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Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

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Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#111

Post by wombatpm »

konschubert wrote: post #79
cweagans wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. Alright then. Either way, I'd recommend leaning toward a less textured, richer/darker color and species of wood. If you go lighter, it's going to look a little washed out IMO. Also, in your quality control for the wood bits, make sure that those mitered corners all line up evenly across the entire joint (examples of what I'm talking about highlighted here: https://monosnap.com/file/MkTzAjJhx7v7DkL5kOKypQNFKVyrNU…

Thank for the tips on the woodwork. I am not sure if a darker color would make the screen look brighter or darker. I had noticed those gaps in the frame as well. I agree they look poorly made :) I think they are mostly from the fact that this was cut with a hand saw, and the cut wasn't even throughout the Z axis. I am hoping that I will be able to fix this as I go from a prototyping process to a more refined producti…

Picture frames are a solved problem. Metal, wood, whatever. Build your item to known demension and let people order exactly what they want

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#112

Post by vessenes »

konschubert wrote: post #2

Hi HN! I am trying to develop an e-paper smart display as a consumer product. The first available layout will be a calendar. I'd love to have HN's input on this: Do you think it's viable? Does it look okay? What would be a good selling price?

I looked at buying a company that does this, called Visionect. They have a consumer product called getjoan (at getjoan.com) that is some direct competition for what you want to do.

Here's my quick summary:

* They were using the tech for low power conference room calendars, which was a good use case pre-COVID.

* They said consumers really liked Joan, and that it was a popular product internally for employees.

* It renders pretty much any web view, which I think is the right idea

Overall, my assessment is that generally the market is small, and building a 'good' version, e.g. something that feels as good as a remarkable 2, is going to be really expensive.

Joan as a product is very thick, and also has terrible connectivity - no wifi-based configuration, needs out of date USB drivers downloaded in order to talk to it, etc. etc.

So, in answer to your question, as a hobby, yes. As an actual product for sale, I do not think it is a large market. If you find a large market you will be fighting companies like visionect that have deep supply chain roots to Eink directly.

If it were larger and lighter, I think putting one up on the fridge showing the family calendar, or other use cases like the conference room where it's nice to have updating information without running power are good ideas. But this is a very small market. And you are fighting the fact that people usually prefer bright colorful displays except in niche applications.

In summary, I would urge you to look at a different hardware niche.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#113

Post by robinsoh »

dogma1138 wrote: post #102
robinsoh wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> eInk displays are expensive as fuck thanks to patents. Citation please.

https://www.google.com/search?q=why+is+e+ink+so+expensive

Sigh... I work in the display industry and interact with competitors as well as partners of EInk. The first link is a reddit post. I leave it to others to work out why a lot of these comments blaming patents are completely wrong. I've tried to counteract these mistaken assumptions repeatedly on HN. See my comment history. But after this kind of low quality approach to factual discussion (eg: I ask for a citation and instead am given a reddit link) I'm giving up trying to correct this misconception.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#114

Post by wpearse »

konschubert wrote: post #90
sixothree wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the wood, but I'm not fond of the choice.

Yea, I'll try to find something with less texture for sure.

Have you been to a shop that does picture framing?

I wonder if you are trying to re-invent (or at least DIY) a picture frame -- you can get a high quality custom-sized picture frame made at a very reasonable price. The mitres will be perfect :)

(I haven't seen the reverse of your product, so there may be a constraint I'm not aware of.)

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#115

Post by steve918 »

simonjgreen wrote: post #94

Love the idea, I regularly search for products that will do this for me, but please please include support for non-Google calendars.

Same. I would buy, but I don't use Google Calendar and I'm getting sick of services that only support Google / Apple.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#116

Post by the__alchemist »

cush wrote: post #75

Honest feedback: from the photos, it looks very gray. The appeal of e-paper to me is the contrast. So having a background so gray kind of defeats the purpose for me. Maybe it's just the photo you took or the lighting though.

That's surprising to hear: e-paper is a notoriously low-contrast display medium.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#117

Post by the__alchemist »

What MCU are you using? Have you run into issues with shortages? I'm asking since I'm also developing an e-paper product, for a different purpose. Are you doing full refreshes each update? Seems like it would be OK in this use, since the content doesn't change often.

You mentioned batteries as a complexity-adder: I agree, but ideally, this makes sense as a battery-powered device. It should be capable of running for a very long time on a few AA or AAAs. (The limitation being internet connectivity for refreshing) The advantage is reduced cable clutter, and flexibility in where it goes. Maybe for a second edition, as not to delay release.

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#118

Post by mhb »

mbreese wrote: post #85
konschubert wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank for the tips on the woodwork. I am not sure if a darker color would make the screen look brighter or darker. I had noticed those gaps in the frame as well. I agree they look poorly made :) I think they are mostly from the fact that this was cut with a hand saw, and the cut wasn't even throughout the Z axis. I am hoping that I will be able to fix this as I go from a prototyping process to a more refined producti…

Not the original commenter, but > CNC milling the wood It’s a frame. It’s not a complex shape. A simple mitre saw should be enough to do this consistently. Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.

Guillotine cutters are also useful for making frames: https://www.rockler.com/miter-trimmer

Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product

#119

Post by freeone3000 »

konschubert wrote: post #20
catchmeifyoucan wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

200 euros is a lot. I own a remarkable tablet, and it can do a lot more with a bigger screen I wouldn’t be interested in spending that much since I can’t really do much other than look at my calendar. I’m either on the move, or in front of a computer, so I don’t see if there’s a good fit for this device in my life

I totally see your point of view regarding the price. What price would you say is right? > I’m either on the move, or in front of a computer, so I don’t see if there’s a good fit for this device in my life It's possible that the device isn't for you then, I agree.

Boox Poke3 is a 6" e-ink display that runs Android 10, as a general-purpose computing device, and is available for 160 EUR. Since you're selling a significantly less usable device (it only does one thing), I wouldn't want to pay more than 80 EUR for this. It's cute, but... when the price of the product is dominated by the screen, it's hard to sell a single-use device.
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