What's the display device I'm looking for?
May 15, 2024 4:17 PM Subscribe
I want to make a dedicated little always-on display that simply shows the time remaining to 7am every day. Ideally it comes in an enclosure which can sit upright on my desk and be charged/powered by USB from my computer. Is there some sort of programmable hobbyist display that can do this? Hooking an Arduino up to a LCD and mounting them inside a box feels like over-engineering. Any suggestions welcome.
Divoom is the cute version of above. They do a countdown although the app is a bit finicky for initial set up. I have one that is basically a happy clock.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:46 PM on May 15, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:46 PM on May 15, 2024 [2 favorites]
Best answer: if quite small is fine the m5stack thingy would probably work with some programming.
posted by BungaDunga at 8:33 PM on May 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by BungaDunga at 8:33 PM on May 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
I just talked myself out of buying this Adafruit Matrix Portal Starter Kit - ADABOX 016 Essentials which would do what you want, and they have various size screens. Someone on reddit Tidbyt posted it as the much cheaper dupe.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 9:02 PM on May 15, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 9:02 PM on May 15, 2024 [2 favorites]
Similar to the m5stack but cheaper (and not as slick looking) would be one of the esp32 cheap yellow displays [ESP32-2432S028R] - you can find them for 15 USD with a cheap laser cut plexi sandwich "case" that can stand up ok. There's a clock example [vid] in that github which would be easy enough to mangle into a countdown.
posted by samj at 12:08 AM on May 16, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by samj at 12:08 AM on May 16, 2024 [2 favorites]
Similar to the Matrix Portal is a PyPortal.
At the height of the pandemic, I had it running 24/7 scraping covid data from various sites and displaying it. Countdown to 7AM feels like walk in the park by comparison. It costs $60.
Here's a similar project that pulls current time from an internet server. You should be able to use this as a starting point.
posted by plinth at 2:32 PM on May 16, 2024
At the height of the pandemic, I had it running 24/7 scraping covid data from various sites and displaying it. Countdown to 7AM feels like walk in the park by comparison. It costs $60.
Here's a similar project that pulls current time from an internet server. You should be able to use this as a starting point.
posted by plinth at 2:32 PM on May 16, 2024
Response by poster: I went with the M5Stack Core Ink and it's working a treat! Thanks all.
posted by Panthalassa at 11:07 PM on May 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Panthalassa at 11:07 PM on May 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
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posted by duien at 5:24 PM on May 15, 2024