Show off your commit streaks with this wireless e-ink display. It uses an ESP32 to fetch and display your latest contributions.

Runs for ~3 months before needing a recharge via micro usb. Default refresh interval is 4hrs which can be configured. There is also a dark mode setting.

• Configuration
• Hardware
• Software
• Install

Hold down the button for 2 seconds to go into wifi configuration mode. This will create a wifi network called "Contributions screen"

Once connected with your phone or laptop press "Sign In" to open the browser configuration

After saving your configuration the device will restart with the updated settings

• If there's an issue with the wifi connection you'll get a striked through wifi symbol
• If there's an issue with fetching the commit data from the api then you'll get a striked through link icon

• LILYGO® T5 2.13inch E-Paper Development Board

  • These are normally used as shopping center price displays but also happen to be the perfect dimensions for this project. Shoutout to Lilygo for creating these neat little guys
  • I found the GDEM0213B74 to be a bit sharper than the DEPG0213BN which looked like it had some anti-aliasing built in that I couldn't disable
  • This specific board wasn't listed as supported by the greyscale gfx library however using one with similar specs did the trick

• 3.7V 1200mAh 603450 battery

  • 50mm x 34mm x 6mm
  • Great size for this project, fits quite snugly. A thinner battery might need something to prevent rattling around like some double sided tape
  • The Lilygo comes with a 1.25mm 2pin JST connector so don't need to worry about finding one with that connector

• 3d printed case and stand available for free on MakerWorld

  • Buttons and switch, secured lid with screws, thin screen bezels and a mechanism to keep the screen firmly at the front of the case.
  • For the wood style finish I printed with a Bambu Lab wood filament and applied an alcohol ink with a cheap and thick paintbrush
  • Other cases available:
    • Thingiverse model by xl0e
    • Lilygo project by Piotr-Kubica
    • Or build your own using this Lilygo reference model on GrabCad

• M3 screws, 6mm

• M3 female thread inserts ~5.7mm

  • These are great, just push them into 3d prints with a soldering iron and you've got a perfect thread

• AWG 26-24 Heat shrink wire connectors or solder

The EleksCava creator has had success adapting the code to work with their screen here

• Configuration mode
  • When the esp32 wakes up we get a esp_sleep_get_wakeup_cause which we can use to determine whether it was due to the button being pressed or the sleep timer. If it was the button we check it again after 2 seconds and if it's still LOW (pressed) then enter config mode
  • In the CaptiveConfigServer file the esp32 creates it's own wifi access point which when connected to uses a captive portal to show a html form. Before sending the html the current configuration values are injected into the forms inputs
  • When the user presses save they're navigated to /submit with the entered form values in the search params of the url
  • The esp32 then reads these and stores them in RTC memory before restarting
    • RTC memory persists through esp_deep_sleep but not when powered off
• Fetching contribution data
  • In the ContributionsApi file the esp32 first tries to connect to wifi via the provided wifi ssid and password
  • Once connected it does an api request to the configured simplified contributions api that returns an integer[] representing the level of commits for each day requested. e.g 2 weeks = [1, 0, 3, 1, 4, 0, 0, 1, 0, 3, 1, 4, 0, -1, -1]
    • -1 means the day is later in the week
    • 0 for no commits today
    • 1-4 for the level of commits
  • The custom github-contributions-api is available on Github if you'd like to fork or host your own. It just uses the Github graphql api to fetch the data and then transforms it into the simplified integer[] response. It's written in NodeJS and Typescript. Technically this could serve as a habit tracker for other events using a different api that follows the same response structure, gym session for example
  • The retrieved data is deserialised using deserializeJson (probably overkill) and if it's changed, stored in RTC memory and rendered
• Rendering
  • In the ScreenController file we're utilising the Adafruit GFX Library with a greyscale e-ink display library to draw the shapes, icons and text
  • The icons were created using a mix of Javls image2cpp tool and Cowboys Bitmap code generator

To install the latest precompiled build on your esp32

1. Download the latest zip from the releases page and unzip it
2. Connect your esp32 to your computer via USB
3. Run ls /dev/cu.usbserial-* to find the serial port of your esp32
4. Run esptool.py --chip esp32 --port <SERIAL_PORT> --baud 115200 write_flash -z 0x1000 bootloader.bin 0x8000 partitions.bin 0x10000 firmware.bin
   • Where <SERIAL_PORT> is the serial port of your esp32from the previous step

If you'd like to develop the code yourself you can use PlatformIO to build and upload the code to your esp32.

1. Clone this repository
2. Install PlatformIO in your IDE of choice.
3. Open the project in your IDE
4. Connect your esp32 to your computer via USB
5. Run pio run -t upload to build and upload the code to your esp32
6. Run pio device monitor to see the logs from your esp32
7. Make changes to the code and repeat steps 5 and 6 to see the changes

Everytime a commit is pushed to the main branch, the code is built using PlatformIO. To create a release, take the last successful build from the GitHub Actions and download the zip file from the artifacts section. This zip file contains the compiled firmware and the necessary files to flash the esp32. The files are:

• bootloader.bin: The bootloader for the esp32
• partitions.bin: The partitions for the esp32
• firmware.bin: The compiled firmware for the esp32

You can then flash these files to your esp32 using the esptool.py command as described in the Install section.

If you'd like to package a version of the code for release locally, simply run the following command in the root of the project:

./bin/build-release-zip.sh