Mirza Makes’ ePaper Smart Journal Only Exists to Catch Ideas Distraction-Free

Phones aren’t the best journals because most people open one to save a sentence, and then the original thought is lost, buried beneath a feed of other thoughts. Paper pads avoid this unless they disappear inside a bag or require a second round of typing. Mirza, better known as Mirza Makes, became dissatisfied with both outcomes and spent one small project transforming a brief parts list into a distraction-free machine whose sole purpose is to take notes.

He refers to the finished device as an open source ePaper Smart Journal, which is a very accurate description. At its heart is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, which is combined with a 4.2-inch Waveshare e-paper panel and an M5Stack CardKB keyboard that communicates with the Pi via I2C. A 3.7 volt LiPo battery drives everything, and an Adafruit PowerBoost 1000 charges the battery while also powering the board with a consistent 5 volts, making it a useful piece of kit that does two things at once. All of this is wrapped up in a 3D printed shell designed in Fusion 360 that is small enough to fit in a pocket but plain enough to be unobtrusive, just the right look to entice you to take it up and start writing.

Early on, the testing went somewhat smoothly, but suddenly everything broke apart. First, he installed the Raspberry Pi OS on a microSD card using the official Imager, then he set up SSH for remote tinkering, and the Waveshare wiki made working out the display wiring a reasonably simple process. He also followed a method from ian-antking on GitHub to get the CardKB talking to the Pi, allowing him to at least get a simple notepad up and running to test the keys, but the first significant issue he encountered was battery power. He’d tried using different modules for charging and discharging, but it didn’t work since the journal would be charging one minute and then go dead the moment you unplugged it. The PowerBoost 1000 solved this by integrating the two tasks onto a single board, and the prototype eventually began to stay awake on its own without collapsing.

After the hardware had settled, it was time to deal with the software. He created a Python app that displays a basic menu, allows you to make a new note with a timestamp, open an older entry, select a random prompt if the screen is feeling blank, backs up your notes to a local web server, and shuts down gracefully. There is no browser, inbox, or continuous stream of anything happening in the background. The e-paper panel is easy on the eyes and uses very little power, which is ideal for a device that will stay in a backpack for days before being used, although refreshing is a lengthy process. Typing feels more like pounding away at a typewriter with a pause after each line than tapping away on a modern laptop keyboard, and he’d like to fix the delay as quickly as possible.

Once it was determined that the boards functioned properly, the final challenge was to resolve the enclosure issue. The Pi, display, keyboard, battery, and boost board are all disguised under a retro-looking fascia; to be honest, it’s a bit of a throwback, coupled with a side power switch and a small LED to indicate when the thing is actually turned on. Recharging via micro USB is uncomplicated. You can download the case files from Printables, the project write-up and Python program are available on mirzamakes.com, and the CardKB wiring details are still available on GitHub if you wish to try the build or experiment with it yourself.

This completed project doesn’t pretend to be a laptop or phone replacement. Its purpose is to provide a spot for your ephemeral ideas to stick before the rest of the Internet notices you’re actually attempting to operate with a computer. You turn the switch, wait for the briefest of loading screens to appear, select a menu item, and begin typing. When you’re finished, you backup your notes to the local network and call it a night; that’s the entire cycle.