Tempo E-Ink Calendar

Tempo displays your Google Calendar feed on an e-ink screen that updates automatically throughout the day. It can also display feeds from other popular online calendars like Outlook (i.e., any web-based calendar tool that provides a standard .ics feed).

• Assemble in seconds
• No wiring or soldering!
• Open source

Tempo is not only super useful in daily life, but it is also an ideal project for learning to combine 3D printing with Raspberry Pi and e-ink screens. It uses off-the-shelf parts, and it's simple to set up.

Required Parts

1. Case (printed)
2. Raspberry Pi Zero 2W (get the version with pre-soldered headers!) - Approx. $15
   1. Buy in US | UK | Other countries 
   2. Or buy from your favorite retailer (Amazon, Microcenter, etc) 
3. Pimoroni Inky Impression 7.3" (2025 edition) e-ink screen - Approx. $80
   1. Buy in US | UK | Other countries
   2. Or buy from your favorite retailer (Amazon, etc)
4. MicroSD card (at least 16GB) and a MicroSD card reader for your computer (to write the software to it)
   1. Use one you have or grab one from Amazon, etc.
5. Any USB micro cable for power
   1. You probably have one in that junk drawer in the kitchen

Note: This only works out of the box with the exact screen model listed above. Don't try to use a different e-ink screen model unless you are willing to modify the model and update the software yourself.

Software Installation and Assembly

Complete instructions, including photos, are in the assembly guide PDF below!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Tempo connects to the internet. Does it collect any information or track me?

A: No, it only connects to the calendar URLs that you provide to fetch your calendar information. All calendar fetching occurs directly on the Raspberry Pi, with no 3rd-party servers involved. You can check the source code. It's open source.

Q: Where is the source code?

A: Here! https://github.com/Surrey-Homeware/tempo-eink-calendar

Q: Do I need an account or anything to use this? Does it cost money to use?

A: No, it's totally free, and no accounts are required. You own the Raspberry Pi that connects directly to your calendar. There is no middleman.

Q: Does Tempo support other languages besides English?

A: Yes! While the web-based configuration interface is only in English, you can set the calendar to display in many different languages.

Q: I'm a complete beginner with computers. Should I start with this project?

A: This project is easy to get going, but it might require some debugging skills if something goes wrong, and it's a bit more expensive to try. My other Aura project is simpler and cheaper to start with.

Thanks & Acknowledgements

The software for this project is built on top of InkyPi. The Tempo software has been significantly reworked and the calendar parsing code rewritten, but I want to fully acknowledge the work of fatihak and the opensource InkyPi project on top of which this was built. If you are an advanced user looking for features beyond a calendar, check out the original InkyPi project. It will run on the same hardware.