Redditor builds Valve's e-ink Steam Machine faceplate, but pans "distracting" screen refresh

We reported that Valve had released open source CAD files and firmware for the e-ink Steam Machine faceplate that the company first showed off alongside the machine in November, but it's taken a couple of weeks until the first brave person has actually put everything together and written up the experience.

/u/Slacktron on Reddit says that the build was "pretty straightforward", but documented some limitations that hopefully can be solved in the future - including a suggestion that a slightly different Adafruit board be recommended to eliminate some firmware tweaks.

The one limitation that I didn't expect concerns how the screen refreshes. This is obviously slow - as it's a relatively large e-ink display optimised for battery life above all else - but more crucially the entire screen flashes distractingly while updating, rather than updating segment-by-segment (see the GIF in the Reddit post). That makes the Steam Machine a little less of a stealthy presence when tucked into a living room, though obviously it wasn't an issue for Valve given that they implemented the screen to keep an eye on automated testing runs.

It'll be interesting to see if the multiple third-party Steam Machine screens in development or other community members manage to get around the issue, as I don't remember my Kindle back in the day flipping pages in quite the same way - though, admittedly, I've not used an e-ink screen in some time.

Otherwise, it's heartening to see that the "Inkterface" works as intended. /u/Slacktron mentions that they are looking forward to see more developers take a look at the provided app and build in more functionality, as they say it is "pretty simple and just displays a few select stats" at present.

What do you make of the e-ink display - would you use this on your Steam Machine or other PC? Or would a more powerful LCD display be a better fit for you? Let me know in the comments below.