README.md

ESP32 E-Paper PNG Display

The example shows a weather screen, but it could be used for any 400x300 web viewport rendered to a PNG.

Components

Folder	Description
web	NodeJS web server hosting the tiny 'weather screen' page shown above.
screenshotter	Sidecar NodeJS script that periodically uses puppeteer to take a screenshot of the webpage. This PNG is served from /screenshot on the web server.
esp32	ESP32 code to fetch the PNG over HTTPS, render it to the e-paper screen and sleep at intervals.

Hardware

• TTGO ESP32 Microcontroller
• Waveshare 4.2 inch e-Paper module: Waveshare Docs, Amazon link

How to Use

1. The ESP32 code would need modification for differing hardware. Even if you use the same hardware, you must check the EPD_ constants which are the pins used for the e-paper module connections.
2. Copy and edit the following configuration:

Template	Copy To	Description
web/.env.local.template	web/.env.local	OpenWeatherMap API key and city.
screenshotter/.env.local.template	screenshotter/.env.local	Timezone setting for the screenshot 'browser'.
esp32/src/credentials.h.template	esp32/src/credentials.h	WiFi, timezone, screenshot endpoint URL.

3. Use VSCode with the PlatformIO extension to upload the ESP32 code.
4. Build & run the web and screenshotter Docker containers: docker compose up -d
5. Forward requests from a webserver to the web container:

    # Example Apache config in a VirtualHost block
    <Location /esp32-e-paper-display>
            ProxyPass "http://localhost:3010"
            ProxyPassReverse "http://localhost:3010"
    </Location>

NB: If you change the base path, update the next.config.mjs to reflect this.

References

• https://github.com/ZinggJM/GxEPD2
• https://github.com/G6EJD/ESP32-e-Paper-Weather-Display/
• https://github.com/kikuchan/pngle/