Lake Gauge
The Lake Gauge shows lake data (temp, waves, wind, and sunset) on a small unassuming screen.
It is a fun, cheap (well, not including my timeš¤£) project that builds on cottage camera's back-end.
It leverages e-paper displays which have become really cheap. You'd recognize them from Kindle devices and now for electronic price tags in retail environments. They have a very low refresh rate, but newer ones have begun offering partial updates.
Waveshare has a few sizes supporting the partial updates. I used the 3.7 in this project, but next time I'd likely use the 4.2.
Data
The data is pulled from the same API as the cottage cam sites (link). Credit to Great Lakes Observing System's Seagull product.
Device Limitations
The pico does not have much memory and the cost of each screen refresh is high. A few things that helped were:
- Compiling a firmware version with the larger files like the driver. Frozen bytecode took up less room.
- Not overwriting the screen with each refresh - just a blit with a key.
- Partial updates, over time, result in ghosting on the screen. You'll need a full refresh every once in a while.
Parts
- Raspberry Pi Pico W (wireless)
- Waveshare E-paper 3.7 for Pico
- Case (Custom case from scrap walnut)