Esp32 and https://www.atomvm.net - is very suited for this.. but depends on what you are actually doing?
(disclaimer: I’m a AtomVM contributor)
outlog
nix2intel
while out of stock, have you looked at the grisp boards? grisp.org, there is a smaller version that is being teased to be released soon, they seem really interesting and i’ve got some pmods and just waiting for them to come back into stock to buy one myself. How intense is the compute for what you are doing? would a small solar setup be wanted/needed you may be able to run for extreme amounts of time depending on workload?
2
mpope
You should checkout AtomVM! Its an alternative VM meant for embedded devices and I believe low power, however it lacks some features.
3
mpope
cblavier
we want to feed an eInk display with jpg content. Content would be fetched from a remote server at most once a day
0
outlog
for low power you can’t beat an esp32 - an esp32/eink display is a perfect match.
You should even be able to just find some non elixir code to run on the esp32, if you don’t want to get your hands dirty.
Or get something like this, use micropython and be done: Inky Frame 7.3" (Pico 2 W Aboard)
(AtomVM does support Pico - but driver support will be a bit of a struggle I think..)
suppose it depends on your display model?
GitHub - atomvm/atomgl · GitHub is fully up to date and supports a display like: https://openelab.io/products/7colore-inke-paper
there is also an older driver for a myriad of eink/epdiy displays that probably needs a bit of love to get going - GitHub - atomvm/avm_epdiy_display · GitHub
There will be some rough edges - but it should be simple an easy eg:
Eg wire things up, put together.
connect to wifi
store secrets in NVS Module esp — AtomVM 0.7.0-dev+git.f42fb232 documentation
use atomgl to display a hardcoded image
then use ahttp client Module ahttp_client — AtomVM 0.7.0-dev+git.f42fb232 documentation to download from server, turn wifi off, and spent time updating image, this happens each boot.
use deep_sleep 24 hours (or calculate time until XX:XX) - and you are good.
Personally I’m looking at one of these all in one boards (greyscale) that are coming out soon - as my first foray into eink T5 E-Paper S3 Pro – LILYGO® or Access to this page has been denied.
There is this project for AtomVM: GitHub - bettio/pocketOS · GitHub - see video here Add description and video to readme? · Issue #2 · bettio/pocketOS · GitHub bit unrelated but just goes to show what AtomVM is capable off..
so depends..
If you don’t want to solder/wire things up:
this screen with holder for pico:
and then this Pico pins compatible esp32
Battery is really something like 3x AA, or some old usb power bank that doesn’t turn off when power draw is low..
5
peerst
GRiSP Core Team
Reluctant to post this here since the ESP32 affcionados are well ahead here. Also disclaimer: I’m the creator of GRiSP
But GRiSP2 is pretty low power too it runs on a single core iMX6ULL (the ULL means its the lowest power variant in the series). We are in the last steps of finializing the battery management extension which uses a standard 18650 Lithium cell and exposes all kinds of chare management functionality (it’s meant as evaluation board for charge management). Off e beefy powerebank one would get much more runtime but no charge management. Also the battery extension has a real time clock for waking up the board. iMX6 comes with a integrated epaper controller but I would need to check if the right pins are all exposed.
Probably will have to switch off the Wifi module during sleep to get more runtime (or atogether if its to run on Ethernet or via some other communication.
GRiSP2 is officially supported by Nerves (we intentionally made it so) and even the secure element that Nerves supports is on the board.
Now if you are really into extreme low power applications: we are already working with the first samples for what we will call GRiSP nano. This is running a ultra low power STM32 controller and has only 16MB RAM. We are currently working on getting the normal Erlang VM working on it no need for AtomVM. This board runs on energy harvesting devices e.g. from temperature gradients and of course also from batteries. Everything on the board is optimized for low power, everything even the PMOD modules can be switched off by software and various wake up hardware is on there. Here we are talking about ~10 mW when its running and extremely low sleep current. Here Nerves wouldn’t run anymore bit the Erlang VM is just the vanilla one which we currently optimize for low memory footprint.
No idea how it compares with a ESP32 since I have no experience with these. But I’m very sure GRiSP nano will beat it by length. We are making these boards as evaluation boards for real products and hobyists we need suppliers that have a track record and also we can’t use a chinese government funded CPU for critical infrastructire. So our CPUs are from European namufacturers (NXP and STM) and the PCBs are made in Germany.
8
nix2intel
peerst
GRiSP Core Team
End of February 2025, they shouldn’t be marked out of stock since the new batch is already waiting for the new&better default software to get done so they can be installed.
I’ll make sure they can be ordered already.
0
nix2intel
i’ll be grabbing one later today, so excited and love the idea behind it! about to build a weather sensor with it to get my own weather data. got the pmods already anticipating a return.
0