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Requirements

Hardware used

The hardware used in this project is:

  • Raspberry Pi 3 v1.2
  • 16GB microSD card
  • WaveShare 9.7" e-ink display
  • WaveShare e-ink display driver board (IT8951)
  • 5V 2A power supply
  • Synology DS218+ NAS

The Raspberry Pi and the microSD card are required as they will host and run the necessary scripts to update the e-ink display.

The WaveShare 9.7" e-ink display and the WaveShare IT8951 e-ink display driver board are required. This e-ink displays HD images and requires the additional IT8951 driver board to function.

Danger

You can neither immediately connect the WaveShare 9.7" e-ink display directly to the Raspberry Pi nor can you connect the WaveShare ESP32 driver directly to this e-ink display. You need the WaveShare IT8951 e-ink display driver board to connect the e-ink display to either the Raspberry Pi or the ESP32 driver board - and to follow along with this guide.

Software used

The software used in this project is:

  • Raspbian
  • Python 3.7
  • BCM2835 library
  • WaveShare IT8951 library
  • Docker (running on Synology DS218+)
  • Portainer (via Docker, running on Synology DS218+ - Optional: you can create a stack using the Synology interface directly.)
  • Home Assistant (via Docker, running on Synology DS218+)
  • sibbl/hass-lovelace-kindle-screensaver (via Docker, running on Synology DS218+)
  • Inkycal v.2.0.2

Note

We are using Inkycal v.2.0.2 specifically. This is because we are going to edit some files from that project. If you are using a different version, the files we are going to edit might be different - or the issues we fixed might have been fixed already.