Esp32 + E Ink Picture Frame

Features

• Upload pictures from any device in your network
• Incl. dithering: Preview & adjust images before uploading
• Image processing optimized for E Ink displays
  • Histogram equalization increases the look on E Ink displays
  • Exposure and contrast sliders can adjust any kind of suboptimal photos
• Soon: Image Gallery and slide show mode

Overview

• Picture frame webapp + server
• More IOT! Deploy this honeypot easily in your own network!
• Components
  • Target: Waveshare's Esp32 driver board
  • Display: Cheap 7.5" 800x480 E Ink display from waveshare
• Frameworks
  • PlatformIO with wiring lib from Arduino.
  • Angular
  • Material design via Angular Material Components
• All files to be served are stored within the ESP32's SPIFFS
• This project allows easily building all frontend artifacts into pre-compressed files with just one command, see build angular

TODO: Work in Progress

• Embed more E Ink displays: Currently for the 7.5" 800x480 Waveshare display only.
• Refactor hard coded parameters into system settings section
• Implement an image gallery and slide show mode
• Enable energy saving as well as self power off

Developer Setup

Arduino IDE

This project is migrated to PlatformIo. It allows using better tools and still uses the Angular framework and libraries. To setup the "Arduino" part of this project, see Setup PlatformIO

Setup PlatformIO

• Install VSCode
• Install the PlatformIO Plugin for VSCode
• Install the ESP32 libs called "Espressif 32" in the PlatformIO Plugin section Platforms
• No need to install other libs like driver, server etc. Platformio does it all. Awesome!
  • If you wanna maintain these dependencies, look for "lib_deps" in the platformio.ini file.
• Change your ESP32's COM-Port in platformio.ini. You can't find a GUI menu for that settings unlike in the arduino ide.

Setup Angular

• Install newest LTS Version of node.js from here
• Install VSCode or your preferred editor
  • Cool VSCode extensions for angular:
    • Angular Extension Pack - that's an all in one bundle
    • i18n Ally for translation management
• Install Angular CLI: Open the src/angular folder with VSCode and go into a terminal with ctrl + j and enter

  npm install -g @angular/cli
  

• Install all dependencies for the angular project

  npm install
  

• If commands are failing because 'ng.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system', run

  Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser
  

Local config files

Create a file src/arduino/epd_server/local_dev_config.h and fill with settings as follows.

#define wifiSettings

const char* ssid = "Your Wifi Name";
const char* password = "Your Wifi Password";

Build

Build Angular Frontend

Make sure your terminal is on the angular root path - that is src/angular/picture-frame-frontend - and run

npm run build-arduino

Arduino / Esp32

Debugging the ESP32

The following holds true using a FTDI2232HL "Minimodule", in this case a cheap $10 breakout with the device name Dual RS232-HS.

Notice that debugging won't work with the display/spi being enabled.

• Install the platformio-ide plugin in VSCode.

• Import the project into PlatformIO

• Download & use Zadic to install the Dual RS232-HS (Interface 0) Device as WinUSB driver.

• Edit platformio.ini to contain

  [env:esp32dev]
  platform = espressif32
  board = esp32dev
  framework = arduino
  upload_port = <YOUR COM PORT OF ESP32>
  monitor_speed = 115200
  upload_speed = 921600
  debug_tool = minimodule
  

• Run Debugging once (F5) and let it fail. If it fails and does not find your debugger, change the debugger name in

  C:\Users\YOURNAME\.platformio\packages\tool-openocd-esp32\share\openocd\scripts\interface\ftdi\minimodule.cfg

  to

  ftdi_device_desc "Dual RS232-HS"
  

Debugger Connection

Although some docs indicate to only connect GND, debugging only works also connecting 3V3. Please check your own setup for this.

JTAG Name	FTDI 2232HL Pin	ESP32 Pin
TCK	FTDI AD0	GPIO13
TDI	FTDI AD1	GPIO12
TDO	FTDI AD2	GPIO15
TMS	FTDI AD3	GPIO14
RESET	FTDI AC2	EN
GND	FTDI GND	GND
	3V3	3V3

Dependencies

ESP32 Dependencies

• Async TCP Library for ESP32
• GxEPD2 Waveshare lib for epd displays
• Adafruit GFX - can be found in lib manager to auto-install

Angular Dependencies

See package.json and 3rdpartylicenses.txt for details on the angular dependencies.