instructables

E-Ink Display Mug

by Aric Caley

This is one of those crazy ideas that just
spontaneously lodge in my brain. I thought, wouldn't it
be awesome if there was a coffee mug that you could
customize on the fly? One that looked pretty much
like an ordinary coffee cup. I did a search and found
only one example of something similar, but it did not
look like normal coffee cup and the display was flat.
that they can be flexible, as well as not requiring
power to maintain an image. e-ink displays are mostly
seen in ebook readers, but I thought why not make a
cup with a display that curves to the cup? I found an
inexpensive e-ink display that would fit the bill (in fact
the only flexible one that I could find for purchase by
a mere mortal) and so I set out to build my vision.

The remarkable thing about e-ink / e-paper displays is

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Step 1: Parts

The parts breakdown is pretty straight forward. The
waveshare flexible e-ink display is the only one I
could find, and its available easily on ebay or
aliexpress. I chose an ESP32 Lolin Lite for the
microcontroller because it was inexpensive (pretty
sure the one I got was a clone) but had Bluetooth LE
as well as a LiPo battery charger and enough storage
for fonts and bitmaps for the display.
until I found that Hobby Lobby still sold them. They
are cheap, in every way. But for under $1 it worked
perfectly, having just enough space to snugly fit all
the parts inside.
Lolin Lite ESP32 board
Waveshare 2.13" flexible e-ink display with HAT

The only hard to find item was a suitable cup to fit the 150 mAh Lipo battery with JST connector
electronics into. I couldn't really find anything.
Originally, I had planned to use a ceramic "I am not a Design a Mug
paper cup" cup, and bend an acrylic sheet around it.
Since the cup is tapered and the acrylic sheet tube Cardboard
would be straight, there would be enough space near
the bottom to fit the parts. I didn't have much luck with Tape
the acrylic bending though.
Printed paper insert (see attached SVG file)
Then I remembered years ago my kids made custom
mugs with a store bought kit. I went looking for that Foam cup
and found places that used to sell them no longer did,

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Step 2: Paper Insert and Cardboard Base

Because the cup is clear and you don't want to see
the electronics, print out the insert and carefully cut it
with a razor blade or scissors. Because the e-ink
display isn't paper white, the insert has a light gray
pattern on it that pretty closely matches the
background color of the e-ink display. Cut out the
rectangle for the display to show through. Put the
insert into the cup to make sure it fits, and decide
what side of the cup you want the display on.
Also on this sheet is a circle pattern that you can use
to cut a cardboard base. I used a very thin corrugated
cardboard from a small box.
This cardboard disk with serve to mount the
electronics to, and to hold the paper insert against the
cup at the bottom.

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 Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FSW/UGOG/JTYNGCCA/FSWUGOGJTYNGCCA.svg
…

Step 3: Mount Electronics to Base

I soldered right angle headers to the ESP32 and only
to the pins I needed. Specifically this would leave
space on one side for the small LiPo battery. Connect
the wires from the harness provided with the e-ink
display hat as shown. Then, with the ESP32 centered
and positioned with the USP and battery connector
as close to the edge as you can get, press down so
the header pins puncture the top of the cardboard.
Plug the wire harness into the e-ink driver hat, and try
to curve the wires around the female header strip and
across the top of the board. Secure it with some tape.
Make sure the ribbon cable is connected, and place
the hat over the ESP32 as far back as it will go
without going over the edge of the cardboard circle,
and guide the wire harness behind the JST battery
connector and USB port. Secure with more tape.

Plug in the JST battery connector and use some This is kinda tricky but the wires pretty much go
double sided tape to stick the battery down next to where they need to go, and it all fits together pretty
the ESP32. Be careful not to put too much pressure snugly.
on the battery as they are delicate.

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Step 4: Charge Port

You're going to want to be able to charge your cup both sides and then cut the rest out with an x-acto
and also program it, so you need to place the blade.
cardboard electronics assembly into the cup and note
where the USB port is. Mark a square big enough for Place the assembly in the cup again and test that
your cable to fit through (I put it near the base of the your cable can fit through and connect.
handle so it would be less visible when holding the
cup), and then cut out a hole. I used a 3/16" drill on

Step 5: Final Assembly

Remove the base assembly again, and then insert
the paper liner. Make sure it is fully spread out inside
the cup and then tape the edges to retain the shape.
Attach the e-ink display to the little connector board,
and the board to the ribbon coming from the hat.
Carefully slide the base assembly into the cup, orient
the USB port to the hole in the cup and push it down
to the bottom of the cup. Again make sure you can
plug your USB cable into the board.
Now center the e-ink display into the cutout on the
paper liner. Make sure it is level, and pressed all the
way into the curve of the cup. Use some tape to hold
it in place. I added an additional paper backing to
help hold the e-ink display in place. You will need to
also tape the ribbon cables to the liner, and you will
need to make one 45 degree fold in the ribbon to
make it go from horizontal to vertical, going down to
the base.
You should now be able to place the inner cup insert
into the cup.

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Step 6: Insulation

Because the cup is thin plastic it has almost no needed a slot cut into it in order to fit around the little
insulation. The e-ink display I found was sensitive to connector board.
heat, so the heat from a typical cup of coffee was
enough to cause the display to fade. I added some This helped a great deal. And of course it also means
insulation around the cup by cutting the bottom off a your coffee stays hotter longer.
common styrofoam cup and then wrapping it around
the cup insert, trimming off the excess foam. It also

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Step 7: Programming
I've provided the code on GitHub for programming the
ESP32. I am using the Atom editor with PlatformIO
extensions installed. The code is using Arduino
framework with espressif32 platform, using Adafruit
GFX Library from Adafruit to put text onto the display.
I plan to add images as well as a Bluetooth
connection, used with a mobile app to dynamically
upload images and text. For now, there are several
amusing text displays it cycles through.
I've tried to keep power consumption as low as
possible but I think it is not as optimized as it could
be. Still, it lasts several hours when changing the
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display every 10 seconds or so.
The code is a bit messy! There's stuff in there for
implementing the BLE communication which is not
done yet. There is also some code to communicate to
a Slack Bot, the intention to let my co-workers send
texts to the cup in real time from our company Slack
chat room. Once all thus is working the cup will be an
IOT (Internet of things) device!
Source Code
Step 8: Use It

Take Display Cup into your next company meeting. Drink coffee. Wait for co-workers to notice... enjoy!

https://youtu.be/yJuSbYkX_Y4

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