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Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own
- neves 3mo agoWhyv does a game console need a slow e-ink display?
- doawoo 3mo agoIt's not for gaming, it's for making the faceplate digitally customizable. I love it!
- preisschild 3mo agoStatus Monitor I remember a few years ago when many custom PC cases had 5.25"-bay displays to control their fans / show temperatures. Some rackmount server appliances also make use of them
- arendtio 3mo agoIt's like asking why a car needs a red color ;-)
- ray_v 3mo agoIt would have justified the price had they included this in the base model - this is the next best thing I suppose. Valve is really coming out as the good guy here in the video game industry and we should really support and applaud all that they're doing to hold the line for consumers and fans.
- stavros 3mo agoYes but saying "it would have justified the price if they had included extra expensive things" is the same as saying "it should be cheaper". Sure, but stuff costs.
- voidUpdate 3mo agoGiven computer part prices recently because of new datacenters, I think the price is already justified, as they don't want to sell it at a loss
- dgellow 3mo agoIn case you're wondering and don't want to click around, the display is a standard Adafruit 5.83'' eInk panel: https://www.adafruit.com/product/6397 https://www.adafruit.com/product/6397
- whatisthiseven 3mo agoAnyone know what the refresh rate for these displays are, at least with the stock firmware? Reading the datasheets didn't help, though maybe I didn't know what to look for.
- Rebelgecko 3mo agoPartial refresh on these can often be surprisingly fast, even when full refresh takes seconds
- Neywiny 3mo agoAssume slow
- gunalx 3mo agoProbable seconds per frame at least.
- embedding-shape 3mo agoData sheet seems to say (Page 8 -https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/product-files/6397/P6397+C22261-001_datasheet_ZJY648480-0583AAAMFGN.pdf https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/product-files/6397/P6397+C2226...): > Image update time - 25 ºC - - 4 - sec I'm guessing you could probably push that somewhat by going beyond the specifications, would wager a guess how far though.
- claudex 3mo agoThe datasheet says 4 seconds for the image update time. However, I didn't found the time for partial refresh.
- mrheosuper 3mo agoThe refresh rate of eink is kind of...muddy. It depends on temperature and target contrast. With the right waveform and voltage, you can push it pretty far(like 30hz+). The thing is, Eink's waveform is kind of secret afaik, everyone has different tuning.
- anticorporate 3mo agoI'd love to see an easy guide to doing this with the Framework Desktop form factor. I didn't buy any of the silly little squares for the front of mine since I figured I could 3D print some later, but six months in still haven't gotten around to it.
- phren0logy 3mo agoSame, but the front is important for airflow in the Framework Desktop, so I don't think covering it with an e-ink screen would work. But maybe with some space between the screen and the fan intake?
- anticorporate 3mo agoYeah, it might need some kind of a riser to prevent airflow restriction. Of course, I suppose it depends on how many squares you cover. The other idea I keep noodling about is creating modular gears and perhaps using a servo for a really cool dial indicator instead, but alas, it hasn't made it further than my ideas bin.
- RataNova 3mo agoA little e-ink status tile for temps, build status, now playing, or just a static label would be much more interesting than most decorative inserts
- foax 3mo agoThis is so cool! Coincidentally, I'm currently building something in a similar vein that pushes system metrics out to an Android app so an old phone or tablet can be used as a case screen. The app has widget plugins that expose a repo of metrics received and a GL surface, that can then be used to display fancy visualisations. Check it out here: https://github.com/xfoa/humours https://github.com/xfoa/humours. It's not finished yet, but the basic functionality works. It just has one widget at the moment that draws a spinning cube with temps, etc.
- RataNova 3mo agoThe main thing I'd worry about is long-term reliability
- romaniv 3mo ago"Valve will not be making and providing their own e-ink display for the Steam Machine" Too bad. The picture in the articles looks awesome. Like a device from some alternate reality. Neither retro nor the standard flat-panel LCD. I don't want to mod a pre-build $1,049 device. I want it to be good our of the box and I'd rather pay more to get more. (If it was a $3K top-of-midrange machine, I would buy it in a second.)
- jdiff 3mo agoYou're not modding a pre-built $1049 device. The faceplates are removable and swappable with no disassembly needed, and this fancy one connects via bluetooth and is powered via a battery. Entirely non-invasive.
- RataNova 3mo agoI wish more hardware companies treated these kinds of optional add-ons as something the community can run with instead of either productizing them badly or locking them away completely...
- jagged-chisel 3mo agoIf we can’t extract all the value, no one can.
- halJordan 3mo agoBut unironically lol. Eventually there will be a snap back. But probably not our generation
- daveguy 3mo agoI think that depends on what generation you're in. Because that generation is definitely here now and pissed off at the manipulative enshittification.
- Peaches4Rent 3mo agoYep. And I will mentor them
- iwontberude 3mo agoThe goons that run public company boards would never allow for such gratuity.
- oliver66677 3mo agothey don't expect steam machine to sell so they don't care..
- Rohansi 3mo agoThey did when it was announced. And it still will, just not as much as they would have wanted to.
- westurner 3mo agoLooks like Waveshare has a E6 full color ePaper/eInk/EPD display in 3.6" and 7.3" but not yet in 5.83": "5.83inch E-Paper Display (G), E-ink Display, 648 × 480, Red/Yellow/Black/White, SPI Interface" https://www.waveshare.com/5.83inch-e-paper-g.htm?sku=32584 https://www.waveshare.com/5.83inch-e-paper-g.htm?sku=32584
- rbanffy 3mo agoIs the Steam Machine a decently priced desktop compared to the "generic" ones?
- giancarlostoro 3mo ago[dead]
- artisinal 3mo agoFor a small gaming box it is a good price. If you don’t care that much about size, HDMI-CEC or SteamOS there are faster alternatives for the price.
- voidUpdate 3mo agoEspecially since, afaik, you plug it in and it just works. No messing around with installing operating systems, setting up users (aside from signing into steam) or anything. It's essentially a console that plays PC games, but it's also a PC for the purposes of upgradability and ability to do other, non-console stuff with it
- weberer 3mo ago>No messing around with installing operating systems This is the real killer feature. So many people that I talk to know they want Linux, but are deathly afraid of installing it themselves.
- hamdingers 3mo agoIf you do care about SteamOS, any machine with a reasonably recent AMD GPU will run SteamOS or a similar distro just fine.
- oAlbe 3mo agoGamers Nexus did a very in depth review of the Steam Machine [1], which includes a comparison to a build yourself similar machine. The result is that for about 70 dollars less you can put together a somewhat more powerful PC than the Steam Machine, but not for that form factor, it would still be bigger. IMO, the Steam Machine is not a bad purchase if you are in the market for that type of product. [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=66QzlDewigE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=66QzlDewigE
- Fokamul 3mo agoClickbait, I want to make an actual eInk display myself. Not just buy one from Adafruit.
- ismaVQ 3mo agoHold on , i gotta recharge my front plate
- orbital-decay 3mo agoIs it even useful as a faceplate? An active display would be way more accurate at displaying hardware stats when the machine loses power (it'll shut down).
- cubefox 3mo agoThat's an interesting case of a display being off actually indicating something ("loss of power") which can't be replicated with a bistable screen. On the other hand, you probably don't want that glow of an active screen all the time. Status LEDs are annoying enough.
- jdiff 3mo agoThis screen is entirely independent, with its own power source, so unlike most bistable screens this one could also report when its connection with the Machine is lost, and in a different way than simply turning off.
- cubefox 3mo agoIt's own power source... Let me guess, solar cells? Batteries? A separate power plug?
- tra3 3mo agoI would love to see an analysis of how valve's openness and goodwill affects their bottom line. Intuitively it should be a net positive for them, but there gotta be upfront costs, otherwise everyone would be doing it too.
- dismalaf 3mo agoValve is one of the most efficient (revenue/staff) corporations there is. Far more so than most tech companies even. If that's how you measure goodwill then it seems like it works.
- flaunf221 3mo ago> Valve is one of the most efficient (revenue/staff) corporations there is Efficiency is not a word I would use when speaking about rent-seeking. Landlord that 20 years ago bought some land that later became valuable and who is today renting it out is infinitely efficient as they are doing jack. And amount of respect they get is about equal to their economic output.
- dismalaf 3mo agoTrue but in the physical world a landlord has a monopoly over the parcel of land. Valve has a ton of competitors that seemingly get no traction and Steam is beloved.
- flaunf221 3mo agoNo landlord owns entire planet. You never need to agree. If you want to open your store (=sell your game) you can always just rent or buy some other place that this landlord doesn't own. Like for example 150 kilometres away from here where you may get 2 visitors per day, sometimes there will even be humans. Same with Steam. You are absolutely free to sell your game not on Steam. Except that unless you're a super massive giant selling highly anticipated game you might get no sales. But the choice to eat or starve is always up to you.
- 3mo ago
- deadbabe 3mo agoe-ink is becoming the new hotness lately. There may soon be a time when you will look at every poster or menu on a wall and wonder if it is paper or an actual e-ink screen that will soon change to some other image. Airports, highway signs, etc.
- iso1631 3mo agoAnd of course it will be used for advertising, creating massive externalities for barely any income for the land owner, but they won't care because its others that pay
- shomp 3mo agoCare to fix this ungrammatical headline? :)
- gilrain 3mo agoIt’s a cultural difference you’re unaware of, not an error.
- toast0 3mo agoI think this site is from the UK where companies are plural (they are made of people after all). Is there some other grammatical issue you have... it is kind of meandering, but that's taste more than grammar. What would you suggest instead?
- shomp 3mo agoTo me it reads like a demand: "Valve, open source the Steam Machine e-ink screen" If we are talking past tense, "Valve have open-sourced.." And if we are talking American "English," then "Valve has open-sourced..."
- dang 3mo agoIt's grammatical. I put a hyphen in 'open-source' in case that helps.
- shomp 3mo agoThat does help but on the 4th of July I would prefer the American ;)
- dv35z 3mo agoAnyone aware of an A5 sized (~10 inch diagonal) eInk screen that can use HDMI or USB-C as an input?
- utopiah 3mo ago$700 13.3-inch E Ink Carta ™ 1300 Display or E Ink Kaleido ™ 3 Display Touch support 3200 x 2400 resolution (300 PPI) Up to 60 Hz refresh rate Sub-100 ms latency USB Type-C with DisplayPort Alt Mode https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-flow https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-flow
- Palomides 3mo agomodos has a 6" kit and a 13" monitor, but not aware of any 10" screens https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-paper-monitor/#products https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-paper-monitor/#... https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-flow#products https://www.crowdsupply.com/modos-tech/modos-flow#products
- sleepynoodle 3mo ago[dead]
- tomvow 3mo ago[flagged]
- julionc 3mo agoValve mi familia
- rldjbpin 3mo agothe part selection is appropriate for the current steam machine pricing, but i wonder if having this resource can help someone salvage eink displays from old kindles to achieve the same result.