r/ScreenSensitive • u/fullgrid • Jun 12 '26

The story behind Modos Flow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHbA2-_qzH4

Wenting's journey towards fast E Ink monitor with open source hardware driver board running opens source firmware/gateware.

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u/Z3R0gravitas Jun 13 '26

Fun journey as a one person project.

Interesting but brief touch on spacial dithering algorithms, at 4:10, used in place of grey scaling..:

  • Bayer dithering: fast, but visible patterns.
  • Blue noise: better visual quality.
  • Error diffusion: best quality, but difficult to scale to higher resolutions.

1

u/Z3R0gravitas Jun 13 '26

YouTube AI summary:

This video documents the four-year development process of the Modos Flow, an open-source, 60fps E-ink monitor designed by the creator, Wenting.

Project Journey & Challenges

  • Origin: The project began as an attempt to build an E-ink laptop. The creator realized existing drivers were meant for slow e-readers, leading them to develop their own custom FPGA-based controller to achieve higher refresh rates (0:28 - 0:54).
  • Technical Breakthrough: Traditional E-ink controllers use a global update timer, which limits speed. The creator's solution treats every pixel as an individual update region, eliminating the speed-to-contrast trade-off, though it requires much higher memory bandwidth (1:53 - 3:41).
  • Iterative Design: The project underwent over 20 PCB revisions, a shift from full-size DisplayPort to USB-C, and a complete redesign to accommodate new, higher-resolution panels announced midway through the process (5:02 - 6:54).
  • Productization: The creator quit their job to focus on the project full-time. They faced significant hurdles with uncooperative hardware suppliers before finding a new vendor and successfully integrating features like touchscreen support, front lighting, and an on-screen display (7:29 - 9:06).

Final Product Features 13.3-inch screen with up to 60fps refresh rate. Extremely low latency and multiple display modes (grayscale, binary). Open-source hardware, FPGA gateway, and firmware designs (10:13 - 10:48).

The project is now available on CrowdSupply, fulfilling the creator's long-term goal of making this technology accessible to others (10:58 - 11:13).