This gorgeous ESP32 e-ink display lets you set up a dashboard to track what matters to you

SBCs and microcontrollers (like the Raspberry Pi and ESP32, respectively) make for excellent choices when creating a dashboard. Because they don’t use a lot of power, you can leave them running for days on end without making a crater in your electricity bill. This is perfect for when you want to keep tabs on things in an all-in-one dashboard that tells you what you want to know at a glance.

So, what if you wanted to make a teeny-tiny dashboard to keep track of the basics? And because you have immaculate taste, what if you wanted to create said dashboard with an e-ink display and a lovely wooden frame? That’s exactly what one tinkerer did by creating this handy screen that lets you know how everything’s going with a single look.

This dashboard combines an ESP32, a Raspberry Pi Pi-hole device, and an e-ink display into one

This cool project was the idea of Max Pflaum, who posted the build on his blog and on GitHub. He set up the dashboard to track four different elements:

• Clock: Synchronized via NTP (Network Time Protocol) for accurate timekeeping.
• Weather: Fetches current weather conditions and forecasts using the OpenWeatherMap API.
• Personal website view counter: Displays statistics from personal website analytics.
• Pi-hole statistics: Integrates with the Pi-hole API to show ad-blocking and network statistics from Raspberry Pi or other Pi-hole instance.

This project utilizes Python and MicroPython for the ESP32, interacts with the OpenWeatherMAP API for weather data, and the Pi-hole API for network statistics.

Max then designed the display so that, in a single glance, you could see what time it was, how hot it was outside, how well your website was doing, and how many advertisements Pi-hole had managed to block. Given how the e-ink display he picked out used a 128×296 resolution, there was really no room for any fancy graphics or clutter, so he opted to keep things lightweight and sleek instead. Honestly, I think it was the better call.

If you want to see how he built it (and perhaps even make one yourself) you can see project photos, descriptions, and all of the source code in the links above. And if you’re in love with the idea of making a miniature dashboard as a central hub for all of your data, but feel you need something a little bigger than 128×296, be sure to check out these Raspberry Pi projects that make your screens smarter.