Raspberry Pi E-Ink Birthday Display
An e-ink display that syncs with Google Calendar to show upcoming birthdays.
Overview
A Raspberry Pi powered e-ink display that automatically fetches upcoming birthdays from Google Calendar and displays them in a minimal, always-on interface. The display updates nightly and uses very little power, making it perfect for desk or shelf placement.
Problem
Wanted a physical reminder of upcoming birthdays, and e-ink displays are nice and low-power.
Architecture
Raspberry Pi Zero → Python script (cron) → Google Calendar API → Waveshare e-ink display
Implementation Details
Uses the Google Calendar API to fetch events, filters for birthdays, and renders them with Pillow before pushing to the display. Custom cron job handles nightly refreshes.
Challenges & Lessons
Ensuring auth would consistently work for months without manual intervention was tricky. I had to implement token refreshing and robust error handling to avoid the display breaking when tokens expired.