Aside from aesthetics of the wood bezel being much smaller, you will also save on cost as you will use less material. Shipping and weight will be less too.
Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
121–130 of 169 posts
Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
#122I like the idea! I know an excellent wood worker if you want really fancy frames.
Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
#123Why not simply use an off-the-shelf frame? As others have already said, the bezel is very big compared to the whole product. I'm sure you could find something that would look nice enough, and cost you far less than any custom-made wood frame (and assembly thereof).
This seems like a wonderful idea to me - although only usable in many cases if it has wifi (I don't see any mention of connectivity on the page). FWIW, the price point is also about double what I would personally consider paying for it.
Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
#124The wood bezel is kind of ugly & cheap looking. The audience for this is likely to be tech people and users who want to show off their calendar or manage their time with calendar invites. I think this could do well with a more contemporary frame. You could market it to people as a solution to forgetting meetings; the price would have to be low enough (sub $100) to trigger people’s impulse buying. The lower the price…
Why not just make it in a way that allows people to more easily BYOF?
Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
#125Get the panel separately and work with a local woodshop on the frame so that you can test lots of prototypes. Then send your frame design back to wherever the whole thing is getting assembled (assume, china).
Also, how much does an e-ink panel like that cost these days?
Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
#126Since there's so much depth (thickness) in the bezel, you need more margins around the readable content to account for shadows.
One solution would be to use a mat board to separate the content from the frame (instead of wasting e-ink screen space).
Another is to change the shape of the frame to remove shadows. However, I imagine you're already working against the cost of e-ink displays, and the mat board would have the added benefit of making the screen feel larger than it actually is.
Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
#127When I read the title of this thread, what I pictured in my mind was an e-ink version of a paper wall calendar or a monthly desk calendar; a grid 7 squares wide and 5 down that can display any month. The user could tap on a day to zoom into it, and hand write some notes/events/etc with a stylus like they would a paper calendar. Perhaps it could have an optional sidebar on the zoomed-in version that shows Google Calendar appointments.
I can imagine someone like my mom using such a device, she still tracks all of her appointments on a paper wall calendar.
Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
#128Why not just make it into a mirror? People buy mirrors all the time. When they renovate, when the old mirror breaks, or when they decorate a new house. Its huge existing market. They are more likely to buy a mirror with an extra feature like a calendar, much easier than buy an e-calendar. Which they never buy, and might not see enough of a use of.
Essentially, making a mirror, already a primary useful device, more useful will sell better, than trying to create a new market for an e-device.
Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
#129Earlier 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…
If you want the bezels look less chunky, have them taper inwards towards the screen. It'll give the allusion of thinness and also pull the screen forward visually.
Re: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product
#130I'd like to see it handle multiple calendars.
My work calendar. My spouse's work calendar. Our shared personal calendar. Kid's school calendar. All with toggles for one at a time or all at once or any combination for daily scheduling discussions.
Good luck! Neat idea!