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Pseudonymous maker “scaryterry99” has put collectively the “LoveBox,” a Raspberry Pi Zero W-powered ePaper show designed for distant deployment as a messenger of affection for his or her girlfriend.
“I went for a quite simple design, utilizing solely what I wanted,” scaryterry99 explains of the mission, which is constructed round a framed Waveshare 7.5″ ePaper Show related to a Raspberry Pi Zero W single-board laptop. “Waveshare’s personal C library and Python library; one database with one single object saved; [and a] easy replace script to alter show content material.”
The LoveBox is a remotely updatable ePaper show, pushed by a Google Firebase database. (📷: scaryterry99)
The concept behind the mission: a permanently-on show which permits scaryterry99 to remotely replace messages and pictures of affection. To attain that, the database portion of the system is run on Google Firebase utilizing its free tier; a Python script is executed each 10 minutes on the related Raspberry Pi Zero W to examine for potential updates, that are written to the database utilizing a second Python script operating on scaryterry99’s laptop.
“I made a decision to go along with Google’s free tier real-time database [Firebase] because it’s easy to arrange and free,” scaryterry99 explains. “The toughest a part of the mission was positively working with the Waveshare libraries. I ended up together with their shared library and utilizing their Python API to manage the display […] following their pattern and adapting it for my functions.”
A Raspberry Pi Zero W sits on the rear of the body, housed in a custom-designed 3D-printed case. (📷: scaryterry99)
There’s one small catch in scaryterry99’s method, nevertheless: Firebase solely shops the final replace timestamp, a textual content message, a Boolean indicating a picture ought to be loaded, and the chosen font — no precise photographs themselves. Consequently, the script can solely show photographs which are already current on the Raspberry Pi’s native storage — which, to get round this disadvantage, is refreshed each 24 hours from a distant git repository.
“It turned out nice and she or he loves it,” scaryterry99 says. “Works like a attraction.”
Extra particulars can be found on the mission’s Reddit thread, with scaryterry99 planning an extended tutorial and public GitHub repository for the long run.
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