Valve 'open-sourced' the Steam Machine's e-ink screen. It turns out to be an off-the-shelf Adafruit part
The headline invites you to build your own e-ink faceplate for Valve's new console. Then a commenter identifies the mystery display: a stock Adafruit 5.83-inch panel you can order today — and Valve has said it won't make one of its own.
Valve released the design files for the Steam Machine's front-panel e-ink screen so owners can build or print their own faceplate instead of buying one. The catch, surfaced in the thread: the display is a standard Adafruit 5.83-inch e-ink panel, and Valve explicitly won't sell its own.
So 'make your own' collapses to 'buy a commodity panel and Valve's mounting files' — and readers question modding a $1,049 prebuilt device at all.
What Valve actually released
GamingOnLinux's report, *Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own*, describes Valve publishing the design and mounting files for the console's front-panel e-ink display so owners can fabricate their own faceplate rather than buy one. The article notes Valve itself "will not be making and providing their own e-ink display" — and the Steam Machine is a prebuilt desktop priced around $1,049.
The mystery part, identified
The deflation in the thread came fast, from someone who recognized the hardware:
"the display is a standard Adafruit 5.83'' eInk panel: https://www.adafruit.com/product/6397" — a commenter naming the off-the-shelf part
That reframes the release: Valve open-sourced the bracket, not a display. Which prompted the obvious letdown:
"Clickbait, I want to make an actual eInk display myself. Not just buy one from Adafruit." — a commenter who wanted to build the screen, not source it
Others questioned whether the e-ink faceplate is even the right idea — an active display would show hardware stats more usefully, except e-ink's one trick is holding an image with the power off. And a segment simply rejected the premise of tinkering with a four-figure prebuilt:
"I don't want to mod a pre-build $1,049 device. I want it to be good our of the box and I'd rather pay more to get more." — a commenter quoting Valve's 'we won't make one' line
The honest read for a would-be modder: this is a nice, low-drama bit of openness — Valve handing you the CAD to mount a $30 panel — but the headline's promise of "make your own e-ink screen" is doing work the release doesn't. You're buying Adafruit's screen and Valve's screws.
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