Connect ePaper Display to TTN

[waskerly]

Hi everyone! I am looking to connect an ePaper display to the Things Network using a LoPy. This display will show basic weather information and maybe a few calendar notifications. LoRa is a very attractive option because I don't have to worry about a gateway and it's very low power.

Obviously, it's not possible to send entire images down because of TTN bandwith limitations. However, it should still be possible to send text(maybe compressed?) and render that on the screen.

Has anyone attempted to do this before? I can find various ePaper displays on sparkfun and adafruit but haven't found any solid tutorials. Any pointers or help would be greatly appreciated!

[rcolistete]

There are MicroPython drivers for epaper displays. E. g. :

• ayoy/micropython-waveshare-epd, supports 1.54" Waveshare two-color E-Paper Display only :
  https://github.com/ayoy/micropython-waveshare-epd
• mcauser/micropython-waveshare-epaper, for many display sizes :
  https://github.com/mcauser/micropython-waveshare-epaper
  https://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3393

[thinginnovations]

there are different epaper displays available, do you have a specific manufacturer in mind? I have been using displays from Pervasive Displays successfully. Unfortunately I cannot share the code due to NDA restrictions.

Andrew

[GrtVHecke]

@robert-hh @waskerly

has anybody created or adapted a driver for the e-paper display?

Kind regards,

Geert

[waskerly]

@robert-hh

Thank you! This is a very helpful first step.

Are there any guides for how do handle bandwidth limitations on TTN? I'm assuming it's not practical to send a full image for each update, especially with duty cycle restrictions.

I might have to perform image manipulation directly on the LoPy from received data.

[waskerly]

This post is deleted!

[robert-hh]

@waskerly Peter Hinch has made nice drivers for e-paper displays for Pyboard https://github.com/peterhinch/micropython-epaper. It should not be too complicated to port them to LoPy, even if not all modules are needed. In case of questions, ask Peter.