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I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

hawksley.org

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Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#161
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airplane mode has wifi enabled by default nowadays

Just go to settings and disable. I do that every night. I don’t want or need to be available.

If someone is contacting you in the middle of the night when it isn't a genuine emergency you need to apply social pressure. If something were to happen to my mom in the middle of the night I hope people don't wait until I'm awake to call. If a coworker sitting in an airport at 3am waiting on a transfer it is basic social norms that they will not call me.

You should leave your phone on when you are asleep with full trust and confidence that you won't be disturbed except in a real emergency. The do-not-disturb mode is for Friday nights where they is no way for someone to know if you are the theater or just chilling at home - the latter is an acceptable time to call.

Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example the washing machine. You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes since you've done it 1000s of times and it beeps. It beeps, on the other end of the house (or on another floor), where it's inaudible. (And, thankfully, where the loud sounds of it operating are also inaudible.) > All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously. And when you remove the need to track…

"hey Siri, set timer for washing machine"

And the timer goes off when you are in the shower - by the time you are done you forgot about the alarm. (I have more than once stopped an alarm I intended to just snooze)

Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#163
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technology working for you is different than you working for technology.

This guy spent months working on this. He was working for technology.

Not anymore - that was months ago when he did all that labor, it is no a sunk-cost. We can debate if it was worth the investment though.

Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#164

This is really cool. With a newborn in the home I've been really thinking about projects like this recently. When you have a newborn things are so busy and hectic that it's easy to get overloaded and for things to slip through the cracks so I've been really wishing I had a dashboard like this somewhere to remind me that we need to take the dogs out or show how long it's been since the baby last ate or whatnot.

You have a newborn, and you think spending time installing and maintaining something that displays the calendar around the house is a good use of time?

That depends on how much time it takes. Newborns grow up fast, in a few years he (she? - I'll assume he for convenience, adjust if you have better information) will have a kid needing to get between soccer and violin (or some such things). If there isn't too much effort he can find time for this project and it will help his life to have it all working.

We have no way of knowing, but it would not be at all a surprise if he has more kids in a few year - which makes accurate calendars around the house even more useful as everyone needs to know what everyone else is doing.

Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#165
post #2

This is super cool, and I wish something like this existed at my place, as it enables information sharing without the need for phones/actual screens that shine in your face when the lights are low or tempt you to doomscroll. That said, the large primary display this uses is $2000. That's very hard to justify for any "normal" household, and that's without any mounts, backend, services etc.

I did a similar thing with a regular backlit computer screen.

It automatically shuts off after 30 seconds of inactivity.

I added a $3 webcam, and use openCV to detect motion. If three consecutive frames (sampled 0.5s apart) are each sufficiently difficult from the previous one, it attaches a virtual USB mouse, then moves it one pixel.

This wakes up the display whenever you walk past, then puts it back to sleep again when you stop moving.

The motion-detection pipeline uses less than 0.3% CPU on an intel N100 (6w TDP).

Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#166
post #27
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patents

Really? Feels like there's a bunch of companies

It is complex. The early patents have expired, so a bunch of companies wouldn't surprise me. I can't follow the chains, but it appears that there are not really a bunch of companies, it is one company (maybe two) that makes just the displays and sells to others.

Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#167
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, depends. If you have a dog, and live in a place with actual seasons, February requires frequently checking the current conditions before you head out—at least where we live, it could be anywhere from -10°C to +12°C right now, raining, snowing—annoying to put on a light jacket because you let the sun fool you, and discover it's freezing and starting to rain once you're on the field. That said: I seem to get by pre…

Still, isn't the forecast for one hour from now more useful than literally now? You can see that through the window (and feel it on your face by opening the window).

Others have mentioned why. But I also want to add that feeling the temperature over the window might not tell an accurate picture of how cold/hot it could feel over time. I've had instances where I dressed for how cold it felt, only to find myself freezing because I didn't feel the breeze during that short moment I sticked my head out.

Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#168

> It has a powerful function: if the status on the display is blank, the house is in a “healthy” state and does not need any attention. This approach of only showing what information is relevant in a given moment flies right in the face of how most smart homes approach communicating their status the best user experience is sometimes no experience

Depends - my family almost always has events coming up for something, so there is always something that needs attention in the next couple days. The display has no idea when I look at it if I'm asking "is there anything tonight" - that is things where the answer is sometimes no; or if I'm asking what is planned for the rest of the week. Likewise there are always chores. Cleaning the litter box is daily, but in the ra…

the litter box user experience uses a different sense to signal intent than sight ;)

Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol, €17.95 for a Developer "Unlock"[1]. [1]: https://shop.trmnl.com/products/developer-edition

That's just a perpetual license to use their hosted server. You are free to use your own self hosted server for free.

They should really clean up the phrasing because it sound so sketch, like they're locking device features for money, turns people off easily.

Re: I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard

#170
post #2

This is super cool, and I wish something like this existed at my place, as it enables information sharing without the need for phones/actual screens that shine in your face when the lights are low or tempt you to doomscroll. That said, the large primary display this uses is $2000. That's very hard to justify for any "normal" household, and that's without any mounts, backend, services etc.

I did a similar thing with a regular backlit computer screen. It automatically shuts off after 30 seconds of inactivity. I added a $3 webcam, and use openCV to detect motion. If three consecutive frames (sampled 0.5s apart) are each sufficiently difficult from the previous one, it attaches a virtual USB mouse, then moves it one pixel. This wakes up the display whenever you walk past, then puts it back to sleep again…

You can probably just use a cheap motion sensor instead of the webcam if you wanted to. There so many now
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