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NikxDa
rolfus
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.
leokennis
Love those weather icons. Personality in software design is underrated.
rolfus
Thanks! I intentionaly made the weather symbols somewhat "childlike" to give it some personality and also make it obvious that it's a custom device, and not some off the shelf gadget. Works well as a conversation starter!
TurdF3rguson
I need to know why the opposite of 'rain' is 'yo'.
embedding-shape
Seems the sun is the one saying "yo", perhaps as a form of a greeting as it was raining the days before?
I'm just guessing, but I think it might simply just be for fun :)
Dban1
yo it's time to go out!
rolfus
The sun is greeting you! I drew these freehand, kind of quickly. And while I personally like the style and think it's a good fit for us, I did intend to make several sets of weather icons. At the very least I need to make the sun symbols adapt to the seasons - we don't really have a full sun during the darkest months of the year where I live.
encrypted_bird
OpenMeteo is pretty amazing too, and doesn't require an account or API key, which is nice.
firesteelrain
I incorporated OpenMeteo into a project recently and got frustrated with their aggressive rate limiting. If in the US, weather dot gov has an excellent, free API. Or, OpenWeatherAPI which works internationally and has support for more things that weather dot gov does not. OpenWeatherAPI will also synthetically provide weather data based on their models if there is missing station data
trcf23
Nice! Do you think it would be easy for someone with no hardware experience to build one?
rolfus
Yes, I think so. Electronics prototyping is so accessible now, and there's such a deluge of inspirational projects out there to learn from. YouTube is a gold mine, and I'll leave links to a few channels I follow, below.
If you get an Arduino or Esp32 microcontroller (maybe in one of those starter-kits with various sensors), some breadboards, assorted jumper-cables and a kit with electronic components (resistors, caps) you'll be good to go. A device like a wall clock most likely won't require soldering, since it won't be jostled or moved around much.
Ben Eater: https://www.youtube.com/@BenEater/videos
Paul McWhorter: https://www.youtube.com/@paulmcwhorter/videos
Huy Vector: https://www.youtube.com/@huyvector/videos
I'd also take a look at the other DIY projects that people have linked in this discussion.
tvbusy
If you already have Home Assistant running, I think it should be simple. Most of the time you can buy devices with pins already soldered and it's just the matter of connecting them together. AIs are pretty good with ESPHome configs. You can even take a picture so that they can help you identify the correct pins. Some coding may be required for drawing things on the display though.
deepriverfish
hi I've been interested in doing something like this for myself, what tools and software did you use?
golem14
+1, and have you tried running 2 displays side by side ? That should give you an effective diagonal of 14 inches or so, and for those displays, cutting it in two does not really affect the utility of the display (likely tabular content anyway).
Seems like the author has experimented with 2 kindles side by side.
rolfus
I source most of my components from aliexpress. It's been a while, but these are the components I used:
Microcontroller: FireBeetle 2 ESP32
Display: Generic 10" e-Paper display with driver board included
Timekeeping: DS3231 Real Time Clock Module
Temperature and humidity: BME280 module
Charging: Type-C USB 2S Li-ion BMS
That, along with a breadboard, two 18650 batteries, some resistors and capacitors make up the hardware. I modelled and 3D printed the case. I used the PlatformIO plugin (available for VSCode-based IDEs) for programming and transferring code to the esp32.
Weather API: https://openweathermap.org
For actual firmware I'd take a look at matada's github for inspiration (see the other reply in this thread). My own code isn't of the photogenic sort.
matada_
I built this weather dashboard specifically for colour EPD https://github.com/mt-empty/pi-inky-weather-epd
cweagans
You might be interested in knowing about https://trmnl.com. No affiliation beyond interest in buying a few in the future. They have a 10.3" version in the works.
simonmales
Good thing about trmnl is you can run the entire backend if the company disappears.
undefined
lakid
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
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
Yep, it’s super cheap. I wrote about mine here:: https://franz.hamburg/writing/kindling-e-ink-dashboard.html
Jyaif
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
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 and am thoroughly enjoying my complacent, lazy solution :)
ryanckulp
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)
weakfish
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
hawksley
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.
ryanckulp
thanks for the support and i hear you. a few folks pointed their Boox at TRMNL[1], and we’re finally in the smart home arena now with free 5 min refresh rate for Home Assistant. aiming for JIT refresh by summer.
pointpth
bought trmnl & have been sorely disappointed with the transparency regarding self-hosted options & the availability of functionality. Was led to believe Hanami BYOS was identical to the hosted server. have opened a ticket, have had others voice the same sentiment. I appreciate the effort, but lament the reality of TRMNL & the marketing.
ryanckulp
you can import ~700 plugins from core to Terminus (Hanami build) or the Laravel build in 1 click. maybe you came on board before that was a reality. we and the community have been rapidly developing multiple self hosted servers with all kinds of features and in different frameworks for comfort. in no marketing materials have we ever claimed that OSS clients were the same as the main web app. in fact that’s why we offer a BYOD license for the web app only. we’ve invested hundreds of thousands into open source so that people can get the TRMNL experience without paying us a penny.
woadwarrior01
lol, €17.95 for a Developer "Unlock"[1].
SchemaLoad
That's just a perpetual license to use their hosted server. You are free to use your own self hosted server for free.
silversmith
My solution was to buy a used Samsung tablet with OLED screen, and control the display on with motion sensors. It sits in the hallway, above the keys drawer. The screen is on only when someone's walking nearby, and around eye level when you go pick up the keys. Designed the dashboard based around muted colours on black background, with brights reserved for "hey pay attention to this" data. And most importantly, the screen is not visible from any spot you're likely to stay at for a longer time. As for mounting, I used calipers, 3d printer and some double sided tape. It's not completely seamless, but damn close for ~10% of the effort.
remlov
Would love some details how you enabled controlling the display with motion sensors.
silversmith
The tablet itself runs https://www.fully-kiosk.com/ to display a web dashboard. Fully Kiosk has good Home Assistant integration, including screen on / off controls. I also have a bunch of Sonoff battry operated zigbee motion sensors scattered around the place. Then Home Assistant does what it was meant to do - act as a glue layer between various systems, firing screen control commands to Fully Kiosk as a result of select motion sensors triggering.
Sander_Marechal
What's the software stack? Did you write an app for it? Jailbreak it?
silversmith
No jailbreak necessary - the tablet runs https://www.fully-kiosk.com/, and displays a web dashboard.
The dashboard itself is a react app talking to my Home Assitant instance over a websocket. The heavy lifting of bringing various data sources together is done by HA, I just wrote a react app because it seemed easier than learning to customize HA dashboards to the degree I wanted to.
danielheath
I did a similar thing with a regular backlit computer screen.
It automatically shuts off after 30 seconds of inactivity.
I added a $3 webcam, and use openCV to detect motion. If three consecutive frames (sampled 0.5s apart) are each sufficiently difficult from the previous one, it attaches a virtual USB mouse, then moves it one pixel.
This wakes up the display whenever you walk past, then puts it back to sleep again when you stop moving.
The motion-detection pipeline uses less than 0.3% CPU on an intel N100 (6w TDP).
jofzar
You can probably just use a cheap motion sensor instead of the webcam if you wanted to. There so many now
hipjiveguy
If you have some to suggest, I'd love to hear it... TIA!
danielheath
Found a few aliexpress sellers offering LD2410C's, but all cost 30% more than the webcam I used.
neop1x
In Czechia we have LaskaKit which is ESP32-based board with a GoodDisplay e-paper. It works perfectly with ESPHome and Home Assistant. :) https://www.laskakit.cz/en/laskakit-live-7-5-e-paper-stavebn...
ThrowawayR2
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.
hawksley
In my post, I talk about how QHD was not high enough resolution for usable text rendering at 32". The SVD monitor is even lower resolution, just 1080p. I'd love to see a true 4k SVD product but I'm guessing it'd be even more expensive than the Mira Pro.
fanatic2pope
Cool project.
I solved a problem (not really the same problem as this, mind you) for my family using a much older technology. I bought a big pane of glass from the hardware store, built a wooden frame for it with a shelf for an eraser and dry markers.
I hung it up in the kitchen and now when we need to leave "sticky" notes to each other we just write on it. We keep our shopping list on it, we write small poems and draw funny faces. It has become a fun ephemeral space for communicating.
Tons of fun and super cheap to build.
xomiachuna
Cool idea! At some point I was musing about making or buying a dashboard tool like in the post, but over the years I found that I dont actually need the complexity that comes with it.
An analogue communication medium for myself and others is indeed something that might be much more impactful and human-cetric than a smart system.
Thanks for the inspiration!
bongripper
[dead]
chrneu
[flagged]
AuthAuth
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
> 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.
CarlJW
I'll just add this tip for those who struggle with this sort of thing.
I leave the empty basket in front of the machine, which for me happens to be somewhere where I'll pass by frequently until I need to take it out. That keeps it 'in sight, in mind'. Heck you could even put it in the kitchen to remind you.
I don't like the extra complexity that often comes with digital solutions, but I do like having a system. The simpler and less thought required, the better.
I do this for a number of different things. Rather than put it on a list I put it somewhere where it's in the way.
IanCal
But this then means I have to have something on the floor in the way, which I also have to remember to do, and it doesn’t tell me anything about how long is left.
That requires more thought and clutter than just having the information when it’s relevant.
imetatroll
Agreed. This is a great way to handle common chores.
danparsonson
My pro tip is one of my girlfriends scrunchies stolen and put on my wrist - annoys me intermittently and therefore repeatedly reminds me to check the laundry.
AuthAuth
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.
nmcfarl
You know, sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes it does. And also I’ve been known to forget it overnight and wake up to moldy clothes.
I have a friend who will say things like “I have to go at 3” and get up at 3 on the dot without even looking at her watch/phone. I’m not that guy and I need buzzers, timers, and ambient displays all working together anything done at a time.
bigstrat2003
For me it's not the washing machine, it's the dryer. The time remaining reported by the dryer when you start the cycle has almost no relation to how long it will actually take. Sometimes I go down to the basement after an hour (the dryer says 45m when you start it), and it still says 30m remaining. It's not the end of the world of course, but it is annoying, and it's the sort of annoyance technology can solve pretty easily.
letsgethigh
"hey Siri, set timer for washing machine"
bdangubic
but then apple knows about your cycles
bluGill
And the timer goes off when you are in the shower - by the time you are done you forgot about the alarm. (I have more than once stopped an alarm I intended to just snooze)
dewey
Disclaimer: I use Home Assistant too and I'm guilty of all these things.
Home Automation is just a hobby like "productivity" tools or going all in your coffee setup. You tell yourself you are saving energy, or freeing up your mind from remembering mundane tasks but in reality it's just like a model train set.
It's fun to set up, play around and maintain it for some people. If you'd do the math of setting up hundreds of dollars worth of smart appliances, bulbs, hubs and thermostats to tweak your heaters slightly while you are not at home...it will probably take decades to break even, if at all.
542354234235
You are freeing your mind from mundane tasks you don't like, by filling your mind with automation tasks you do like. I find it is a good trade.
boredtofears
Are you telling me that my home assistant enabled humidity sensors in my garden that trigger the arduino hose valve could just be replaced by a watering can??
AuthAuth
I'm just salty squidward watching all the home assistant chads playing with their cool gadgets.
deevus
> All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously.
I'm glad that works for you. My (and my wife's) ADHD brains put these directly into "the void".
xomiachuna
It's a pattern among tech folks to try to solve things with technology.
It is hard to stop yourself from treating every minor inconvenience as nail for which you have a handy hammer, and I find myself overcomplicating things in my life as a result.
The goals are noble but the methods bring a lot of the complexity simply repackaged (and potentially amplified).
IanCal
A healthy relationship with technology isn't the same as not using technology.
> It doesnt seem like any of this would really be useful as you'd have to enter all the useful data manually(calendar).
You have to enter calendar data somewhere, right now I often have the same info or different subset split between my calendar, work ones, my wifes one and the one on the wall. Even the paper version requires having entered the data - more so than the tech based ones because an invitation sent by email now needs to be manually copied over. Or have I misunderstood?
> 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.
This seems odd to me. First just a couple of things
> You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes
1. It takes different amounts of time depending on the load and settings
2. Knowing how long it takes and when to take it out is something the person who put it on knows, but there are different people in this house who can all do either task
3. It's in a place where the beeping is often not heard
But more interestingly is that we're comparing two different approaches. One is
* A note written in a place that washing needs to be taken out if it's not been done.
You describe this as an unhealthy relationship with technology.
Your better solution is
* Work out when a machine will finish its task, remember this
* Wait for the machine to shout at you
* If you don't hear it shouting then keep checking the time to see if it's finished its task
* Make sure you track all of this in your head on top of anything else
This is more healthy? Than a note on the wall that says "change the washing"?
Imagine you started with the typical thing being that you have a note on the wall that says "washing is done" when it's done and the machine itself is silent. I come along and tell you I've got a much better, healthier way of interacting with it - wait for it to make an annoying noise!
AuthAuth
I dont wait for the noise. I dont wait for the washing machine to finish. I put it on and then at some point later in the day I hang it out. No one is struggling to know if the washing machine is on you can hear it.
Spending $1000s on this setup and running it 24/7 is a waste in every regard except hobby enjoyment.
AdamN
A bit OT but if your house is so big that you can't even hear the laundry buzzer it seems like the size of the house itself is a stressor.
IanCal
I just have doors and my house is built well.
embedding-shape
> A bit OT but if your house is so big that you can't even hear the laundry buzzer it seems like the size of the house itself is a stressor.
Huh? I could admit it's a bit of a "good problem to have" but why would it be a stressor?
prforated
You can set an alarm on your phone when it starts like millions of people do instead of spending $2000 overengineering a solution to this "problem".
The fact that people are complaining about the cognitive load and beeping sound when running a washing machine is utterly baffling to me. This goes beyond sheltered "first-world problems". There is something insidious about this about micro-optimising for non-issues, something dystopian.
embedding-shape
> You can set an alarm on your phone
Not all washing machines have static wash times, some (like ours) adjust the time based on what you actually put into it. Not to mention there are like 5-6 different programs we use, who has time to remember kind of how long time each program takes? And it doesn't display how long it'll take until it measured the load, which takes 2-3 minutes.
So instead; chuck in the clothes and cleaning product, put the program, go do other stuff and await for Home Assistant to tell us when it's done. Over-engineered? Nah, just comfortable modern living.
IanCal
I'm not arguing to spend lots of money, I'm saying that this is not an unhealthy tech setup. It's quite clear from this writeup that they either enjoy it or were thinking about selling it, or both, and money does not seem to be a particular concern for them. They even explicitly say it's too much for typical consumers, so they're not trying to sell you on the idea of spending this.
> You can set an alarm on your phone
I don't see "manually setup another bit of technology make an annoying noise" as a nicer or more healthy integration of technology in my life compared to a note written on the wall.
> The fact that people are complaining about the cognitive load and beeping sound when running a washing machine is utterly baffling to me
Perhaps you're reading it in some tone that suggests these are huge issues for people to deal with. I am reading them as just niceties in life. I have tried for some time to practice responding to being baffled with assuming I've not understood something, I think you might be baffled here because you have misinterpreted what people have been saying or not understood their personal issues or how easy it can be to setup some of these things.
Same as the timer on my oven is useful, but I don't need one - I could do it entirely manually right?
I have things setup to notify me if we haven't setup the dishwasher and/or the door has been left open when we head to bed. I'm not in dire need of this and my life was not falling apart at the load of remembering to do it, but it took me less time to add an automation for that than it did to either go and check the dishwasher a few times or clean up bowls in the morning for breakfast by hand. It's caught things a few times, and it's another thing I don't need to keep in my head. I'm not sure why deliberately choosing to increase cognitive load is somehow a good thing, and these things all do build up. I could remember all my appointments and schedules and tasks I need to complete, but calendars and reminders and todo-lists are useful.
jkestner
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.
jon-wood
> All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously.
That’s certainly true for some people, and I envy them. Others of us can easily forget the washing machine was on and needs emptying for anything up to three or four days, running it each day before promptly forgetting to empty it before it needs doing again.
prforated
Why not just use an alarm?
IanCal
It depends if that works for you or not. For some if that alarm goes off while they're in the middle of something they'll either snooze it (now you're getting disturbed more times) or turn it off, perhaps both. This seems quite a bit more intrusive than what is essentially a little todo list that's updated without having to remember to do it.
This also just adds a series of manual steps, along with having tech setup to deliberately get your attention at a time that may not work for you. I'm not sure why this is seen as a nicer solution than having it happen automatically for you.
Peoples brains work in different ways, and they have different lives. Some days I can more calmly go around dealing with things, others I have a very large number of parallel things to do with more interruptions happening as well (two young kids will do that).
embedding-shape
> 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
I'm not sure this is true anymore, first you usually do different programs depending on what you put into it, and modern washing machines also automatically adjust the washing time depending on how much you throw into it, at least our ~2 year old one does, I'm sure others do too.
I basically never know how long time it will take, sometimes it takes 1.5 hours and sometimes 3 hours. Our washing machine is further away from where we can hear the melody, so having a notification appear on the phone when it's done is actually quite handy, at least for our situation.
iso1631
I can't imagine a world where the state of my washing machine is so important that I need to be interrupted to tell me it's done.
embedding-shape
I can't image being so busy that hanging the clothes for 10 minutes could be seen as not important. We all live different lives :)
Besides, the notification is for notifying us, doesn't mean we need to do it within N minutes, it can wait until your Very Important Business Call is over or whatever. As long as it's done before it starts to get overly humid and starts to smell.
abustamam
As mentioned in my other comment [1]
On all settings except timer, my dryer is pretty much useless. I set it to dry my bedsheets and towels with bulky item preset, max dry (who chooses minimum dry for anything?) and it'll say it'll take 1h30m, ends up taking 30 minutes, and everything is still wet, despite it having a "dryness sensor"
I've just started using the timer function on the dryer and it's been mostly accurate, plus or minus a few minutes perhaps.
Fortunately, we usually just throw clothes in the dryer before bed, so we don't need a system to remind us when it's done — if it's not done by morning time then we probably need a new dryer!
jp1016
The insight that a blank status area means "the house is healthy" is the best part of this whole project imo. Most smart home dashboards try to show you everything all the time and you just end up tuning it all out. This is basically the opposite approach and it makes way more sense for something you glance at 50 times a day.
I tried something similar with a Kindle a few years back for just weather + calendar and ran into the same jailbreak maintenance hell. Ended up giving up. The Visionect displays look great but $1000+ per screen is brutal. Curious if the author has looked at the Waveshare e-paper panels driven by an ESP32, they're like $40-80 for a 7.5" screen and you can do partial refreshes. Obviously way smaller than the Boox but might work as a cheaper bedroom/mudroom option for people who want to build something like this without spending $3k.
j45
Same experience, the job of the display is to help manage attention, instead of information delivery.
If we think about paper calendars hung on a wall, and updated sporatically we know what's there is likely good information, only that it might not be up to date.
If a calendar can be calm by default, surface what's changed or newly relevant, and fade when it resolves. The next level could be understanding who's attention something needs, and when, in a personalized way.
hinkley
Information radiators are basically 80% of the reason I try to keep tabs on wireless power delivery. Then a Kia and Hyundai vendor thought they were going to get their wireless charging added to the EV6 and Ioniq vehicles and that’s the other 20%. Essentially they removed the transformer from the PSU and moved it to the air gap between the charging coil and the vehicle to halve the parasitic losses. You’d have a car you didn’t even need to plug in.
I’ve been following Information Radiators since practically the beginning, and wiring has always been one of its problems. First networking and now power. In homes, but also in office spaces. The best locations for radiators are often the worst for wiring.
And eInk displays move the needle because you have a device that can go completely to sleep between updates, which means it can trickle charge.
tecoholic
Really happy to see e-paper home dashboards as a thing. Last month or so I saw a Melbourne public transport one, which showed times of the next tram/bus.
We tried something like this using the iPad when we moved to a new country with one year old, because there was so much to figure out and track, it felt impossible. Now after a year, it’s gone and things are more internalised.
That’s my main concern with spending time and money building something like this. We thought about everything from commercial displays, Raspberry PI and e-Paper to finally just buying a 10$ wall mount for IPad. After sometime it becomes redundant as routine is formed.
If the author happens to read this, do tell us how have you found the motivation to keep using this? Doesn’t it get redundant after a point? I get adding new information and adapting routines around can be a factor, but people don’t really change that much
samspot
I envy your life of peaceful routine. For me every evening is a trip into the unknown. Sure some things repeat on the same days. But there is always something new. This week the one I'm aware of is daily Soccer tryouts. I have to check my spouse's paper calendar every day to keep up.
tecoholic
I wouldn't call my life "peaceful routine" :D But the moving parts are limited for sure. I don't have multiple kids whose routines need to be synced with mine. Maybe that's the point I would have this mounted on a wall.
bengale
I’m always surprised how much people seem to want to constantly know the weather.
maccard
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.
gbalduzzi
Yes, but it's the kind of information you need once a day on average and you are good to go.
Instead you find it placed on your smartphone homescreen, on the smartwatch, on the home dashboard, on a notification you receive every morning, on your car screen, on your computer, ... I don't need to see it constantly.
Personally I believe it is something that it is easy to integrate and that users don't perceive as useless, but 99% of the time doesn't add any value
hmokiguess
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.
pegasus
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.
riston
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.
electronvolt
Yeah, I bike regularly on and off (season/mood/goals dependent, honestly), and knowing what I should expect on my commute to work /and/ back is important... and not something I can predict without looking at the weather in the morning.
Exoristos
Strong correlation with those who go outside.
SchemaLoad
HN users baffled then
spiralcoaster
Seems like if you were going outside often, you wouldn't need an e-ink display to tell you the weather because you'd be outside... experiencing it
mailund
Depending on where you live, if you're the type of person who spend most of the day away from home, having some understanding of the weather to expect throughout the day is very useful for not experiencing the weather too much.
Very useful to know if it's likely to rain or be windy, and the highs and lows. I might be leaving at noon when it's comfortable and warm outside, but I might be coming home needing a thick jacket and an umbrella. If I'm already outside experiencing the sudden rainstorm and my umbrella is at home, it doesn't really matter that it wasn't raining when I left home many hours ago.
IanCal
That's the weather right now. I want to know what the weather will be like through the day and across days. I'd rather do something else in the morning, however if it's ok now and going to rain in two hours, I'll get everyone outside now and do the inside job later. Is it going to clear up soon and I should wait 10 minutes or get worse and I should be getting out right now? Should we put off the march through the woods until tomorrow when it's nicer or do it today because this is the nicest day we'll have this week? Should my wife cycle to the gym? It's ok now but if it's going to be torrential in 15 minutes that'll suck.
542354234235
The same reason you use a calendar, to plan for the future. I can see the weather right now, but to plan, I want to know the weather in an hour, this afternoon, tomorrow, this weekend. When I am getting ready at 5am, I want to know if I can bike to work, and bike home in the afternoon, without getting rained on. If I'm thinking about weekend plans, should it be kayaking or board games? The weather affects those choices and having an unobtrusive way to just be aware of the future weather is nice to have.
tcoff91
There’s a lot of places where the weather can suddenly change. People want to know if it’s about to start pouring rain in a couple hours despite looking nice right now.
In Colorado the weather shifts are jarring and sudden.
taitems
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
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?
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.
AdamN
Sunscreen for the face should just be daily. My dermatologist recommends it even in Berlin in the Winter.
And then, this is most critical, use mineral or at least creamy sunscreen (sprays barely do anything) and put it on a few minutes before sun exposure - not when you start feeling it.
Agree that the UV index is not particularly useful - it's kind of obvious. Still good to know though.
croes
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.
yellowapple
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.
ojagodzinski
~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 ;)
binarysneaker
Next time you decide to post something so snarky, maybe remember where you are. This is hackernews, people experiment and build things. Not always for the right reasons, and that's fine. If you don't like it, just move along. There's plenty of people, myself included, that are thankful for posts like this.
unpopularopp
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)
itsananderson
As someone whose spouse knits, it gave me a chuckle to see knitting mentioned as a low-cost hobby :)
ReaderOfRunes
This is just unnecessarily mean-spirited and unconstructive
bob001
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
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?
bluGill
I have my phone as well. However the screen is where I'm most likely to need that information anyway. And the screen information density is much better than the phone.
I have the apps on my phone. I use them, and at times they are great - but they are not a perfect solution. (though I agree that $3000 for a system is too much)
estearum
... do you think people who would install a device like this are leaving their phones at home when they go out?
ojagodzinski
- pick up phone (unlock done automatically via face/finger/location)
- swipe finger to the right to show weather OR swipe finger to the left to show callendar
Android widgets show me much more information about weather and calendar view than these monitors (and are free: weawow https://weawow.com/i/app-download + google callendar).
galleywest200
Alternative: just keep your phone on your charger in your room and declutter your life by using just the one screen in the kitchen.
lloydatkinson
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
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
yellowapple
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.
dave_sid
It’s more than that. Anything like this that takes me away from constantly checking my phone, and can be glanced at by the whole family is better.
pc86
Plenty of elderly people have the aptitude to use a smart phone. It's shockingly ageist to assume that old == inept.
misnome
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
"For those who lack the technical aptitude" > Well but many people do have the aptitude!
jaygreco
I really like epaper displays for all of the reasons mentioned in the article. Shame the patent locks continue to keep prices high even though the core technology has improved enough for prices to drop.
A few years ago I came into a couple of e-ink displays that had been previously used for storefront/product pricing. The hardware to drive them was locked down but I was able to reverse engineer the panel by finding a datasheet that was close enough and hacking up an adafruit thinkink. I had a lot of fun writing my own driver/abstraction layer. I originally intended to support a bunch of different panels but ran out of steam after the first one did exactly what I wanted.
sockbot
https://soldered.com/collections/inkplate-e-paper-displays/p...
Inkplate devices are a great entry point. They're recycled Kindle displays with an ESP32.
mfld
Agree. I used a color e-ink to display my son's school timetable (previously discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42408546), and it has been running reliably for 18 months, with charging needed every 4-5 months. I note that the author (cool project!) also earlier took the route of displaying websites as PNGs.
a2dam
I have one of these for this exact purpose and it's amazing, really underrated. Makes me want a bigger one for sure, though.
lukebuehler
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-
> 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.
jareklupinski
> It has a powerful function: if the status on the display is blank, the house is in a “healthy” state and does not need any attention. This approach of only showing what information is relevant in a given moment flies right in the face of how most smart homes approach communicating their status
the best user experience is sometimes no experience
bluGill
Depends - my family almost always has events coming up for something, so there is always something that needs attention in the next couple days. The display has no idea when I look at it if I'm asking "is there anything tonight" - that is things where the answer is sometimes no; or if I'm asking what is planned for the rest of the week.
Likewise there are always chores. Cleaning the litter box is daily, but in the rare case where everything that must be done is done there are things like washing windows that can wait a few months but if I have time...
It is also useful to put a clock on this display - computers are accurate unlike the battery powered things you have on the wall. (though it is a matter of taste if this is worth it...)
And at least where I live I always need to know the weather for the day (if storms are expected it might be deadly to ride my bike to work even though it is fine now).
Sure knowing the temperature and relative humidity in the house isn't really useful if the system is working correct. Though it does settle some arguments so it is worth having anyway.
jareklupinski
the litter box user experience uses a different sense to signal intent than sight ;)
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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.