# ESPresso Frame

A DIY e-ink photo frame: an ESP32 board pulls photos from your
[Immich](https://immich.app) library and displays them on a full-color
e-paper panel, waking on a timer to refresh and spending the rest of its
time in deep sleep. The original build is a 7.3" panel on an ESP32-C6;
a larger 13.3" panel on Seeed's EE02 (ESP32-S3) is supported
server-side, but its firmware driver isn't working yet -- see
[`docs/hardware.md`](docs/hardware.md).

- **No cables to a computer, no SD card shuffling.** Provisioning is a
  captive portal with a QR code drawn on the panel itself -- scan, join,
  fill in your WiFi and server address, done.
- **The frame never decodes an image.** A small self-hosted server does
  all the work (pulling from Immich, cropping, dithering, packing into
  the panel's exact pixel format) and hands the device a stream it can
  write straight to SPI. The ESP32-C6 has no PSRAM and not much SRAM to
  spare -- keeping it a dumb display client is what makes that workable
  (the same design carries over to the ESP32-S3 board even though it
  does have PSRAM, for consistency).
- **Crops toward faces, not just the center**, using face bounding boxes
  Immich already computed for its own People feature -- no bundled face
  detector.
- **Refresh interval and album are configurable from a web UI**, no
  reflashing needed to change them.

## Hardware

- ESP32-C6 dev board (8MB flash), or Seeed's XIAO ESP32-C6 (production
  board) -- both drive the panel below.
- [Waveshare 7.3" E Ink Spectra 6 (E6)](https://www.waveshare.com/7.3inch-e-paper-hat-e.htm) panel -- 800x480, 6-color, SPI.
- Experimental, not yet working: [Waveshare 13.3" E Ink Spectra 6](https://www.waveshare.com/13.3inch-e-paper-hat-plus-e.htm)
  (1600x1200) on [Seeed's EE02](https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-ePaper-DIY-Kit-EE02-for-13-3-Spectratm-6-E-Ink.html)
  (ESP32-S3) -- server-side support exists, but the firmware driver's
  panel init sequence isn't ported from vendor code yet.

See [`docs/hardware.md`](docs/hardware.md) for wiring,
[`docs/architecture.md`](docs/architecture.md) for how the two halves talk
to each other, and [`docs/widgets.md`](docs/widgets.md) for the server's
placeable photos/calendar/whiteboard widget system.

## Getting started

1. **[`server/`](server/)** -- run the FastAPI server first (Docker
   Compose, points at your Immich instance). See
   [`server/README.md`](server/README.md).
2. **[`firmware/`](firmware/)** -- build and flash the board, then
   scan the QR codes it draws on first boot to provision it. See
   [`firmware/README.md`](firmware/README.md).

## Repo layout

```
firmware/   ESP-IDF project (ESP32-C6 devkit/xiao boards, ESP32-S3 ee02)
server/     FastAPI server: Immich -> crop/dither/pack -> the frame
docs/       Wiring and architecture notes
```

## License

MIT -- see [`LICENSE`](LICENSE). A few small pieces of vendored
third-party code (a QR code generator, a bitmap font table) keep their
own permissive licenses; see `LICENSE` for details.

---

Built with substantial assistance from [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code).