Alex Wende's MicroMod Calendar Offers an ESP32-Based At-a-Glance Reminder for the Office and Lab
Based on two SparkFun MicroMod boards, a processor and a carrier, this desk accessory taps into your calendar, emails, and more.
Electrical engineer Alex Wende has shown off an ESP32-powered desk calendar project, built around SparkFun's modular MicroMod ecosystem — using just two boards.
Launched late last year, SparkFun's MicroMod aims to do away with the drawers full of outdated development boards all too many makers build up by separating the processor from the peripherals. Using an M.2 connector, MicroMod processor modules are inserted into carrier boards designed for a range of use cases — and if a new, better-suited or more powerful processor comes out you can simply pop the old one out and replace it without having to change the whole board.
"To try and stay organized, I keep my mail and calendar apps open and check them throughout the day," Wende explains of his project. "The problem though is as I'm working, I have windows open on top of those apps as I read through a datasheet, update schematics, work on a board design, write code, etc., and I have to rely on the notifications that pop up, which don't always get my attention."
"I drew inspiration from my desk gadgets and thought that they might like a new friend that I call the MicroMod Calendar. It uses two boards, the MicroMod Input and Display Carrier Board, and the MicroMod ESP32 Processor board. It connects to my Google account through a script, creates a text output with all of my meetings for the day from the calendar, and checks my email to see how many unread messages I have to display on the 2.4in TFT screen."
The ESP32 system-on-chip includes Wi-Fi connectivity, which gives the calendar time synchronization as well as the ability to count up unread mails and display current and upcoming scheduled meetings. A second unit, destined for the lab, ditches the time — devoting more screen space to the schedule. On both, RGB LEDs flash when attention is required.
"For the past week or so I've had the MicroMod Calendar set up trying to spot any bugs in the code, and make a couple tweaks here and there," Wende notes. "Mainly it was adjusting the brightness of the LEDs that they could get my attention without leaving me seeing spots."
The full write-up is available on SparkFun's blog, while the source code and files for the 3D-printed case are available on GitHub under an unspecified open source license.