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

Post by dmitrygr » Mon, Feb 22, 2021, 7:14 AM UTC

miniatureape wrote: post #65

iamben wrote: post #62

I love these kind of projects. But what I'd like is slightly bigger than kindle e-ink display that shows a webpage of my choice. And I'd like it to run off mains power. Then I can pretty much show what I want - so it's easy to set up a rotating dashboard with the weather, my calendar, TFL alerts, whatever. Why doesn't this exist?!

If not a webpage I would be happy with it displaying a bitmap. Let me put in a URL and poll it with the dimensions as query param. I will handle the render and serve back whatever I want. I could draw my calendar on the left, the weather in one corner and todo list in another.

Post by dogma1138 » Mon, Feb 22, 2021, 7:39 AM UTC

robinsoh wrote: post #113

dogma1138 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Post by Closi » Mon, Feb 22, 2021, 8:32 AM UTC

DC1350 wrote: post #86

Closi wrote: post #68

I'm not sure who this product is targeted at. If it's for "home consumers" then it doesn't really make that much sense as the calendar is focussed on the 9-5, while home calendars are usually more focused on the 4pm-10pm. Also bear in mind that home calendars will have multiple simultaneous appointments - Dad will take the dog to the vet appointment while Mum takes her daughter to the ballet, so it needs to be possib…

Looks like it would work well in offices to stick on the outside of meeting rooms or any kind of shared space. I don’t like it as a personal calendar.

Post by submeta » Mon, Feb 22, 2021, 9:30 AM UTC

Post by konschubert » Mon, Feb 22, 2021, 9:33 AM UTC

cweagans wrote: post #108

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…

CNC sounds like kind of a bad fit unless you're going to mill the entire frame out of a solid piece of wood -- you'd lose a lot of material to the router bit and still have to do a fair amount of finishing by hand. For mitered joints like this, there are computerized saws that can feed and cut the lumber pretty precisely, but those are very expensive. I'm not super clear on whether or not you're doing all of this by…