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Invisible Computers
Company blog · invisible-computers.comhardwarebusiness
Invisible Computers is the company blog at invisible-computers.com, writing about hardware and business. Since 2021, 15 different Hacker News readers have linked it 43 times, most often “Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
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43mentions?
15HN people?
2021–2025first – last linked?
Too few sampled comments (14) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked as the maker of an e-paper smart display with Google Calendar support and URL-fed images, and as an alternative to DIY e-ink dashboards. Comments are mostly product links rather than comments on the writing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 14 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product10 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2021-02-21
- /invisible-calendar/image-url-manual.html3 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2022-05-12
- /programmable-e-paper-screen.html2 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2022-04-24
- After two years, my e-paper smart display now has a much smaller bezel2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-04-02
What Hacker News says?
https://www.invisible-computers.com/ The creator is on HN too.
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on “MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia”Submitted Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product as a story · 139 points
HN discussionI’m trying to make it work as a product. I tend agree it’s a super niche market though. https://www.invisible-computers.com/
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on “E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi”Submitted Invisible Computers as a story · 12 points
HN discussionHey man, this is so cool. I hope it’s okay to plug here: I am working towards releasing a similar product for sale: https://www.invisible-computers.com/ Unfortunately the display isn’t as big as the one you chose and it isn’t battery powered. But I am starting to ship the first units, so there is that :)
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on “E-Ink Magic Calendar that runs off a battery powered Raspberry Pi”Submitted After two years, my e-paper smart display now has a much smaller bezel as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYes, arbitrary images, you just have to specify the image url. Here are the instructions, so you can see how it works: https://www.invisible-computers.com/invisible-calendar/image...
Comment linking /invisible-calendar/image-url-manual.html
on “The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)”Submitted An e-paper calendar and smart screen as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSerious question, how do you know whether it's your product or your marketing that sucks? For example, I tried twitter ads for my product [1] and I got zero sales after spending $50. What are good marketing strategies for niche hardware products? [1] https://www.invisible-computers.com/
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on “The saddest “just ship it” story (2020)”Submitted Lead Time Is Critical in a Hardware Business as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSomeone on HN was manufacturing one that showed your Google Calendar: https://www.invisible-computers.com/
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on “Building an e-ink weather display for our home”Konstantin Schubert has created a wider E-Ink Smart Screen: https://www.invisible-computers.com/ Also see his HN post: Feedback Welcome: I am developing an e-paper calendar as a consumer product (2021) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26216357
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on “Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)”You may be interested in this E-Ink Smart Screen: https://www.invisible-computers.com/
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on “Trading cards with e-ink displays (2023)”I think even when moving slow, you can still work with prototypes and get feedback as long as you're open about it and you're not taking people's money. For example, I have https://www.invisible-computers.com up as a website. You can read about the product and you can sign up to be notified. But I won't take a cent until I have a product ready to ship.
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on “Move Slow and Make Things”I have been working on adding an image gallery wideget to the The Invisible Smart Screen ( https://shop.invisible-computers.com ) The images look surprisingly good, even on the relatively small, black-and-white display! It definitely has its own aesthetic. I need to hurry up and ship this! In the meantime, if you're a dev, you can probably use the image url widget to build your own image gallery: https://www.invisib…
Comment linking /invisible-calendar/image-url-manual.html
on “Building an e-ink picture frame that displays an iCloud photo album”I will just shamelessly add to the list this wooden 7.5 inch display that I have been working on over the past two years: https://www.invisible-computers.com/programmable-e-paper-scr... Price-wise it's in between the M5Paper and the PineNote, but personally I think it's the best-looking one for the smart display use case. :P
Comment linking /programmable-e-paper-screen.html
on “Show HN: Paperd.ink – an open-source e-paper development board”Hey, I can't see it on your page, what's your selling price? I am selling a very similar programmable display for $169, but it has a bigger screen and a wooden frame: https://www.invisible-computers.com/programmable-e-paper-scr... I suspect your price point is much lower than mine?
Comment linking /programmable-e-paper-screen.html
on “Show HN: Paperd.ink – an open-source e-paper development board”For my personal blog, I blog because some things just need to be said even if nobody listens. Though twitter has mostly filled that need in recent years. https://www.konstantinschubert.com/blog/ For my business blog, I decided to start blogging to drive traffic to the business. Not sure if that's going to work, we will see. https://www.invisible-computers.com/blog/
Comment linking /blog/
on “Ask HN: Why Blog at All?”> no details on SDK. The "develop your own content" link on the top page links to: https://www.invisible-computers.com/invisible-calendar/image... I guess being able to display custom images is a plus, but I am not sure I would call that a SDK.
Comment linking /invisible-calendar/image-url-manual.html
on “The Invisible Screen – An E-Paper Smart Display”I have one of these which is basically what you describe. Marketing materials focus on the Google calendar integration but you can also feed it images via a URL which it polls regularly. https://www.invisible-computers.com/
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on “Hacking eInk Price Tags (2021)”Probably, but I don’t know about it. :D There is cale.es, which might work well for some use cases. For example claims to support AWS chart integration. Cale.es is supported by my screen, but I am not affiliated with it. https://www.invisible-computers.com/e-paper-screen-for-cale-...
Comment linking /e-paper-screen-for-cale-es.html
on “Tidbyt hardware display device: a review”I’m working on a similar thing for eink. So far it can only show a google calendar or a user-defined custom layout. But I want to support many more ready-to-use layouts in future https://www.invisible-computers.com/
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on “Tidbyt hardware display device: a review”If you prefer eink: I am making an e-paper display that works in a similar way - you can configure it with a mobile app to pull an image from any url you want. https://www.invisible-computers.com/programmable-e-paper-scr... This means you’re completely free in designing your layout. There is also a pre-configured calendar layout available that syncs with google calendar.
Comment linking /programmable-e-paper-screen.html
on “Tidbyt hardware display device: a review”The InkyFrame is nice but I prefer the eInk frame from HN user konschubert: https://www.invisible-computers.com
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on “Stay on schedule with Raspberry Pi Pico W and an e-ink dashboard”I was trying to understand your question better. There are two ways to build software for it: One: https://www.invisible-computers.com/invisible-calendar/image... Two: https://github.com/Invisible-Computers/image-gallery/blob/ma... Both of these require rendering the content via an HTTP endpoint and both of these currently only work together with the device backend. > I can buy an ESP32 e-ink screen and run esphome…
Comment linking /invisible-calendar/image-url-manual.html
on “Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule”To be fair: 1. His project does allow rendering any HTML: https://www.invisible-computers.com/programmable-e-paper-scr... 2. It is in stock. :) Raspberry Pi Zero 2 and the waveshare displays are in a bit of a stock crunch, and the frame I ended up mounting this in, along with the special flat USB cable, pushed the project cost to the same price. It's my own aEsTheTic tho.
Comment linking /programmable-e-paper-screen.html
on “Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule”The docs are here: https://github.com/Invisible-Computers/image-gallery/blob/ma... I admit that this is still a bit rough around the edges... As a simpler alternative, if you just want to build some layout for yourself and you do not need user management, you can simply render it as an image on the internet and point the device to it: https://www.invisible-computers.com/invisible-calendar/image...
Comment linking /invisible-calendar/image-url-manual.html
on “Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule”If you’re not up for DIY, I’ve been using a unit from https://www.invisible-computers.com/ for years and I love it. Not affiliated; just a happy customer.
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on “Show HN: E-Ink Day Schedule”Alternative in the EU: https://www.invisible-computers.com/
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on “Show HN: Trmnl, a hackable e-ink dashboard that helps you stay focused”I am making these displays that come in a wooden frame: https://shop.invisible-computers.com/products/invisible-cale... You could render the current state of the chess game to an image and serve that image on a URL on the internet. Then you can connect the display to that image: https://www.invisible-computers.com/invisible-calendar/image... Admittedly that's still a lot of work from your side, and a little applet t…
Comment linking /invisible-calendar/image-url-manual.html
on “Show HN: Building a 42-inch E-Ink frame for generative art”
