Kindle Carousel

Kindle Carousel turns your old Kindle into an interactive dashboard.

Show your own web apps on the Kindle’s beautiful e-ink screen: news, weather, calendars, to-do lists, or anything else you can think of. Switch between these apps using the Kindle’s physical buttons, or let them rotate automatically.

Watch the short video below or on YouTube to see Kindle Carousel in action.

kindle-carousel-demo.mp4

Overview

Kindle Carousel consists of three parts: two of them run on the server and the last one runs on your Kindle.

1. Frontend: The web apps you design. This part is on you, although some very basic samples are included. Build as many apps as you like, the Kindle can switch between apps, or scroll within one app.
2. Screenshotter: The Kindle can’t display modern websites directly, so this tool creates grayscale PNG screenshots of the web apps you created.
3. Kindle: This part runs on your Kindle locally. It downloads screenshots created in the previous step, displays them, and listens for button presses.

Requirements

• A Kindle 3 (keyboard) or Kindle 4 NT (NoTouch). Chances are good you have one lying around, and if not, these e-readers can be found (slightly used) for around 25 USD/EUR.
• Your Kindle needs to be jailbroken and accessible over SSH.
• A server. This can be for instance a Raspberry Pi sitting at your home or a Virtual Private Server (VPS) in the cloud.
• A stable Wi-Fi connection for the Kindle.
• A nearby power socket, as it’s expected that the Kindle will stay plugged in most of the time.

Installation

Each part (frontend, screenshotter, Kindle) has its own directory in this repository. Consult the respective README.md files for installation details. Set up the three parts in the order given.

Alternatives

Reusing a Kindle as an e-ink display isn’t a new idea, but most projects focus on displaying a single app, e.g., the current time, the weather or the Bitcoin price. Kindle Carousel allows you to show whatever you can come up with, and it supports multiple apps, as it uses the physical buttons present on the Kindle to switch from one app to another.

kindle-dash is another project that isn’t limited to showing one particular app, and it’s very power-efficient, but it lacks interactivity. It suspends the Kindle to RAM after updating the screen, meaning that it can go for weeks without recharging. On the other hand, Kindle Carousel is always listening for key presses, which prevents it from suspending to RAM and causes it to last only a couple of days without running out of power.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the folks over at MobileRead for making this possible, and to kindle-dash for the inspiration.

Questions, suggestions, installation troubles, pictures of your Kindle running Kindle Carousel... everything is welcome in the Issues tab.