Week 01 — Project Setup & Initial Planning
Date range: Jan 20 – Jan 26
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Time spent: ~5 hours
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Status: In progress
Focus: Setting up the project structure and defining core requirements for the MVP.
1) Summary
- ✅ Defined project site structure
- ✅ Created blog templates
- ⚠️ Pending e-ink display selection
- ➜ Next: Initial hardware component sourcing
2) What I did
Build / Design / Dev
- Site Structure — Implemented the "thesis" folder structure for the documentation site. Added blog, research, and task tracking sections.
- Research setup — Created a template for tracking research papers and inspiration sources.
Research
- E-Ink Refresh Rates — Investigated partial refresh capabilities of WaveShare displays. Critical for typing latency.
3) Decisions made
- Decision: Use Jekyll or static HTML for documentation.
- Reason: Simplicity and ease of hosting on GitHub Pages.
- Tradeoff: Less dynamic features, but lower maintenance.
4) Issues / blockers
- Blocker: Selecting the right screen size (10.3" vs 13.3").
- What I tried: mocking up UI on paper.
- Next attempt: cardboard mockups of physical dimensions.
5) Tasks completed
Done
- Setup project blog
- Define MVP features
Next
- Order Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
- 3D print test case
6) What’s next week
- Finalize screen component selection.
- Initial CAD mockups for the chassis.
- Hello World on the E-Ink display driver.