Waveshare RPi-Zero-PhotoPainter-ACCE is a 7.3-inch color e-paper photo frame designed for the Raspberry Pi Zero family. It’s an 800×480 resolution display based on E-Ink Spectra 6 (E6), and housed in a wooden frame.
The display also features an RTC with backup battery support, a LiPo battery connector with “UPS circuitry”, a USB-C port for power, a 3-pin debug/serial header, a power button, and a charging LED. It supports portrait and landscape orientation on the desk thanks to a rotatable stand and wall mounting through a hook hanger.
RPi-Zero-PhotoPainter-ACCE specifications:
- Display – E-Ink Spectra 6 (E6)
- Full-color display with Black, White, Green, Blue, Red, and Yellow
- Resolution – 800×480 pixels
- Pixel Pitch – 0.2 x 0.2mm
- Viewing Angle – > 170°
- Refresh Time
- Full refresh – 12s
- Partial refresh – Not supported
- Grayscale – Two shades of gray
- Dimensions – 160 x 96mm
- Expansion – 40-pin HAT connector to connect Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero W, Zero 2, Zero 2 W, or other compatible boards over SPI and I2C
- Debugging – 3-pin serial header (5)
- Misc
- Power Button (3)
- DS3231 RTC chip (8)
- Charging LED (4)
- HAT EEPROM (11)
- Solid wood photo frame
- Rotatable stand for portrait/landscape orientation on a desk
- Hook hanger for wall mounting
- Power Management
- Supply Voltage – 5V via USB-C port
- Optional batteries – RTC battery and 3.7V Lithium battery.
- Onboard UPS circuit with I2C interface for battery voltage, current, power, and remaining capacity monitoring; rely on INA219 chip (7)
- Dimensions – 214 x 154 x 32.0mm
Waveshare provides instructions to convert images using Windows and macOS tools, use the PaperPiAI project for AI image generation (Generative Art) on the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, configure the system (SPI, RTC, Timezone, WiFi, …), and for UPS monitoring, as shown in the illustration below.
Power monitor and AI-generated art
It’s not the first Spectra 6 e-Paper display / photo frame designed for Raspberry Pi hardware, as Waveshare previously launched a 4-inch color e-paper display for the Raspberry Pi 5, and Pimoroni introduced the Inky Frame 7.3 with a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W. The PaperPiAI project mentioned above was designed for Inky Impression models compatible with the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 (W). The Waveshare design feels more like a finished product thanks to the wooden frame and various mounting options.
The RPi-Zero-PhotoPainter-ACCE is sold on AliExpress for $84.59 and up, and the Waveshare shop for $72.99 and up, depending on whether the batteries are needed. A similar model is listed on Amazon’s Waveshare store, but not that it’s NOT compatible with the Raspberry Pi and only reads files from a microSD card. So if you look for it in different stores, make sure you look for “RPi-Zero-PhotoPainter-ACCE” and double-check that the 40-pin GPIO header is there.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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