Shops and cafés

A café's specials, a farm shop's prices or a bakery's sold out change through the day. A viewport on the counter shows them, with the Wi-Fi and today's opening hours. Change it once and it updates, with no chalk and no printer.

A café specials board — Today's specials, what's sold out, the free Wi-Fi, the weather and today's hours

The case for Switchboard

Update it from your phone. Sold out: cinnamon buns comes from a text field in Home Assistant. Type it and the board shows it at its next refresh.
No cable across the counter. Months on a charge.
Looks like print. E-ink reads like a printed menu, not a TV.
Customers get online without asking. The Wi-Fi is a code to scan.

Bigger: the 13.3” board

The Seeed reTerminal E1004 does this at 13.3”. Its first firmware, Switchboard Board, shows the screen above at twice the size; it’s new and not yet tested on the hardware. Photos from Immich beside the live information are planned. This is a mock-up of that, at the panel’s real resolution and in its six inks.

Mock-up: a café special with an order-ahead QR code — Mock-up: today's special, the price and a QR code, with live weather and opening hours

Setting it up

Message sections for the specials and Sold out: {input_text.sold_out} on the left; Guest Wi-Fi, Weather and a Message for the hours on the right. See Viewport layouts.