Native PocketBook app showing live UK train Departures and Arrivals from the Realtime Trains API. Runs on stock firmware via the official InkView SDK — no KOReader, no jailbreak.
Contents
Live Guildford departures on a PocketBook, straight from the Realtime Trains API.
You do not need to build anything. Every release ships a ready-to-run
inkstation.app; the source build is only for people who want to change the
code (see BUILDING.md).
-
Download the zip for your reader from the latest release —
inkstation-<version>-b288.zipfor most PocketBooks, orinkstation-<version>-rk3566.zipfor the InkPad One and other RK3566 models (see Which file do I need?). Unzip it: inside is a single file,inkstation.app. (It ships zipped because GitHub refuses release assets with an.appextension.) -
Connect the reader over USB (or pull its SD card) and copy
inkstation.appinto theapplications/folder of the storage the reader exposes. -
Add your API token — the app needs one to show any board. In the same storage, create
system/config/inkstation.conf(on the device this path is/mnt/ext1/system/config/inkstation.conf) containing one line:rtt_refresh_token=<your RTT refresh token>Without it, boards show "No RTT token set". See Getting an API token.
-
Eject the reader and launch InkStation from its Applications menu.
That is the whole install. A PocketBook .app is a plain ARM executable that
the launcher runs — there is no signing, no store, no firmware change, and
uninstalling is deleting the file. The token lives only on your device: it is
never committed to this repo or baked into the binary.
Optionally verify the download against the SHA256SUMS.txt published with the
release. It lists both zips, so tell sha256sum to skip the one you did not
download:
sha256sum -c --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS.txtThe same file carries, as a comment, the hash of the inkstation.app inside each
zip — if you also want to check the file that lands on the reader.
Every release binary is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source, so the build log for the exact file you downloaded is public under the repo's Actions tab.
PocketBook readers come in two userland ABIs, and a binary built for one cannot even be loaded on the other — the launcher simply does nothing.
| Reader | Download |
|---|---|
| InkPad One (PB1030) and other models on the Rockchip RK3566 platform | inkstation-<version>-rk3566.zip |
| Every other PocketBook on stock firmware | inkstation-<version>-b288.zip |
Why: the RK3566 readers pair a 64-bit kernel with a 32-bit ARM hard-float
userland that only ships /lib/ld-linux-armhf.so.3. The classic build is
soft-float and asks for /lib/ld-linux.so.3, which is not there. So it is not a
64-bit problem, and the RK3566 build is still a 32-bit ARM binary.
Not sure which one you have? Try b288 first; if InkStation does not start,
delete it and copy the rk3566 one instead. Nothing gets installed either way,
so picking the wrong one is harmless. Release v1.0.0 contains only the B288
build.
Status of the RK3566 build: built against PocketBook's SDK 6.11 and checked
to be a hard-float binary, but not yet run on a device by the maintainers — that
includes the token file location, which is assumed to be the same
system/config/ path. If you try it, please open an issue saying whether it
starts, with your model and firmware version.
InkStation talks to the Realtime Trains Next Generation
API. Sign up there and take the refresh token —
a Bearer JWT starting eyJ.... InkStation exchanges it for a short-lived access
token automatically and caches that on the device.
(This is not the older api.rtt.io/api/v1 Basic-auth API; that one is unused.)
If you build from source, deploy.sh can write the config file to the device
for you — see BUILDING.md.
- Offline station search — 2 600+ GB National Rail stations bundled, no network needed to find a station
- Live departure and arrival boards (time, destination/origin, platform, expected time, operator)
- Toggle between Departures and Arrivals in one tap / one key press
- Refresh button + hardware OK key
- WiFi keep-alive: recovers silently from firmware idle-timer power-downs
- On-screen Back and Exit buttons (work on touch-only PocketBook models)
- Launch InkStation — a station search screen opens.
- Tap the search bar (or press OK) to type a station name. Results filter as you type over 2 600+ GB National Rail stations.
- Tap a station (or navigate with arrow keys + OK) to open its live board.
- On the board screen:
- "Show Arrivals" / "Show Departures" button or ← / → keys to toggle mode
- "Refresh" button or OK key to reload from the API
- Back button or Back key to return to search
- On the search screen, the Exit button (top-right) or the Back key closes InkStation.
Build instructions, the deploy tooling, the host test gate, the project layout and the release process live in BUILDING.md.
MIT.