Phones can be distracting objects if you’re not an enlightened master of the mental arts. Even just reading an email or glancing at your calendar can get you caught up checking other apps and notifications and waste your time. [Paul Lagier] built a device to eliminate this problem by showing him critical information right on his desk.
The device is based around an off-the-shelf Waveshare ESP32 board which packs in a small 8×8 RGB LED matrix on one side. It’s a neat way to get an LED project up and running quickly, but [Paul] noted that it didn’t look that great out of the box. He had to experiment with some different solutions for diffusing the light, eventually wrapping the board in a 3D printed housing with a black grid to separate the light output from each LED to make a clear pixelated display.
The ESP32’s wireless connectivity comes in handy, because it’s able to query web services for [Paul’s] calendar and other useful data. The user interface is minimal—you merely flip the housing into a different orientation to display different information, relying on the onboard QMI8658 6-axis sensor. The main display shows [Paul’s] calendar in 15 minute blocks so he can keep track of meetings without having to open his phone. Shaking the device in this mode will display the events as scrolling text. There’s also an ambient mode that looks pretty, and a pairing mode for setting up the wireless connectivity.
The great thing about modern electronic hardware is that it’s very easy to produce productivity aids like this to suit your own lifestyle.
Continue reading “Compact Calendar Display Reduces Phone Dependency”
The build uses a pair of stepper motors to control the hands, a simple choice for accurate and reliable motion control. A Microchip PIC18F24J50 serves as the brains of the operation, chosen for its built-in RTC module and the fact that it has plenty of IO for controlling stepper motors. The built-in RTC is programmed with calendar information for the next 100 years, so there is no need to adjust the clock for leap years on the regular. The top hand of the wall calendar is driven in an arc to show days of the month, from 1 to 31. The bottom hand similarly steps through the 7 days of the week. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of retrograde hands, they’re simply hands that sweep in an arc instead of moving in a whole continuous circle.
