Smart Home Displays with ePaper: A Maker’s Guide Using ESP32 and the Arduino Ecosystem

ePaper displays are an ideal solution for always-on low power smart home interfaces, offering excellent readability and near zero energy consumption when static. In this session, we show how makers can build their own smart home displays using ESP32 based XIAO modules and the Arduino ecosystem.

Starting from the basics, you will learn how to interface a 4.2" monochrome ePaper display driven by the SSD1680 controller using the open source Seeed GFX Library. The presentation covers hardware comparison of the XIAO ePaper Display breakout boards and explains their differences and typical use cases. The session demonstrates how to render dynamic content such as sensor data, home automation status information, and custom dashboards while optimizing for low power operation. By the end, you will have a practical foundation for building your own battery powered smart home displays suitable for digital signage, room dashboards, and portable information panels.

This talk is suitable for everyone and no previous experience is required. It will be hopefully useful both for engineers and makers who are interested in using ePaper displays in their projects, whether they are just getting started or looking to expand their existing skills.

• Seeed GFX library for the Arduino Ecosystem: https://github.com/Seeed-Studio/Seeed_GFX
• YouTube video: Using ePaper Displays with XIAO: EE04 with XIAO ESP32-S3 vs ePaper Breakout Board with XIAO ESP32-C3: https://youtu.be/0TdbwdlP88w?si=xIixKl1prPLtxLON