Inkycal PiSugar case

Inkycal PiSugar frame

What is Inkycal?

If you've not hear of Inkycal yet, it's a python-software to make your own personal e-paper dashboard, powered by Raspberry Pi Zero W:

https://github.com/aceisace/Inkycal

Although Inkycal supports many more display sizes, the 7.5" is a sweet spot for both reasonable size and affordability. With the modular software, you can mix and match many of the supported modules. Hence, the 7.5" e-paper display from Waveshare is the most commonly used size.

7.5" e-paper display

As the 7.5" e-paper display has a fairly unusual size, finding a suitable frame can be challenging, as the 13x18cm standard frame size will cover a large portion of the display, and cutting a passepartout-style bezel with only a few mm to spare at the top and bottom is nearly impossible. With 3d-printing, this limitation can be bypassed since we're no longer bound by standard frame sizes.

Going cordless?

There are quite a few users who wanted to use Inkycal with a cordless solution, by making use of the PiSugar board and allowing a battery-life of several weeks. However, I have yet to see any reasonably good frame for a setup with the PiSugar board and the Zero W. After a few iterations, this is the design I came up with:

Since the inner height of the frame is only 10mm in height, I've had to remove the metal plates from the PiSugar battery. Furthermore, a driver board with less than 1cm height is required as it won't be able to fit otherwise and worst-case, could damage the display. 

If you're looking for an ultra-slim driver board, I can recommend this one from tindie: https://www.tindie.com/products/aceinnolab/universal-e-paper-driver-board-for-24-pin-spi/

Alternatively, you can buy a fully-assembled version of Inkycal here: 

https://www.tindie.com/products/aceinnolab/inkycal-create-your-own-e-paper-dashboard/ 

As a thank you for reading this far, here's a discount code to get $2 off on the driver board via this code: B8D3305A 

and this one to get $15 off on the fully-assembled version with this code: B4E071FE

Features 

This 3d-printed case is made up of three parts, the bezel, the back and the base.

It was designed by having the following features in mind:

• 13mm height
• USB-C connector of the PiSugar board on the left-hand side of the frame
• wall-mountable via holes at the back
• contains a base for placing on a desk
• ventilation slots for passive cooling
• path for cable when cable-operation is primary source of power and PiSugar is only a backup
• can be charged from the outside without disassembling