[lakid]

You can make smaller ones for much much less. I’ll post pics of mine a bit later but waveshare 7.5” display in a photo frame and almost any ESP32 dev board and you are set for less than $100 (along with suitable HomeAssistant and ESPhome infrastructure to support it). The original article is a very slick bit of work, so well done

[fenykep]

The article also mentions using jailbroken kindles which I assume should be the cheapest way to get a decent sized epaper screen with builtin connectivity.

edit: https://github.com/sibbl/hass-lovelace-kindle-screensaver

[scary-size]

Yep, it’s super cheap. I wrote about mine here:: https://franz.hamburg/writing/kindling-e-ink-dashboard.html

[Jyaif]

You can also buy some for less than $100.

I can vouch for the reTerminal: the build quality is excellent, and they come with a battery, sd card reader, and some sensors: https://www.seeedstudio.com/reTerminal-E1001-p-6534.html

[boneitis]

Gonna piggyback here to second this and chime in to say I went with the BYOD screen linked within your link for $49 (SKU 104991005). It's definitely more barebones and probably not even as cost-effective if you're still planning on buying the "lifetime" TRMNL API access.

I don't have easy access to a 3d printer, so I just have mine sitting on an extra phone stand I had lying around that can be had for a few bucks from Amazon.

I couldn't be happier with it and am thoroughly enjoying my complacent, lazy solution :)

[IanCal]

FWIW you need to pay for the trmnl key ($50) to use your own device with their servers, but if you run a server yourself you don’t need to pay.

I’m very tempted, a lot lower resolution than a kindle but it’d be pretty cool.

[boneitis]

i could have been clearer about that. but yeah, even for what i paid, i was happy to immediately be off to the races designing the couple panels within their web portal and having something functional and useful to me without any real friction from having to figure things out.

moving on to the self-hosting side is probably now backburnered indefinitely, even if i do have some grander ideas in the longer term. unfortunately, i'd need more than a weekend project's timeframe to bring them to fruition.

[ryanckulp]

you can point a higher def Kindle to TMRNL, either our closed source web app or free to an open source server.

https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-kindle https://github.com/usetrmnl/trmnl-koreader