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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

#161

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

konschubert wrote: post #139
cweagans wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Hey, thank you for that comment. Those are really good tips regarding the woodworking. I'll look into one of these miter saws.

Frame making is actually more complicated than it seems, it's not enough to just make one mitered cut on four pieces and call it a day (if you want it to look good / fit well). It's certainly a learnable trade, but more complicated than just butting four square pieces together with glue. If I were you I'd stick with what you have working now, unless your current process is significantly time-consuming or costly.

As for the look, see if you can make the wood grain go the same direction for the entire frame, rather than the grain changing from vertical to horizontal. Should make it look more attractive. To expand the appearance from there, you can sand it down and apply different oils, stains and paints.

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

#162

Post by 0xbadcafebee »

I might buy it if it didn't depend on Google Calendar.

I would probably also replace the frame. I could go to any Michaels store and get them to make a more attractive frame for $20-$40.

Also, not sure how large e-paper screens can get, but I might like a huge one for my wall.

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

#163

Post by JKCalhoun »

cweagans wrote: post #77
konschubert wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wood is actually beech, though this particular batch I got for the prototypes had a surprising amount of texture. I am planning to use lighter colors in future. Regarding your second point: I'd love to support a multitude of layout options some day.

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…

Personally I prefer the subtlety of using lighter woods (maple would be my preference).

A darker wood enhances the contrast with the white e-paper, but is over-the-top (IMHO).

I guess I see a lot of people new to woodworking do the maple+walnut thing to make a bold statement but I don't feel it stands up over time ... if that makes sense.

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

#164

Post by JKCalhoun »

jitl wrote: post #36
iamleppert wrote: post #18

The 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…

There’s no accounting for taste. I’d prefer a wood frame to some kind of LED emissive plastic or metal

A delicate chrome bezel might work though.

One of the appeals of the e-paper though is the "natural" look of it — as though it is paper. The wood frame is in keeping with that.

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

#165

Post by cweagans »

konschubert wrote: post #139
cweagans wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Hey, thank you for that comment. Those are really good tips regarding the woodworking. I'll look into one of these miter saws.

Sure thing! Feel free to reach out (email in profile) if you get stuck or want input on something. Woodworking (and especially woodworking with tech inside) is one of my favorite hobbies and I'm glad to share what I know when I can :)

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

#166

Post by vessenes »

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?!

it does - visionect has them.

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

#167

Post by konschubert »

myself248 wrote: post #106
frabert wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re CNCing the wood: I'm not a woodworker, but given the simplicity of the cut, I'd dare say that miter sawing the planks using a guide would more than suffice.

I'm both an amateur woodworker and a professional CNC programmer, and this is right. Frames like this are made with routers to carve the profile, and miter saws to cut the corners. Personally I'd love to buy the guts and make my own frame, to personalize the gift with a nicer frame than I'd want to pay someone else to make. Give me a good dimensioned drawing or a 3D model (or both!) of the display panel and the elect…

You can email me at mail@konstantinschubert.com - I think there should be no problem with me sending you the "guts" at-cost once I have converged on a final BOM list.

I also have question that you might be able to help me with:

The frame requires some special shaping on the back-side to accommodate the "guts" as you call them. In fact, if I can freely choose the profile of the frame on the back side, I can probably solve some other constructional open questions I am having. You seem to be an expert on this: If I provide a CAD file, what will be the order of magnitude in cost I am looking at for one or more custom profiles? Both in terms of design and in terms of per-piece production cost?

I'd be happy to give you some more details over email of course.

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

#168

Post by robinsoh »

Qwertious wrote: post #153
robinsoh wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Hi, For quite a while I've been specifically looking for a reliable source on the "e-ink prices are caused by patents" (or alternative explanation) to bookmark, but haven't been able to find one. Please educate me. Preferably with sources I can cite. The best I have right now is a freaking reddit comment.

As I have stated, I was looking for evidence or proof for OP's claim about patents and did not find it, nor does OP appear to be able or willing to back up his/her claim. My opinion is that display pricing is driven primarily by volume, and secondarily by a lot of other rapidly fluctuating variables related to ITO/TFT manufacturing costs. I'm sure patents has some effect on the industry, but most likely negligible as I've never heard companies being impacted by it. At least not in my corner of the industry.

To be frank, I believe OP's claim about patents is wrong and is just some kind of worldview that for some reason has caught on recently in HN and is getting repeated without being challenged.

The simplest evidence I can give that volume is the main driver of pricing is to compare EPD 6" matrix display pricing between 2007 where it was 100x more expensive than it is today. Patents haven't changed. Volume has. That was driven by large scale buyers like Sony, Amazon, and others.

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

#169

Post by bradknowles »

I don’t use Google calendar. Could I get a version that syncs with Apple iCal?

For work purposes, could I get something that syncs with Outlook?

Also, what about colors for overlaying the calendars of multiple people, like me and my wife?

Can I get monthly view, as well as weekly and daily views?

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