The Idea
Things Needed
Building the Hardware
Software
Action Video
Future Developments
Other Application Ideas
External Resources
Pin Map
Note

Published August 23, 2017 © GPL3+

E-Ink Display Based Static Desktop eCalendar

An electronic desktop calendar based on an E-ink display controlled by TM4C123 Tiva (ARM) development board and programmed in Energia IDE.

BeginnerFull instructions provided2 hours3,526

E-Ink Display Based Static Desktop eCalendar

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Texas Instruments EK-TM4C123GXL TM4C Tiva LaunchPad

200x200, 1.54inch E-Ink display module

SparkFun IOIO Breadboard Holder

AA Batteries

SparkFun Kaplon Tape

4xAA battery holder

USB-A to Micro-USB Cable

USB Female Port

Software apps and online services

Texas Instruments Energia

Arduino IDE

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Hot glue gun (generic)

Hand Drill

Story

The Idea

E-Ink displays are special because they can hold data for ages without any power. Power is only required to change the contents of the display.

Information on the E Ink display without power

These are excellent under sunlight for readability and best choice for static, long cycle, non-changing information like tags, posters, calendars, ebooks, ID cards, etc.

I just got one of these cool displays on hand, so I decided to make a desktop electronic calendar showpiece.

Showcased

Things Needed

I bought this from waveshare. There are example codes there for Arduino, Raspberry Pi and STM32. The problem with regular Arduinos (like Uno) is that it has only 2 kB RAM. Since the display requires buffering for global variables, Uno becomes unstable. I had a TM4C123 Tiva board from TI which can be programmed just like an Arduino in Energia IDE. The good news is it has 32 kB RAM. With slight modification of the code for Arduino provided by waveshare, the thing is up and running.

Things needed

Power for final project

Building the Hardware

First, cuts and holes are made on a rectangular shaped plastic box for cable run, hiding the Tiva Board, placing the display on the front.

Connecting the display with Tiva

Next, hot glue is used to place the box on a Sparkfun Breadboard holder in a tilted position. Then 3AA Battery holder, a power switch and a USB Female port is hot glued for portable on board power option.

Finished product looks like this:

1 / 3 • Front

Software

Energia is just an Arduino clone IDE. Almost everything is the same. The main codes for driving the display are borrowed from the waveshare example for Arduino (this project will work with Arduino Mega). I just made some adjustments to SPI bus initialization and made myself calendar functions. Rest of the part is shock.

Energia IDE the Red Arduino

Action Video

Video demonstrates power up, updating calendar page, power down and information retained on display after unplugging power:

Action Video

Future Developments

There is one problem with any development board (due to debugging circuitry) is the difficulty to reduce current consumption. If a bare Microcontroller is used, its easy to get into sleep mode and save power. That is not the case here, that's why I have made a push power switch for powering the system only when I need to update information on the display. The ideal system should be fully automatic, MCU should wake from sleep periodically (once every month) and update the display automatically.

Maybe more options like:

RTC Clock for TIme

Indoor Weather Info (Temperature/Humidity)

Special Reminder Message

These will make it more cool! Anyways, there is always room for improvement.

Other Application Ideas

Dynamic Poster

Harry Potter's World like Newspaper

Smart Business Card

Info Table at restaurant

Color Changing Car

External Resources

http://energia.nu/reference/spi/

http://energia.nu/pin-maps/guide_tm4c123launchpad/

http://www.waveshare.com/wiki/1.54inch_e-Paper_Module

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper#Electrophoretic

Pin Map

Connection between E-Ink display and Tiva

Note

The display driver required delay between operations, it's a slow-pow thing because there are physical ink particles inside the display need time to settle down.

This project is Arduino compatible (with chips have 2+ kB RAM).

Code

#include <SPI.h>
#include "EPD_drive.h"
#include "EPD_drive_gpio.h"
#include "Display_Lib.h"
int SW1= 17;
int SW2= 31;

int month = 8;
int year = 2017;

WaveShare_EPD EPD = WaveShare_EPD();
void setup() {

  pinMode(CS,OUTPUT);  //  pin 12
   pinMode(DC,OUTPUT);  //  pin 10
   pinMode(RST,OUTPUT); //  pin 09
   pinMode(BUSY,INPUT); //  pin 19
   pinMode(SW1, INPUT_PULLUP);
    pinMode(SW2, INPUT_PULLUP);
// MOSI/DIN is pin 8
// SCK/CLK is pin 11

 // mySPI.beginTransaction(mySPISettings(2000000, MSBFIRST, mySPI_MODE0)); // Use this line if you are using arduino Mega
SPI.begin();
SPI.setModule(0);

// following 3 lines of code is required in Tiva TM4C123, in Arduino Mega remove these 
SPI.setClockDivider(SPI_CLOCK_DIV4);
SPI.setBitOrder(MSBFIRST);
SPI.setDataMode(SPI_MODE0);
     EPD.Dis_Clear_full();

 }

void loop() {
 
    if (digitalRead(SW1)==0|digitalRead(SW2)==0)
  month=month+1; 
    if (month>12)
 { month =1;
  year =year+1;}
  
  print_calendar(month,year);
 
delay(2000);

  
}

Credits

Shahariar

74 projects • 266 followers

"What Kills a 'Great life' is a 'Good Life', which is Living a Life Inside While Loop"

E-Ink Display Based Static Desktop eCalendar