E-paper Tide Clock Easy To Mistake For Art Print On The Wall

[Stephen B.] kickstarted a MicroPython board. When he got it, he was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked great. His jaded soul balmed with a good experience, he found himself armed with a tool in search of a project. Then he remembered something that had stuck with him, which was a tide clock.

He lives 70 miles from the sea, but his stepmother had a birthday coming up. She went swimming daily, so he had his excuse to build. Unlike his inspiration project, a bunch of seven segment LEDs would not be received well by a technically disinclined stepmother with a well decorated home. So, instead of those, he went with an epaper display. It looks great.

He wanted to use the Kindle display to save money, but the weird power levels needed scared him off. He spent a bit more on a module, but it was probably worth it in time savings. Micropython board, an RTC, a battery, and e-paper display in hand, he had everything needed to build the clock but aesthetics.

Luckily a local frame shop entertained him by letting him pick up frames until he could find one that fit. He put a nice shoreline print together, installed the devices into the frame, and ended up with a really good looking clock. Sure it only tells time four times a day, but that’s enough if you live a life by the sea.

23 thoughts on “E-paper Tide Clock Easy To Mistake For Art Print On The Wall

    1. No it wasn’t my intention – I just wanted a deep frame so I could hide the electronics in it. I’d also thought about making a frame by hand, but then decided I’d buy a nicely made one for the improved look. I’m not a great finisher (in either sense).

  1. Tides are of particular importance in that town. Wiki: Originally, Walton was a farming village situated miles inland. Over the centuries large quantities of land were lost to the sea due to coastal erosion. The mediaeval village of Walton now lies nine miles out to sea with its old church finally succumbing in July 1798.

    1. A while back I saw Kindle replacement screen sized e-ink screens for about $50. If I could afford to ruin a few figuring out the pinout and messing around with the correct logic, but I don’t have the burning money, and I have found no documentation on any e-ink except the hyper expensive dev kits.
      Hey e-ink/e-paper neat tech, do you wonder why e-ink displays are still only found in a few places? Make the dev kits cheap and expand your markets.

      1. Ok, lets elaborate it a little bit more. I thought about these P.O.S. price displays. In theory they have everything to make a nice wall display: something wireless for communication and working low power. Just tinker with them and see where it will end… found not much on the web.

        Sadly here in Russia they cost me more than half a year of my vodka supply and that’s unacceptable.

    2. $US66 for the 4.41″ pervasive display module he used.
      $US56 for a 4.3″ waveshare module.

      Both are modules, so they handle all the analog stuff. I’ve used the waveshare module. It provides an adequate API for drawing. I’m building a similar weather display (but not in a frame). The waveshare module can only repaint the whole screen, so that refresh can be very annoying.

      1. Yes!

        And ESL labels with epaper, about 230×90 resolution, wireless connection (433 MHZ), power supply (coin cell) etc etc go for less then 10 bucks in alibaba.

        This looks soooo hackable and is sooo far away.

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