Bedside ESP32 Dashboard (planned)

Status: planned — not built yet. Concept: a small 3D-printed display, plugged into the wall, that always shows the time, weather, and whatever else is useful at a glance.

The idea

No battery, no charging — it lives on a bedside table powered by a USB wall adapter, connects to WiFi, and shows:

Time and date (synced over the network, daylight-saving safe)
Current weather + today’s forecast (temperature, conditions, chance of rain)
Maybe: tomorrow’s first calendar event, indoor temperature

Parts (draft)

ESP32 dev board with USB-C — any ESP32-S3 or plain ESP32 board works; wall-powered so battery doesn’t matter
Display — two good options:
- E-paper (recommended for a bedroom): no glow, readable in the dark without lighting up the room. Slower refresh, but time/weather only needs updating every 10 minutes.
- TFT LCD: brighter, full color, faster — better for a desk, worse for sleep.
USB wall adapter + cable — permanent power
3D-printed case — a simple stand/frame; the fun part

Software approach

Time: NTP sync (pool.ntp.org), timezone configured in firmware — no manual clock setting, ever
Weather: Open-Meteo API — free, no API key, plain JSON over HTTPS
Loop: deep-sleep between updates (every 10 minutes), wake, fetch, redraw, sleep. On wall power this is about simplicity, not battery life.

Open questions

E-paper vs TFT (leaning e-paper for the bedroom)
What else earns a spot on the screen — keep it to what you’d actually glance at half-asleep