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Building a Real-Time HN Display for $15

63 points by kylegalbraith

by rcarmo

1 subcomments

I love this because it uses UDP _and_ a CYD (Cheap Yellow Display, which is what we hardware nerds have taken to calling these). I have two or three of these around, one as a 3D printer remote, another as a pseudo logic analyzer, and a caseless one that I use as a Micro Python sandbox.
I've been using UDP to send CPU stats for my machines for ages (https://github.com/rcarmo/raspi-cluster/blob/master/tools/se... is a good example), and in modern networks it has become very much reliable (99.99% so on a LAN). Keeping an eye out for UDP on an ESP32 and running Wireguard might be a little power intensive to ever get this running on battery even if it had an e-paper display, though.

by jeroenhd

2 subcomments

I kinda wonder what the packet loss story of UDP is like for simple protocols like these in the modern day. Clearly, it's good enough that this application runs without issue.
> Instead of bolting TLS onto every application protocol (HTTP, MQTT, CoAP, etc.), what if we secure the network layer once and then use simple protocols on top?
IPSec, coming back with a vengeance!
This also makes me wonder what takes less space in ROM, a basic WireGuard implementation or a basic, stripped-down IPSec implementation (with only the ciphers and configuration necessary for the server compiled in). WireGuard has the advantage of being designed for simplicity, but IPSec has its 90s every-cycle-counts legacy that a lot of modern software has ignored since.

by augusteo

3 subcomments

Nice project. The $15 price point is genuinely impressive for something like this.
I've been curious about e-ink displays for a while but haven't taken the plunge. What's the refresh rate like in practice? And does it actually help you notice interesting posts you'd otherwise miss, or is it more of a fun desk decoration?

by cyode

1 subcomments

Satisfying to see all the payload request and response sizes in bytes not kb.
Q: the display just starts at 0 and increments comment id by 1 every 10 seconds. Has the device caught up to latest? If you power cycle it, do you have to run through all historical comments?

by lormayna

1 subcomments

Why not using MQTT? A Lambda that fetch new comments from HN, parse them into Markdown and push into MQTT; the ESP only needs to subscribes a topic on MQTT and render the messages.

by hyperbolablabla

0 subcomment

This is awesome. I've been meaning to check out WireGuard for some time, and this project has been inspiring for me. Thanks!

by password4321

0 subcomment

> The client always sends the last ID it received.
Contrary to the second half of the article the display is not stateless (especially not WireGuard). However, the combination of minimum viable state and giving payment details to cloud services does simplify IoT projects.

by nottorp

0 subcomment

It's a great fun project but...
There isn't much of a difference between this and having all notifications enabled.
Yes it's a separate screen but you'll put it where you can see it while working or there is no point in it. And then it will distract you.

by MrBuddyCasino

0 subcomment

Great project!
There is another neat board that I like, smaller but looks nicer, the "ESP32-C6 1.47Inch LCD Screen" for just ten bucks: https://aliexpress.com/item/1005008465501661.html

by Terretta

0 subcomment

Fantastic project, and imma save it for several ambient info things I'm looking to do.
But the LLM patterns and wording are tedious, especially:
No this. No that. No the other. Just much, sameness, repeated.
- And the bulleted question call and response? Too much of that too.

0 subcomment

by szundi

0 subcomment