--- title: How I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard description: A decade-long personal project building a family e-paper dashboard called Timeframe, evolving from a Magic Mirror LCD to jailbroken Kindles, then Visionect... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-built-timeframe-our-family-e-paper-dashboard-hkjfguq4z twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard | daily.dev og:description: A decade-long personal project building a family e-paper dashboard called Timeframe, evolving from a Magic Mirror LCD to jailbroken Kindles, then Visionect... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-built-timeframe-our-family-e-paper-dashboard-hkjfguq4z og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hKJfGUQ4Z.png og:image:alt: How I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 8 min read · 109 upvotes · 5 comments ## Summary A decade-long personal project building a family e-paper dashboard called Timeframe, evolving from a Magic Mirror LCD to jailbroken Kindles, then Visionect e-paper displays, and finally a 25.3" Boox Mira Pro with real-time updates. The system aggregates calendar, weather, and smart home data, with Home Assistant now serving as the primary data source. Key architectural decisions include removing the database and Redis from the Rails backend, using file-store caching, and a status-indicator design philosophy that only surfaces actionable information. The project remains a work-in-progress with hardware cost and distribution challenges still to solve. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@jliter85** · 1 upvotes > Decade-long iteration shows what actually matters simplicity, signal over noise, and tight integration with real life. Stripping the stack down and focusing on actionable info is the right call. **@lucassvio** · 0 upvotes > Beautiful UI **@loonix** · 0 upvotes > love the UI, well done **@stuartgreig** · 0 upvotes > This looks amazing, I didn't even realise you could get eink displays this large.... I want one **@hunordori** · 0 upvotes > It is really inspiring. I built [one ](https://hunor.xyz/posts/Office-eInk-Screen/)to display my status in my office. It is not as polished and depends on Home Assistant. However I bought a separate smaller version for home use. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [E-paper Dashboard Reimagines Smart Home’s Connection With Technology](https://daily.dev/posts/e-paper-dashboard-reimagines-smart-home-s-connection-with-technology-okcvffvxy) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I built a touch-enabled ePaper Home Assistant dashboard, and it's better than any tablet](https://daily.dev/posts/i-built-a-touch-enabled-epaper-home-assistant-dashboard-and-it-s-better-than-any-tablet-ikx7rrvem) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I made the ultimate productivity device for less than 50 bucks](https://daily.dev/posts/i-made-the-ultimate-productivity-device-for-less-than-50-bucks-rm9b0yth6) · Lobsters · 7 upvotes · 2 comments - [Modern E-Ink Dashboards, Kindle And Otherwise](https://daily.dev/posts/modern-e-ink-dashboards-kindle-and-otherwise-7r6euy0uf) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [This Raspberry Pi e-ink display looks like framed wall art, and the software behind it is open source](https://daily.dev/posts/this-raspberry-pi-e-ink-display-looks-like-framed-wall-art-and-the-software-behind-it-is-open-sourc-prbwlfwye) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#tech-news](https://daily.dev/tags/tech-news), [#rails](https://daily.dev/tags/rails), [#raspberry-pi](https://daily.dev/tags/raspberry-pi) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-built-timeframe-our-family-e-paper-dashboard-hkjfguq4z) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-built-timeframe-our-family-e-paper-dashboard-hkjfguq4z","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-built-timeframe-our-family-e-paper-dashboard-hkjfguq4z"},"datePublished":"2026-02-22T20:50:31.934Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T20:50:53.532Z","description":"A decade-long personal project building a family e-paper dashboard called Timeframe, evolving from a Magic Mirror LCD to jailbroken Kindles, then Visionect...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/03107c6d3bca728525a11d78605abd32?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/03107c6d3bca728525a11d78605abd32?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":5,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-built-timeframe-our-family-e-paper-dashboard-hkjfguq4z","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":109},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}],"keywords":"tech-news,rails,raspberry-pi","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-i-built-timeframe-our-family-e-paper-dashboard-hkjfguq4z","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Decade-long iteration shows what actually matters simplicity, signal over noise, and tight integration with real life. Stripping the stack down and focusing on actionable info is the right call.","datePublished":"2026-03-17T13:42:10.746Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hKJfGUQ4Z#c-kIeIzYiGh","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"John Liter","url":"https://daily.dev/jliter85","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--DQ2HUrO4--/f_auto/v1785100315/avatars/avatar_yHf9cPdgTQEtokv6d8qhM?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Beautiful UI","datePublished":"2026-03-19T00:58:12.565Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hKJfGUQ4Z#c-v6j5LwdAZ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lucas Sávio","url":"https://daily.dev/lucassvio","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fZIlacw4--/f_auto/v1772172050/avatars/avatar_46ogKhXes7Kbap7dmo9dg?_a=BAMAMiiu0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"love the UI, well done","datePublished":"2026-03-16T11:30:23.980Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hKJfGUQ4Z#c-9x8IIA3Tq","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel C","url":"https://daily.dev/loonix","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocLb5tOFgzYjw13ufJx_Fxhap4Tku7iwMKNEkay8PRTFcdPWfhUZLg=s96-c"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This looks amazing, I didn’t even realise you could get eink displays this large… I want one","datePublished":"2026-03-21T20:36:00.118Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hKJfGUQ4Z#c-4SfMrgPpU","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Stuart Greig","url":"https://daily.dev/stuartgreig","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--FoVqUWgr--/f_auto/v1772633885/avatars/avatar_V6TOuZS8XXplYvc5hNLgE?_a=BAMAMiiu0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"It is really inspiring. I built one to display my status in my office. It is not as polished and depends on Home Assistant. However I bought a separate smaller version for home use.","datePublished":"2026-03-17T10:10:26.301Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hKJfGUQ4Z#c-KYRQBOjJg","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Hunor Dóri","url":"https://daily.dev/hunordori","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ej_ecZnp--/f_auto/v1766332232/avatars/avatar_WGxMVU157d1bEq6RnCTIe?_a=BAMAK+ZW0"}}]} ```