How I made a 60fps Eink Monitor, the Modos Flow

Overview

A creator describes building a 60 FPS E-ink monitor (13.3”, ~300 PPI) after a long R&D effort. The key emphasis is overcoming the classic E-ink limitation: slow pixel response, which traditionally forces a trade-off between refresh rate and contrast (avoiding washed-out output).

Core technical idea: “pixel-per-update-region” controller

Why prior E-ink controllers struggle

• Many existing E-ink controllers use a global update timer.
• That means a new frame must wait until the previous refresh completes (often around ~100 ms), limiting achievable frame rate.

The refresh-rate vs. contrast trade-off

• Trying to run updates faster causes E-ink particles to not fully respond.
• Result: lower contrast and washed-out output.

Common mitigation attempts (partial solutions)

• Some controllers break updates into multiple independently updating regions (e.g., 4–16 regions).
• However:
  • It still requires software region management.
  • It remains fundamentally limited.

The new approach: pixel-per-update-region

• Every single pixel is treated as its own update region.
• When a pixel changes, it begins updating immediately—no waiting for a global completion timer.
• Claimed outcome: both high frame rates and high contrast, with the trade-off largely removed.

Downside: extreme memory bandwidth

• Their design demands far more bandwidth than typical E-ink controllers.
• Estimates mentioned:
  • Traditional controller estimate: ~20 MB/s (monochrome)
  • Their approach: ~540 MB/s
• That hardware requirement drives choices like:
  • DDR3 memory (instead of basic SDRAM)
  • DisplayPort connectivity (instead of simpler USB paths)
• The result is described as overkill for reading books, but more suitable for a monitor use case.

Display pipeline and grayscale strategy (dithering + hybrid flashing)

Why dithering is required

• The summary notes that E-ink grayscale for non-flashing modes isn’t supported.
• Dithering is essential.

Implemented dithering methods

They implemented multiple dithering algorithms:

• Bayer dithering (fast, but can show visible patterns)
• Blue noise (better visual quality)
• Error diffusion (highest quality, but difficult to scale to high resolutions)

Hybrid rendering mode

A key feature is a hybrid rendering mode:

• When the image changes:
  • Switch to a fast binary mode (flashing-like) for speed/clarity.
• After the image stabilizes:
  • Render grayscale for better reading quality.

How existing monitors typically handle grayscale

They note many monitors either:

• use slow flashing grayscale, or
• skip grayscale entirely.

Hardware/product features and engineering decisions

Continuous hardware iteration

• The project went through multiple hardware revisions over the years—20+ PCB revisions are mentioned.

Video input/output changes

• Early prototypes used full-size DisplayPort.
• Later iterations switched to USB Type-C with DisplayPort Alt Mode.

Power, monitoring, and robustness

• They replaced an integrated PMIC with discrete DC-DC converters (PMIC discontinued).
• Added:
  • voltage/current monitoring
  • protection against large current events

Usability features added over time

• Touchscreen support
  • touch controller integration + drivers + calibration
• Flicker-free front light
• Frame rate limiter
• Low-power mode for unplugged use
• On-screen display (OSD) for feature control

Product-form-first design philosophy

Instead of “build board first, add a case later,” they flipped the approach:

• define the form factor first
• then design the board to fit

They describe this as more coherent/optimized, but time-consuming and revision-heavy.

Setbacks / supply-chain and vendor difficulties

Late-stage disruption from E Ink

• During late-stage development, E Ink announced new higher-resolution panels.
• This forced a major redesign, including:
  • higher-bandwidth decoder requirements
  • more DDR bandwidth needs
  • new FPGA
  • a higher-current power supply

A larger industrial design adjustment also happened first.

Prototype instability

A major failure mode occurred when the assembled prototype was:

• unstable
• with issues like glitches, video dropouts, and initialization failures

Video decoder vendor support problems

• The video decoder chip supplier refused support and wouldn’t provide usable driver code.
• Even after paying extra for source code, it still didn’t work.

Vendor switching

• They switched vendors, but this transition:
  • delayed timelines
  • increased costs

Final positioning and availability

After about 4 years, the monitor is presented as:

• 13.3 inches
• up to 60 FPS
• extremely low latency (as claimed)
• multiple display modes tuned for different real-use scenarios
• touchscreen
• front light
• an optional color option
• open source availability of:
  • hardware designs
  • an FPGA gateway
  • firmware

Funding and distribution

• The project is live on Crowd Supply (with links mentioned in the description).
• Open-source designs are available for builders.

Main speaker / referenced sources

• Main speaker: the video author/creator presenting the “Modos Flow” 60 FPS E-ink monitor.
• Referenced organizations/events:
  • E Ink (panel announcements)
  • Crowd Supply
  • Hackaday Supercon
  • Launch Up
  • Teardown event
  • Design Shenzhen