104
Battery/Chargeable e-ink displays integration (feddit.uk)
submitted 1 month ago by GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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Has anybody on here had an experiment with the supermarket tags?

My understanding is that you get a bunch of the tags, somehow get a base-station/transceiver working with them, and push data as images.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's had a go. I quite fancy having some little displays around the house with useful info for the room.

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[-] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 25 points 1 month ago

Can you link a source where to buy them or a model? I don't have any information. But I'd be interested, too.

[-] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Hey, I developed some of these for a different use case at my job.

Generally they use BLE servers to query and update every BLE device one after the other.

I would venture to guess that these tags have a ublox BMD-3xx variant controlling them and you can connect via Bluetooth low energy every X hours.

If you just want the displays they use, here are some kits:

https://www.tinytronics.nl/nl/displays/e-ink

[-] qupada@kbin.run 8 points 1 month ago

It's also quite common for updates to be sent using a ceiling-mounted infrared transmitter, like this brand which is common where I am:

https://www.pricer.com/products/devices/electronic-shelf-labels

People have figured out the data formatting to update some of the lower-security variants (including that "Pricer" brand):

http://furrtek.free.fr/index.php?a=esl

[-] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I have a few Pricer* ones and they're a pita to use.

Have to build an IR blaster to program them.

You also can't use them once the battery is flat or if you remove the battery because it uses volatile memory to store the firmware.

[-] davad@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

it uses volatile memory to store the firmware

What the what?!

[-] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yuuup, they use an ASIC too.

Here's an attempted teardown https://www.youtube.com/live/AN0CMmFQIi0

Also interesting: http://furrtek.free.fr/index.php?a=esl

[-] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago

Check out these maybe:

https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=29.%20eInk%20Price%20Tags

http://furrtek.free.fr/index.php?a=esl

There's more but I'd have to search for it, it's a good starting point though.

this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
104 points (97.3% liked)

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