Show HN: Show last Git push on an e-paper device

Show HN: Show last Git push on an e-paper device(github.com)

31 points by napsy 5 years ago | 37 comments

martin_a 5 years ago |

€ 899 is absurdly expensive for this device. As much as I'd love to play with non-intrusive "low-dynamic" displays, this is just too expensive.

https://www.visionect.com/product/place-and-play-13/

trok 5 years ago | |

I was excited, until I found out how much it costs..

For some time I have been looking a small screen that would be used for displaying various information. However, I don't want to build the hardware myself as I feel that the result might not be safe for 24/7 usage.

I've been checking digital photo frames, but have not found any solution which would allow updating the image directly and without requiring reverse engineering of an app or the device itself.

erenst 5 years ago | | |

Inkplate[1] might be a good option for around 100€. Compared to Joan it's less polished. You can get 3d printed case and it requires some coding (it doesn't support rendering HTML).

I'm working on a personal dashboard for the screen. I'll create a website in React and then use rendertron[2] to get the screenshot on the Inkplate.

[1] https://inkplate.io/ [2] https://github.com/GoogleChrome/rendertron

nathan_f77 5 years ago | | |

I've been using a first-generation iPad a digital photo frame. I use the LiveFrame [1] app, which still supports very old versions of iOS (9.5).

The iPad had just been sitting in my closet for a few years, since I couldn't update it to the latest version of iOS, and most apps stopped supporting it. I was about to throw it away before I had one last attempt at doing something useful with it. I'm really glad I found the LiveFrame app and was able to get it working.

It also has a web browser that can display almost any webpage (although it would probably struggle with the latest CSS features.) So you could show a dashboard web page to display some information.

I would recommend looking on eBay to see if there are any cheap iPads or Android tablets.

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/liveframe/id860372559

MrGilbert 5 years ago | | |

I built a small program which takes input from HomeAssistant (a smart home self-hostable platform) and draws it over some stills I extracted from this video [1] (with night/day change). The frame I'm using has a built-in FTP server, so a small Homeserver (which I'm running anyways) is used to upload the image to the frame in regular intervalls.

That was my take on it, after I got rid of my iPad - I used it as a display, and after 1.5 years of constantly being plugged in, the battery suddenly decided to inflate.

//Edit: This is the frame I'm using: https://www.dragontouch.com/digital-picture-frame-classic10

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KXGZAEWzn0

napsy 5 years ago | | |

Finding cheaper solutions is tricky. I myself am not that strong in electronic engineering, so assembling my own small device is a no-go for me. But yes it would definitely be possible with a small LCD and rpi.

schwartzworld 5 years ago | | |

Honestly, your cheapest bet is to buy a used Kindle. Serve your information as a web page over your WiFi and access it using the built in web browser.

kzrdude 5 years ago | |

I was dreaming of making a 30" e-paper stellar/planetary map wall display, until I realized the cost of these.

martin_a 5 years ago | | |

That's kind of what I'm thinking about. I want a large "slow" display on the office wall to show me statistics, calendar entries and whatnot for our team. Don't want to attach a bright, shining display to the wall if the information only changes twice a day or so.

napsy 5 years ago | |

I agree, it's expensive if you compare the price to an LCD. But as this is e-paper technology with completely different use cases, the manufacturing costs are still high. Keep in mind that, currently, e-paper is not a substitute for classic LCD panels.

Where e-paper shines for me is very low battery consumption. For example, the mentioned device can hold up to 6 months without a single battery recharge and is completely wireless.

martin_a 5 years ago | | |

Amazon can somehow put those displays in a Kindle for what... 90€? Maybe they have some mix-calculation going on with book sales, but in comparison a Kindle should cost around 400-500€ when looking at those numbers here.

bergie 5 years ago | | |

WaveShare has e-paper modules between 5" and 7" costing around 50 EUR. You can drive them either from a Raspberry Pi or a ESP8266 microcontroller.

We're using a small one as an instrument panel on our boat https://github.com/meri-imperiumi/dashboard#readme

some1else 5 years ago | |

You might prefer the 6-inch Joan Home device[1] (€ 249). It runs a productivity app[2], but the hardware and software stack is by the same company.

1: https://getjoan.com/shop/joan-home/

2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lRFsbLFUKk

schwartzworld 5 years ago | | |

Cute bezel, but for not much more you can get a full Android 10 tablet with an eink screen.

And for like $220 less you can get a whiteboard and take 30 seconds to write your meeting times on it.

martin_a 5 years ago | | |

Yeah, that might be nice for some people, just give me a 13" display with a HDMI input. I'll figure the rest out.

robocollab 5 years ago | |

If you'd like a cheaper alternative (and don't mind a little DIY) I wrote a library that lets you render HTML onto low cost ePaper displays using a Raspberry Pi.

https://github.com/samsonmking/epaper.js

longchiwen 5 years ago |

Looks like there is some space left for branch name and commit date :)

napsy 5 years ago | |

I try to keep it minimum. But I really want to focus on the stats, so maybe more details about the branch should be interesting to follow.

GTG 5 years ago |

I love your approach to change tracking - so frictionless and no additional distractions (like the additional back-light of the LCDs)

napsy 5 years ago | |

Yes, I don't even notice it's there until there is a change and the screen blinks a bit. To maybe reference another comment, this is why I also like e-paper, no backlight needed, just an external source of light, like the Sun ;)

jswny 5 years ago |

A bit ironic that a webhook for GitLab is hosted on GitHub. Any reason behind that?

chrismorgan 5 years ago | |

My guess would be that napsy uses a private GitLab instance at work, doesn’t use gitlab.com, and does have a GitHub account.

napsy 5 years ago | | |

Hello, author here. That's totally correct, I use gitlab and that is the reason why gitlab and not github. I wanted to track the commits and the number of lines added/deleted per commit and my 6" e-ink device was kind of perfect for the job, sitting next to my monitor :)

searchableguy 5 years ago | |

Better SEO and discoverability, likely.

mhh__ 5 years ago | |

KISS?