Whether you’re a seasoned electronics engineer or just starting out as a hobbyist, it’s a good idea to have a few all-in-one development boards on hand. When inspiration strikes, the last thing you want to do is spend weeks designing a circuit and waiting for the parts to be shipped to your door. You want to strike while the iron is hot and turn that great idea into a reality. By integrating many commonly used components into a single package, all-in-one boards make prototyping fast and easy.
If you could use a new all-in-one board in your toolbox, you should take a look at the ESP32-S3 4.2-inch RLCD Development Board that was just released by Waveshare. It combines a powerful microcontroller with a very unique display technology, along with plenty of options for interfacing. Currently, the device is selling for just $27.
One of the most interesting features is the 4.2-inch reflective liquid crystal display (RLCD), which offers a 300×400 resolution in black and white. Unlike traditional LCDs, the RLCD uses ambient light instead of a backlight, resulting in an ePaper-like reading experience with very low power consumption and fast refresh times.
I’m legitimately excited just at these RLCDs. Devices with actual e-ink displays tend to be pricey, especially in larger sizes, for a few reasons. For one, it’s a niche market. For two, there is little competition in the space. Not technically monopolized, but close.
I really want to be able to play with devices using something like e-ink for the power savings. Not sure if RLCD has the same capabilities (some of which are limitations I guess, but they are capabilities for power saving), though the article does mention low power draw.
Interesting that they describe it as epaper-like. Pebbles are widely called epaper, but are RLCD. And I’m 100% with you, RLCD deserves more love. Kinda surprising we haven’t seen more given the color ereader popularity and resolution downsides. Pebble is a good example of RLCD over e-ink. There’s no way the eink of the time could’ve done those smooth animations. Even today it’d be tricky.
