E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi • Hacker News Board

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#101

Post by konschubert » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:01 AM UTC

fcsp wrote: post #23

dheera wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the ESP32 much easier to develop for, you don't need to install any toolchains, just plug in and drop code into the virtual USB drive that shows up! I wish all microcontrollers were like that these days.

How do you handle SSL? I found this very cumbersome in my experiments with esp32

The high-level client in esp-idf handles ssl out of the box and comes with a list of pre-installed root cas.

The question, of course, is: What if these CAs expire?

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#102

Post by RBerenguel » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:17 AM UTC

WORMS_EAT_WORMS wrote: post #4

Can’t explain why but all these E-Ink projects are so awesome and attractive to me. I’m surprised I can’t just buy a bunch of E-Ink style gizmos from some company to decorate my home and office. My wallet would be wide open to it constantly. Great work and congrats on this!

A Raspberry Pi Zero and Pimoroni's Inky Impression are a very easy cheap setup to have a cute eink gizmo. Here's a twitter thread I posted with some images of it working: https://twitter.com/berenguel/status/1344016064196304899 and links to the screen as well.

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#103

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:19 AM UTC

konschubert wrote: post #99

Hey man, this is so cool. I hope it’s okay to plug here: I am working towards releasing a similar product for sale: https://www.invisible-computers.com/ Unfortunately the display isn’t as big as the one you chose and it isn’t battery powered. But I am starting to ship the first units, so there is that :)

[deleted]

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#104

Post by teddyh » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:19 AM UTC

• Displays one month

• Needs battery change more than monthly

I.e. it’s still less work to have a paper calendar and flip a page every month.

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#105

Post by trog » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:25 AM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #104

• Displays one month • Needs battery change more than monthly I.e. it’s still less work to have a paper calendar and flip a page every month.

> I.e. it’s still less work to have a paper calendar and flip a page every month.

Is there a plugin for paper calendar so it will automatically sync with my Google Calendar?!

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#106

Post by headmelted » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:26 AM UTC

teddyh wrote: post #104

• Displays one month • Needs battery change more than monthly I.e. it’s still less work to have a paper calendar and flip a page every month.

Well, I mean, it also syncs automatically with google - which is kind of the whole point.

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#107

Post by clash » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:32 AM UTC

This calender-thing really seems to resonate with people!

I built something similar but more versatile, where you can either display images or feed the display with whatever information you want remotely. And it runs on a battery for a whole year:

https://framelabs.eu/en/

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#108

Post by teddyh » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:32 AM UTC

trog wrote: post #105

teddyh wrote: post #104

• Displays one month • Needs battery change more than monthly I.e. it’s still less work to have a paper calendar and flip a page every month.

> I.e. it’s still less work to have a paper calendar and flip a page every month. Is there a plugin for paper calendar so it will automatically sync with my Google Calendar?!

No. That’s a feature.

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#109

Post by romseb » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:33 AM UTC

trog wrote: post #105

teddyh wrote: post #104

• Displays one month • Needs battery change more than monthly I.e. it’s still less work to have a paper calendar and flip a page every month.

> I.e. it’s still less work to have a paper calendar and flip a page every month. Is there a plugin for paper calendar so it will automatically sync with my Google Calendar?!

Install the "Handwriting" plugin on the human component. It's slow, but works reasonably well.

Re: E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi

#110

Post by sebcat » Mon, Oct 04, 2021, 6:38 AM UTC

varispeed wrote: post #49

remir wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These projects have a pleasant "lo-fi zen" aspect that makes them attractive, I think. They are simple, provide value yet fade into the background without sucking your attention like some other gadgets.

Probably that's why you can't make money on it at scale that you can with any addictive type of device and so it's not attractive for most entrepreneurs - a lot of work to put in and not enough money to even buy a Cessna.

Target the high-end? There might be a demand for a device with an e-ink esthetic which takes care of, I don't know, planning the days of rich people? An actual need instead of a manufactured want? Or maybe the lower power consumption of an e-ink display can make it useful in other areas not yet identified instead of consumer products?