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MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

jan.miksovsky.com

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Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#131

Post by tqi »

ryanckulp wrote: post #108
philips wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most IoT products support SSH-ing directly into peripheral devices. We've heard too many horror stories about how this can go wrong, and decided to invert the paradigm. > Your TRMNL device pings our server, never the other way around. > Each request made to our /api/display endpoint includes only the minimum details needed to support customers -- an API key, device mac address, firmware version, battery voltage, an…

we're adding more docs on running your own server soon, which will include 1-click deploy starter projects that Just Work. if you think about it, we are incentivized to do this. no subscription fees means the more you ping our server, the lower our margin. but for now we're wrapping up fulfilling all pre-orders, scaling, etc typical new product issues. even without BYOS (bring your own server) docs however, it's alre…

Can you clarify what the difference between the Developer Edition and normal edition are? It's not clear from the checkout flow if this is required in order to create plugins, and is not mentioned anywhere in the docs.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#132

Post by trashcan »

inanutshellus wrote: post #82
grahameb wrote: post #3

What a beautiful use of technology to uphold someone's personhood, and let them know they are loved, despite (and with regard to) a profound injury. This reminds me of a desire I've had for a long time: a simple, wall-mountable eInk device that could be configured with a URL (+wifi creds) and render a markdown file, refreshing once every hour or so. It would be so useful for so many applications – I'm a parish priest…

assuming your eink display would be on the same LAN as some always-on PC... 1. install python 2. make a file named `index.html` somewhere. 2a. put this in the "head" tag, so it'll refresh hourly: ` `. 3. run `python -m http.server` from the same folder This will start a single-threaded web server on 8000 4. On another machine on your network verify you can pull up http://firstmachine:8000/. 5. having proven it works,…

Having done this, you will also most likely want to setup a javascript timer that also triggers a refresh in case the meta refresh fails. And a weekly reboot of the machine in case there is a memory leak or some other issue.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#133

Post by BatmansMom »

>Since the physical device was satisfactory, the next step was writing a simple website that could drive the display.

>A Compose page my siblings and I write messages and save them to be displayed.

Is there a risk of a malicious actor discovering the website and writing in their own messages? I would think building user authentication in to the MomBoard website might be a bit heavyweight. Whats the best way to do this?

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#134

Post by xyx0826 »

bravura wrote: post #94
harpastum wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're comfortable with microcontrollers (esp32/arduino), I can definitely recommend Inkplate. I found them when I was making a similar setup for my parents, and they have various sizes up to 10" and up to 6 colors they can display. You can either just get the module, or buy with a battery and mountable case already attached. I think all of the models are also available via Digikey and Mouser if people don't trust…

I've never used esp32/arduino. How does it compare writing some low key Python on RPi and blitting an image to the display?

With an ESP32 or comparable (RPi Pico W, for example) you get MicroPython or CircuitPython support! That means a Python interpreter, drivers for popular peripherals and usually a network stack. Performance doesn’t beat a native SDK but Python is Python.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#135

Post by Nition »

trashcan wrote: post #132
inanutshellus wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

assuming your eink display would be on the same LAN as some always-on PC... 1. install python 2. make a file named `index.html` somewhere. 2a. put this in the "head" tag, so it'll refresh hourly: ` `. 3. run `python -m http.server` from the same folder This will start a single-threaded web server on 8000 4. On another machine on your network verify you can pull up http://firstmachine:8000/. 5. having proven it works,…

Having done this, you will also most likely want to setup a javascript timer that also triggers a refresh in case the meta refresh fails. And a weekly reboot of the machine in case there is a memory leak or some other issue.

I tried to do pretty much this on a Kobo reader and discovered the Kobo browser doesn't support javascript. :|

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#136

Post by S04dKHzrKT »

BatmansMom wrote: post #133

>Since the physical device was satisfactory, the next step was writing a simple website that could drive the display. >A Compose page my siblings and I write messages and save them to be displayed. Is there a risk of a malicious actor discovering the website and writing in their own messages? I would think building user authentication in to the MomBoard website might be a bit heavyweight. Whats the best way to do thi…

When you have a site with a fixed, tiny amount of users, I'd opt for HTTP basic auth (via HTTPS). Whether you're using nginx, Traefik, Caddy, etc..., it's very easy to setup. If you're using something like Cloudflare Pages, I would guess you could setup a worker to handle it for you (though I'm not familiar enough with workers to be sure).

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#137

Post by vitorbaptistaa »

zamadatix wrote: post #128
vitorbaptistaa wrote: post #122

I love these kinds of projects. Congratulations to the OP. Unrelated, but does anyone know a good TV remote for elders? I'd like something like a Stream Deck with big buttons for things like : * Turn it on/off * Switch to TV channel 315 * Switch to TV channel 517 * Play Planet Earth on Netflix * Play Young Sheldon on Netflix My grandparents are 92 and 97 and even big remotes aren't cutting it. Not only that, but I'd…

Is their problem the size (big buttons) or the UI complexity the buttons control (trying to navigate on Netflix is a PITA compared to hitting a preset channel button)? On the former I had luck with one of those jumbo remotes that just has a few buttons (channel up/down, volume up/down, power, mute) and separately programming the TV to only have the channels they cared about in the list. When it came to smart apps it…

It's the UI, especially for Netflix or other streaming apps. I want something that is totally foolproof. Just click and it starts.

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#138

Post by DidYaWipe »

frereubu wrote: post #12

This is one of the few HN articles that have profoundly moved me. Such a beautiful and simple use of technology to make a clear and big improvement in someone's life. As a side note on his mother remembering that the tablet exists, it sounds like she has amnesia quite like Henry Molaison, a famous case study in neuropathology. He had very specific brain damage that seemingly stopped him forming new memories in the sa…

Absolutely. I was reading this and knew I'd be bookmarking it in case I ever need it.

It's even aesthetically pleasing! What mom wouldn't find this charming?

Re: MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

#139

Post by archon810 »

biomcgary wrote: post #64
bregma wrote: post #45

My wife acquired anterograde amnesia after a car accident. This device may or may not have worked for her: she would probably have discovered the device anew every time (as in, every 10 minutes or so), although she would probably be pleased each time. Thankfully she fully recovered after a few weeks. It takes a lot of patience to deal with someone like that, and you could tell it frequently caused a lot of frustratio…

Glad she recovered!

Yeah, given OP's post, I didn't think this user's comment had a happy ending. That's great.
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