As we close one chapter and open another, we can reflect on our journey—where we are today, our progress, and the road ahead.
We founded Modos in 2022 to create technology that respects your time, attention, well-being, and freedom. As an open-hardware company, we aim to make our creations open and accessible, enabling others to experiment and explore new possibilities, applications, and use cases.
Over the past year, we’ve achieved several milestones:
- We were selected for a grant from the NLnet Foundation, allowing us to focus on documentation, board revisions, and firmware/gateway/software implementation for Caster, our high-refresh rate display controller.
- We’ve completed Caster's development, along with the accompanying documentation that is available on our GitHub.
- We did a pre-launch of our crowdfunding campaign on Crowd Supply for our Paper Monitor and Development Kit.
We also had the opportunity to share our progress and prototypes at different conferences and events and learn from others about their needs:
- FOSDEM: We started 2024 at FOSDEM in Brussels, Belgium, where we gave two talks: Reimagining Personal Computing with E ink: Community Insights and Design Challenges and Modos: Building an Ecosystem of Open-Hardware E Ink Devices. This was one of our first opportunities to showcase our prototypes, connect with others, and gather feedback.
- Latch-Up: We also spoke at Latch-Up, where we presented Caster: An Open-source E-Ink Controller. Meeting people in our local community and supporting event organizers was a great opportunity.
- Open Hardware Summit: In Montreal, we joined the Open Hardware Summit, where we connected with other makers and learned about other open-hardware projects, a few personal favorites: Opportunities in Obsolescence, Tales from the shop: running an open source hardware company, and FiberCircuits: Miniature Flexible PCBs with MCUs & Sensors for Interactive Textile Fibers.
- Congreso esLibre: Next, we traveled to Valencia, Spain, where we presented 'Construyendo un ecosistema de dispositivos e-ink de hardware libre'; this was an opportunity to show our progress and also meet people from KDE España and SLIMBOOK.
- Crowd Supply Teardown 2024: My favorite conference this year was Teardown at the Lloyd Center Mall! We gave a talk, Teardown 2024 - Making E-Ink Go Fast, and also had an exhibition table, Modos: Fast E-Ink in Action, and we were interviewed by Electromaker, E-ink Low Latency, and High Refresh Rates! - Introducing the Modos E-paper Monitor
- Hackaday Superconference 2024: We talked at Supercon, Supercon 2024: Wenting Zhang—Making E-Ink Go Fast. At Supercon, it was all about badge hacking! It was great to see people working on so many cool badges; everyone was friendly, and supporting one another. One of our favorite talks was Celebrating the World of Display Technology by Kino De Vita and Cat Morse!
- Teardown Session 51: Modos Makes E-ink Go Fast: Wrapping up the year, we met with Helen from Crowd Supply, where we talked more about where we are today with the crowdfunding campaign and also answered questions from participants!
On the Horizon
As we move into 2025, we are excited to launch the next phase of our journey:
- Crowdfunding Campaign Launch: Our Crowd Supply campaign will launch in February, where we will make our Paper Monitor and Development Kit available. In an upcoming blog post we will provide a more comprehensive update on the campaign.
- Upcoming Conferences: We plan to attend the following conferences this year: FOSDEM, Open Hardware Summit, Akademy, GUADEC, and Teardown 2025. We are also open to suggestions—if you know of conferences/events where our work could resonate or we should attend, let us know!
The Road Ahead
We are also focused on:
- Support for Larger-sized E-Ink Screens: We are working on supporting screens larger than 13" to accommodate different needs, such as 24” suitable for a desktop monitor.
- Paper Tablet: In collaboration with NLnet's Patchouli project, we are in the early stages of creating an e-ink tablet, where both the display controller and the EM pen are open hardware.
- Community Building: Since 2022, we’ve been hard at work with Modos. Along the way, we’ve had many people take part in the community survey and pilot program, and we’ve attended conferences and events to connect and share ideas. The Paper Monitor and Development Kit will soon be available. As we move forward, we want to focus on building a community—a space where people can collaborate, share, and explore what’s possible.
Connecting and Community
Our work is informed by the feedback we receive. If you'd like to get involved, share your thoughts, or learn more about our projects, we'd love to hear from you!
- Email: alex(at)modos(dot)tech – Feel free to ask any questions or say hello!
- Book a Chat: Schedule a time to discuss what's on your mind. Also, if you're in the Boston/Cambridge area, let's chat!
