A personal Wi-Fi connected e-ink weather dashboard built on the Elecrow CrowPanel 5.79" ESP32-S3 display. Shows current weather conditions, a 5-day forecast, multi-city snapshots, and a daily Bible verse — all on a crisp black-and-white e-ink display with a 7-minute refresh cycle.
- Standard view — Current temperature, feels like, condition icon, UV index, humidity, pressure, wind speed/direction, precipitation chance, visibility, sunrise/sunset times with animated sun arc
- Forecast view — 5-day forecast with high/low temps, condition icons, rain chance, wind, and cloud cover
- Cities view — Side-by-side current conditions for three configurable Michigan locations
- Verse of the Day — Daily Bible verse fetched from YouVersion (passage ID) and rendered in AMP translation via api.bible, displayed at the top of every hour
- Deep sleep between refreshes — Minimal power consumption; display holds its image with zero power
- Button navigation — Onboard buttons and scroll wheel to manually cycle views
- Stale data indicator — Small "!" badge if weather data is older than 30 minutes
| Component | Details |
|---|---|
| Board | Elecrow CrowPanel 5.79" ESP32-S3 |
| MCU | ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R8 (8MB Flash, 8MB PSRAM) |
| Display | GDEY0579T93 — 792×272px, Black & White e-ink |
| Driver chip | Dual SSD1683 |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 2.4GHz, BLE |
| Signal | GPIO |
|---|---|
| EPD CS | 45 |
| EPD DC | 46 |
| EPD RST | 47 |
| EPD BUSY | 48 |
| EPD MOSI | 11 |
| EPD SCK | 12 |
| EPD PWR | 7 |
| MENU button | 2 |
| EXIT button | 1 |
| Scroll UP | 6 |
| Scroll DOWN | 4 |
| Scroll PRESS | 5 |
Install via PlatformIO (automatically resolved from platformio.ini):
| Library | Version | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| GxEPD2 | ^1.6.2 | E-ink display driver |
| Adafruit GFX | ^1.11.9 | Fonts and drawing primitives |
| ArduinoJson | ^7.2.0 | JSON parsing |
HomeWeatherDisplay/
├── platformio.ini PlatformIO build configuration
├── README.md This file
├── .gitignore Excludes secrets.h from version control
└── src/
├── main.cpp Boot, WiFi, NTP, view rotation, deep sleep
├── config.h All non-secret configuration constants
├── secrets.h API keys and WiFi credentials — NOT committed
├── types.h Shared data structs and RTC memory layout
├── weather.h/.cpp OpenWeatherMap fetch and JSON parsing
├── bible.h/.cpp YouVersion VOTD + api.bible AMP text fetch
└── display.h/.cpp GxEPD2 rendering for all four views
git clone https://github.com/danlacher/HomeWeatherDisplay.git
cd HomeWeatherDisplayCopy the template below into src/secrets.h and fill in your credentials. This file is listed in .gitignore and will never be committed.
#pragma once
// ============================================================
// SECRETS — DO NOT COMMIT THIS FILE
// ============================================================
// Wi-Fi credentials
#define WIFI_SSID "your_wifi_network_name"
#define WIFI_PASSWORD "your_wifi_password"
// OpenWeatherMap API key
// Sign up at https://openweathermap.org and subscribe to One Call API 3.0
// 1,000 free calls/day — this project uses ~200/day at 7-minute refresh
#define OWM_API_KEY "your_openweathermap_api_key"
// api.bible API key
// Sign up at https://scripture.api.bible and create an app
// Used to fetch AMP translation verse text
// Base URL: https://rest.api.bible
#define BIBLE_API_KEY "your_api_bible_key"
// YouVersion Platform API key
// Sign up at https://developers.youversion.com
// Used to fetch the verse of the day passage reference
// Header: x-yvp-app-key
#define YOUVERSION_API_KEY "your_youversion_api_key"Open src/config.h and update:
- Primary city —
PRIMARY_CITY_NAME,PRIMARY_CITY_LAT,PRIMARY_CITY_LON - Multi-city locations — the
CITIES[]array (up to 3 cities) - Refresh interval —
REFRESH_INTERVAL_MS(default 7 minutes) - Units —
TEMP_UNIT,WIND_UNIT,PRESSURE_UNIT(imperial by default) - Time format —
TIME_FORMAT_24H(false = 12h, true = 24h) - Timezone — update the POSIX timezone string in
ntpSync()inmain.cpp
Install the PlatformIO extension for VS Code. PlatformIO will automatically download all library dependencies on first build.
- Plug in the board via USB-C
- Click Build (✓) in the VS Code bottom toolbar to confirm clean compile
- Hold BOOT, tap RST, release BOOT to enter download mode
- Click Upload (→)
- Open Serial Monitor (plug icon) at 115200 baud to watch the boot sequence
| Time | View displayed |
|---|---|
| Top of every hour (:00) | Verse of the Day |
| All other refreshes | Standard → Forecast → Standard → Cities (repeating) |
The verse is fetched once per calendar day and cached in RTC memory. Weather is fetched on every wake cycle if data is older than 30 minutes.
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| MENU (left) | Advance to next view |
| EXIT (right) | Return to Standard view |
| Scroll UP | Advance to next view |
| Scroll DOWN | Go back one view |
| Scroll PRESS | Force immediate weather refresh |
Buttons wake the device from deep sleep via ext1 GPIO interrupt.
| Service | Purpose | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|
| OpenWeatherMap | Weather data | 1,000 calls/day (One Call 3.0) |
| YouVersion Platform | Verse of the Day reference | Available with app registration |
| api.bible | AMP verse text | 5,000 calls/month |
The ESP32-S3 has 8KB of RTC SRAM that survives deep sleep. This project stores ~1.1KB of cached data including:
- Current weather conditions for the primary city
- 5-day forecast
- Current conditions for all three cities
- Today's Bible verse text and reference
- View rotation state
- Fetch timestamps and validity flags
This means the display renders immediately on wake from cached data, with a fresh fetch happening in the background.
Display shows "Connecting... waiting for data"
- Check
WIFI_SSIDandWIFI_PASSWORDinsecrets.h - ESP32-S3 is 2.4GHz only — ensure you're connecting to a 2.4GHz network
- Add
WiFi.setMinSecurity(WIFI_AUTH_WPA2_PSK)if your router uses WPA3
Weather returns 401
- Verify your OWM API key is active and subscribed to One Call 3.0
- New keys can take up to 2 hours to activate
Bible verse returns 401
- Verify your api.bible key at scripture.api.bible
- Confirm the AMP Bible is enabled for your app
- Base URL must be
https://rest.api.bible(notapi.scripture.api.bible)
No serial output
- The board uses hardware UART via the CH340 chip on
/dev/cu.usbserial-* - Open serial monitor on that port at 115200 baud
- Add
delay(3000)at the top ofsetup()if early boot messages are missed
Upload fails with "Unable to verify flash chip connection"
- Hold BOOT, tap RST, release BOOT to manually enter download mode
- Reduce upload speed to 460800 in
platformio.ini
- Night mode — reduced refresh rate between 11pm–6am
- OTA firmware updates over WiFi
- Battery operation with power consumption optimisation
- GxEPD2 by Jean-Marc Zingg — excellent e-ink library
- OpenWeatherMap — weather data
- YouVersion Platform — verse of the day
- api.bible — AMP Bible text