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Casper-v0.1.5

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@tweakerinc tweakerinc released this 01 Aug 18:41
· 27 commits to main since this release
v0.1.5
683a3b5

Casper v0.1.5

Personal firmware for Xteink X3 / X4. One binary for both devices.

Based on CrossPoint Reader 1.5.0 & CrossInk. Huge thanks to everyone for all their hard work!

Bug-fix release: Flash Casper-v0.1.5.bin (one binary for X3 and X4).

Bug Fixes in v0.1.5

Button Remap

  • Home no longer double-fires remapped keys (e.g. Bottom 1 = Left no longer opens Menu and scrolls Left / exits the popup).
  • Long-press Menu → Settings no longer walks tabs sideways while the key is still held (wait-for-release before Settings input).
  • Leaving Remap with Back no longer also moves Settings tabs (e.g. Controls → Reader) after a remap apply.
  • Remap Buttons screen is fully locked: footer Back · Select · Up · Down matches physical keys; your live remap cannot desync labels and presses while editing.
  • Smarter assign: each function only once; assigning a function that already exists swaps the two slots (no more “two Backs” puzzle).
  • X4 remap labels: side slots show Side Up / Side Down (X3 stays Side Left / Right).

Wi‑Fi (shared with CrossPoint / CrossInk)

  • Same /.crosspoint/wifi.json format as CrossInk/CrossPoint: passwords use the shared CPV1 + salt envelope (MAC-XOR + base64).
  • Casper reads and writes that style, so you can flash between CrossInk/CrossPoint and Casper on the same device without re-entering Wi‑Fi.
  • Still device-MAC-tied (password only works on the chip that saved it). Older bare-password Casper files still load if present.

X3 freezes (RTC / battery)

  • RTC I2C timeout so a stuck PCF8563 bus cannot hang the UI forever (especially unplugged / low-power idle).
  • getDateTime caching so SD file timestamps don’t hammer the RTC on every write.
  • Soft-fail: bad I2C poll keeps last good clock instead of blanking.
  • Battery gauge I2C also gets a short timeout (same class of hang).

Themes

Home skins under Settings → Display → Theme.

Penumbra (X3) Penumbra (X4) Bare
Penumbra home on X3 Penumbra home on X4 Bare Theme

Note: Clock, weekday, and other date/time home features need the X3 RTC. The X4 has no real-time clock. Bare looks the same on both devices.

Penumbra

Penumbra was written from the ground up with design and performance in mind — not a reskin of an old home, but a purpose-built reading hub for e-ink.
X3 Large clock + weekday, then cycle Title · Recents · Book Stats · Lifetime (side Left / Right).
X4 Last-read title/author on top, Recents list below (side Up / Down scrolls the list).

Menu · Library · Recents · Read

  • Long-press Menu → Settings
  • Long-press Read → book quick menu (mark finished, remove from recents, clear cache, synopsis, etc.)

Bare

Designed for readers who simply want to feel as if it is them and their book — a minimal cover theme, same layout on X3 and X4.

Menu · Library · Recents · Read

  • Long-press Menu → Settings
  • Long-press Read → book quick menu

Gallery

Full photo tour: docs/casper.md

New Features

System + Reader Status Bars

Fully customizable status bars with slot-based placement and live previews.
Choose exactly what appears in the top status bar and position items in any of the 6 available slots (Top/Bottom × Left/Middle/Right) independently for the system UI and the reader.

Battery Display Options

Independent control for system and reader:

  • Hidden
  • Icon only
  • Percent only
  • Icon + Percent

Manage Fonts

Completely redesigned with tabs, 50/50 live preview, a Download Fonts row, and improved organization.
Default fonts are now Source Serif 4 and Bitter.
This is where you set font, size, layout, and style for how books are displayed, with a clean preview of every change.

Tabbed Navigation + Button Remapping

Fully customizable button remapping.
Front buttons act as a list; side buttons can be set as tabs (or whatever you prefer).
A popular setup is using the side buttons as left/right controls to scroll through horizontal tabs.

Keyboard / Wi‑Fi password footer labels now follow your remap (Left stays Left, Up stays Up).

System → Stats Folder

New options under Settings → System → Stats:

  • Enable / Disable Stat Tracking
  • Auto Backup
  • Backup Now

You can turn stats off completely if you prefer a distraction-free reading experience. When tracking is on, Penumbra’s Book Stats and Lifetime panels use that data.

Cover Thumbnail Pipeline

Improved cover generation for clearer, higher-quality thumbnails (home multipass greys on Bare).

UI Polish

Unified design language across the interface:

  • Black chips instead of grey highlights
  • Better title centering
  • Cleaner version string
  • Fixed long-press behavior in the Library
  • Sleep screen options: Casper Dark / Casper Light (alphabetized)
  • After flash / cold boot lands on Home (not auto-open last book)

Book Synopsis

Open a short description of the current book from the book quick menu (long-press Read on home, or long-press a book in the library). Requires synopsis metadata — easy to add with Calibre.

Useful for refreshing your memory or choosing your next book without leaving the device.

Reader Shortcuts

  • Long-press Select → Dictionary
  • Long-press Select again while in dictionary → Multi-word select mode
  • Menu button → Reader options menu

Smarter first open (cover-only skip)

  • First open no longer always sticks on a heavy title/cover image when it can avoid it.
  • Uses the publisher’s OPF text/start when the book provides one.
  • Otherwise skips only cover/title-like front spines (name + small size), at most 3, then lands on the first real text section (epigraph, prologue, or chapter 1 as the book defines it).
  • Never skips large content spines or deep body chapters.
  • Resume is unchanged — if you’ve already read past the start, you go back where you left off.
  • Cover stays in the book; page back or use the TOC anytime.

Snappier Home Screen

Returning to the home cover after reading should feel faster and less “busy.”

Faster return from reading

  • When you open a book from Home, Home stays in the background instead of being torn down and rebuilt.
  • Pressing Back restores that Home instance: progress/stats refresh and the cover greys redraw once, without redoing the full home setup path.
  • If cover thumbnails are already on disk (the usual case after you’ve opened a book before), Home skips the intermediate black-and-white shell refresh and goes straight to the grayscale cover pass.

Fewer wasted full redraws

  • Cancelling the book action menu (long-press Read → Back/cancel) repaints Home once and no longer forces a full cover re-scan/generation.
  • Once the home cover greys have settled, stray repaint requests no longer re-flash the full multipass (Bare, Penumbra, and classic list themes).
  • Back from the in-home Menu returns to the cover (no longer stuck until Settings).

Faster cover multipass (panel-aware)

  • On X4 and similar panels, the grayscale base step uses a faster refresh mode where appropriate.
  • X3 still uses the cleaner half refresh so the previous reader page is less likely to ghost through the cover.

Install

CrossPoint web flasher (recommended)

  1. Download Casper-v0.1.5.bin from this release.
  2. Connect your X3 or X4 via USB-C and wake/unlock it.
  3. Open https://crosspointreader.com/#flash-tools (Chrome / Edge / Firefox on desktop).
  4. Select Xteink X3 or Xteink X4.
  5. Click Custom .bin and choose Casper-v0.1.5.bin.
  6. Flash, then reset/wake the device if prompted.

SD card contents are left alone.

SD card (optional)

Copy Casper-v0.1.5.bin to the root of the SD card → Settings → System → SD Firmware Update

Dictionary

To install dictionaries, extract the .dictionaries folder to the root of your SD card.

Full source & docs: https://github.com/tweakerinc/casper
Previous: v0.1.4

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