omega/kindle-display

Kindle Status Display

+----+  updates every X min   +--------+
|    |  ------------------>   |        |
|    |         wifi           |        |
|    |  <------------------   |        |
+----+      png greyscale     +--------+
hacked                           local
kindle                         webserver

Setup

Kindle

SSH Access

In order to install the scripts onto your kindle you need to get root ssh access via usb. The mobileread forum and wiki are a great source on how to perform the jailbreak, install usb networking and KUAL for easiely enabling/disabling ssh access. So far we've only managed to make it work on the Kindle 4.

Update Script

connect you Kindle via usb and ssh into it

ssh [email protected]

make the Kindle file system writable

mntroot rw

create the init and update scripts according to the files in the kindle directory.

vi /mnt/base-us/RUNME.sh
vi /mnt/base-us/display-weather.sh

add the update script to /etc/crontab/root

*/30 5-22 * * * /mnt/us/display-weather.sh

execute the init script to disable all unneeded tasks and trigger an the first render

sh /mnt/base-us/RUNME.sh

Server

The code in this repository is my personal setup which also pulls in data from the heating and ventilation system. Therefore I recommend forking this repository and modify the datasources and visual representation as you need it.

You need to have node.js/npm, phantomjs and pngcrush installed on the server machine. I'm using a RaspberryPI for this.

Clone the repository

git clone [email protected]:username/kindle-display.git kindle-display
cd kindle-display

Create your own config file. Adjust the list of plugins that should be used to provide data for the template. You can find the implementation in the lib directory.

cp config_sample.yaml config.yaml
vi config.yaml

Adjust template and styling. You probably want to delete much of my stuff here to get it to work.

vi views/index.jade
vi public/stylesheets/style.styl

Start the server and open your browser at http://localhost:3000/

npm start

Now you need to create a png file that can be served for the kindle.

./generate_png.sh

Now you should find a 600x800 grayscale png file in your public folder which is accessibale via http://localhost:3000/weather_bw.png.

Setup a cronjob that regularly executes the generate_png script.

Plugins

...

Todos

Power Management: Right now the Kindle battery lasts for 2-3 days, depending on the refresh interval. I think here is room for improvement. There are a few options to change the Kindles power management settings, but we haven't found the perfect one yet.

Credits

Matthew Petroff

• Blogpost: Kindle Weather Display
• Github: mpetroff/kindle-weather-display

hahabird

• Blogpost: Kindle Weather and Recycling Display
• Imgur: Pictures of Wodden Frame