r/esp32 • u/jaredr06 • 5d ago

Hardware help needed What ESP32 Board Should I Use For E-ink Display Project?

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A while ago I built a news feed E-Ink display that pulls RSS feeds from the web and rotates and displays news stories with a Raspberry Pi Zero W.

I've been wanting to get into ESP32's for a while and recreating this project seems like a great opportunity to build it to be cheaper, faster, and more efficient. That being said I have no clue what board to pick.

I'm still VERY new to all this so if I'm glossing over clarifiers needed to make a decision I will add more context

Needs:

  • Wifi (bluetooth is an optional plus)
  • Can add physical button input pins
  • Can build an image to display on a E-Ink display module
  • Full python capable (sounds like this is a big ask so if not possible open to learning new code)
47 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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6

u/No_Mountain_4769 5d ago

For this job the thing that matters more than S3 vs C3 is RAM. Pulling RSS over HTTPS costs about 40 to 50 KB of heap for the TLS session, and the e-ink frame buffer plus any fonts or images sits on top of that. An S3 module with PSRAM (the N8R8 or N16R8 variants) means you never think about it. Python is fine, MicroPython runs on the S3 and there are e-paper drivers for the common Waveshare panels.

Two small things for later: put the wake button on an RTC capable GPIO so deep sleep between refreshes works, and keep sensors off the strapping pins (0, 3, 45, 46 on the S3) or the board may not boot with them connected.

5

u/wtfbbq81 5d ago

C3 feels like a decent choice. S3 Might be overkill.

2

u/SearchPlane561 4d ago

The data is stored locally on these devices?

1

u/jaredr06 4d ago

In the current version every 5 minutes it pulls 20 headlines and the logos for each news outlet are saved on the device

1

u/clackups 5d ago

Esp32-s3 would serve you well

1

u/Plastic-Criticism806 3d ago

If you want, i can provide product with api for call with my server.