garmin eink

2026-02-20 16:12:31 +00:00
parent edede9dfa4
commit 1e741e6be7
6 changed files with 52 additions and 38 deletions
@@ -2,18 +2,18 @@
 title: "{{ replace .Name "-" " " | title }}"
 date: {{ .Date }}
 draft: true
-image: "featured.jpg"
+image: /{{ .File.Dir }}featured.png
 summary: "A 1-2 sentence hook for the project box."
 tags: ["LXC", "Self-Hosting"]
 ---
 <style>
-  .post-content img {
+  section img, .content img, article img {
-    width: 50%;
+    max-width: 50% !important;
-    height: auto;
+    height: auto !important;
    display: block;
    margin: 2rem auto;
-    border-radius: 8px; /* Optional: makes them look a bit cleaner */
+    border-radius: 8px;
  }
 </style>
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
 ---
 title: "Garmin Eink"
 date: 2026-02-20T15:42:06Z
 draft: false
 image: /projects/garmin-eink/featured.jpg
 summary: "Using an Eink display with an ESP32 to track and motivate me for a virtual running challenge"
 tags: ["ESP32", "Self-Hosting"]
 ---
 <style>
  section img, .content img, article img {
    max-width: 50% !important;
    height: auto !important;
    display: block;
    margin: 2rem auto;
    border-radius: 8px;
  }
 </style>
 ### 📋 Project Highlights
 * **Goal:** Show my running progress on my desk
 * **Tech Stack:** Python, ESP32, C#
 * **Outcome:** A clean and simple setup that works reliably
 For christmas my wife got me a virtual running challenge. I have to run 80km with a smart watch and at the end I get a nice Scooby-Doo medal. The issue is, now that everything requires its own app I forget to open it. My Garmin watch tracks all my running and syncs it to the running app but I wanted a way see my progress, clearly on my desk in the hope it will motivate me to get out and run more.
 I had a waveshare 4.2" eink display in my drawer that ive been looking to find a good use for. A quick search only and I found a python wrapper that can pull data from Garmin connect and suddenly I had all the pieces to put this project together.
 ---
 ### Step 1 - Getting the Garmin Data
 I found this brilliant tool online called [Python Garmin Connect](https://github.com/cyberjunky/python-garminconnect) that allows you to input your Garmin account details and pull specific data from their API. The tool was installed and setup up as a system service on my server and the results servered with a Caddy web server.
 ### Step 2 - Displaying data on the eink screen
 In VS Code I installed platform IO and connected my ESP32. The code was written to connect to wifi, grab the data from the web server and display it to the eink. I gave it a title and a progress bar with percentage to clearly show how much I have completed. I also added a Last Updated time stamp and logic to put the ESP to deep sleep and only update each morning after my typical workout time slot.
 ![Early basic setup](./basic-setup.jpg)
 I later decided it made more sense to show todays date at the botton my the page, making it double as a basic daily calender. 
 One of the greatest challenges was my desicion to include an image. An easier option would have been to buy an ESP32 with a micro SD card slot to give me an easier way of storing the image. Wanted to make this work without buying anything new I decided to stream the image from my Caddy server directly ro the display. With some AI magic I had a bash script that would convert any image I gave it to a resized monochrome bitmap suitable for the basic eink display. The great thing about using this approach is it makes changing the image for a different future challenge much easier. 
 The case comes from [printables](https://www.printables.com/model/495094-waveshare-42-e-paper-stand/comments) and felt like the cleanest option. 
 ### 🏁 Summary & Lessons Learned
 Wrap up your project here. What would you do differently next time? This provides that "closing" feel for a future employer.
@@ -1,33 +0,0 @@
 ---
 title: "Smart Home"
 date: 2022-12-09T19:53:33+05:30
 draft: false
 author: "Ash Marlow"
 tags:
  - Smart Home
  - Home Assistant
  - Zigbee
 image: /img/projects/smart-home/medal.webp
 description: "Some stuff about my smart home!"
 summary: "A brief overview of my Proxmox-based home automation lab."
 ---
 This is the short, punchy sentence that will show up in the box on the projects page. 
 It shouldn't be more than a line or two.
 This part of the text will ONLY show up once someone clicks into the 
 actual project page. You can put your full deep dive here.
 <style>
  .post-content img {
    max-width: 500px;
    height: auto;
    display: block;
    margin: 0 auto; /* This centers it */
  }
 </style>
 this is my amazing smart home!
 test image
 ![My Smart Home Dashboard](/img/projects/smart-home/shrek.jpg)