While Valve will not be making and providing their own e-ink display for the Steam Machine, they have opened it up so anyone can now do it. Valve originally teased it with the first lot of reviewers that got their hands on it.
All of it is available on their GitLab under the MIT license, which goes over everything you need to make your own and stick it on the front of your fancy new Steam Machine.
Image Credit - Gamers Nexus
They're now calling it the "Inkterface" and there's a good few things you'll need to make it including:
- 1 x Adafruit ESP32 Feather with 2MB PSRAM.
- 1 x Adafruit eInk Breakout Friend.
- 1 x Adafruit 5.83" Monochrome eInk Panel.
- 13 x M2.5 x 5mm Pan Head Machine Screws.
- 4 x 1/4" x 1/4" x 3/16" Stepped Magnet SB443-OUT.
Valve even provided a video on the GitLab showing it being put together, which we're re-hosting to make it easily viewable for you:
Pretty cool to see.
Maybe we will see some other vendors actually do them pre-built for us. JSAUX teased they would be doing it back in November 2025, and checking back today they've said they still plan to do "Ink & Pixel versions". If the Steam Machine is popular enough - no doubt we'll have other accessory brands do various versions of their own.
🌐 External Sources: gitlab.steamos.cloud, x.com/jsauxofficial, gamersnexus.net