[HN Gopher] Badger 2040 - Fast updating RP2040 based e-Ink badge
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Badger 2040 - Fast updating RP2040 based e-Ink badge
Author : whiskers
Score : 92 points
Date : 2022-02-25 20:55 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (shop.pimoroni.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (shop.pimoroni.com)
| daenz wrote:
| Very cool!
|
| >Switch between images, pronouns or secret identities at the push
| of a button
|
| Sincere question: is this poking fun at people using pronouns, or
| do some people change their pronouns throughout the day?
| whiskers wrote:
| Not poking fun at anybody, just some different states that you
| may choose to display!
| teraflop wrote:
| I read it as a playful joke that isn't necessarily poking fun
| _at_ anybody. Is changing pronouns really any weirder than
| assuming a secret identity?
| felchingforfun wrote:
| I believe it's just using those as example content to scroll
| through at the press of a button, but I'm now curious as well.
| cmeacham98 wrote:
| I know trans people that use different pronouns with people
| they haven't come out to and/or know are transphobic, but can't
| cut out of their life for whatever reason (ex: close family
| members). I've never heard of it happening at work, but say for
| example one of these people saw you in your work uniform.
| [deleted]
| oh_sigh wrote:
| Yes, some people change their pronouns based on their internal
| state. These people will frequently self-describe as "gender
| fluid".
| PlatinumHarp wrote:
| A use case could be a badge for guests, changing pronouns as
| needed.
| post-it wrote:
| Some people do prefer different pronouns throughout the day.
| It's not common because it's difficult to communicate, but if
| it becomes easy to do then it may become more common and
| noticeable.
| boomskats wrote:
| This is like the pwnagotchi I've always wanted. I hope the
| project supports it.
| rvz wrote:
| Given that this has no e-ink color display, it is an instant deal
| breaker and a no buy I'm afraid and nearly reminded me of the old
| obsolete black and white Pebble screens (until they got E-ink
| color).
|
| So from me, No thanks and no deal.
| throwaway81523 wrote:
| Cute I guess, though no idea why I'd want an e-ink name badge. I
| wish there were more affordable large e-ink screens. These tiny
| ones don't do much for me.
|
| It does seem to me that the rpi pico is maybe the goto cheap MCU
| board these days. Not much reason to use a blue pill or arduino
| clone any more, unless I've missed something.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| check ebay for eInk price tags. They are a great source of
| case+battery+enclosure+screen for $little
| jasonpeacock wrote:
| Check out Inkplate for larger, affordable, ready-to-program,
| e-ink screens - they have both 6" and 10", and even color!
|
| https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-6
|
| https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-10
|
| https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-6color
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| Those look nice, and they are larger, but they're also 10X
| the price?
| mastax wrote:
| It's definitely the goto cheap MCU for me now, for one reason:
| it's in stock. It's nice that industry doesn't take it
| seriously.
| ge96 wrote:
| I did think that drag-drop micro python (or is it circuit p)
| programming method was odd but maybe it's different now.
|
| I personally am trying different stuff out. I've used
| Arduino/Teensy/ESP/Pi (OS) but I have a blue pill and beagle
| bone as well to mess around with.
|
| The RP2040 does seem to have a lot of IO anyway.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| How much more power hungry is the dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ chip
| vs. the ATmega328P?
| bunkertor wrote:
| already ordered
| jrockway wrote:
| What does the idle power draw look like? I've always been super
| disappointed at the power draw of maker MCUs; just keeping the
| regulator on 24/7 depletes a moderately-sized battery in a matter
| of days.
|
| It would be nice if they put something like a TPL5111 on board,
| which is an ultra low power device that can turn on at a set time
| interval, and then turn off on demand. So it will pull up the
| "enable" pin on your regulator, your microcontroller will boot,
| your program updates the display, and then you tell the TPL5111
| to turn off, and you draw basically no power until the next
| refresh cycle. I actually use a RP2040 with one of these to drive
| an e-ink display that measures the humidity in my 3D printer
| filament dry box. It wakes up every couple hours to update the
| humidity (it doesn't change much), and I've been powering it from
| a 400mAh Lipo battery for several months that way. To me it was
| groundbreaking to bite the bullet and add another device to
| conserve power, the results are excellent. Would love to see a
| provision for one built into the next version. (And hey, dump a
| BME280 on there and I can replace my entire hacked-together
| device with one circuit board and a battery ;)
|
| (Oh, and for people asking why I built my own humidity meter
| using complicated electronics and a computer program instead of a
| $2 jobbie powered from a coin cell that you can buy on Amazon,
| it's because I wanted to be pretty accurate with the
| measurements. 10% humidity is different than 9% humidity in this
| case. As for why an e-ink display instead of an ESP32 that writes
| the value to some database server and I get a text message when I
| need to recharge the dehumidifier... it's because I didn't feel
| like writing that particular computer program at the time. Wifi
| connection errors. Authentication tokens. I'll just look at the
| display when I walk past ;)
| MaxDPS wrote:
| This is awesome, though I wish they would have used a chip with
| Bluetooth or WiFi.
| Someone1234 wrote:
| That would eat through the batteries. Which means you likely
| need a different battery, which means more bulk, which
| ultimately changes the entire value proposition, and now you
| may have well buy a cheap android phone.
|
| This thing, while worn requires zero power. You only require
| power to rotate the image.
| unfocussed_mike wrote:
| _> Never set your password as "mushroom". It is not stroganoff._
|
| Niche British internet humour there.
| schappim wrote:
| Nice work Jon!
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| That's really cool!
|
| It would be interesting to see it be more commercially-viable. It
| probably wouldn't really work with NFC (but I'd love to be
| wrong).
|
| It would also be great for spy movies.
| Someone1234 wrote:
| Why wouldn't it work with NFC? NFC doesn't require onboard
| power, the reader powers it.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I think that they don't have it set up for NFC.
|
| If they did, the chip could be programmed, along with the
| badge face.
| [deleted]
| Someone1234 wrote:
| To save someone else the trouble of checking; to ship to the USA:
|
| - Badger 2040 Only: GBP PS16.00 ($21.46)
|
| - Gadget 2040 + Accessory Kit: GBP PS24.25 ($32.53)
|
| Maybe a couple of bucks more if you want the tracked
| international postage instead of the (cheapest) untracked.
|
| Video about it:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDhw3BlBtig
|
| So if you use this as a name-badge with no batteries, the buttons
| and ports on the rear are very exposed; I wonder if there would
| be long term consequences of that? Might need to use e.g. glue-
| gun glue to protect them.
|
| Also, the branding is a lot. If it is a toy then it isn't
| important, if you were serious about a name badge a little bit
| unprofessional looking. Particularly the bomb/weapon on the rear
| with a bunch of exposed circuit board, I'm sure going through TSA
| with this will be a hoot.
|
| Just comes back to: Is this actually meant to be used as a name
| badge? Fun rainy afternoon toy though.
| jrockway wrote:
| I mean it's aimed at makers, so it's expected that you'll use
| it for some sort of "interesting project" rather than take it
| out of your bag, program it to display your name, and use it
| instead of a sticker.
|
| I've traveled with a lot of ham radio gear over the years, and
| sometimes the TSA wants to take a look. The worst case is that
| they swab it for explosive residue. Adds a minute to the
| transit time through the checkpoint, worst case.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| These tiny eInk screens are fun and it is nice to see them pop up
| in more places. They are a bit of a pain to work with if you want
| anything more than just "black and white, full flashing refresh"
| but with effort you can coax greyscale and partial updates out of
| them, despite them not officially supporting such features. I
| published some info here:
| http://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=29.%20eInk%20Price%20Ta...
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| I haven't tried them, but I have seen 3-color e-ink in about
| the same size as the Badger, like this one[1].
|
| 1: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3933
| dmitrygr wrote:
| 3 color ones are much harder to get clean greyscale out of.
| but yellowscale and brownscale is easy :D
| [deleted]
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