On a more recent post, I wrote about a trip I took to Boise State to meet with prospective research advisors and tour the facilities.
To prepare for this trip I purchased six 298×128 pixel E-Paper modules from Waveshare to use as ultra-modern business cards. Three were red and three were yellow. I also purchased a driver hat from Waveshare in order to program the modules conveniently from a Raspberry Pi 3B+. This technology is the same as that used by Amazon Kindle and the images produces on the paper are more or less permanent–unless cleared and reprogrammed. The E-paper does not require power–the images are created via manipulation of material properties. Clearing and reprogramming the E-paper for a new image takes several seconds via the driver hat.
The instructions for pinouts, prerequisite libraries, and the E-paper software was very easy to follow. After about 15 minutes I was able to execute the demo. In another hour or so I had built a satisfactory business card for the E-paper, which I uploaded to my public GitHub.
In order to create the business card with the template I made available, two images should be selected and resized accordingly. The Python file should be loaded in the same directory on the RPI as the Waveshare software.
After programming six E-paper business cards I noted that the color and pixel quality were not consistent from one card to the next.
If one requires a completely permanent image, the flat ribbon cable can be severed, making reprogramming impossible. I chose to tape the cable to the back of the E-paper and referred recipients to the Waveshare website for the necessary equipment to reprogram the E-paper.
At the time when I created the business cards the E-paper and driver hat was about $10 each. Since this purchase, the E-paper has increased in price to about $20 at the time of this writing.
