Introduction
Welcome to the Diptyx Userguide.
Here, you can find information on how to get started with your device, upload books, and start reading.
Are you looking for technical documentation? This will be posted on the project's Github page, at a later stage.
Note that the documentation is still under construction. If you have any question, suggestion, or other feedback, feel free to reach out!
Getting started with the Diptyx E-reader
In this section, we'll go over turning the device on for the first time, navigating the menus, and changing settings.
Powering on the device
To turn on the device, press and hold the white power button (next to the USB port)until the blue LED lights up and you feel a rumble.The device will now boot, and you will see the displays starting up. If nothing happens, the battery may be drained. In that case, please charge the device by plugging in a USB type-C cable.
Button Inputs
The Diptyx E-reader has 3 buttons for navigation: The left and right page buttons, and the middle joystick. The middle joystick can be flipped up or down, or pressed down. This gives 5 possible inputs in total, which we call left, right, up, down, and center.
Navigating Menus
The currently selected menu item is selected in black. To open or select this item, press the right button. To go back, press the left button. To move up or down in a menu, you can use the up and down buttons.
Pressing the center button on a book will add or remove the book to the favorites list.
Editing Settings
Settings can be edited through the settings menu, which is available from the top-level menu. They are divided into device settings, which govern general device behaviour, and read settings, which decides how books are rendered.
To edit a setting, select the setting and press the right button. Now, the value of the setting is highlighted, and with the left and right buttons you can scroll through the possible values.
To confirm and save a setting, press the center button. To cancel changing a setting, you can press the up or down button.
Powering down the device
After a certain amount of time without button input, the Diptyx E-reader will automatically enter deep sleep. This drastically reduces power consumption and allows for months of battery life. However, if you still want reduce the power consumption further, you can fully power down the device by pressing and holding the white power button until you feel a buzz. Then the screens will update to the idle screens, and the blue LED will turn off, indicating the device is fully powered off. Note that the device can't be turned off while it is connected over USB or charging.
Uploading and Reading Books
Here, the steps to upload books to the Diptyx E-reader and start reading are explained
Supported Book Format
The Diptyx E-reader supports ebooks in the EPUB format, without DRM. These can be found on a variety of digital bookstores. Furthermore, (online) tools can be used to convert other document formats into the EPUB format.
Uploading Books
To upload books to your E-reader, first connect it to another device (PC/tablet/phone) with a USB type-C cable. A pop-up on the display will be shown, press the right button to transfer files. Now, the e-reader will enter transfer mode, and will show as a mass-storage device on your host device, this may take several seconds.
Now, you can copy the EPUB files to the root folder of the e-reader. When finished, eject the e-reader and unplug the USB cable. The e-reader will now reboot and load the newly uploaded books.
Indexing Books
To open a book, navigate to the book in the library button and press the right button. The first time you open a book, it will be indexed. In this process, the e-reader processes the entire EPUB file to determine how many pages it has and what content is on which page. Indexing is performed once, but will automically be re-done after changing render-settings.
Reading Books
After indexing a book, you are ready to read! When reading, you can use the left and right buttons to flip pages.
Pressing the center will exit the book and return to the library menu. Pressing the down button adds or removes a bookmark to the current page, which is indicated with a black triangle in the top-right corner. Pressing the up button brings up the quick menu.
The Quick Menu
The quick menu is a conventient way to quickly navigate through a book. It is brought up by pressing the up button, and exited by pressing the down button. With the left and right buttons you can navigate through the options, and pressing the center button selects an action.
In the quick menu, you can skip to the beginning of the chapter, or to the next/previous chapter. You can scroll through a list of chapters and a list of your bookmarks and quickly open that page. You can also quickly toggle nightmode, or add/remove a bookmark.
Flashing Firmware to the Diptyx E-reader
Here, the steps to flash new firmware to the device are explained
Entering flash mode
To flash new firmware, the e-reader must first be set into flashing mode, this can be done through the following steps:
1. Make sure the USB cable is not plugged in.
2. Power down the device by pressing and holding the power button.
3. Press and hold the center button.
4. Connect the device to your pc with a USB cable, while still holding the center button.
5. If the screens now don't start and the blue LED doesn't power on, the device is in flash mode.
If you want to exit flash mode, simply unplug the USB cable and turn on the device.
Downloading firmware
The latest Diptyx firmware will posted to the Github page. There, you will be able to download the binary file.
Flashing the firmware
To flash the binary file, please head over to the web-flasher. There, you can follow the following steps to flash the new firmware:
1. Make sure the e-reader is connected and in flash mode
2. upload the firmware file, by pressing 'select firmware'
3. Select the correct device by pressing 'Connect'
4. Start the flashing procedure by pressing 'Flash'
5. Wait until the flashing finishes
6. Now, you can unplug the device and power it on.
If anything goes wrong while flashing, please follow the steps above again.
Tips and Tricks
Here, you can find a list of tips & tricks to get the best experience.
- You can upload custom fonts to the fonts folder of the e-reader. Currently, only fonts in the .yaff format are supported.
- You can upload custom idle screens. These must be named idle_screen_left.jpg and idle_screen_right.jpg an have to be non-progressive JPG images.
- After a certain number of page turns, the device will do a full screen refresh. This is to preserve screen quality, and the number can be changed in the device settings.
- The blue LED indicates if the device is actively doing something, such as booting, rendering pages, or updating the screens. When you press a button while the LED is on, it may take some time for the e-reader to respond.