#17 Using e-ink (epaper) Price Tags (Shelf Labels) for everyday needs

Recently I realized my local grocery store replaced traditional price tags with electronic e-ink (epaper) price tags / shelf labels. I found out that you can easily buy the same ones from e-bay, and I was able to re-program / hack them.
These devices can be used as cheap Arduino E-Ink Displays, and you can easily program these with usb-TTL adapter, or any Arduino board.
In this video, I will show you how you can use them for everyday needs.
The brand of the e-paper display I re-program is Hanshow, and the model is Stellar.
Here are the links which is mentioned in the video:
The Github page for the project:
github.com/MakersFunDuck/Hans...
Other projects you might think interesting:
github.com/atc1441/ATC_TLSR_P...
github.com/rbaron/pricetag-pr...
PS. I made the doom part of the video with the tool that I explained. I only the modified code to take a picture at the end of one loop. I made a time-lapse video to remove the screen refresh artifacts.
▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - Intro & summary
0:50 - Tips to get them for free
1:38 - Doom!
4:42 - Start of the projects
4:42 - Subscriber counter
6:09 - Weather forecast
7:09 - Home assistant
9:37 - Internet modem monitor
10:36 - Bitcoin - Stock tracker
12:00 - Post it notes viewer (Google keep)
13:22 - Morning routine viewer (Google Calendar)
14:13 - Garbage collection dates viewer
14:48 - Troubleshooting

[@Three60Mafia]

I remember working retail as merchandiser at a pharmacy in 2005, and we spent so much time printing, sorting, cutting, and putting up those sticker labels ... only to just take them down a few days later. It was a matter of time.

[@zlcoolboy]

Your fingernails get sore from it :(

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

Worked retail 15 years. It was a WHOLE DAY'S SHIFT at Ulta. We got there at 4am...store opens at 10am. I do NOT miss that. Every damn week

[@gray7585]

hey, did they have a machine specifically to print the labels?

[@zants_]

@@gray7585Yes, Zebra is the biggest brand I know of for it.

[@Sophie-144p]

I remember seeing LCD price tags in quite a few places around 10 years ago that probably seeked to solve the same problems. Readability was a major downside though even for people without impaired vision since they had no backlights

[@AdamIannazzone]

I'm genuinely surprised that Doom looked that good!

[@makersfunduck]

I removed the refresh artifacts, and made a time-lapse video. normally it is really slow

[@keycontroller]

@@makersfunduck 😂what is the fps rate on average

[@chargehanger]

@@keycontroller "frame per minute" (as in singular frame per each minute)

[@pofjiosgjsoges]

@@makersfunduck In next video: Overclocking pricetag to get 60FPS in Doom :)

[@al.bay24]

​@@chargehanger I would say it's seconds per frame :)

[@rjdipcord1271]

So glad someone is looking into this! When I first saw these in stores I knew they would have a great use within the smart-home community. I just didn't know how to implement my own solution.

[@MikeHarris1984]

When the battery goes, they are soldered into the module and non replaceable. It's wasteful, but they cost something like 10 cents each at the price they buy in bulk when they purchase millions at a time for a chain. And each shelf and line item is likely close to 100k-200k per store easily. So it costs more to replace a battery, other then just scan a new module ID onto a shelf to replace an old one. And the batteries in eink last years since they only use power to refresh the screen, and that's at setup of price. So only when prices change it uses power

[@user-rr8iw9lp4d]

If someone wanted one tag and everything required to operate it (turnkey? ), how much would it cost, would it be available to the public, and are there alternative cheaper kits (other than doing the steps in the video). Thanks

[@MikeHarris1984]

However, now looking on ebay and everywhere, even USED, not working tags are going for about $80 for 10 of them.... the market is so overpriced on those cheap tags now.

[@tommy8716]

You can replace a soldered battery. If someone doesn't know what they are doing they shouldn't, but that just makes the store that much more likely to give them away for free since it REALLY wouldn't be worth replacing the battery

[@Underskore]

The ones we have at work use 2 button cells.

[@32BitJunkie]

This is a horrifying amouny of E waste. Just add a couple terminals to charge them, come on

[@WinchesterxNL]

This was fun to see. En altijd leuk om een Nederlander te zien ;) Might give this a shot some day!

[@lily_skye]

This browser-based approach is super smart! So flexible!!

[@davidgermain]

I am in the process of building and setting up stores for these. So this is a great video.

[@eddy17flaws]

Same, I use to be a manager at a store and looking to grow a business out of this solution.

[@jonasniesner]

Your video was one of the reasons I wrote a home assistant plugin for OpenEpaperLink.

[@makersfunduck]

it is a nice project. I will definitely check once I have solum pricetags :)

[@jonasniesner]

​@@makersfunduck If you want, I can send you some.

[@willemkossen]

This sparks a lot of ideas. Indeed, the top op my todo list always insight at my desk, the date for the next garbage collection day in the hallway, the current temperature in the attic from homeassistant, weather forcast, tv schedules, trending topic on social media, etc. I need some of this in my life.

[@WoodsSooperDooperShop]

The date for the next garbage collection would be super sweet! A saw a guy a few years back that had a illuminated trashcan that lit in the according light for the trash that's due the next day (blue for paper, yellow for plastic, etc)

[@jamesdc1993]

I think it was called the bindicator, great name

[@jamesdc1993]

I think it was called the bindicator, great name

[@K4leidos]

Willem, happy cooperate to build this with you. I'm a software dev

[@K4leidos]

(volunteering of course)

[@NicksStuff]

That's a cool implementation!

[@AntonioDellaRovere]

Great use case! Actually Homeassistant could do the whole updating for you and free up your PC

[@dousiastailfeather9454]

Just visited an Aldi and spotted a tag that was an e-ink tag! Pretty cool, I thought... Now I see vids of uses!

[@Umski]

Same, seems quite a few are on the blink quite literally in Aldi 😅

[@cnafyi]

@@Umski perhaps theyre misconfigured to be updating every minute?

[@Umski]

@@cnafyi nah they seemed to glitchy - the staff didn't have a clue they just scan the codes and "magic" happens - any duff ones just end up in the skip 🤔

[@klingoncowboy4]

Doom turned out better than I would have thought

[@enricojanssen1709]

This is amazing!

[@the_smart_home_maker]

Great idea! Love the Home Assistant integration 😊👍🏻

[@chuckray8675]

They look very neat but they’re quite pricey. I don’t see anything less than 15$ a pop on eBay or aliexpress. How much did you get yours for?

[@Francois_Dupont]

it is amazing programation! i love that you made a .exe easy to use file. sadly i do not have those price-tags, but Thank You for sharing your work.

[@opalpersonal]

this would be absolutely amazing for checking the weather. i need to know a lot about the weather for my commute and just having a couple of these around the house to look at at a glance would be great.

[@martenbakker5713]

Wow finally it’s time to play doom, but on price tags. 🎉Can you share a separate video for it?

[@makersfunduck]

Sure thing!

[@Qibbles]

combine multiple tags to make it into one huge e-ink monitor!

[@slim88852]

It’s wild that you have under 3k subscribers, I was shocked.

[@redzebra6688]

Wow you’re amazing ❤

[@rtz549]

Doom actually looked really good considering the screen.

[@smartduck904]

As a duck I like this video What's funny enough is I was working on designing digital price tags for stores quite a few years ago didn't know someone came to market with them really cool the idea wasn't just a failure idea looks like it really hit off with some other people

[@CanyonWanderer]

Very inventive! I do remember the first time I did see a label updating in the local supermarket. I then realised: it is an e-ink display! 🤯

[@lor1nio]

Is it possible to take off the plastic shell so the bezels are not so gigantic? Because it would be nice to arrange them to a bigger display

[@ramunasgudauskas7582]

It already breaks easily, probably wouldn't help.

[@WisdomBreezes-ye1ti]

Buy a kindle instead. And hack it

[@robertdurn2320]

Think BigClive would find this interesting and worth dissecting

[@dizx1982]

Dude didn’t realize you are Dutch until the “afval” part. Leuk project! Ik hou zeker in de gaten.

[@makersfunduck]

Dankjewel :)

[@AdityaMehendale]

Ach, de supermarkt in de vorige video was ook overduidelijk Nederlands ^^

[@dizx1982]

@@AdityaMehendale was nogal gefixeerd op de e-inkt prijskaartjes haha.

[@arfanvlk9351]

Wel irritant wanneer de ESLs een verkeerde prijs laten zien

[@willemkossen]

En nog meer groeten van een landgenoot. Leuk project.

[@Banjo_Tails]

The new major chain supermarket near me has these tags and it’s so much nicer to walk the isles. It’s give it all a cleaner look without all the tags hanging about.

[@WisdomBreezes-ye1ti]

I belive they can work nice for say, meeting rooms, classrooms etc. They should make these devices more common. Imagine lockers etc getting those. Like school lockers, etc Its a genious idea. The idea of having a reuaable paper device is just genius.

[@kbhasi]

What you mentioned reminded me of "Joan" devices that are usually placed outside meeting room doors and pull information from a shared MS365 Enterprise or Google Workspace calendar or an internal company app so that the display can show when the room is available, when it had been booked, and some upcoming meetings for the room. Edit: I was specifically mentioning devices set up for "Joan Room", but they also had other solutions for businesses that use them.

[@gaymer5697]

Just notice the same. I had to really look closely to even notice it was eink. Mainly the thick border was the thing that caught my eye at first.

[@Tervevaan]

Nice!

[@makersfunduck]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@thunderaga]

Interesting video

[@makersfunduck]

Glad you think so!

[@DerSolinski]

Well the e-tags used here are completely controlled via NFC. Meaning they don't even have a battery, you need a tool to program them. Pro: super thin, stylish, almost indistinguishable from paper labels. Neg: no remote updates, since you need the tool to deliver the energy, also requires a human.

[@GamesFromSpace]

That seems only slightly better than a label printer.

[@DerSolinski]

@@GamesFromSpace Well technically every modern smartphone can be used. So 🤷🏼‍♂️. We Germans have a natural dislike against "every thing cloud" I remember back in the early twenties that people who presented "cloud products" on tech conventions got ridiculed and then the audience simply left the venue.

[@jan_harald]

@@DerSolinski indeed, "cloud is just someone else's computer" and in theory you could have a situation where you see a price, but by the time you go to pay, the price has been changed throughout the system, and whatnot

[@darylcheshire1618]

Years ago I read about some sort of electronic price tag which were updated by pulsing data through the fluoro lighting. Apparently not noticable. Or you can do it overnight. Not sure if this method is still in use.

[@Ramog1000]

@@GamesFromSpace well it definitly wastes less paper and resources (since they are reusable) and programming it should also be faster than printing a lable and putting it in place

[@elblue171]

City train tracker would be pretty cool too

[@ThomasfromAustria]

Imagine that a hacker group bring these tags to show the signs from the movie "THEY LIVE" such as "OBEY , CONSUME , BUY " etc.

[@johannaf5598]

will the tags only update while the computer is running? or could you possibly install the software or create a script so that the software would run on a microcontroller?

[@makersfunduck]

Yes. pricetags will be updated while PC is running.

[@maxdixon920]

Would be cool to do something like this with an esp32 and epaper display I think they can go into deep sleep to save battery drain. Then you don’t need to have pc always on

[@atomek1000]

one esp32 can probably refresh all of them so even more efficient

[@m3snusteve]

I popped in my local coop village store last week, all the pice labels on the shelves were replaced by these. Except they had two small plastic buttons on the top left and a small led on the front with a small screen. Nothing happened when I pressed the buttons except to flash the led. Is this what they were for, they look very much like it?

[@marcosmarques3698]

I have a web digital signage system. Is there any API for these devices, to make an image change with HTTP request directly through my system?

[@vanhetgoor]

Recently I saw at Albert Heijn a newer version, with an optical link for sending and retrieving the data to and from the pricetag. I noticed that Albert Heijn uses more intelligent pricetags then Jumbo. If the product is in the storage but the shelve is empty, then a blinking blue light is calling a young Moroccan vakkenvuller.

[@makersfunduck]

Were they communicating through infrared?

[@vanhetgoor]

​@@makersfunduck Yes, I think so.

[@joshportelli]

DOOM! Yes!

[@jansustar4565]

Does this update remotely? If so, using which technology? How far can it the detect the signal?

[@jan_harald]

this is awesome though for shop use, of course, the problem can be that they could change prices while you're shopping, so the price you see isn't what you have to pay, lol

[@Alex_Vir]

Only speaking for germany here the price that is displayed on the shelfs isn't binding for companies only the one at the register counts.

[@TransSwissCat]

I have enought to believe that prices trough this technologies would only be changed at closing or before opening in most stores.

[@stevenfair3992]

I like this idea, but it seems like price updates for tens of thousands of items would be a big pain. I worked in one store that updated price tags for its sales every week.

[@app0the]

It's not really. They have a radio interface, so they can just broadcast messages like to a pager, saying e.g., "hey price tags in positions 3A, 6C and 28bis, your new price is $9.99 and show a %20 off label in the corner" - all from a central control room, most likely directly tied to the register's database as well

[@Derotron]

I find the 2,8 inch (21x9) displays a bit small. Could I simply adapt the software to work with the much bigger hanshow Stellar XL3 (5,3 inch 3x4)?

[@Mikey_the_Protogen]

Is it possible you can put a link to where we can get these from in the discription?

[@makersfunduck]

I have bought those 2. hand from ebay. you can search for "handshow" and check for deals. There are quite a lot of sellers. Also for some, I simply asked store managers to give me if they have broken modules. They usually just remove the ones without battery, and they can give them to you for free, since it eliminates the e-waste disposing hassles for them. (tip, almost all of them worked except the one fell in water :))

[@jitse6005]

now i have something to ask my jumbo 😂

[@xinayder4980]

next challenge: using a bunch of these tags to play doom on a mega e-ink price tag monitor

[@makersfunduck]

If I can get one, sure :)

[@frederikjacobs552]

If you are already running Home Assistant, why not just collect the data pieces you need (weather, calendar, groceries, ...) there and send as text / html towards the tags? I'm having trouble finding use cases for these at home personally.

[@TerraMagnus]

Fix one to your smart speaker to show information about the current track playing.

[@Luuks2000]

Nice! Where did you get these? Looking for around 500pcs for my store. Thx!

[@makersfunduck]

I bought them from ebay, however, for your own purposes, you also need their transceiver as well. because they also provide a software for manual & auto editing the prices, as well as SAP-ESP integrations. If I were you I would talk to the supplier directly.

[@WisdomBreezes-ye1ti]

Top 10 things to use them for 1. Game display. Take Minecraft. You wanna have any idea how many moba you took out? 2. Appointments. Use one per 30 minutes. Have them arranged. It will be useful. 3. Bus routes. It can be used to show bus routes 4. Time. Yeah. Really 5. Comouter status 6. Power usage 7. Weather forecast for the next day 8. Wifi users 9. For AirBnB users a personalised welcome sign 10. Mailboxes that change owners frequently

[@fromagevert_ytb]

hey i have a stellar l3n@ E31 which is not in the compatible models, will it work properly ? He has a texas instrument CC2640 r2f

[@makersfunduck]

the one I shared wont work. but you can try this project> github.com/muyuchl/cc2640BleEpd

[@fromagevert_ytb]

okay

[@LuigiBrotha]

And maybe you could make the rectangle light up green if the resolution is the same as the actual resolution of the price tag.

[@justleader]

Or make it very familiar by snapping to the aspect ratio of the eink display when holding shift, could also work :)

[@makersfunduck]

First I also thought that, but then it takes a little while to get a snip. It just re-sizes the snip without keeping the aspect ratio. So far this worked best. Because it is a little hard to find websites which fits the pixel rate of your "eink price tag" :D Also there are different sizes of these price tags. I preferred to write a code which can be used on different sizes. you just need to specify the pixel sizes of your device in print.py. if you still want that, you can just comment out that part in print.py.

[@reubengraham8398]

Hi there I have got a few of these now and was wondering how to get the image on them. I have a esp32 and my tag is a solum. Just need some help thanks

[@makersfunduck]

Hi, made a full tutorial video for this. you might want to check that out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKeynIJ3g6igg80

[@slippydouglas]

0:22 You need to shake it so it updates, like an Etch-a-Sketch.

[@_der_pinguin_2463]

I really love your Videos about these price tags. I want to replicate tho project but sadly I cant find them to buy anywhere.(only the ones that are not compatible) Do you know somwhere to buy them ot it be possible to buy some from you?

[@makersfunduck]

Hi, which country do you live in?

[@_der_pinguin_2463]

@@makersfunduck Germany

[@makersfunduck]

@@_der_pinguin_2463 I have also bought the ones I have from Germany. There are quite a few listing for the Hanshow brand on the ebay.de. also Aaron Christophel was listing his on the ebay recently. Can you contact him? maybe he can sell some to you. Because shipping from here is a little expensive. you can contact him from here : [e-mail]. Also don't forget to say "Hallo" from me :)

[@_der_pinguin_2463]

@@makersfunduck The ones on eBay are not compatible. I had to find that out the hard way... I will try sending him an Email. Thanks for your help

[@prizegotti]

Regarding the names all being the same in your task manager, how about updating the titlebar the device name when the "Snip" button is pressed? This cuts out users having to manually copy and rename files.

[@ultraSabotaj]

Let me guess: Turkish recently (last 5 years) moved to Netherlands?

[@Eilaithen1]

I got the Hanshow nebular and no software has been developed for it yet. any tips? Nebular-250R-N

[@incubus_the_man]

I would like to see what video would look like if we could display it on color epaper.

[@olekristianklevstrand9408]

Nice! But I would like to send data from HA directly, without screen grabbing. Possible?

[@makersfunduck]

it is in fact. But what is the hardware your HA is running? im running mine on rasp pi, and I dont like the performance of it, so I did not programmed it like that. So, code is easily adaptable to a HA, and you dont need an extra hardware (assuming the device you are running the HA has Bluetooth .)

[@AntoDB]

I've just come across your videos. Glad to see the possibilities. I'm really interested in using it for home automation and I have a home assistant on a raspberry pi 4. I'm pleased to learn that there's a way to link directly to it rather than retrieving information from a web page (which requires the page to remain logged in). Then if the device that's supposed to be updating the tags stops, I suppose that nothing is refreshed and that if it's a real stop, you have to redo all the captures. Thank you very much for the open source, I'll get round to it one day!

[@lightingnut]

So if I understand how these work I have to have a program running on my computer all the time in order for the price tags to update themselves?

[@makersfunduck]

Correct. These pricetags do not support WiFi. To be able to make it flexible, thats the solution that I found. I put the program to startup, and everytime I open my PC, all of them are updated.

[@stevanherold5497]

Thats little confused me, does they use battery for wifi connection. What about wifi router you need 10k connections over one router. Which way you preffer for price change?

[@bulletshower3693]

Hi! I uploaded the firmware with an ESP8266 NodeMCU, it says done but the display dosen't changes and I can't find my pricetag via Bluetooth, its a stellar-M3N@, can someone help me, what can be the problem?

[@makersfunduck]

Hi, did you unlock the flash before uploading the firmware? also mind about the connection. if you have, I strongly recommend using pogo pins while programming

[@MaximusJohal]

Whats stopping the company changing the price by the time you get to the till

[@SMorrisRose]

"Your whole house becomes a garbage house!" Sadly, too late for me.

[@edhahaz]

Stockmarket coming to your local walmart

[@jess_n_atx]

Could you link to where you purchased these? Or the name

[@gaggix7095]

Ebay, they are Hanshow tags

[@mikeb8581]

Hi. I do not go maine.exe, I do everything as he writes, ble to be unlocked at the label, but it is not updated. W11 is it to blame? Executed Main.Py, the Output console stops at waiting to connect ... Ble characteristic is correctly found by ble.py. What would be the cause? Thank you, respect for what you do!

[@makersfunduck]

Hi, Did you installed the dependencies on the virtual environment? because new versions of the bleak is not compatible.

[@mikeb8581]

@@makersfunduck No, I receive only errors. But the .exe not run correctly.

[@makersfunduck]

@@mikeb8581 It seems like you have issues with the dependencies. can you remove all of the python instances from your pc, and try with python 3.10? It seems like you did not meet the requirements of the bluetooth connection. can you first try to run this code first? github.com/rbaron/pricetag-printer because my github uses this library. if you can manage to make it work, your software issues will also be resolved. also can you try "python --version" command to verify that you have only python 3.10 installed?

[@mikeb8581]

@@makersfunduck I have python 3.9.0 like one of youtube video. I try what you say. Thanks.

[@LuigiBrotha]

Seeing as you are in the Netherlands : already a member of your local hackerspace?

[@makersfunduck]

No im not. I hardly have any extra time, after a full time work, family, and this channel.

[@bambydeluxe]

Tell me you are turkish, without telling me you are turkish :D

[@EvilGPT]

It runs Doom so well, Im impressed. Now I want to know the specs of this thing.

[@Derotron]

Those are the Hanshow Stellar M3 here is the user manuel (fccid.io/2AHB5-M3N/User-Manual/user-manual-3985653.pdf)

[@christyraymo7913]

50-3C-A3-52

[@DesignTechie]

The reason why people ask to play doom is because it was written using a different animation technique than modern dat games that lends itself to older screen tech

[@Kulderzipke123]

Is that the jumbo?

[@phil18751]

I'm not having it.... they do exist but Aldi

[@jayerjavec]

16°C is cold for a workshop.

[@TobiasBattenberg]

Next: fix you trash bin 🤣

[@PandaWill89]

That FPS for doom looks way too high for a cheap E-Ink

[@danieleriksson3170]

Won't the magnet drain the battery? I remember keeping a battery next to my magnets.. and they were empty once i tried them..

[@electricalmayhem]

Nope that’s not a thing, unless the magnet shorts across the battery like any piece of metal.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Were they really $29 each?

[@makersfunduck]

no, they were around 2$ for each,. it was electronic surplus sale.

[@turnkit]

@@makersfunduckplease share the seller name and the product name you typed on ebay

[@New9-dq3tk]

how much are these ?

[@waldfruchttee]

but can it run Crysis?

[@Freddy43]

Nice idea, but virustotal says there's a virus in your distribution

[@makersfunduck]

yes. because PyAutoGUI python library is essentially a mouse/keyboard logger. new windows updates gives that error to any software that records mouse + keyboard movements. I believe they fixed that issue with the new revision on the library. You can try to use new revision of the python library by updating requirements.txt, or you can just check the code, and if you trust the code, you can allow it to work on windows.

[@anguswett]

You guys are buying them??

[@christyraymo7913]

$0.1

[@MikeHarris1984]

Lol, software tracks all typing and mouse move ent. Yeah, MS and almost all security/AV software will call your program malware. Hahahaha

[@daveys4582]

it was great, until you know the different price using papper and e-papper

[@integrationofmanandmachine4714]

waar woont je broer

[@NonsensicalSpudz]

doing tickets is so annoying

[@gilmarrocha6551]

Man, do you have any issue in your hand? They're shaking in a uniform way... i think it's better to you see a doctor (neurologist)

[@SantaDragon]

The examples are so naaaah ... the images have bad resolution and more. Instead the text should probably as text (int) and not also as image imported into the screen. Then at least it would be better readable.

[@makersfunduck]

Resolution on this devices are quite limited, and I recognize what you meant. That is as good as it gets with only black and white pixels :( Do you have any interesting ideas? I have quite some of them, and looking for more ways to use them :)

[@Juanfernandoz]

@SantaDragon I think you dont understand the concept of "E-Ink" paper.

[@kebabmaniac]

Ain't magnets killing the battery life ?

[@user-rr8iw9lp4d]

This is really cool. Thanks for sharing. Jeremiah O'Neal.