Anyone Can Build This Open Source, DRM-Free Kindle Alternative

Authored by vice.com and submitted by Alekhine_

It’s harder to get an open source e-reader than you might think. Kindles are popular, but they lock you into Amazon’s ecosystem. Amazon’s books come with digital rights protection and the company can remove them from your device whenever it wants. Those problems exist on tablets from Barnes and Nobles, Google, and Apple, too. When it comes to open source reading, there’s just no good options. The Open Book Project wants to change that.

As first spotted by Hackster.io, “the Open Book aims to be a simple device that anyone with a soldering iron can build for themselves,” designer Joey Castillo said on the GitHub repository for the project. Castillo is still prototyping the device, and his goal is to build an e-reader that anyone can redesign, recode, or accessorize as they see fit. Of course, it should be able to read books in any format, from ePub to MOBI and everything in between.

Castillo’s prototype is built from a circuit board of his own design. The design works in the Adafruit Feather ecosystem, a user friendly set of development boards and electronics. Castillo has listed all the parts you’ll need to build your own open source e-reader and tweak the design on his GitHub. (Castillo is still working on the device’s firmware, so you’ll have to write it yourself or wait for a release.)

One day, Castillo hopes people will be able to read millions of free eBooks on the open source devices. The Open Book is a work in progress, and Castillo hopes to have finalized the basic design by the end of the month. “I'll also have to start writing an open source firmware that can hold a library on an SD card and let people read, but hey, one thing at a time,” he said on his GitHub page.

joeycastillo on December 20th, 2019 at 23:11 UTC »

Wow, it's wild to see this project of mine on the front page! Also wild how literal the timing was; you posted this while I was actually building one of the boards this afternoon.

Packing for a trip tonight but happy to answer folks' questions as much as I can. To preempt a few:

Open source software for Linux-based eReaders does exist, but I'm trying to build open source hardware, the idea being that that anyone can buy the parts and build the whole thing themselves. It doesn't run Linux; in order to be as hand-solderable and simple as possible, it uses a SAMD51 microcontroller, which makes it more like a really powerful Arduino than an iPad. The project page on Hackaday.io lists some of the specs. Things to be stoked about: microSD slot, MP3 playback, e-ink screen, physical buttons, global language support. Things that folks will be unhappy with: 1-bit display (no grayscale for now); no touchscreen, no backlight, no wifi. I've been making tradeoffs in order to make it both as affordable and as DIY friendly as I can, and while I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, the design is open source so that anyone can use it as a baseline to build a device that makes more sense for them. The software portion of things is still in its infancy; this is an idea I had earlier this year, and I'm proud of how far I've gotten the hardware, but we're still a ways out from the kind of user experience that the reporter described in this story. He didn't ask me any questions other than "can I use the photos", which is frustrating because I feel like he described a lot of capabilities that I hope one day to have, but that aren't nearly real yet.

Here's the GitHub page where I commit all the work I'm doing day to day, and on the advice of a colleague, I set up a mailing list where I plan to send out an update once I've nailed down manufacturing and this becomes a product you can actually buy (like if you don't want to solder one together yourself).

t3hd0n on December 20th, 2019 at 19:52 UTC »

i just want an ereader that can display my d&d and other ttrpg books without having to zoom/scroll.

Volt-Hunter on December 20th, 2019 at 19:16 UTC »

Isn't the Kobo pretty much DRM free already? You can download ebooks from any source onto it.