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Squix ESPaper Plus

REVIEW

he Squix ESPaper kit is an ESP8266

module that comes with a ready-to-

use ePaper display. The kit comes in

two varieties: Lite and Plus. The Lite

kit contains an ESP8266 Wroom-02

module, 296 × 128 black and white

ePaper, and LiPo charging circuit and costs $39.90.

For an extra $10, you can get the Plus kit, which

also includes an acrylic enclosure, a USB-to-serial

adapter, and a 600 mAh battery.

The ESP8266 provides a WiFi connection, three

buttons for user input, and a micro USB port for

charging, but that’s about it. There aren’t any easily

accessible pins (other than the serial connection),

so this is primarily for displaying data that’s pulled

in over the network. The hardware is designed for

low-power usage, so it can run for days at a time on

a single charge.

The setup guide shows you how to install a

sample application that displays the local weather

information (pulled from Wunderground). For

someone who’s at least moderately familiar with

using the Arduino IDE, it’s nicely straightforward

to follow and doesn’t take very long to get

the unit working. That, however, is where the

documentation ends.

If you follow the setup guide, you should have

the Arduino IDE running and able to connect to

your device. The extra information you need to

get things working on your ESPaper device is

understanding how to write data to the display.

Daniel Eichhorn – the man behind Squix – has

T

Squix ESPaper Plus

Above

The three buttons

allow you to add

some user input to

your projects

Left

The example

application gives you

a weather forecast

for your local area

$49.90 squix.org

created a library for doing this (Mini Grafx),

however, it’s not well documented. You’ll need

to take a look at the code for the weather station

to see how it works. Experienced programmers

should find it fairly straightforward to get to grips

with, but beginners may struggle.

The acrylic case that it comes in is functional, but

not very aesthetically pleasing, and depending on

your tastes, you may feel the need to create some

other housing for it.

If you’re looking for an out-of the-box weather

reporter, this kit takes a bit of setting up, and the

Wunderground API it relies on has limited coverage

outside of the USA (in England we were only able

to get data for London and Birmingham). However,

if you’re after a hackable ePaper display, the Squix

ESPaper Plus is a great option.

By Ben Everard @ben_everard

An easy-to-

use, low-

power ePaper

display, but

limited by the

documentation

7 / 10

VERDICT

The ESP8266 provides a

WiFi connection, three

buttons for user input, and a

micro USB port for charging,

but that’s about it

”

”