Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 134 posts

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#61

Post by konschubert »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #57
konschubert wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's powered by a USB plug... is there a way to convert PoE to USB power? And the connectivity is through Wifi. (And Bluetooth during Setup)

The PoE to USB solution is a "PoE splitter" and they're cheap and very useful. The website says the device has a USB-A connector for power. That's a bit of an odd connector to power a device from (since A is supposed to be a host port). Is that port really an A?

I am referring to something like this: https://www.newnex.com/images/usb-2-a-male(UH2-AE)_small.png

Isn't this called a USB-A plug?

EDIT: I cannot respond to the child comment, but yes: The Device has a male USB plug, and then the cable goes right into the device, no receptacle on the device.

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#62

Post by Arelius »

konschubert wrote: post #41
plugin-baby wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks really neat! Does it have an ethernet port? And maybe PoE?

It's powered by a USB plug... is there a way to convert PoE to USB power? And the connectivity is through Wifi. (And Bluetooth during Setup)

For sure, there are tons of off the shelve adapters that'll do it. But may be hard to fit in your package.

The big part, is the power is delivered at a pretty high voltage, so you are going to need a buck converter to get it down to the 5V usb expects.

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#63

Post by dh-g »

landgenoot wrote: post #59
politelemon wrote: post #9

I repurpose all my old ereaders (Kindles and Kobos) into displays for something, weather, agendas, some even do images (albeit very low resolution). It's great to have these around the house, quietly doing their thing. One thing I will point out from observation, the radios on ereader devices aren't great for heavy use; they were originally created for occasional syncing. Projects like these will require an HTTP requ…

I don't think the resolution is the problem with images on e-readers, but the amount of grayscale levels is. Dithering works brilliantly on these devices. I made a photo frame out of one of these by calling some imagemagick from golang.

Nice result.

I agree, dithering on these devices works really well. After this project I worked on displaying images of the sun from the NOAA satellite. Until I got dithering working displaying the image with just 4 levels of grey was was very lackluster.

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#64

Post by konschubert »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #48
konschubert wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it needs a backend service. It is just a dumb screen that pools from a backend URL. The upside of this is that you can easily configure it remotely, because all settings after the initial setup are stored server-side... ... and it makes the whole development flow easier when you can build, iterate and deploy on a server.

Is there any option to self-host that backend service? I'm not comfortable, from a mental health perspective, with integrating a device into my life routines that could suddenly stop working through loss of a hosted service. What's the actual communication technology? Is it Wi-Fi? Cellular? Edit: I see elsewhere you state it's Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. From a Wi-Fi perspective and workplace deployment does it support 802.…

> Is there any option to self-host that backend service?

Not yet, I want to support that in future but it's not possible yet. I have personally decided that I will keep the backend running even if I decide the project isn't worth it for me any more... but of course, I understand the this is no 100% guarantee.

> From a Wi-Fi perspective and workplace deployment does it support 802.1x? Uhhh, I don't know.. how would I check that?

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#65

Post by konschubert »

dh-g wrote: post #60
konschubert wrote: post #28

Hi OP! You're writing > I use FBInk on the kindle to display the images after curling them from a API Gateway. I am the founder of this smart screen product: https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-cale... Curling an image is the same approach that I use for my e-paper smart screen as well. It should be quite easy to bring your dashboard to my device... maybe we can work together on something? My emai…

Very nice. You've made a beautiful looking device. I'll be in touch.

Cool!

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#66

Post by loginatnine »

konschubert wrote: post #22
Arubis wrote: post #14

If you’re not up for DIY, I’ve been using a unit from https://www.invisible-computers.com/ for years and I love it. Not affiliated; just a happy customer.

My heart made a little jump when I saw this, I've been working on this project for years and I do not take it for granted that my users are starting to recommend the product. I am here to answer any questions anyone might have. There are some more pictures on the shop page here: https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-cale...

I understand your desire to build out an "ecosystem" of app and everything, however, I'd really like an option to go fully on my own and skip your iOS/android app.

Is it something that you plan on doing and document? Or is there an easy way I can ssh into the device and figure out on my own?

TIA!

EDIT : well, 1 minute later you answered part of my question here : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37645339. How about ssh-ing?

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#67

Post by EvanAnderson »

konschubert wrote: post #61
EvanAnderson wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PoE to USB solution is a "PoE splitter" and they're cheap and very useful. The website says the device has a USB-A connector for power. That's a bit of an odd connector to power a device from (since A is supposed to be a host port). Is that port really an A?

I am referring to something like this: https://www.newnex.com/images/usb-2-a-male(UH2-AE)_small.png Isn't this called a USB-A plug? EDIT: I cannot respond to the child comment, but yes: The Device has a male USB plug, and then the cable goes right into the device, no receptacle on the device.

I think I'm misunderstanding. The device has a captive cable with a USB-A plug on the end (i.e. not a female receptacle on the device), doesn't it?

Edit: I understand. I'm used to devices with receptacles rather than captive cables. Any reason why you went that way?

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#68

Post by blagie »

What I really want is a simply end-to-end way to program these devices to display something: basically, something as easy as QBasic, P5.js, or Scratch.

What I don't want is to run a server to host something for them to display. I want it self-contained, so once made, it's alive until the device breaks. My experience is 95% of the cost of these is maintenance, and that goes away once a project is no longer new, glitzy, and flashy.

What I actually want to build myself is a clock which displays time in time zones where my friends, relatives, and family are. Most of the other things I'd like are equally esoteric. I'd like this to be a <3 hour project (so it sustains a child's attention span too).

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#69

Post by dh-g »

stavros wrote: post #52

I did kind of the same thing with a LilyGo display, and it looks amazing: https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/ I had to turn it into a generic signage platform first (it lets you show any image you want), and then screenshot GCal onto that image. It works really well, though. Nowadays it's an electronic power meter, which also looks great.

I didn't realise they made 4.7inch version. I find that a little small for my uses but you really did a lot with it. Nice project.

I made a solar powered conways game of life with an esp32 and a 4.2 waveshare display but the whole time I wanted a few more pixels.

Re: Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule

#70

Post by praveen9920 »

konschubert wrote: post #28

Hi OP! You're writing > I use FBInk on the kindle to display the images after curling them from a API Gateway. I am the founder of this smart screen product: https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-cale... Curling an image is the same approach that I use for my e-paper smart screen as well. It should be quite easy to bring your dashboard to my device... maybe we can work together on something? My emai…

Is there documentation on how the custom content can be rendered on this?
Post reply on HN