MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

Pimeroni has a selection of eink displays up to 7.3" including some with various buttons and LEDs to make whatever you'd like. https://shop.pimoroni.com/search?q=inky

All boox tablet/e-readers just run Android. They can do literally anything Android can for folks asking about the loading and displaying of the web page. There are several "kiosk" apps and browsers with kiosk modes. Also fairly expensive Android automation tools.

That's cool, but:

> It takes approximately 40 seconds to refresh this display

I think that would rule it out for the purpose of this project - the demo in their introduction video[0] shows that it flashes multiple colors for ages during this long refresh. I imagine that could be very confusing for someone whose short-term memory might not last that long.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TluopgSoSWY&t=500s

If you're comfortable with microcontrollers (esp32/arduino), I can definitely recommend Inkplate. I found them when I was making a similar setup for my parents, and they have various sizes up to 10" and up to 6 colors they can display.

You can either just get the module, or buy with a battery and mountable case already attached. I think all of the models are also available via Digikey and Mouser if people don't trust random websites.

https://soldered.com/categories/inkplate/

The colour screen have a much slower refresh than the others. The greyscale one I have takes less than a second with minimal flashing.

Yeah, a black and white version would probably have been fine. Somewhat frustratingly they don't seem to have a 7 inch greyscale one though, only colour versions! Maybe they used to but stopped selling them?

EDIT: posted this before I noticed harpastrum's comment

I've never used esp32/arduino. How does it compare writing some low key Python on RPi and blitting an image to the display?

With an ESP32 or comparable (RPi Pico W, for example) you get MicroPython or CircuitPython support! That means a Python interpreter, drivers for popular peripherals and usually a network stack. Performance doesn’t beat a native SDK but Python is Python.