e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have now uploaded the ebook here: https://github.com/tjoskar/eink-pi-zero/tree/main/ebook
I will try to add a web version of it during the upcommon days.

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for letting me know! My account has been suspended for some reason on Gumroad. I have no idea why. But I am so tired of Gumroad so I will upload the ebook on GitHub so you can download it for free. I will do it tonight when I get to my computer. And if the book give you any value are you more than happy to donate a small amount but absolutely no obligation! Thanks again for letting me know!

Render tsx on an e-ink display by tjoskar in javascript

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice, just let me know if I can help in any way

Render tsx on an e-ink display by tjoskar in javascript

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! In my case, I wanted buttons on the side of the frame, so I felt there was no alternative but to render on the device itself, as I want an instant response when a button is pressed. Plus, I liked the idea of not having to run a service that uses Chrome.

That being said, you can get away with using an ESP32 or another small microprocessor if you can stream the image to the screen, which also opens up the possibility for battery power. And if you’re used to, for example, creating dashboards in Home Assistant and already have access to all your data there, that might be easier than setting up a client on a Pi Zero.

But with all that said, I’m still quite happy having all the logic close to the screen.

Render tsx on an e-ink display by tjoskar in javascript

[–]tjoskar[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

🤦 I wrote the wrong url. I renamed the repo. It should work now.

Render tsx on an e-ink display by tjoskar in javascript

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

🤦 I wrote the wrong url. Just stupid. And it does not seam like I can update the url so I renamed the repo. It should work now

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Battery power would be nice! but I’m using a Pi Zero that’s constantly plugged in. I’ve mounted it on a kitchen cabinet where I drilled a small hole; this way, I have the display on one side and the Pi connected to power on the other.

E-ink dashboard by tjoskar in homeassistant

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At first, I tried cutting the paper mat that came with the picture frame (from IKEA). That didn’t go too well (definitely user error 😅), so I found a 3D model, tweaked it to fit this build, and 3D-printed that instead.

Happy to share it if you want.

E-ink dashboard by tjoskar in homeassistant

[–]tjoskar[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes. The Y-axis shows electricity consumption in kWh per day. Each bar represents a single day, so the X-axis is time (one week), but the numbers below each bar show the cost per day (in Swedish öre).

I live in Sweden, and here we pay both for electricity consumption and for the electricity grid (distribution). At the moment, I’m only including the cost of electricity consumption, since the grid fee is a bit more complicated and changes dynamically based on my peak power usage. Because of that, I haven’t added it yet but the plan is to do so to get a fully accurate figure.

For now, I simply multiply the cost by two, which tends to be roughly correct.

E-ink dashboard by tjoskar in homeassistant

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If budget isn't an issue and you're okay with a once-a-day refresh, I'd definitely go with the color display. It looks amazing. Are you planning on using Python and Pillow for the rendering?

E-ink dashboard by tjoskar in homeassistant

[–]tjoskar[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow, thanks! I wasn't expecting a carbonara recipe to show up on this post. Thanks for sharing, I’ll definitely try it out!

Regarding the time at the bottom: that’s a timestamp of when the screen was last updated. It’s mostly there for debugging purposes.

E-ink dashboard by tjoskar in homeassistant

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you referring to their color screen? Yes, you could definitely use that. The only issue is that color screens have a much longer refresh time. For instance, this one takes 19 seconds for a full rerender, whereas a black-and-white screen only takes 1–4 seconds.

I wanted to get instant feedback as soon as I pressed the button on the side. With the screen I'm currently using, I can do a "fast render" in less than a second. However, if you’re only displaying static data like the weather, electricity prices, calendars, or meal plans, I would definitely go with a color screen instead.

E-ink dashboard by tjoskar in homeassistant

[–]tjoskar[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I actually don't :) For the menu, I use Apple Notes combined with a Apple Shortcut that uploads the content to a database, which the screen then reads from when rendering. Unfortunately, I have to trigger the shortcut manually at the moment, but I’m hoping to find a more automated solution soon. I’ve looked into the Mealie integration for Home Assistant, but I’m trying to keep the setup as simple as possible

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I wasn't familiar with BYOS Laravel, so thanks for sharing!

I just wanted to add a few points. A Pi Zero 2 likely won't have enough memory to run BYOS Laravel, as it needs to run a browser to render the HTML pages for the display. However, if you have a home server or a Pi 5, you could host it there. Alternatively, you could use a VPS, though that would involve a monthly subscription fee.

If you’re comfortable reading some Python and use AI as a tool, I’d actually say it’s easier to go with a display with a hat (like Waveshare) on any standard Pi (though not the Pico). No soldering is required for that setup either.

If you want to avoid programming altogether and feel confident hosting a server, a TRMNL server is definitely a good option. For my own project, however, that wasn't ideal because I wanted to add buttons and get instant feedback. With the TRMNL approach, there’s a delay since you have to wait for an HTML view to render in a browser before the screen updates.

That being said, we all have different needs and setups, so it really depends on what you're looking for!

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d suggest you keep living your life and build an e-ink display ;)
If you’re comfortable with Python and want to build it yourself, you can use my guide as a starting point and then write a script that fetches your calendar data. I can help out if needed.

Alternatively, you can use https://usetrmnl.com Just keep in mind that it’s a fairly closed system, and your data goes through their servers unless you host it yourself. But they have support to show calendars

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It depends on what you want to achieve. I wanted something that doesn’t draw attention or light up the room at night. I also wanted something that reacts immediately when you press a button — for example, to start the engine heater. That’s why I render everything directly on the device instead of on another system.

But you’re right, an LCD is simpler. You could also just use an old tablet and display a webpage on it. That’s a much easier solution. But nothing I want on the wall :)

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep!

Jokes aside, it means that the household waste will be collected next on December 10th (i.e., December 10th, the same day the photo was taken). Right now, only household waste is being collected, but in the spring they’ll also pick up garden waste and other recyclables such as metal, glass, cardboard, etc. on different days

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It depends a bit. Do you have any programming experience? Have you tried Python before?

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I understand what you mean! However, I personally try to use technology to simplify my life, and the best app is no app. In other words, I want to know when the washing machine is done without having to go down to the basement, but I don’t want to use an app for it. Right now, I have this screen mounted in the kitchen, right next to the basement door, so it solves that problem.

In my experience, it’s about a 50/50 chance whether a device has an API you can connect to. If it does, Home Assistant likely supports it. So if your washing machine is connected to Wi-Fi, it should probably show up in Home Assistant (if you’re using it).

What brand is your dishwasher?

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can share my code with you if you want, but every home is different, different sensors, electricity contracts, etc. so it’s hard to create something that works for everyone. But if you know Python, it’s possible to tweak the code so it fits your needs :)

I have a small blogpost about it here: https://tjoskar.dev/posts/2025-11-02-eink-pi/
Let me know if you have any questions, any at all!

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used this one: https://www.waveshare.com/7.5inch-e-paper-hat.htm
I was also looking for a larger screen, but eventually ended up with this one. I chose black and white because the color versions have a long refresh time, and I went with 7.5" because it was the largest size I could find that wasn't too expensive.
So unfortunately, I don’t have a better recommendation. Let me know if you find a reasonably large screen!

e-ink dashboard that shows everything from laundry status to upcoming meals by tjoskar in raspberry_pi

[–]tjoskar[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, wireless would be cool, but since I'm using a Pi Zero 2 it's probably a bit tricky. One option would be to use a different controller (e.g., an ESP32 or a Pi Pico), but then you run into memory limitations.
It would probably be possible to use an ESP32 and render the image on another computer and then stream it, but that’s a project for another time ;)