Hardware design
Inkplate 13SPECTRA is an open-source product, and we're happy to share an overview of its hardware design. On the following pages, you'll find schematics, KiCad design files, and other technical details about the hardware, whether you want to modify it, troubleshoot it, or just see how it works.
Basic overview
The Inkplate 13SPECTRA features a 13.3" e-paper display, USB-C connectivity for both power and programming, abundant GPIO pins with I2C and Qwiic header, onboard ESP32-driven WiFi/Bluetooth, CH340 USB-to-UART bridging, microSD expansion, and TI-based power management (battery charging and temperature sensing), RTC and more.
E-paper panel
The E Ink EL133UF1 is a 13.3-inch e-paper display panel from E Ink Holdings Inc. It has no frontlight or touchscreen, which suits low-power, high-contrast applications like displaying images, where you don't need a fast refresh rate.
The EL133UF1 uses E Ink Spectra™ 6 technology, a six-color active-matrix panel built on a glass backplane. Unlike grayscale Inkplate panels, it renders black, white, yellow, red, green, and blue directly, without dithering, giving flat, vivid color fills at the cost of only supporting full-screen refreshes (no partial updates or grayscale). It communicates over an SPI interface through a 60-pin FPC connector, and its glass construction makes it more rigid, but also more fragile, than the flexible panels used on some other Inkplate models.
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Model | E Ink EL133UF1 |
| Technology | E Ink Spectra™ 6 (six-color ePaper) |
| Screen size | 13.3" |
| Resolution | 1600 × 1200 px |
| Active area | 270.4 × 202.8 mm |
| Pixel density | 150 ppi |
| Pixel pitch | 0.169 × 0.169 mm |
| Colors | Black, White, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue |
| Interface | SPI |
| Connector | 60-pin FPC, 0.5 mm pitch |
| Backplane | Glass |
| Panel outline | 284.7 × 208.8 × 0.85 mm |
| Weight | 50 ± 10 g |
| Operating temperature | 0 °C to 50 °C |
| Partial update support | Not supported (full refresh only) |