IoT

I Miss My Girlfriend (IMMG)™

Art by the lovely Annabel Reed

💌 Purpose

A cute, minimalistic device that lets you send messages to a loved one from anywhere in the world. Displays messages or drawings on an e-paper screen for a cozy, always-on experience.

🧰 Hardware

Waveshare 7.5” V2 e-paper display (800x480)
Raspberry Pi (Zero / 3 / 4 all work)
MicroSD card (with Raspberry Pi OS Lite)
Power supply (USB power adapter + cable, or a battery pack for portability)
Optional: 3D-printed enclosure

Pin Connection

Waveshare EPD Pin   =>   Raspberry Pi (3 A+)
-----------------------------------------------
VCC       ->   3.3V
GND       ->   GND
DIN       ->   GPIO 10 (SPI0_MOSI)
CLK       ->   GPIO 11 (SPI0_SCK)
CS        ->   GPIO 8  (SPI0_CS0)
DC        ->   GPIO 25
RST       ->   GPIO 17
BUSY      ->   GPIO 24

Resources

Raspberry Pi Guides for SPI e-Paper

🖥️ Software

Architecture

A frontend web app (hosted via GitHub Pages) allows users to draw or write a message
Firebase Realtime Database is used as the message-passing middleware
A Python script running on the Raspberry Pi fetches and displays the latest image on the e-paper display

Dependencies

firebase-admin
requests
Pillow
waveshare_epd (clone from the official Waveshare e-Paper repo)

Notes

Installing BCM2835 Libraries
- Great tutorial here, skip to “Install BCM2835 libraries”
- More documentation on installation if needed
- C library documentation for Broadcom BCM 2835 as used in Raspberry Pi
  FYI
```
* If you're having any issues with connecting the Pi to your Firebase Realtime DB, ensure in the DB's rules that the read/write rules have not expired.
```

Upcoming Updates, Bug Fixes, etc.

[UPDATE] add better UI for adding text
[UPDATE] add notes on overcoming any errors / bugs (e.g, waveshare_epd ModuleNoteFoundError, etc.)
[UPDATE] add image/gif of final product (include in next release)

IMMG Hardware

⭐~star~⭐ if you cry every tim

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