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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

#291

Post by IanCal »

AdamN wrote: post #283
IanCal wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A healthy relationship with technology isn't the same as not using technology. > It doesnt seem like any of this would really be useful as you'd have to enter all the useful data manually(calendar). You have to enter calendar data somewhere, right now I often have the same info or different subset split between my calendar, work ones, my wifes one and the one on the wall. Even the paper version requires having entere…

A bit OT but if your house is so big that you can't even hear the laundry buzzer it seems like the size of the house itself is a stressor.

I just have doors and my house is built well.

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

#292

Post by embedding-shape »

AuthAuth wrote: post #18

This is awesome but I still find it funny that he said he wants a healthy relationship with technology then goes and fits his entire house out with technology. It doesnt seem like any of this would really be useful as you'd have to enter all the useful data manually(calendar). 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 an…

> 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

I'm not sure this is true anymore, first you usually do different programs depending on what you put into it, and modern washing machines also automatically adjust the washing time depending on how much you throw into it, at least our ~2 year old one does, I'm sure others do too.

I basically never know how long time it will take, sometimes it takes 1.5 hours and sometimes 3 hours. Our washing machine is further away from where we can hear the melody, so having a notification appear on the phone when it's done is actually quite handy, at least for our situation.

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

#293

Post by embedding-shape »

AdamN wrote: post #283
IanCal wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A healthy relationship with technology isn't the same as not using technology. > It doesnt seem like any of this would really be useful as you'd have to enter all the useful data manually(calendar). You have to enter calendar data somewhere, right now I often have the same info or different subset split between my calendar, work ones, my wifes one and the one on the wall. Even the paper version requires having entere…

A bit OT but if your house is so big that you can't even hear the laundry buzzer it seems like the size of the house itself is a stressor.

> A bit OT but if your house is so big that you can't even hear the laundry buzzer it seems like the size of the house itself is a stressor.

Huh? I could admit it's a bit of a "good problem to have" but why would it be a stressor?

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

#294

Post by embedding-shape »

prforated wrote: post #275
IanCal wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A healthy relationship with technology isn't the same as not using technology. > It doesnt seem like any of this would really be useful as you'd have to enter all the useful data manually(calendar). You have to enter calendar data somewhere, right now I often have the same info or different subset split between my calendar, work ones, my wifes one and the one on the wall. Even the paper version requires having entere…

You can set an alarm on your phone when it starts like millions of people do instead of spending $2000 overengineering a solution to this "problem". The fact that people are complaining about the cognitive load and beeping sound when running a washing machine is utterly baffling to me. This goes beyond sheltered "first-world problems". There is something insidious about this about micro-optimising for non-issues, som…

> You can set an alarm on your phone

Not all washing machines have static wash times, some (like ours) adjust the time based on what you actually put into it. Not to mention there are like 5-6 different programs we use, who has time to remember kind of how long time each program takes? And it doesn't display how long it'll take until it measured the load, which takes 2-3 minutes.

So instead; chuck in the clothes and cleaning product, put the program, go do other stuff and await for Home Assistant to tell us when it's done. Over-engineered? Nah, just comfortable modern living.

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

#295

Post by rolfus »

leokennis wrote: post #258
rolfus wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made this thing [1] for us, it uses a cheap 10" e-paper display off aliexpress, an ESP32 and a couple of I2C sensors. The case is 3D-printed. It runs on two 18650 batteries, and all in all it cost less than 100$. The OpenWeather API is free for personal use. [1] https://mjones-foui.no/img/wall_clock_1.png

Love those weather icons. Personality in software design is underrated.

Thanks! I intentionaly made the weather symbols somewhat "childlike" to give it some personality and also make it obvious that it's a custom device, and not some off the shelf gadget. Works well as a conversation starter!

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

#296

Post by iso1631 »

embedding-shape wrote: post #292
AuthAuth wrote: post #18

This is awesome but I still find it funny that he said he wants a healthy relationship with technology then goes and fits his entire house out with technology. It doesnt seem like any of this would really be useful as you'd have to enter all the useful data manually(calendar). 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 an…

> 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 I'm not sure this is true anymore, first you usually do different programs depending on what you put into it, and modern washing machines also automatically adjust the washing time depending on how much you throw into it, at least our ~2 year old one does, I'm sure…

I can't imagine a world where the state of my washing machine is so important that I need to be interrupted to tell me it's done.

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

#298

Post by grabshot_dev »

heresie-dabord wrote: post #232
NikxDa wrote: 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.

e-ink is low-power and easy on the eyes. But for a cheaper project recipe: * repurposed old LCD rotated to portrait mode * Raspberry Pi 400 * Debian with Sway showing various tiled terminals/browser windows * self-hosted REST server that collects/provides data to display

If you go the image-rendering route for e-paper, Sharp (the Node.js libvips binding) is surprisingly good for this. You can do grayscale conversion, resize to the exact panel resolution, and apply Floyd-Steinberg dithering all in one pipeline with minimal memory overhead.

The trick with e-ink displays is that naive grayscale conversion looks terrible because you lose all mid-tone detail. Dithering the image down to 2-4 levels before sending it to the display makes a huge difference in readability, especially for things like weather icons and charts. ImageMagick can do it too but Sharp is about 4-5x faster for batch processing since it avoids spawning subprocesses.

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

#299

Post by bongripper »

fanatic2pope wrote: post #121

Cool project. I solved a problem (not really the same problem as this, mind you) for my family using a much older technology. I bought a big pane of glass from the hardware store, built a wooden frame for it with a shelf for an eraser and dry markers. I hung it up in the kitchen and now when we need to leave "sticky" notes to each other we just write on it. We keep our shopping list on it, we write small poems and dr…

[dead]

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

#300

Post by rolfus »

trcf23 wrote: post #276
rolfus wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made this thing [1] for us, it uses a cheap 10" e-paper display off aliexpress, an ESP32 and a couple of I2C sensors. The case is 3D-printed. It runs on two 18650 batteries, and all in all it cost less than 100$. The OpenWeather API is free for personal use. [1] https://mjones-foui.no/img/wall_clock_1.png

Nice! Do you think it would be easy for someone with no hardware experience to build one?

Yes, I think so. Electronics prototyping is so accessible now, and there's such a deluge of inspirational projects out there to learn from. YouTube is a gold mine, and I'll leave links to a few channels I follow, below.

If you get an Arduino or Esp32 microcontroller (maybe in one of those starter-kits with various sensors), some breadboards, assorted jumper-cables and a kit with electronic components (resistors, caps) you'll be good to go. A device like a wall clock most likely won't require soldering, since it won't be jostled or moved around much.

Ben Eater: https://www.youtube.com/@BenEater/videos

Paul McWhorter: https://www.youtube.com/@paulmcwhorter/videos

Huy Vector: https://www.youtube.com/@huyvector/videos

I'd also take a look at the other DIY projects that people have linked in this discussion.

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