eBook reader as a wall display

[derc...@googlemail.com]

Hello friends of openHAB,

my system grows and works like a charm. I use my mobile phone with HABDroid to view and control things out of my pocket.

But I'd like to spread control devices around my house to view weather charts and for example window open/close states on wall mounted devices. First kind of devices comming to mind is a cheap (android) tabled screwed on wall. Drawback is power consumption and display wear.

So I think about using a eBook reader with an always on epaper display. Looking at live updating things would good, controlling things would be awesome.

Does anyone has experiences with this? What kind of reader do you recommend? I've been googeling around, but I can't find any information about the integrated browser - e.g. if it supports auto reload, or some kind of installable apps.

Regards,
Carsten

[ge...@ge-volution.eu]

I too thought of this as it could also mean that you wouldn't need an ugly/dangerous power cable to power a tablet (for risk of it being pulled off the wall and the micro USB connector being broken).

I haven't looked into it at all but I am thinking that if an ebook reader could be loaded with Android, then you'd simply be able to use HABDroid.  The thing would be to use the radio sparingly in order to not consume too much power, so HABDroid would need to get a setting to set its update frequency (no big deal if it doesn't update right away should you change something on its display elsewhere).  Every 5 minutes or so, with WiFi shutdown, ought to save a good amount of power all the while showing somewhat up-to-date system data.

The other thing is that Android would benefit from some updates for use on e-paper screens in order to avoid scrolling and animations and such.  There is a phone out now with a backside e-paper display, so I think that people are working on this in order to minimize the screen refreshes (time and energy).

Cheers,

Greg