README.md

display-thing

A simple picture frame thing that sits on your desk.

Project Hardware

• Microcontroller: Waveshare Universal e-Paper Raw Panel Driver Board
• Display: Waveshare 7.5inch e-Paper HAT (800x480)
• Frame: IKEA RÖDALM (13x18 cm)

Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

• Python 3.7 or later
• PlatformIO

Python Environment Setup

It is recommended to set up a Python virtual environment to isolate the project dependencies from your system Python installation:

Note

Python is used in this project to gzip compress the HTML pages for the web interface.

If you choose not to use a virtual environment, you can install the dependencies globally, but this may interfere with other Python projects on your system.

# Create a virtual environment (recommended)
python3 -m venv venv

# Activate the virtual environment
# On Linux/macOS:
source venv/bin/activate
# On Windows:
venv\Scripts\activate

Building and Uploading

Building the project:

pio run

Uploading firmware to the ESP32:

pio run --target upload --environment esp32dev

Monitoring the serial output:

pio run --target monitor --environment esp32dev

Uploading and monitoring afterward in one step:

pio run --target upload --target monitor --environment esp32dev

Font Licensing and Attribution

This project uses fonts from the GNU FreeFont project, including FreeMonoBold and FreeMonoBoldOblique in various sizes. These fonts are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) v3. See src/fonts/COPYING for the full license text.