Description
After becoming an uncle we were confronted with a huge number of pictures. Already before that I have thought about making an e-paper picture frame, however I was not sure if I could manage the needed software. This time I saw a ready product that one could use and I decided to rebuild it.
Project summary
In this project I took inspiration from Pimoroni Inky screen and redesigned it for my needs. My aim was to have an uSD-card with the images on it, it should be battery powered and simple to use. The resulting driver board is versatile and the end design looked nice.
My responsibilities
PCB design and component selection
CAD design for the display holder
3d printing and assembly
Software development
Results
The PCBs I ordered from PCBway who kindly sponsored the PCBA. That helped a lot since the e-paper displays are already very expensive and adding the PCBA costs would have been slightly too much for me.
For the driver design I used the Pimoroni design and adjusted it. I removed some unnecessary connections and added the possibility for another display(s). I consulted the Waveshare datasheets and was able to build the driver. The end design was larger than I thought it would be, however it is still smaller than the display itself, thus not too bad.
The software was mainly available, making the implementation simpler than first anticipated. Still, it took some trials to get everything working.
I find the e-paper displays very appealing and the hardware turned out very nice. The images are pixels, not so crisp as on a phone screen, nevertheless they look like on a paper. In the end I like the look and feel and that is most important. To sum up, I'm happy with the project outcome.
Description
After becoming an uncle we were confronted with a huge number of pictures. Already before that I have thought about making an e-paper picture frame, however I was not sure if I could manage the needed software. This time I saw a ready product that one could use and I decided to rebuild it.
Project summary
In this project I took inspiration from Pimoroni Inky screen and redesigned it for my needs. My aim was to have an uSD-card with the images on it, it should be battery powered and simple to use. The resulting driver board is versatile and the end design looked nice.
My responsibilities
PCB design and component selection
CAD design for the display holder
3d printing and assembly
Software development
Results
The PCBs I ordered from PCBway who kindly sponsored the PCBA. That helped a lot since the e-paper displays are already very expensive and adding the PCBA costs would have been slightly too much for me.
For the driver design I used the Pimoroni design and adjusted it. I removed some unnecessary connections and added the possibility for another display(s). I consulted the Waveshare datasheets and was able to build the driver. The end design was larger than I thought it would be, however it is still smaller than the display itself, thus not too bad.
The software was mainly available, making the implementation simpler than first anticipated. Still, it took some trials to get everything working.
I find the e-paper displays very appealing and the hardware turned out very nice. The images are pixels, not so crisp as on a phone screen, nevertheless they look like on a paper. In the end I like the look and feel and that is most important. To sum up, I'm happy with the project outcome.
Here is the link to my Instructable description
