With all these options available, you might be wondering what you can do with an e-ink display? To help spark some ideas, we’ve rounded up the best projects to get you going.
1. Shower Thoughts From Reddit
If you are a fan of the popular Shower Thoughts subreddit on Reddit, then this perfect micro project is for you.
YouTube host ACROBOTIC has figured out a way to pull the most popular posts of the day straight to his e-paper display. The hardware makes use of a Raspberry Pi 4 and a 2.7” e-paper display HAT. However, these parts are interchangeable if you have a different model or want to use a larger display.
If you’ve never worked with JSON files, this project could help you to get started too. ACROBOTIC will show you in detail how to set up the software. And once you know how to scrape data from Reddit, you could choose any one of your favorite subs to display on your e-paper.
2. Cryptocurrency Display
Cryptocurrency has captured the attention of a lot of people and it’s slowly becoming more of an acceptable transaction method. If you are one of those people keeping a close eye on the crypto markets, then this build will help you out.
CRYTOiNK combines a 7x7” e-ink display with an interface that shows up to seven cryptocurrencies and their real-time status in the market. The Waveshare e-ink display used in this project can display red as well, allowing you to quickly see when a currency price has fallen in the past 24 hours.
The creator John Loeffler even designed a 3D printed case to house all the components, and together with a few magnets, it sits just right when mounted to a fridge.
3. Open-Source Fully Customizable E-Ink Smart Watch
In 2006 Seiko created the world’s first e-ink watch, but it never really took off. Now, with a growing industry of electronic hobbyists, we’ve come back around to building e-ink watches again.
Squarofumi (SQFMI) has developed an e-paper watch that has both open-source hardware and software. Watchy is the name given to the small PCB they have developed, which includes an ESP32-PICO, a LiPo battery connector, several tactile buttons, and a vibration motor.
Use it as a guide to build your own e-paper watch or start with the Watchy build kit and see what you end up developing.
4. Beer Fermentation Monitor
Using electronic sensors and a display for real-time data is a fantastic way to start brewing beer at home. Add in an e-ink display and you’ll have a beautiful and sleek beer fermentation monitor.
The project makes use of a tilt hydrometer and an ESP32 to monitor the beer. The Firebase library is then used to store the data until it’s ready to be retrieved by an ESP8266 e-ink display every 20 minutes. You can find the files you need on the project’s Hackaday page.
Finally, a custom font library and a minimalist IKEA frame bring it all together for an aesthetically pleasing beer monitoring setup.
Related Link: How Do Various Arduino Sensors Work?
5. Open-Source Information Dashboard
There are many e-ink dashboards out there, but Inkycal will put the design into your hands, enabling you to turn any e-ink display into an information dashboard.
This open-source software is available to download from GitHub, complete with installation instructions to guide you through an easy setup. It will allow you to add modules how you like, including Calendar, Image, Slideshow, Feeds (RSS/ATOM), Stocks, Weather, and Todoist. And because it’s open to third-party modules, it’s flexible to suit anyone’s needs.
It has wide support for any Raspberry Pi model with 40 pins and WiFi, and currently works with a range of e-paper displays from Waveshare. Together with Inkycal, you can create just the right info dashboard you want.
6. Dungeons & Dragons Hit Point Tracker
It turns out that an e-ink display makes for a novel way to display your teams’ stats in Dungeons & Dragons. Clearly designed by a D&D player, this hit point tracker has all the features you need to run a successful campaign.
The e-ink display shows the hit points of all the players and it connects via Bluetooth to an Android phone where you can change all the stats. Instead of a Raspberry Pi, this project runs on an Arduino Mega 2560 with a Bluetooth module. It’s powered by a 9V battery, but if this ever fails, the data is saved to EEPROM so you don’t lose everyone’s points.
7. 32” Digital E-Ink Newspaper
Most e-ink projects make use of small displays, but for this digital e-ink newspaper we’re going big with a 32-inch display!
The large-format e-ink display suits the purpose of recreating a newspaper feel. Albeit one that has access to real-time headlines from all over the world.
It’s wireless and incredibly energy efficient, and able to run off the battery for months before needing to recharge. If you have a home server already set up, then you can follow the steps outlined by creator Greg Raiz to get started.
Related link: Great Reasons to Make Your Own Personal Home Server
8. IoT E-Ink Message Board
An e-ink shopping list will suit the needs of tech hobbyists perfectly. While using a pen and paper will accomplish just the same, being able to remotely make changes to your e-ink shopping list is a good enough reason for this build.
Creator James Bruton chose to use the Google Docs API for this build. This way, anyone with access to the Google document can make changes, which are then reflected on the e-ink display.
If you have a family who normally leave messages on Post-it notes, or pinned to the fridge, here is a modern alternative.
E-Ink: A Low-Energy, Beautiful Display Solution
So, when does it make sense to use an e-ink display? The answer to that lies in the expanding list of brilliant DIY e-ink projects out there.
E-ink displays are perfect if your project needs to consume as little energy as possible. And if you want to display real-time data that needs little physical interaction, e-ink is the way to go. With integrated and wireless IoT solutions now widely available too, e-ink is a beautiful and practical solution for your next project.
