Stay on schedule with Raspberry Pi Pico W and an e-ink dashboard | Hacker News Reader

Stay on schedule with Raspberry Pi Pico W and an e-ink dashboard

raspberrypi.com

92 pointsBrajeshwar15 comments

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The InkyFrame is nice but I prefer the eInk frame from HN user konschubert:

https://www.invisible-computers.com

Oooh thanks. That's my wife's birthday present sorted if the 10" version comes back into stock.

This is so cool. But I think they’re 2 different devices: aimed at end users vs hackers/tinkerers.

Shame they only have that wood version. Looks kinda cheap and not tasteful. I guess one can paint it.

beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

wood > tacky plastic crap

    If you’ve got a busy schedule, then it’s all too easy to become overwhelmed.

This is why they want to interest you in something that is not assembled into a finished product, but presented as a bunch of PCBs, and relies on a custom self-hosted Python server for which one can "always choose to add different sources by editing the Python code on the server".

For many people, assembling things like this is a hobby, and spending time on hobbies is actually quite important to avoid becoming overwhelmed by a busy schedule.

That's the point though? They're trying to show off the functionality of the display/board to interest you in using it for a side project (might not even be a calendar).

Pimoroni's entire target market is hobbyists, educators and people who want to do bespoke things with electronics. They're not interested in buying finished products because they either enjoy working on projects or it would be too limiting for their needs or both.

If you just want a finished product buy one of the other countless e-ink calendar displays that exist.

It does come fully assembled?

All the electronic components are surface mounted to the PCB but that doesn't make it a finished product.

They've made the PCB about as nice-looking as one can but most people still wouldn't want it that way; the raw buttons on the front in particular are not a good look or feel. There's no stand and the only mounting solution provided is a hole in the board. Power appears to be through the Pico's USB port on the side.

The expectation is that anyone looking at Pimoroni products will probably just 3D-print (or produce in some other way) a case. They're not trying to sell this as a finished product.

Sure, I was just elaborating on why "fully assembled" does not mean "finished product" to most people.

I'm personally a fan of MagicMirror [1] which is pretty much a turnkey solution for this problem. I have one set up on an old Raspberry Pi connected to a spare wall-mounted monitor. What I love with MagicMirror is that it's a modular system, where you choose which modules you want to have and where to display them. I only use it to display a shared calendar with my wife, along with the week's weather. But there are a few hundred modules, with things like displaying your expected commute time (based on Google maps I think), integrations with some apps like AnyList, etc.

[1] https://github.com/MagicMirrorOrg/MagicMirror

This looks nice but the “custom everything” approach sounds awful. Over time one of the custom software components will break and the amount of time you spend fixing it will likely ultimately outweigh the benefit of the calendar in the first place.

What's going to happen now to Pi/accessory prices with De Minimis ending and new $50 MINIMUM FEE on imports?

Best get your orders in before May 2nd?

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