Peter Hraska's Enkiplate moves Japanese flashcards onto a dedicated e-paper panel instead of a phone screen. The open-source project, covered by Hackaday on October 26, 2026, runs on Soldered Electronics' Inkplate 4TEMPERA. It schedules reviews with the FSRS algorithm, and alongside the cards the same screen shows weather and calendar items.
The project is very new. When PinoutFeed checked the virpo/enkiplate repository, it had only two commits, both dated October 24, 2026. Treat it as a working first version, not a finished product.
What the software does
The repository describes Enkiplate as "Japanese flashcards on e-paper." Scheduling uses FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler) with a target retention of 90%, according to the README. That means the scheduler sets review intervals so you should still recall about nine cards in ten when they come back. The starting pace is 12 new cards per day, a figure given in both the repository and Hackaday's write-up.
Hackaday says the difficulty ramps up in stages: basic kana first, then kanji, then sentences. The README lists a curated foundation, 12,000 common JMdict entries and your own JSON imports. It also says no generative model or AI subscription is required, so cards come from dictionary data rather than a language model writing example sentences on the fly.
The repository lists fourteen screen designs. Hackaday also notes that the software works in a browser, and the README has a "Try it in a browser first" section, so you can try the flashcard flow before buying hardware.
The ambient-display half
Enkiplate is also a desk display. Weather comes from Open-Meteo and refreshes every 30 minutes, according to the README. In this first version the location is fixed to Bratislava coordinates and time zone, so anyone elsewhere will have to change them in the source for now. Calendar events come from an optional private .ics feed; the README says the display shows the next three timed events, and Hackaday reports that the device shows calendar items for the day next to the weather.
The README says Wi-Fi credentials remain in the ESP32's non-volatile storage (NVS) on the device.
Why a PC companion app is required
The firmware does not hold the whole deck. The repository says up to 16 cards are cached on the device at a time. Hackaday attributes this limit to the local storage of the 4TEMPERA's ESP32-WROVER-E module and notes that an application on a PC is needed to obtain new cards. In practice the Inkplate shows and grades the cards, while a computer runs the companion service with the dictionary and scheduler and refills the device's cache. The README says to keep the host awake and reachable for fresh cards.
The companion app needs Python 3.11 or newer and the uv package manager. The README says macOS is the tested host, that the service also uses standard Linux-compatible Python libraries, and that Windows is not currently supported. Linux is therefore plausible but not stated as tested.
This split is the project's main design trade-off. A 16-card cache covers a sitting or two, but the device is not a standalone study tool. The README itself lists the finite cache as a limitation; if the host is unavailable for long enough, you would likely run out of fresh cards.
The hardware: Inkplate 4TEMPERA
The Enkiplate README lists the supported device as the Soldered Inkplate 4TEMPERA with a 600 x 600 touchscreen, ESP32, 4 MB flash and PSRAM. Hackaday names the module as the ESP32-WROVER-E. The README says other Inkplates need a firmware port.
Soldered's product page describes a 3.8-inch, 600x600-pixel e-paper touchscreen. It lists the board as compatible with Arduino, MicroPython, ESP-IDF, ESPHome and LVGL, and it has a Qwiic connector for chaining Qwiic boards. Soldered says the board is designed and manufactured in Croatia, lists "open-source everything", and gives a standard EU 2-year warranty.
What It Means for Makers
Who it is for: Japanese learners who want a phone-free review habit, and makers who want a real-world example of FSRS scheduling on an ESP32-class e-paper device. Educators running small study groups might find the JSON import useful for class-specific decks. That is our inference from the import feature, not a use case the author has documented.
What it replaces or enables: It is a dedicated alternative to app-based flashcard tools on a phone. It also doubles as a weather and calendar panel, so the board earns its desk space when you are not studying. Because the README says no generative model or AI subscription is required, it avoids paid AI services, though the weather feed (Open-Meteo) and calendar feed do need a network connection.
Limitations as of the repository's current state:
- Only two commits at the time of reading, so this is an early first version.
- Weather location is fixed to Bratislava coordinates in this version.
- The companion app is tested on macOS, Windows is not supported, and it needs Python 3.11+ and
uv. - Only 16 cards are cached on the device. Refilling the cache needs the PC companion.
- Only the Inkplate 4TEMPERA is supported. Other Inkplate models need a firmware port.
Price and availability: Enkiplate itself is free and open source on GitHub under the MIT License. The Inkplate 4TEMPERA is a shipping product. When PinoutFeed read Soldered's product page on October 27, 2026, the variant without a glass panel (SKU 333307) was listed at a sale price of EUR 89.96, down from a regular price of EUR 119.95. Volume pricing was EUR 85.47 each for 10+ units and EUR 81.87 each for 100+. Soldered showed 167 units in stock at that time and quoted a lead time of approximately 6 weeks for new stock. The page also offers a variant with a glass panel, which we did not price. Stock and sale pricing change often, so check the live page.
