I’ve been working remote for 20 years, but only recently started living in the same house with
my dad, my sister, and three teenagers. With that many people it’s common for someone to come
into my office and start asking me questions while I’m on a video call. This has happened
enough that I wanted an “On Air” sign to indicate to anyone coming by my room
that I’m not able to talk. A few months ago I decided to finally build one from spare parts
around the house. I didn’t really need this of course, but I love playing with novel
user interfaces.
It's been a bit since I've posted on my round screen watch project. Most of my time has been
taken up by work, travel, and family stuff, but I did have a few seconds to add a feature or
two.
I’m continuing to work on
a little smartwatch prototype
using a little round LCD and I want to have nice looking text. The default font for
CircuitPython is fine, but it’s very tiny. This LCD has a pretty high DPI compared to other
hobbyist screens( > 200 ppi), so I need to find a new font. CP has a way of
importing new fonts, but there are a few pitfalls and tricks I discovered, so that’s what I’m
covering today.
For my next project with the WaveShare Round LCD I want to create an animation of
Dr Strange's Eye of Agamotto. Here is my
first attempt in JS
(looks more like the comics than the movies). Not bad, I think.
I'm enamored of all th cheap and hackable screens and embedded CPUs coming
onto the market. I'm frustrated, however, that despite embedded
computing being more accessible than ever, the mass manufacturers products
are all becoming more and more the same. Where are the phones with oval
screens? Where are the steam punk pocket calculators? We have the technology
to make devices that are ever more niche and increasingly creative and
different, yet what you can actually buy is more glowing rectangles. I'd
like to fix this.