Simulate output w/o e-ink display

[guerda]

I would like to test out this project without buying a new Raspberry pi and an e-ink display. Is it possible to emulate the output without a display?
E.g. that the rendered display file is stored somewhere.

Thanks!

[aceisace]

@guerda Hi Philip, thanks for your interest in Inkycal :)

While using Inkycal without the rpi and a display is on my todo-list, I haven't yet implemented this feature yet. You can have a look at how to install Inkycal without the rpi here: https://github.com/aceisace/Inkycal/wiki/Manual-installation

At the moment, this requires some manual work. In summary, it boils down to these 2 points:

• Installing requirements in a virtual environment. Some requirements might be missing, these have to be installed manually, as these dependencies are pre-installed in Raspberry Pi OS and venv has not yet been officially implemented.
• Removing some code related to the display. This is a bit of trial-and-error as the display is initialised when Inkycal is initialised. If the display doesn't respond, you'll get some series of errors, which can be removed if some code is removed

If you have some expierence in python, it shouldn't be a problem. But yes, it's probably worth opening an issue for this :)

[guerda]

Thanks for the fast response! This sounds doable, I will have a look once I find the time.
Very interesting project!

[aceisace]

Thanks very much, glad to hear it's appreciated!

[guerda]

I tried it out yesterday and the venv stuff is no problem, but the import inkycal fails with a driver loading issue. Not sure what I need to deactivate in the code to exclude that. Do you have any pointers here?

[aceisace]

Hi again,
I have a feeling the official implementation would make more sense at this point since it would require some changes which would currently break something. I'll open an issue for the support without rpi. Should be done in a few days hopefully 👍

[aceisace]

#172 Is the issue for this now. Will start on this today

[aceisace]

Right then, I made a branch for this here: https://github.com/aceisace/Inkycal/tree/feature/venv
Still doesn't use venv but should be able to get it working without a display. Could you please test it?

git clone https://github.com/aceisace/Inkycal/tree/feature/venv
cd Inkycal
pip3 install -e ./
cd
nano inky_run.py

Add the following in the file and run this file afterwards: python3 inky_run.py

from inkycal import Inkycal

inky = Inkycal('path/to/settings.json' ,render = False)
inky.test()

If all went well, you should see a bunch of images generated in the images folder.
Do let me know if it works please :)

[guerda]

Wow, great, thanks a lot! I will try it out asap. Didn't expect that you are so fast. Will try and report back 👌🏻

[aceisace]

Haha, I didn't expect to either 😆 . Guess this is the power of using an IDE :)
Looking forward to the test!

[guerda]

It works perfect! The setup is easy and the graphics work really well and convey a good impression.
Some comments:

• If you provide no settings.json, there's a strange error during the test: AttributeError: 'Inkycal' object has no attribute 'settings' but that's just a small cosmetic issue
• If you import multiple ICS files and in multiple calenders the same entry exists (same UID), then the entry is duplicated. It might be helpful to deduplicate it.
• The settings.json generator could default to "hourly" forecast, as this API key is free on openweathermap, the daily is not.

Again, this is a great project and within really short time, I was able to configure it nicely (even as a dry run to demo it.

If you need support, I'm definitely interested in giving back.

[guerda]

Ah, I forgot: I did create it in venv and it worked smoothly. I prefer pipenv but that's subjective.

[aceisace]

Thanks for testing! Glad to hear it works as expected :)
There is a Inkycal v2.0.1 pre-release (in the releases page) too for an even better user-expierence, but it's an OS really, so only suitable for the Rpi.

Thanks for the suggestions! Still need to sort out the development branch first before the latter two can be implemented, but for the first one, a hotfix makes sense. It's outside the scope of the previous question, so best to open a separate issue for that

[guerda]

Great, looking forward to this. I will describe the details in separate issues.

I would like to try my hands on the first cosmetic issue. Do you want that as a PR to main?

[hjiang]

@aceisace In my fork of Inkycal, I wrote a very simple driver for this purpose. I set the model name to "file" and do all the development on a PC. I can send a pull request if it's useful to other people.

[aceisace]

@hjiang This sounds like a great feature! Please submit the PR. May I ask you to change the model name to "pc" or "dummy" before submitting the PR? That way, it sounds more intuitive as to what this is referring to.
Thanks for your other PR's too!

[hjiang]

I think perhaps "file" or "image_file" is more accurate? It outputs to a file after all. "Dummy" implies that it doesn't do anything. "PC" might be misunderstood for a narrower meaning (as in PC vs Mac), and file output can be useful on other devices too. But if you still prefer another name, I won't insist.

P.S. Here's what I used Inkycal for. The second picture is Emacs with the output image on one side and the code on the other. :-)

[aceisace]

Guess this is just a matter of preference, so no point arguing over it :)

Please go ahead and create a PR for this!

Wow, that is a nice and colourful Inkycal! Maybe you can share it in the hall-of-fame on Discord or by sending me a email with some images and a short info.

[aceisace]

This has been implemented some time ago and it seems to run stable on Raspberry Pi as well as Windows and Mac