think there is a class of device here that is missing. Low power but forever devices that have some basic functionality. Over time I could see this taking over laptops and the like as ultra-low-power became more and more capable.
There is a community of people that have been making "writer-decks". It might be similar to what you are describing.
Re: Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
#126> Note: if some videos won't play in Firefox, please try using Chrome. No thanks.
Exactly my thought. The same answer goes for new plugins developed only for Chrome.
Re: Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
#127I think there is a class of device here that is missing. Low power but forever devices that have some basic functionality. Over time I could see this taking over laptops and the like as ultra-low-power became more and more capable.
On that note, whatever happened to netbooks? As someone who writes a lot and need a mobile device to do it on, they used to be perfect. Can't seem to find the form factor anymore. Even the smallest Chromebook seems only slightly smaller than a laptop.
For a time it was a new market, full of potential growth.
Then it got mature, every one who wanted one had one and given the nature of the device (low cost/low performance) it wouldn't need to be renewed for some time.
Some manufacturers went upmarket (bigger and more powerful devices for more money) blurring the line with their entry level laptops. It wasn't a recognisable market segment any more.
At some point, the market must have both shrunk too much and merged into other segments for anyone to care.
Mobile devices ate their lunch too I guess.
Re: Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
#128> Note: if some videos won't play in Firefox, please try using Chrome. No thanks.
Thankfully plays on Firefox, but doesn't in Chrome on Android.
Re: Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
#129Take my money. No, really, this is precisely the sort of thing I've wanted for ages, and I don't have the time or resources to build it myself.
I don't know if you've seen the videos, but the latency from input to result on the screen is, very, very bad. I don't think this is actually what you want. We all want low-power retro computing but expect reasonable latency in usage. We also want WIFI working in every room and e-ink that doesn't suck and doesn't cost half a car... And the ability to browse the web (HTTPS). It's just not there yet. When someone will…
Agreed that latency and lack of WiFi would be problematic. I have no need of HTTPS though. I'm happy to live in a terminal and ssh to a "real" computer for anything that goes beyond vim.
Re: Evertop: E-ink IBM XT clone with 100+ hours of battery life
#130While I love the work, it is more like an adaptation, I am quite certain there were no PS/2 keyboards back in XT days, rather the classical din pin one. PS/2 keyboards are early 1990's.
I'm not even sure why you would point this out.
I'm also quite certain there were also no USB flash drives, SD card support, Wifi networking and e-ink displays in the early 1990s. It's not a replica in any way, it does not claim to be that. Just a cool compute device!