I was excited, until I found out how much it costs..
For some time I have been looking a small screen that would be used for displaying various information. However, I don't want to build the hardware myself as I feel that the result might not be safe for 24/7 usage.
I've been checking digital photo frames, but have not found any solution which would allow updating the image directly and without requiring reverse engineering of an app or the device itself.
Inkplate[1] might be a good option for around 100€. Compared to Joan it's less polished. You can get 3d printed case and it requires some coding (it doesn't support rendering HTML).
I'm working on a personal dashboard for the screen. I'll create a website in React and then use rendertron[2] to get the screenshot on the Inkplate.
I've been using a first-generation iPad a digital photo frame. I use the LiveFrame [1] app, which still supports very old versions of iOS (9.5).
The iPad had just been sitting in my closet for a few years, since I couldn't update it to the latest version of iOS, and most apps stopped supporting it. I was about to throw it away before I had one last attempt at doing something useful with it. I'm really glad I found the LiveFrame app and was able to get it working.
It also has a web browser that can display almost any webpage (although it would probably struggle with the latest CSS features.) So you could show a dashboard web page to display some information.
I would recommend looking on eBay to see if there are any cheap iPads or Android tablets.
I built a small program which takes input from HomeAssistant (a smart home self-hostable platform) and draws it over some stills I extracted from this video [1] (with night/day change). The frame I'm using has a built-in FTP server, so a small Homeserver (which I'm running anyways) is used to upload the image to the frame in regular intervalls.
That was my take on it, after I got rid of my iPad - I used it as a display, and after 1.5 years of constantly being plugged in, the battery suddenly decided to inflate.
Finding cheaper solutions is tricky. I myself am not that strong in electronic engineering, so assembling my own small device is a no-go for me. But yes it would definitely be possible with a small LCD and rpi.
That's kind of what I'm thinking about. I want a large "slow" display on the office wall to show me statistics, calendar entries and whatnot for our team. Don't want to attach a bright, shining display to the wall if the information only changes twice a day or so.
I agree, it's expensive if you compare the price to an LCD. But as this is e-paper technology with completely different use cases, the manufacturing costs are still high. Keep in mind that, currently, e-paper is not a substitute for classic LCD panels.
Where e-paper shines for me is very low battery consumption. For example, the mentioned device can hold up to 6 months without a single battery recharge and is completely wireless.
Amazon can somehow put those displays in a Kindle for what... 90€? Maybe they have some mix-calculation going on with book sales, but in comparison a Kindle should cost around 400-500€ when looking at those numbers here.
Right, Kindles presumably have a high attachment rate (owners buy more ebooks) so Amazon can subsidize based on that attachment rate, and also the base model Kindle prices include direct advertising subsidization. (Check the "without ads" SKUs prices for something somewhat more comparable.)
Don't forget too many of the screen prices above are essentially single screen "retail" prices and Amazon would likely have better bulk wholesale prices worked out in their supply chains.
Nice project! Yes they are indeed cheaper. It's really up to your taste. The device I'm using is already in a casing and comes with a sophisticated software that can render any modern HTML5 on the device with full JS support.
If you'd like a cheaper alternative (and don't mind a little DIY) I wrote a library that lets you render HTML onto low cost ePaper displays using a Raspberry Pi.
Yes, I don't even notice it's there until there is a change and the screen blinks a bit. To maybe reference another comment, this is why I also like e-paper, no backlight needed, just an external source of light, like the Sun ;)
Hello, author here. That's totally correct, I use gitlab and that is the reason why gitlab and not github. I wanted to track the commits and the number of lines added/deleted per commit and my 6" e-ink device was kind of perfect for the job, sitting next to my monitor :)
https://www.visionect.com/product/place-and-play-13/