10 ms·

This screen comes with a subscription based cloud CMS. The only way to pass image to this display semms to be through a proprietary application which is this so

by hau 3y ago

This screen comes with a subscription based cloud CMS. The only way to pass image to this display semms to be through a proprietary application which is this so called CMS. There are no other connectivity options mentioned. You are unable to use this screen if: - subscription is not paid - company decides to terminate your subscription under any condition of your contract - company decides to sunset software or a product - company doesn't exist anymore - CMS isn't compatible with your device anymore

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
p10jkle 3y ago
No, this isn't true. I run the Visionect software suite (https://docs.visionect.com/VisionectSoftwareSuite/index.html https://docs.visionect.com/VisionectSoftwareSuite/index.html) on a Raspberry pi and the screen talks to it over localhost. No outbound connectivity or subscription is needed.
- harper 3y ago
  I also run visionect locally to power a couple of displays around the house. When I recently went to go buy a few more - it was clear that they require a subscription. I emailed them and they confirmed that they now require a subscription. It’s a bummer because I don’t think there are as good quality displays to replace visionect with, but the subscription was far too much.
- eli 3y ago
  It’s not clear that is still supported (or indeed legally licensed) or that it will be in the future.
- hau 3y ago
  Thank you. I think their product page is pushing cloud subscription too hard, they call subscription the same way they call display itself, and subscription is paid and cloud based. Product page says: "Place & Play devices work on a subscription basis. Select a plan here.", and "A license is needed for every device." while describing software suite. I'm still confused about the way it presented, but documentation and suite itself look quite decent.
  - beheh 3y ago
    You may be confusing purchasing hardware and cloud subscription from the vendor producing the e ink display (Visionect) with the Project E ink device itself, which merely sources it's hardware from Visionect. The linked page is about the Project E ink device (https://projecteink.com/products/e-ink-newspaper-art-display-32 https://projecteink.com/products/e-ink-newspaper-art-display...). The only place that page mentions a subscription is in reference to news paper subscriptions.
    - Tempest1981 3y ago
      hau might have followed the Visionect link, then clicked "software": https://www.visionect.com/software/ https://www.visionect.com/software/
      - hau 3y ago
        https://www.visionect.com/shop/place-play-32/ https://www.visionect.com/shop/place-play-32/ This is a product page I looked at. Hard to interpret "Place & Play devices work on a subscription basis. Select a plan here." near "Add to cart" button.
- muki 3y ago
  I would like to caveat that a bit. I'm running two Visionect screens at home (I really do love them, hardware-wise especially) from a similar setup (local Visionect server running on Raspberry Pi). As far as I understand though, they have stopped offering support for non-subscribers, and they also seem to have stopped producing builds for ARM devices a couple of years ago (but the server software works even with new firmware versions). I am still betting on them supporting local installs for a while (based on my understanding that at least some of their corporate clients would want an on-prem solution), but am a little bit worried it might not be as openly available forever. I am therefore slowly researching my best migration path from a Raspberry Pi to some affordable and reasonably low powered x86 thing. Suggestions welcome. P.S.: The biggest selling point for me compared with some other (more open) E-ink screens is the battery. I keep mine on the fridge with a magnet and can't really use one that needs to be plugged in all the time in the same place. If anyone knows of anything similar and controllable locally, I'd be very interested to read about it.
  - BeefySwain 3y ago
    > some affordable and reasonably low powered x86 thing https://www.digital-loggers.com/api.html https://www.digital-loggers.com/api.html
thih9 3y ago
Is there a link to a page that shows subscription pricing?
paulcole 3y ago
That’s OK though right? As long as you know that going in you can decide if it’s worth it for you. Personally, I’d rather have something that works out of the box in exchange for a bit of money and risk that the company will go out of business one day than something that I have to spend time tinkering with to get and keep working.
- brentcetinich 3y ago
  I have taken a look at the protocol between the software and the display and it is straightforward to hack, but the docker image is lightweight and reliable enough that I don't see the need to.
- thih9 3y ago
  > As long as you know that going in you can decide if it’s worth it for you. But it looks like there's no way to know that going in? I have checked the product page and found no information that the CMS is paid. Based on the current description ("Comes with personal online portal to set up and change the content of your screen." [1]) I wouldn't expect an additional subscription. [1]: https://projecteink.com/products/e-ink-newspaper-art-display-32 https://projecteink.com/products/e-ink-newspaper-art-display...
- hau 3y ago
  It's not OK in my opinion to have perfectly capable hardware and software be obsoleted by circumstances outside of your control. I consider it to be wasteful and unnecessary. It don't have to conflict with convinience and services provided by cloud CMS. As we've figured out in other thread this is not an issue with this particular display - apparently, you could make it work without touching external networks, and it's decently supported by Visionect way of doing things.
jayvoordemensen 3y ago
Hey! It's Jay, I'm a journalist and developer and I've done most of the work on the front and backend of Project E Ink. Happy to answer your questions! So what we've done: we're indeed running our own Visionect servers these devices connect to. We've build a friendly and news-centered frontend so the display shows news, updates on new editions (or a user-set timeframe), or forgets about newspapers altogether and displays HTML on any URL you provide. If we were to sunset or go MIA or anything else unforeseen and unlikely you will still have an awesome display that you can configure to connect to any other Visionect server in the world. And indeed: these servers are Docker-images you can deploy yourself https://hub.docker.com/r/visionect/visionect-server-v3/ https://hub.docker.com/r/visionect/visionect-server-v3/ So the deal is: a screen and our software. If you don't like our software you'll still have an awesome screen that'll work as long as there's Docker and TCP/IP ;)
- codethief 3y ago
  Hey Jay, thanks so much for your work! The screen looks very beautiful but for me personally it would be much more attractive if it could also be used for reading the entire newspaper, not just the front page. Any plans to include (tiny) buttons to switch pages? In this case, during breakfast I could put the screen on a stand on my table, and read the news without having to resort to a backlit screen / news app on my phone. Though, maybe 32" would be a bit big for my breakfast table, not sure. :)
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- junon 3y ago
  I don't think I'm your target demographic but I always appreciate folks who make their hardware accessible like this. Thank you :)
  - sandworm101 3y ago
    Who is the target demo? I'm old enough to have had actual newspapers appear on my doorstep. I ever saw anyone mount them on a wall, at least not in a private home. I would think a table/tablet orientation would be more appealing than an awkward wall mount. Is this thing meant to be art, a bit of faux-nostalgia decoration?
ar_lan 3y ago
Hey, isn't this the Peloton model?
stavros 3y ago
If you prefer something more hobby-grade, I made a similar thing with an ESP32-based screen: https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/ It fetches images from HTTP every half hour and shows them.

by hau 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

p10jkle 3y ago

No, this isn't true. I run the Visionect software suite (https://docs.visionect.com/VisionectSoftwareSuite/index.html https://docs.visionect.com/VisionectSoftwareSuite/index.html) on a Raspberry pi and the screen talks to it over localhost. No outbound connectivity or subscription is needed.

harper 3y ago
I also run visionect locally to power a couple of displays around the house. When I recently went to go buy a few more - it was clear that they require a subscription. I emailed them and they confirmed that they now require a subscription. It’s a bummer because I don’t think there are as good quality displays to replace visionect with, but the subscription was far too much.
eli 3y ago
It’s not clear that is still supported (or indeed legally licensed) or that it will be in the future.
hau 3y ago
Thank you. I think their product page is pushing cloud subscription too hard, they call subscription the same way they call display itself, and subscription is paid and cloud based. Product page says: "Place & Play devices work on a subscription basis. Select a plan here.", and "A license is needed for every device." while describing software suite. I'm still confused about the way it presented, but documentation and suite itself look quite decent.
- beheh 3y ago
  You may be confusing purchasing hardware and cloud subscription from the vendor producing the e ink display (Visionect) with the Project E ink device itself, which merely sources it's hardware from Visionect. The linked page is about the Project E ink device (https://projecteink.com/products/e-ink-newspaper-art-display-32 https://projecteink.com/products/e-ink-newspaper-art-display...). The only place that page mentions a subscription is in reference to news paper subscriptions.
  - Tempest1981 3y ago
    hau might have followed the Visionect link, then clicked "software": https://www.visionect.com/software/ https://www.visionect.com/software/
    - hau 3y ago
      https://www.visionect.com/shop/place-play-32/ https://www.visionect.com/shop/place-play-32/ This is a product page I looked at. Hard to interpret "Place & Play devices work on a subscription basis. Select a plan here." near "Add to cart" button.
muki 3y ago
I would like to caveat that a bit. I'm running two Visionect screens at home (I really do love them, hardware-wise especially) from a similar setup (local Visionect server running on Raspberry Pi). As far as I understand though, they have stopped offering support for non-subscribers, and they also seem to have stopped producing builds for ARM devices a couple of years ago (but the server software works even with new firmware versions). I am still betting on them supporting local installs for a while (based on my understanding that at least some of their corporate clients would want an on-prem solution), but am a little bit worried it might not be as openly available forever. I am therefore slowly researching my best migration path from a Raspberry Pi to some affordable and reasonably low powered x86 thing. Suggestions welcome. P.S.: The biggest selling point for me compared with some other (more open) E-ink screens is the battery. I keep mine on the fridge with a magnet and can't really use one that needs to be plugged in all the time in the same place. If anyone knows of anything similar and controllable locally, I'd be very interested to read about it.
- BeefySwain 3y ago
  > some affordable and reasonably low powered x86 thing https://www.digital-loggers.com/api.html https://www.digital-loggers.com/api.html

thih9 3y ago

Is there a link to a page that shows subscription pricing?

paulcole 3y ago

That’s OK though right? As long as you know that going in you can decide if it’s worth it for you. Personally, I’d rather have something that works out of the box in exchange for a bit of money and risk that the company will go out of business one day than something that I have to spend time tinkering with to get and keep working.

brentcetinich 3y ago
I have taken a look at the protocol between the software and the display and it is straightforward to hack, but the docker image is lightweight and reliable enough that I don't see the need to.
thih9 3y ago
> As long as you know that going in you can decide if it’s worth it for you. But it looks like there's no way to know that going in? I have checked the product page and found no information that the CMS is paid. Based on the current description ("Comes with personal online portal to set up and change the content of your screen." [1]) I wouldn't expect an additional subscription. [1]: https://projecteink.com/products/e-ink-newspaper-art-display-32 https://projecteink.com/products/e-ink-newspaper-art-display...
hau 3y ago
It's not OK in my opinion to have perfectly capable hardware and software be obsoleted by circumstances outside of your control. I consider it to be wasteful and unnecessary. It don't have to conflict with convinience and services provided by cloud CMS. As we've figured out in other thread this is not an issue with this particular display - apparently, you could make it work without touching external networks, and it's decently supported by Visionect way of doing things.

jayvoordemensen 3y ago

Hey! It's Jay, I'm a journalist and developer and I've done most of the work on the front and backend of Project E Ink. Happy to answer your questions! So what we've done: we're indeed running our own Visionect servers these devices connect to. We've build a friendly and news-centered frontend so the display shows news, updates on new editions (or a user-set timeframe), or forgets about newspapers altogether and displays HTML on any URL you provide. If we were to sunset or go MIA or anything else unforeseen and unlikely you will still have an awesome display that you can configure to connect to any other Visionect server in the world. And indeed: these servers are Docker-images you can deploy yourself https://hub.docker.com/r/visionect/visionect-server-v3/ https://hub.docker.com/r/visionect/visionect-server-v3/ So the deal is: a screen and our software. If you don't like our software you'll still have an awesome screen that'll work as long as there's Docker and TCP/IP ;)

codethief 3y ago
Hey Jay, thanks so much for your work! The screen looks very beautiful but for me personally it would be much more attractive if it could also be used for reading the entire newspaper, not just the front page. Any plans to include (tiny) buttons to switch pages? In this case, during breakfast I could put the screen on a stand on my table, and read the news without having to resort to a backlit screen / news app on my phone. Though, maybe 32" would be a bit big for my breakfast table, not sure. :)
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
junon 3y ago
I don't think I'm your target demographic but I always appreciate folks who make their hardware accessible like this. Thank you :)
- sandworm101 3y ago
  Who is the target demo? I'm old enough to have had actual newspapers appear on my doorstep. I ever saw anyone mount them on a wall, at least not in a private home. I would think a table/tablet orientation would be more appealing than an awkward wall mount. Is this thing meant to be art, a bit of faux-nostalgia decoration?

ar_lan 3y ago

Hey, isn't this the Peloton model?

stavros 3y ago

If you prefer something more hobby-grade, I made a similar thing with an ESP32-based screen: https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-timeframe/ It fetches images from HTTP every half hour and shows them.