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I make this e-paper calendar: https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-calendar https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-cale...
by konschubert 5y ago
I make this e-paper calendar: https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-calendar https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-cale...
It syncs with Google Calendar.
To be fair, I currently does > 500$/month in revenue not earnings.
If it doesn't count let me know and I will delete my comment.
EDIT: I am currently out of stock sadly. If you want to be notified when I am back in stock, you can leave your email here: https://forms.gle/tNcCcYrNBu5nWKgJ9 https://forms.gle/tNcCcYrNBu5nWKgJ9
- dom96 5y agoReally awesome. I’m working on a hardware project myself, nice to see a success story. I’m curious about the enclosure, do you cut it out of wood yourself or are you using a supplier for it that cuts it/glues it for you?
- jacobmarble 5y agoVery cool product!
- financetechbro 5y agoLooks like your form is restricted to org members only
- konschubert 5y agoWhoops, is it fixed now?
- judge2020 5y agoYes.
- tych0 5y agoThis is pretty cool, though it would be nice if it worked with caldav instead of just google calendar :)
- konschubert 5y agoI think so too :D It's definitely something I am having in the backlog, but I cannot promise if and when it will be implemented.
- VectorLock 5y agoI wanted to let you know that I find your approach to future features refreshing, in contrast to the typical over-promising you typically see.
- vram22 5y agoYes, and also honest.
- ognarb 5y agoIf you are okay with gpl software/backend, you could reuse some code of one of my side project: https://apps.kde.org/kalendar/ https://apps.kde.org/kalendar/ (support google api, caldav, etesync and Outlook calendars)
- davidsawyer 5y agoNice!! How big are those displays, and if you don't mind sharing, how much do those displays cost from your supplier? Last time I checked, e-paper displays were pretty pricey on their own.
- konschubert 5y agoThe display is 7.5 inches, from Waveshare. I pay retail.
- jliptzin 5y agoAwesome
- rPlayer6554 5y agovery cool! I absolutely want one.
- searchableguy 5y agoThat's pretty cool. Love to see a hardware project. What's the profit margin like? E-ink displays are expensive. That price point seems not enough to generate decent income.
- kylecordes 5y agoI read somewhere that the e-ink expense is because the company which controls the intellectual property chooses to make it a low volume, high cost product. Not that it is inherently expensive, and I am surprised they don't try the opposite strategy, make it cheap and everywhere.
- axg11 5y agoWould love a link/source for this if you have one.
- vxNsr 5y agoI was under the impression that standard black/white e-ink is no longer patent encumbered, could totally be wrong tho
- robinsoh 5y ago> I read somewhere that the e-ink expense is because the company which controls the intellectual property chooses to make it a low volume, high cost product. I've only read that here (repeatedly!) on HN and blogs that then cited throwaway HN posts which never respond to my requests for at least some verifiable evidence. Have a look through my comment history.
- hyperbovine 5y ago> E-ink displays are expensive. I was curious... from what I can find online the wholesale price of an e-ink display is not that much cheaper (if any) than buying an equivalently sized Kindle. What is the viability of a business model that involves rooting a Kindle, loading whatever calendar display software you need, and shipping it inside a pretty wooden frame?
- Lucasoato 5y agoIf it was available, I'd buy it right now! :)
- konschubert 5y agoIf you sign up here I will let you know :) https://forms.gle/tNcCcYrNBu5nWKgJ9 https://forms.gle/tNcCcYrNBu5nWKgJ9
- zzixp 5y agoOh man I love this! Definitely keeping my eye on it. Any chance at Outlook integration?
- konschubert 5y agoI can say it's in the backlog, but I can't say if and when.
- abider 5y agohave you thoughts about offering this as software service for something like the Remarkable?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- konschubert 5y agoI haven't thought about it, no. Not sure if that would be a good spot to be in, as a business.
- joshgachnang 5y agoOh my gosh, I love this. I even love the name. My fiancé and I were even talking about how we wanted to move the house towards more "invisible technology" (magic mirrors, things like this, maybe the Frame TV if we get a good deal and figure out a good spot for it, etc)
- evanlivingston 5y agoRecheck the frame tv. I wanted one until I realized it's just a thin tv thats motion activated to stay on/turn on and show a static image.
- 5arias 5y agoIt does more than just static images, it can play videos/gifs as well. I just bought one for our living room a month ago and love it. Its a good QLed TV, not as great as an OLED but that’s not why I bought it. It’s great for it is and you can buy custom made frames too. We have the 65” definitely recommend
- evanlivingston 5y agoHow is it different from a regular tv?
- greengrassi 5y agoHow does that differ from what it is advertised as, or from what you expected?
- evanlivingston 5y agoI assumed it used some technology that made it look less like a digital display and more like a analog object. Also, I (stupidly) assumed that it was similar to an e-ink display I that it could display images when it was powered off.
- challenger-derp 5y agoI like how minimalistic it looks. Families might want a larger sized one to hang somewhere prominent in their home hah.
- konschubert 5y agoYea, I keep eying bigger displays but they are $$$$$
- andi999 5y agoI agree, very cool. Here what I do not like so much: a) the wood frame seems to be too large (probably there is a technical reason for this), but still. Not much too large though, just maybe 25%? b) the wood (at least from the pictures) looks cheap (plywood?)
- konschubert 5y agoIt's multiplex. The device in the last picture has plywood but it's an older version. Multiplex is actually nice since it's cross laminated and thus retains its shape. I experimented with solid wood and it started arching after a few weeks.
- moralestapia 5y agoHi man, beautiful product, if this were an external monitor, or at least a website kiosk, I would buy it in a heartbeat. :D
- Graffur 5y agoThis is awesome. I would 100% buy a battery operated version
- FernandoMax 5y ago100% I agree. Makes non-sense the eInk (low consumption) but power cord.
- ethbr0 5y agoIn defense of cord, I find battery powered (and wireless) things a a lot less "magical" than their alternatives for long lived devices. "Oh, that's not working today. I guess I need to charge it." Corded seems a good fit for a static location device.
- RussianCow 5y agoWow, this is great! I was actually just thinking about hacking something like this together on my own, but $200 seems really reasonable for a pre-built product, and it looks much nicer than it would if I built it! :) Any plans to support non-Google calendar accounts?
- konschubert 5y agoI would like to support other formats, caldev, outlook etc. I am limited by time and money, not imagination :D
- dionidium 5y agoJust a heads up: my company blocks this site as malware
- kylecordes 5y agoI wonder if there is a service that (somehow) detects your site has been flagged in various categories by big company firewalls, and alerts you. Wild guess: whatever system feeds into the lists that get blocked in this way probably has a lot of false positives.
- konschubert 5y agoshop.invisible-computers.com? Any idea what could be causing this? I am at a loss.
- zknicker 5y agoWild guess, but perhaps it's the - (dash)?
- MattSayar 5y agoI have an extension called FakeSpot that I use to detect fake Amazon reviews. To my surprise, it flagged your site as well with the following note: "Please research the seller because: * Limited Internet presence * Website is missing common professional website attributes * Limited Internet presence and history" It doesn't expand on any of those points, that's all it says.
- windexh8er 5y agoYour site comes up clean on VirusTotal [0] and URLscan [1]. You should be able to request a recategorization from OpenDNS. [0] https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/c20f7917192a4f9ea1e1c74f4ae84f4f680bee302542f37d3569c05eebb363d2/summary https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/c20f7917192a4f9ea1e1c74f4... [1] https://urlscan.io/result/231cca00-86ee-4c57-b99e-0a76a4b269fb/#summary https://urlscan.io/result/231cca00-86ee-4c57-b99e-0a76a4b269...
- aeyes 5y agoIt is blocked on OpenDNS as well.
- joshu 5y agodoes this connect directly to google or is there a proxy?
- konschubert 5y agoIt goes through a proxy that handles the authentication towards Google.
- drodil 5y agoI made one too with inkplate. The software is open sourced. More details here: https://link.medium.com/DeyY5FlcXmb https://link.medium.com/DeyY5FlcXmb
- raron 5y agoI am curious: as a HW project how did you go through the CE / FCC certification process and production 0-series batch? Did you have some investor or paid from your own pocket? Asking as somebody who thought making some embedded / HW projects, but the initial cost seems to much to be paid by myself.
- dom96 5y agoAlso curious about this. I’ve done a lot of research on CE/FCC and while it seems possible to do CE yourself (since you can self-certify) you are on the hook if you miss something, like certain required tests (and doing some tests can be very expensive).
- raron 5y agoI think if you self-certify you have all the responsibility. (I do not know you as person or you as an organization.) But if this thing just emit in a wrong RF band, it could mean insane fine fine from the local-frequency-band-office. And this is a very likely scenario (not like what happens if it catches fire and kill somebody...). Anyway, I heard you should aim (at least) to the US market, which needs FCC. (eg. 300+ million people with one language vs. 30+ language in Europe.)
- PragmaticPulp 5y agoThe answer is a big "it depends", but there are ways to get basic FCC certification done for as little as $1K-$2K if you contact enough labs and your engineers are reasonably good at adhering to proper design practices (minimize respins and testing repeats). CE mark isn't actually required in the US, but you'd need it for Europe and other locations. It's more involved, but all-in testing can be done for <$5K for EU if you're careful. > Did you have some investor or paid from your own pocket? > Asking as somebody who thought making some embedded / HW projects, but the initial cost seems to much to be paid by myself. Crowdfunding is how it's done for HW products. Investors aren't going to be interested in anything small time (less than $10-100mm potential revenue + recurring subscriptions) unless they're friends and family or something like that. It's a lot of money, but it's not out of reach for someone with a tech job who uses crowdfunding for the major production push.
- go_prodev 5y agoGreat job. These look absolutely fantastic and I love the idea. It seems like the perfect use case for e-paper.
- darkwizard42 5y agoVery cool and love the design of the display
- jlengrand 5y agoYours is a product and mine was just made for fun but I really like your project and had a similar journey last year. E-paper is a perfect use case for a dynamic shelf calendar https://lengrand.fr/complete-setup-epaper/ https://lengrand.fr/complete-setup-epaper/
- rosndo 5y agoYou could work on the aesthetics and increase your prices by 10-100x. There’s a decent market for vaguely similar artworks, https://shop.madgallery.ch/products/clockclock-24 https://shop.madgallery.ch/products/clockclock-24 https://shop.madgallery.ch/products/nixie-time-zone-clock-v2 https://shop.madgallery.ch/products/nixie-time-zone-clock-v2 https://qlocktwo.com/us/qlocktwo-large-creators-edition-glintscape https://qlocktwo.com/us/qlocktwo-large-creators-edition-glin... https://clockforward.com/etch-clock/ https://clockforward.com/etch-clock/