Hi everyone,
Full disclosure: I am absolutely not a Home Assistant expert, nor an ESP32 guru. But I love soldering, messing around with hardware, and spending my nights tinkering. My journey started with a few Zigbee radiator valves, and now I find myself with a Home Assistant Green and a house full of sensors.
I’ve always loved E-Ink displays, but I could never find a practical use case for one (I even want an E-Ink phone, but I’ll wait until my cheap Android dies!).
That’s why I’ve been working on this project late at night, while my wife and daughters are asleep. To be honest, I am almost certain they will never interact with it. They definitely won’t open a fancy dashboard on their phones or PCs. However, during winter, they always look at our cheap Chinese weather station to check the outdoor temperature. That was my lightbulb moment.
The Project Goals
- Low cost, low power consumption, and rock-solid stability.
- Hardware: Lolin Lite 32 with a battery powering a 4" WeAct E-Paper display.
- The “Terminator-One”: This is my current test board setup.
The Code & The Frame
I didn’t write a single line of this code. AI did it for me. My job is simply trying to give it a sensible layout and form factor for my family’s needs.
Right now, my production board looks a bit messy and is mostly held together by tape, but hey, what can you do? Creating a beautiful, clean frame for a 4" E-Ink display is incredibly hard!
Here are some photos of my “Terminator-One” test setup and the current state of the frame. I would love to hear your thoughts, especially if anyone has tips on making a cleaner DIY enclosure!
