Raspberry Pi: Turn the popular single-board computer into a tabletop weather forecast with an ePaper display

[Redaktion]

Combining a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ and off-the-shelf parts, the project requires no 3D printing or soldering. Suitable even for beginners, the resulting unit can deliver weather forecasts on its easy to read ePaper display.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Raspberry-Pi-Turn-the-popular-single-board-computer-into-a-tabletop-weather-forecast-with-an-ePaper-display.463311.0.html

[Dustin Bess]

Why waste a Pi 3? Couldn't you use a Pi Zero W?

[Stephen Hall]

Microcontrollers like the esp32 do this and some come with the epaper display attached and use a fraction of the power, and don't have the weakness of running the OS from a micro sd card.

[Sridhar Rajagopal]

Why waste a Pi 3? Couldn't you use a Pi Zero W?

Hi there!

I'm the author of the project on hackster that this article references. Yes, you can use any Pi that you have lying around. The point was to demonstrate using a Pi and some python programming along with an ePaper display song with a modular enclosure to make a finished project that can be displayed and used. I had a Pi 3 lying around and so I used that!

Of course there are multiple ways to achieve the goals and an ESP32 could be used as well.

The Pi offers more compute resources and allows you to do more - it depends on what you're trying to achieve and what your skill sets are that you're trying to leverage - for example, a person may be very comfortable with python and also have a Pi lying around. Or you may also want to use it as an edge compute node.

I usually try to end my projects with asking the reader to think about ways they can extend the project to learn more.  Check out some of my other projects that include an Arduino too! Haven't done an ESP32 one yet!

Cheers,
Sridhar