Do you remember when the Steam Machine was originally announced? Shown off, hyped up, and was given as a shining beacon of potential to the community before pricing tore that away from everyone. Well I’m sure you do, but do you remember that e-ink faceplate they showcased? Just a simple e-ink screen that could show you data about CPU and GPU usage as well as temps all on a cool little black and white screen that didn’t have to update too often.
Well in a stroke of good news for just about everyone, Valve has decided to not only open source the firmware for their “Inkterface”, but they’ve decided to turn around and give you all of the CAD files you could need to help build one of these for yourself, and maybe your Steam Machine as well if you managed to get one.
Thanks to the publication of all of the “Inkterface” supplies and firmware to their Gitlab, you can get the total print files and materials you’ll need to build the faceplate alongside all of the steps you’ll absolutely want to follow to make this happen. The bill of materials won’t come out too high, as just going off of rough calculations you’ll end up spending somewhere between $90 and $100 to get the supplies and files printed, thanks to the 6 STL’s provided and this brief list of necessary materials.
- 1 x Adafruit ESP32 Feather with 2MB PSRAM
- 1 x Adafruit eInk Breakout Friend
- 1 x Adafruit 5.83″ Monochrome eInk Panel
- 13 x M2.5 x 5mm Pan Head Machine Screws
- 4 x 1/4″ x 1/4″ x 3/16″ Stepped Magnet SB443-OUT
Looking through the instructions on their Gitlab, you’ll have to do everything including building your AppImage yourself, but notably, they did state that there should hopefully be a dedicated app for this on the Steam Store at some point in the future. So if you do choose to wait, you may find yourself getting off just a little easier than if you did it all now.
It’s unfortunate that the E-Ink screen likely won’t be sold on its own, but having the option and the tools to do it yourself is a close second, and the DIY hobbyists should be able to enjoy that as a consolation prize. If you do grab a Steam Machine for yourself, this would likely be a great panel to pair with it, but it’s really important to ask. Are you really going to buy one at its current price? Or just wait for it to go down eventually.
