Hardware Debugging

How my e-reader lost its stripes

Bryan O'Sullivan bought a cheap Xteink X3 e-reader, installed open-source CrossPoint firmware, and noticed vertical stripes in greyscale images that were absent from the source bitmaps. Working with an AI coding agent, he traced the bug to how the firmware's greyscale nudge waveform interacts with the e-ink panel's gate driver timing, and submitted a patch that eliminated the stripes.

Blog post · E-ink · Hardware Debugging · Open Source · Embedded Systems