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Posted by saeedesmaili 3 hours ago

I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard(hawksley.org)
376 points | 104 comments
NikxDa 2 hours ago|
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.

rolfus 1 hour ago||
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

deepriverfish 10 minutes ago||
hi I've been interested in doing something like this for myself, what tools and software did you use?
ThrowawayR2 47 minutes ago|||
There are a couple of options for a large, non-backlit, low power display that are less expensive than the e-ink monitor they're using. One is the Samsung EM32DX, a 32" color e-ink digital sign for <$1300 (<$1000 if you can find it on sale) but it has a long refresh time. The other is the SVD rE 32" reflective LCD monitor for ~$1000, but it needs to be in brightly lit rooms because of its low contrast.
lakid 2 hours ago|||
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 2 hours ago|||
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 2 hours ago||
Yep, it’s super cheap. I wrote about mine here:: https://franz.hamburg/writing/kindling-e-ink-dashboard.html
Jyaif 56 minutes ago|||
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 3 minutes ago||
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. I love how janky of a setup it is and how complacent I am with it out of laziness to spend any more time on it.

ryanckulp 1 hour ago|||
OP's Timeframe looks rad, but yes on the pricy side. check out trmnl .com for smaller / less expensive options and self hosted options. (disclaimer: i'm on the team)
woadwarrior01 25 minutes ago|||
lol, €17.95 for a Developer "Unlock"[1].

[1]: https://shop.trmnl.com/products/developer-edition

SchemaLoad 22 minutes ago||
That's just a perpetual license to use their hosted server. You are free to use your own self hosted server for free.
hawksley 46 minutes ago||||
I’m a big fan of TRMNL! The big difference with the Boox device is real-time updates, which make the smart home status information much more useful.
weakfish 57 minutes ago|||
Yo Ryan! I get your emails! I was just reading this thinking “man he should’ve tried TRMNL”

I love my original one and am planning to get a model X when budget permits

tootie 2 hours ago||
I have a similar setup at home with a homemade dashboard. It's less polished and I've never implemented smart home (don't use any smart home devices) but it's calendar, weather, air quality and subway alerts. I also took the tack of building the UI with Bootstrap 3 so that it will run on any of my ancient devices like a gen 2 ipad air. I did it as much to usefully recycle old screens as anything else.
fassssst 3 minutes ago||
We use a family paper calendar and I use my watch to check the weather and reminders. Still allows my phone to live in a box at home.
ojagodzinski 2 hours ago||
~3000€ to show information in some random places in the house even though the household members have a device with a screen called a smartphone next to them 24/7 ?

Well, it's cool, but the usability of it all is below average.

Declutter your life and don't install any more screens in your home ;)

unpopularopp 1 hour ago||
It's a hobby but not for everyone. I mean if I could just throw away 3,000€ on random projects that might work or not I'd do it in a heartbeat. No different than buying a run down Porsche for 5,000€ and spending 40,000€ on restoration to original. Every hobby is like that but with different entry price points. There is a reason knitting is more popular than something like this (and even that has price tiers from 3€ for an acrylic yarn to upwards 100€ for luxury merino wool yarn)
ReaderOfRunes 3 minutes ago|||
This is just unnecessarily mean-spirited and unconstructive
galleywest200 2 hours ago|||
Alternative: just keep your phone on your charger in your room and declutter your life by using just the one screen in the kitchen.
lm28469 1 hour ago||
Keep it in airplane mode until you need it, the friction is enough to keep it out of hand, and it never asks for your attention by itself. Or at least disable every notifications
darkwater 1 hour ago||
Airplane mode has wifi enabled by default nowadays
huijzer 38 minutes ago||
Just go to settings and disable. I do that every night. I don’t want or need to be available.
bob001 1 hour ago|||
Pick up phone (may be in another room), unlock phone, open app, navigate to information in app (often fairly annoying due to modern low information density app design and multiple apps), return to original location.

Versus.

Just look at screen.

amelius 50 minutes ago||
That's only when you are standing in front of the screen.

The equivalent of having the app open on your phone.

What if you are on a bus?

randomtoast 1 hour ago|||
I think you could make it work for a fraction of the price if you buy a bunch of low-cost e-ink screens and combine them to create a larger display. The main challenge would be on the software side, as you'd need to control the content so it appears as a single, cohesive screen. However, I think this approach would be more appealing in terms of cost for most people.
yellowapple 1 hour ago|||
For those who lack the technical aptitude to use a smartphone (e.g. children, the elderly), a device that shows information in random places in the home is much more useful.
pc86 1 hour ago||
Plenty of elderly people have the aptitude to use a smart phone. It's shockingly ageist to assume that old == inept.
misnome 1 hour ago|||
No, it's ableist to ignore the fact that many people _do_ have such issues, and many people don't but start having problems as they age.
fxwin 1 hour ago|||
"For those who lack the technical aptitude" > Well but many people do have the aptitude!
lloydatkinson 48 minutes ago|||
This is exactly the type of nasty, mean-spirited, closed minded, completely lacking the hacker spirit comment I see so often on HN now.
croes 1 hour ago||
We waste billions of dollars so that AI creates recipes in the style of an Eminem rap and pelicans riding on a bike.

This is much more useful compared to that

hinkley 2 hours ago||
Information radiators are basically 80% of the reason I try to keep tabs on wireless power delivery. Then a Kia and Hyundai vendor thought they were going to get their wireless charging added to the EV6 and Ioniq vehicles and that’s the other 20%. Essentially they removed the transformer from the PSU and moved it to the air gap between the charging coil and the vehicle to halve the parasitic losses. You’d have a car you didn’t even need to plug in.

I’ve been following Information Radiators since practically the beginning, and wiring has always been one of its problems. First networking and now power. In homes, but also in office spaces. The best locations for radiators are often the worst for wiring.

And eInk displays move the needle because you have a device that can go completely to sleep between updates, which means it can trickle charge.

dddgghhbbfblk 38 minutes ago||
This is really cool. With a newborn in the home I've been really thinking about projects like this recently. When you have a newborn things are so busy and hectic that it's easy to get overloaded and for things to slip through the cracks so I've been really wishing I had a dashboard like this somewhere to remind me that we need to take the dogs out or show how long it's been since the baby last ate or whatnot.
ekjhgkejhgk 9 minutes ago|
You have a newborn, and you think spending time installing and maintaining something that displays the calendar around the house is a good use of time?
bengale 2 hours ago||
I’m always surprised how much people seem to want to constantly know the weather.
hmokiguess 2 hours ago||
This may due to geographical differences, not sure where you live versus OP but I have lived in at least 7 different cities throughout my life and in some of those I had to deal with really unpredictable weather whereas in others it was easier to just wing it and not regret leaving with a jacket or umbrella for example.
maccard 1 hour ago|||
I'm in Scotland. Looking outside and seeing blue skies does not mean it's safe to leave without a rain jacket, or a thermal layer. Seeing fog in the morning doesn't mean you don't need shorts for the afternoon. It being 0 outside today doesn't mean it won't be 10 degrees tomorrow. Knowing it's going to rain between 10 and 2 is good motivation to take the dog out before 10. Knowing it's going to rain on Sunday but be clear on Saturday is a good reason to book outdoor activites (golf) on Saturday instead.
taitems 48 minutes ago|||
Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, with 2 in 3 of us diagnosed by age 70. The most used complication on my Apple Watch is the UV index, beating out weather temp, battery etc.
koyote 38 minutes ago||
Which is weird because it's pretty straightforward to work out if you need sunscreen or not:

  * Is it any month other than May-August?  
  
  * Is it after 10am or before 4pm?  
  
Probably need some sun screen.

If you have very light skin you might want to increase the timeframe by an hour.

And if you really want to optimise your sunscreen usage and not use it if you don't have to, the real-time UV index from ARPANSA is the way to go (https://www.arpansa.gov.au/our-services/monitoring/ultraviol...).

All other apps simply display the expected UV index given the time of the day and the day of the year.

riston 2 hours ago|||
I think with more outdoor activities, it's important to know what is waiting you in a few hour. For cycling example wind and rain information is rather good to know.
Exoristos 1 hour ago|||
Strong correlation with those who go outside.
SchemaLoad 19 minutes ago||
HN users baffled then
eb0la 1 hour ago|||
If you have to walk the dog and know in advance it will stop or start raining in 20 minutes....
pegasus 2 hours ago|||
It could be that they live in an area with more variable or more unpredictable weather than you. Or that they are much more outdoorsy. Or something else altogether. I'm surprised by your surprise. People live wildly different lifes and have correspondingly wide-ranging needs and preferences.
yellowapple 1 hour ago|||
Here in Reno, especially at this time of year, constant knowledge of the weather = constant knowledge of whether to expect road closures / traffic delays from snow, or whether I need to add extra time before going somewhere to defrost the windshield and remove snow, or whether I should grab a jacket.
SeriousStorm 2 hours ago|||
Agreed. Especially the current weather conditions. That's mostly useless info. Knowing the weather forecast for tomorrow or this weekend is actually useful.

It's strange that pretty much every weather widget assumes you want to know the current weather conditions and not the forecast.

9dev 2 hours ago||
Eh, depends. If you have a dog, and live in a place with actual seasons, February requires frequently checking the current conditions before you head out—at least where we live, it could be anywhere from -10°C to +12°C right now, raining, snowing—annoying to put on a light jacket because you let the sun fool you, and discover it's freezing and starting to rain once you're on the field.

That said: I seem to get by pretty well with a lowly smartphone so far.

medstrom 1 hour ago||
Still, isn't the forecast for one hour from now more useful than literally now? You can see that through the window (and feel it on your face by opening the window).
croes 1 hour ago|||
Not constantly but instantly. And because you don’t when they want it you have to show it always. Just like clocks always show the time.
thechao 2 hours ago|||
I had Windows^(TM) installed in my house when it was built. We're on the top of a 700' hill, so The Weather is pretty accurate.
chrisweekly 2 hours ago||
Ooh that reminds me of my weather rock.
guide42 2 hours ago||
Same. You can always tell how is going to be the weather by yourself. Depending on how much time have you lived in the same place you can predict the weather for the day when you get up or, if you are a completely stranger to the environment, at least half an hour before.
lukebuehler 2 hours ago||
Wall-mounted dashboards are a huge life-hack, especially if you have a family. We got a 37-inch touchscreen one, running DAKBoard.

We have several kids and have been organizing our daily todos and calendars on it for several years. We used to drop the ball quite a bit due to a hectic schedule and the dashboard has helped us tremendously. Since it is mounted in the kitchen, being able to pull up recipes is a plus.

mh- 1 hour ago|
> 37-inch touchscreen [..] in the kitchen

I think I need a bigger kitchen, haha.

That sounds really cool, though. I'm currently trying to "train" our kids to manage their own schedules, e.g. reminding me that they have somewhere to be instead of vice versa.

Maybe a wall-mounted solution would help put it front and center for them.

AuthAuth 2 hours ago||
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 and it beeps. All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously.

JoshTriplett 1 hour ago||
> 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.

It beeps, on the other end of the house (or on another floor), where it's inaudible. (And, thankfully, where the loud sounds of it operating are also inaudible.)

> All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously.

And when you remove the need to track that in your head, your head gets freed up for other things.

To be explicit, I don't like "smart appliances" that connect to a cloud server. I do like the idea of devices that can connect locally to something like Home Assistant.

AuthAuth 46 minutes ago|||
Even with no beeps you put washing on > you go get it when its done. It doesnt matter if it sits in the washing machine an extra 10m or an hour.
letsgethigh 1 hour ago|||
"hey Siri, set timer for washing machine"
bdangubic 1 hour ago||
but then apple knows about your cycles
jkestner 57 minutes ago|||
For you, maybe, but outsourcing ambient awareness of my environment is what’s finally enabled me to take that leap to a 10x dev. Well, that, and cranial cooling fins.
knallfrosch 1 hour ago|||
It's about attention. You can check the schedule without thinking about messages, likes, or the news.
j45 59 minutes ago||
Technology working for you is different than you working for technology.
phailhaus 1 hour ago||
I love TRMNL for this exact type of usecase! Only ~$150, and you can self-host if you want.
valiant55 10 minutes ago|
I got the battery extension and it lasted more than 10 months (I have it on a 30 minute refresh). Highly recommend TRMNL if you want something to hack on without fussing with hardware.
david_shaw 1 hour ago|
This is for sure an inspirational project, but I wish the barrier to entry was lower.

I've noticed e-ink/paper displays having somewhat of a moment right now (especially very small "phone-like" form factors as portable ereaders), and I hope this trend continues.

I'm very far from a meaningful reduction in "screen time," but looking at e-ink displays instead of OLEDs feels like a nice step in that direction.

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