Seeed Studio’s reTerminal E1002 — a 7.3-inch, Spectra-6 full-color E-Ink terminal based on the ESP32-S3 — is quickly becoming a favorite for low-power, creative dashboard projects. A recent maker project turned the device into an AI-driven “weather comics” frame that fetches local forecasts, generates a short comic strip with an image model, and displays it as a single static image optimized for E-Ink.
Hardware and platform
The reTerminal E1002 ships with an ESP32-S3 (8 MB PSRAM), 32 MB flash, MicroSD support, a 2000 mAh battery and a 7.3-inch Spectra E6 display at 800 × 480 pixels. It supports SenseCraft HMI (Seeed’s no-code dashboard), TRMNL, Home Assistant, Arduino and ESP-IDF workflows — making it usable right out of the box or fully customizable for makers. Seeed advertises up to roughly three months of battery life under low update frequencies.
How the “weather comics” setup works
Makers follow a repeatable, efficient pattern: a server pulls forecast data (the example project used Open-Meteo), generates an image with an AI image model (the author used ChatGPT’s image model), and returns a single dithered image URL to the device’s dashboard. The reTerminal fetches and renders that image; the E-Ink panel then holds the picture without consuming power until the next scheduled update. That architecture keeps on-device code minimal and maximizes battery life. The author also published supporting code and an image-processing helper to apply dithering and format conversion for E-Ink rendering. blog.shvn.dev+1
Why this approach works for E-Ink displays
Spectra-6 colour E-Ink excels at static, stylized images (art, comics, dashboards) rather than high-frame-rate video. Generating the image off-device avoids heavy on-board processing and reduces update latency on the battery-powered ESP32. The result is a visually engaging, low-maintenance weather summary that’s useful at a glance — especially for people who want a simple visual cue about dressing or rain risk rather than numeric weather tables. blog.shvn.dev+1
Practical benefits and limitations
Benefits: long battery run time between charges, near-zero idle power, portable placement (desktop, wall, frame), and simple content updates via SenseCraft or a self-hosted server. Limitations: image refresh takes time (full image updates and E-Ink refresh cycles are slower than LCD), and the device costs more up front than paper posters or basic monochrome E-Ink kits. For many creative or smart-home use cases, the trade-off favors flexibility and lower operational overhead.
Who should care
- Makers and hobbyists who want an easy ESP32-powered ePaper canvas for weather, calendar, art, or notifications.
- Small offices and smart-home users seeking low-power glanceable displays.
- Developers who prefer server-side image rendering to offload processing from resource-constrained devices.
Bottom line
Seeed’s reTerminal E1002 pairs modern full-colour E-Ink with an accessible ESP32 ecosystem and no-code dashboard options. Combined with server-side image generation (including AI image models), it’s an efficient platform for creative, low-power projects such as daily AI weather comics that are stylish, informative, and battery-friendly.
