ePaper Panel in Home Assistant | Seeed Studio Wiki

[giscus[bot]]

ePaper Panel in Home Assistant | Seeed Studio Wiki

The XIAO ESP32C3-powered 7.5-inch E-Ink Display is a compact, energy-efficient solution for showcasing Home Assistant data.

https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/xiao_075inch_epaper_panel/

[sprior]

This is cool. Programming this with ESPHome would be so much better if the LVGL support in ESPHome could be used, but unfortunately it currently doesn't support less than 16 bit displays.

[danielkidd01]

NOTE !!! the code it generated for the samples - the pins are not correct , it builds, flashes, look like it communicates but the factory display remains (static on 1 page, doesn't show different pages). I changed all the pin assignments to match the ones shown in the screen shot(not downloaded code) for the hello world. Then it worked

[danuw]

It looks updated in the code but unpublished? Any idea when that will be published as this is definitely confusing,...

[danuw]

... please

[Allen-Kuang]

It has been published now. There might be a short delay from the update to the publish. Please remember to refresh your browser～

[scator69]

What are the correct pins please

[Allen-Kuang]

It has been updated in wiki, please click here have a try~

[danuw]

Great tutorial (especially because this is cleverly chosen so it can be reproduced with very little changes).

First thoughts though:

• some buttons may have been useful (even just 1 or 2, so it is possible to force a refresh even while in deep sleep - unless a reset does that?)
• is there a sensor that can be used to get the battery level please? (would be good to both display and track on a graph over time please)

[Allen-Kuang]

Great ideas. We'll add these functions in the next version. Thank you~

[craiglindsay]

I totally second the idea of a soft button that causes a refresh. I intend to use this as a display for a chore list for my kid. It really only needs to refresh when the list changes, which I can easily trigger when updating the list. So aside from the changes, it would likely only need to refresh once a day to display the list and then at when the chores are done, refresh to show the completed list.

[Allen-Kuang]

It's a very valuable suggestion. We've taken them down. Thank you~

[danielkidd01]

Note if nothing displaying for the comprehensive example - Check in puppet logs if it wants a access token key - in which case go to your profile, Security and create a long lived token to add into puppet configuration - access token.

[Allen-Kuang]

Thank you for the reminder. This part has been supplemented.

[olawalebotcmd]

getting an error with invert_alpha: true, it is complaining about indent. thank you

[Allen-Kuang]

I met this problem before and fixed it by updating my ESPHome.

[olawalebotcmd]

Thanks very much for all your hard work and help

[jdtimothy]

I need help getting the display to pull a new image every time the screen refreshes. the image: component only pulls the image the first time you run the code. It successfully pulls an image of my Home Assistant dashboard once, but then never updates again. I have also tried the online_image component, but that only displays a blank white screen.

[Allen-Kuang]

I've already updated it. You can give it a try now ~

[wolfspirituk]

This is so close to what I wanted - but WiFi kills it. 3 months with 6hrly update! OK for weather maybe - but not most information.
The form factor is great, but I'd want a Zigbee or BLE connected display. Maybe a LoRa module?
e.g. Take messages but with configurable timetable. Mesages only needed at certain times.
Maybe a way of attaching solar cell? Maybe bigger batter?
Def a battery level warning.
Keep up the good work

[wolfspirituk]

Oh yes - a button or 2. One could be programmed to do an "update me" request!

[craiglindsay]

The button could be triggered by a motion detector, so the thing doesn't update at all when someone isn't around looking at it perhaps.
I would think that could extend battery life quite a bit. I would also bet you could fit a larger battery in this. It is just a 3d printed case at this stage, so if the case were made available as an STL, it would be a quick mod to enlarge it to accommodate a larger Mah battery.

[Allen-Kuang]

Thank you very much for your valuable suggestions. We now have a plan for a screen series, which will include a LoRa module, an update button and a bigger battery. Please pay attention to us～

[wolfspirituk]

Fabulous!

[photogphred]

Just got this and trying to program it. I have the boards installed and trying to run the Clock demo. But I don't see Seeeduino XIAO ESP32C3 listed anywhere. What am I missing?

[Allen-Kuang]

I hope you have installed the right board. If you're not sure, please click here to check about that.

It will show like the below image.

[justinledwards]

Has anyone come up with a good way to list events from a single calendar with esphome on the current version? I've seen some convoluted (reflashing on an interval) or no longer supported methods (python_script) online.

[Allen-Kuang]

Wow, that's awesome! thumbs up for you！

[hugo1906]

I can't get the calendar setup to work. it just shows the title calendar and nothing else

[DJBenson]

I took a different approach for multi-events from the same calendar and made a template sensor in HA which formats the data which is then just read verbatim into the code in ESPHome.

  action:
    - service: calendar.get_events
      target:
        entity_id: calendar.family
      data:
        duration:
          days: 3
      response_variable: agenda

    - variables:
        events: "{{ agenda['calendar.family']['events'] }}"
  sensor:
    - name: "Upcoming Events"
      unique_id: upcoming_events
      icon: mdi:calendar-star
      state: "{{ events | count }}"
      attributes:
        events: >
          {%- set ns = namespace(last_day='') -%}
          {%- set today = now().date() -%}
          {%- set tomorrow = (now() + timedelta(days=1)).date() -%}
          {%- for e in events | sort(attribute='start') %}
            {%- set event_date = (e.start | as_datetime).date() -%}
            {%- if event_date == today %}
              {%- set day_label = "Today" %}
            {%- elif event_date == tomorrow %}
              {%- set day_label = "Tomorrow" %}
            {%- else %}
              {%- set day_label = (e.start | as_datetime).strftime('%A %d %B') %}
            {%- endif %}
            {%- if day_label != ns.last_day %}
            {{ '\n' if not loop.first else '' }}{{ day_label }}
              {%- set ns.last_day = day_label %}
            {%- endif %}
          {{ (e.start | as_datetime).strftime('%H:%M') }} - {{ (e.end | as_datetime).strftime('%H:%M') }} - {{ e.summary }}
          {%- endfor %}

Then in the ESPHome config;

text_sensor:
  - platform: homeassistant
    id: upcoming_events_text
    entity_id: sensor.upcoming_events
    attribute: "events"

...and...

        // Draw upcoming events from single text_sensor
        std::string raw_events = id(upcoming_events_text).state;
        int y_offset = 80;
        int x_offset = 460;
        size_t start = 0;
        size_t end;

        while ((end = raw_events.find('\n', start)) != std::string::npos) {
          std::string line = raw_events.substr(start, end - start);
          if (!line.empty()) {
            it.printf(x_offset, y_offset, id(sensor_font_smaller), "%s", line.c_str());
            y_offset += 30;
            if (y_offset > 420) break;
          }
          start = end + 1;
        }

        // Handle last line (if no trailing newline)
        if (start < raw_events.length()) {
          std::string line = raw_events.substr(start);
          if (!line.empty() && y_offset <= 420) {
            it.printf(x_offset, y_offset, id(sensor_font_smaller), "%s", line.c_str());
          }
        }

Which looks like this;

[Allen-Kuang]

wow, cooool~

[danielkidd01]

Hi, @DJBenson - I'm interested in your example - does the code all go into the one file (like the sample project), or are there other files on HomeAssistant you edit? Many thanks.

[hugo1906]

I can't get the calendar setup to work. it just shows the title calendar and nothing else

[hugo1906]

ePaper Panel in Home Assistant

[Allen-Kuang]

Please follow below steps to check you demo~

1. Add “Local Calendar” in “Integration”.
2. When you create a new calendar, you need to give it a name, for example “aaa”, please remember this name, you will use it later.
3. When you want to get the state info of “aaa” calendar in ESPHome, you need to use the “entity_id:calendar.aaa”. If you want to get the attribute info, you need to use “attribute: xxx”.
   

If it still doesn’t work, could you provide more detail info? Like the screenshots and the steps you bulid the demo?

[riclun80]

I have the red (charge) LED light constantly on, even when the unit is on battery power only (with switch in on). Is this normal?
I presume that will discharge the battery quickly. So, is there any way to switch this LED off, or is it a mistake in the hardware?
I guess that light belongs to the "XIAO ESP32C3" 's built-in battery charging circuit, and that the battery management of the "ePaper Breakout Board" supplies its battery voltage to the VDD_5V pin on the ESP32C3, making it believe it has a normal power supply, and so indicating power for charging.

[L81ker]

The switch "on" enables charging from the micro USB port. LED lit shows it in that position.

When not charging or programming it, set that switch off. I noticed that if mine is set for deep sleep 60 mins and wake up 30s, and the switch off then it's not updating the display.

@Allen-Kuang could you describe a bit more the function and behaviour of the switch please?

[Allen-Kuang]

Hi riclun80. This light is actually the operation indicator light of the XIAO ESP32C3, indicating that the device is running. It has nothing to do with charging～

[Allen-Kuang]

Hi L81ker. This switch is used to control the battery. Whether using the battery to power the device or charging the battery, this switch needs to be turned on. So when you want the device to operate, remember to turn on the switch, even if the device is running in deep - sleep mode. Another possible reason for the non - refresh is that the wake - up time is too short. The device goes back to sleep before it has a chance to refresh. You can try changing the time from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

[riclun80]

Hi riclun80. This light is actually the operation indicator light of the XIAO ESP32C3, indicating that the device is running. It has nothing to do with charging～

Are you sure?
This is from the wiki of XIAO ESP32C3:
The XIAO ESP32C3 will not have any LED on when it is battery powered (unless you have written a specific program), please do not judge whether the XIAO ESP32C3 is working or not by the condition of the LED, please judge it reasonably by your program.

[PhyberApex]

Hey I tried my luck to make some changes to the firmware for TRMNL to get this to run as well but my knowledge is very limited. Any chance you might give this a try? I think this would really boost the value of this one!

TRMNL -> https://docs.usetrmnl.com/go/diy/byod

Firmware -> https://github.com/usetrmnl/firmware

It would be awesome if we somehow could get this to be one of the "DIY" implementations of a TRMNL device.

[olawalebotcmd]

Someone may have done it already but no details as of yet. Hoping as more savvy programmers find out about this device we get more options on what this device can do. https://www.reddit.com/r/trmnl/s/vGVBBW85Rs

[Allen-Kuang]

Thank you very much for your attention! We have achieved compatibility with TRMNL. The tutorial is being refined and will be released this month. Please follow our wiki～

[danuw]

Excellent thank you. Please provide more info here when available (link to wiki and other)

[Allen-Kuang]

Hello guys~.
Have already available now, https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/xiao_7_5_inch_epaper_panel_with_trmnl/

[PhyberApex]

Awesome! Might be worth mentioning that you can also run your own server with a BYOS solution then you won't need the BYOD license.

[DJBenson]

I made a very simple mount for this screen which I've used to attach the display to the front of my fridge. The design includes a profile with keyhole mounts for attaching to a wall/door with screws else the flat profile can be used with VHB tape.

https://makerworld.com/en/models/1487711-seeed-studio-xiao-7-5-epaper-panel-wall-mount

[PieterBoeren]

According to the ESPHome docs, (big red warning block, just above the "busy_pin" documentation) the inverted value should be set to true on the busy pin to "permanent display damage". I noticed that this also gets rid of the error message "Timeout while displaying image!" (as seen in the wiki in various console output screenshots).

Should this be added to the WIKI/examples?

Example:

busy_pin:
      number: GPIO4
      inverted: True

[Allen-Kuang]

Yes indeed, I tested it and it works perfectly!
I have updated it to our WIKI. Thank you very much ~

[danuw]

Hi, in case anyone is interested, I updated the panel to have last time updated time at the bottom and black background for ongoing events...

https://github.com/danuw/esphome-configs/blob/epd-seeed/epaper-dashboard.yml

[danuw]

Should look about like that (give or take some minor updates