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.

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

Have you found a battery for this that might make it fit well in a 3d printed case?

Thanks for the tip, I will check it out. :)

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

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

That's something what I've been looking for. Never thought about possibility of frame having ftp server..

Hopefully the product is not discontinued as the good ones usually are, when i discover something cool.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

yeah those are subsidized devices

Right, Kindles presumably have a high attachment rate (owners buy more ebooks) so Amazon can subsidize based on that attachment rate, and also the base model Kindle prices include direct advertising subsidization. (Check the "without ads" SKUs prices for something somewhat more comparable.)

Don't forget too many of the screen prices above are essentially single screen "retail" prices and Amazon would likely have better bulk wholesale prices worked out in their supply chains.

Clearly making a loss with me then. Sorry, Amazon! :-)

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

Nice project! Yes they are indeed cheaper. It's really up to your taste. The device I'm using is already in a casing and comes with a sophisticated software that can render any modern HTML5 on the device with full JS support.

Like say, running Firefox on a raspberry pi?

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

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.

Something like this perhaps?

https://laughingsquid.com/plotclock-a-robotic-clock-that-wri...

Do you have any information on that 10" tablet with E-Ink?

Is that other thing 10"? My bad, the one I was thinking of us 7".

https://www.boox.com/

Edit: sorry I meant it runs Android 10, not is 10"

It's interesting anyway, thanks!

edit: And there's a 10 inch version, too.

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

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