Hacker News Reader

Comment by Etheryte | Hacker News Reader

I would love to have something of this kind as a calendar and agenda on my wall, but as you mentioned the price is currently ridiculously oppressive. Can't wait for the patents to expire so competition in this space becomes viable.

View on HN

Hello, I work for Visionect, the company that makes the hardware. We have a wireless e-ink based product that does exactly what you want. Check out Joan at https://getjoan.com

Joan doesn’t have the 32” display though, right? I’m in the same boat as GP, but I want the giant display. Pinboard style.

Edit: since they’re the same company, can the Joan software be run on the Visionect hardware?

Hi. Yes, we have a 32" Place&Play product but currently can't be used as a replacement for the Joan product line. On the other hand, we have smaller 13" Joan devices available.

At $899 for a 13" display, the price doesn't seem to scale down well to the smaller area. The 32" display is more than 5 times the area, but less than 3 times the price.

Waveshare has a 13" link display + Raspberry Pi hat for $445. That's pretty bare bones — but you could have a go at DIY and save.

I was referring to the Joan display mentioned, but Waveshare is another interesting option. I assume you're referring to this[0] product, which would still require a Raspberry Pi, so $445 is not the total cost to get something working. Of course still much less than $899 when you throw that in.

[0] https://www.waveshare.com/13.3inch-e-paper-hat.htm

They have many more options. If you go down slightly in size, it's less than half that price: https://www.waveshare.com/product/displays/e-paper.htm

I would love to experiment with some of the hardware, but it is just too crazy expensive. If the company would be willing to part with some blemished, damaged, or returned product or components for a more modest price, I would be happy to buy those. My Gmail username is the same as my HN username.

I love this idea for a lot of things, and I think it beats the "smart mirror" trend in aesthetics and energy, but the price is a definite roadblock.

My understanding is the patents aren’t the major obstacle today. There just isn’t enough volume yet to drive down production cost. LEDs used to be real expensive too.

Which companies other than EInk are making these displays? Displaydata might but I can't tell.

This is the comment I was thinking of from the founder of visionect https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25067824

That's really interesting.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com