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I built a picture frame with a greyscale e-paper that runs on battery for years

framelabs.eu

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Re: I built a picture frame with a greyscale e-paper that runs on battery for years

#51

Post by mewse »

Keeo wrote: post #10

I actually built one myself, but used raspberry pi so it needs usb cable for power. It works well but contrast on the display is not that good for photos. Would work well for text or like smart home panel. https://imgur.com/a/HraSGsj

I've built something very similar as well.

For me, I found that the display I'm using works reasonably well for photos, but you need to slightly boost the contrast of the image before updating the display, to compensate for the darkness of the display. If you're using PIL in python, this is just something like "image = PIL.ImageEnhance.Contrast(image).enhance(1.3)"

I do that immediately before dithering into 16-greys, and get entirely acceptable photo displays that way.

Re: I built a picture frame with a greyscale e-paper that runs on battery for years

#53

Post by cookingmyserver »

baybal2 wrote: post #37
clash wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 150 dpi the image depth is not a problem. Here is the 4-bit image of the 1929 Bentley as displayed on the frame for reference: https://www.instagram.com/p/CItoGRLh52n/ On the device you only notice if you get extremely close.

Note, they have dithering, and they likely went for the best one possible.

Interesting accusation. What attributes of this photo would lend itself to be of better quality in such a display?

Re: I built a picture frame with a greyscale e-paper that runs on battery for years

#54

Post by clash »

scottrogowski wrote: post #40

I had this idea years ago! I'm glad someone finally did it. One thought. From a philosophical point of view, I would want this to be something that "lasts forever". So it would be nice if it were solar powered and ran off of an SD card rather than being web-based. Just an opinion from an HN extremist - take it in context. Still, it's scratching an itch for me. Your website is down so I didn't see how much it costs bu…

Thanks for your input. I was thinking about a way to have it powered by ambient energy. It is hard to integrate the solar cell in a way that it does not distract from the actual picture, though.

Re: I built a picture frame with a greyscale e-paper that runs on battery for years

#55

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

clash wrote: post #54
scottrogowski wrote: post #40

I had this idea years ago! I'm glad someone finally did it. One thought. From a philosophical point of view, I would want this to be something that "lasts forever". So it would be nice if it were solar powered and ran off of an SD card rather than being web-based. Just an opinion from an HN extremist - take it in context. Still, it's scratching an itch for me. Your website is down so I didn't see how much it costs bu…

Thanks for your input. I was thinking about a way to have it powered by ambient energy. It is hard to integrate the solar cell in a way that it does not distract from the actual picture, though.

Could try extracting energy from radio waves with a wire antenna around the frame (it's not a lot, but for charging some sort of battery it could work)

Re: I built a picture frame with a greyscale e-paper that runs on battery for years

#58

Post by conductr »

I love this and have wanted it forever. I was actually ready to buy but I have no use for the 9.7” size in regards to an actual art display. It’s just way to small for anything but family photos, which I like to be in color and on my desk.

Re: I built a picture frame with a greyscale e-paper that runs on battery for years

#60

Post by icedistilled »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #33
icedistilled wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you mean being relegated being used for price tags in whole foods isn't succeeding? I really want some of those and the ability to updated them.

Maybe you've already seen: https://hackaday.com/2020/11/27/repurposing-large-electronic...

Thanks. That's pretty awesome. Looks like they did run into the issue of no data sheets and had to hack around to get/make the driver for updating the screen, which is what I expected. Hope they keep improving it! And at $15 that's a great price. I paid more for a 2.5"x1" display but I needed the friendly pi integration.
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