mengchengfeng's comments

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

Hahaha 100%. No 3D Printer and I wanted to be able to easily remove it from its "mount" for charging.

It teeters a fine line between jank and minimalism.

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

Oh your mini screen is so cuuuute! Hey whatever works

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

Seems like it should work. Another commenter said that for their dash, they had a site that they kept open in the Kindle browser.

Although I did notice some weirdness with using the browser. I have an HTML endpoint up at https://kindle.mariannefeng.com/, and for some reason whenever I tried to go to that page using the Kindle browser, it returned a message about not being able to load the page. And I don't even think my page has javascript.

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

If you've got an old Kindle, this project is totally doable over a weekend! Especially if you start with only weather data to begin with.

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

Hah I love the random Pokemon + remaining time for Laundry + Dishwasher! I'm not usually a big fan of smart appliances but boy oh boy would it be cool to display remaining time left for laundry on a dashboard...

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

Woww written in Rust, nice! Very cool, first time I've been tempted to learn Rust.

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

Hahaha I love this comment!

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

I don't believe you need internet connection - IRRC jailbreaking steps were plug in the Kindle, drop the jailbreak folder into the root directory, then choose `Update` from the Settings screen.

The hardest part was finding the `Update` menu item. It's only visible if you go to Settings, then press the menu button again while on the Settings page.

Not sure if registering the Kindle was required.

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

Awesome tips. I'll try increasing the refresh interval to 2 minutes and turning off the wifi in between refreshes to see if helps with battery life.

Side note this also finally explains to me why battery life on the Kindle is SO good in airplane mode.

[rwyinuse → mengchengfeng]

Yeah you'll probably want to turn on airplane mode between the refreshes. That's at least what KUAL "Online screensaver extension" from Mobiread forums does, with it I'm getting several weeks of battery life with refreshes every couple of hours.

[jbl0ndie → mengchengfeng]

Could you adjust the refresh frequency based on your usage patterns? So refreshing less frequently outside your main transit times. An extension of your current pause at night.

On: Hacking an old Kindle to display bus arrival times

[mengchengfeng]

It's easier to load up a page in the Kindle browser, but more fun to jailbreak :D

I also didn't want the browser bar at the top.

[adhamsalama → mengchengfeng]

Fair enough. I did consider jailbreaking my Kindle but I am afraid of bricking it.

[thegrey_one → adhamsalama]

Bricked it few times in the process of figuring out more stuff about it, but luckily mine has a UART pads and I was able to restore it every time. A bit more involved as it's 1.8V if I remember right, but if you're careful it should be easy, provided you have the time.

[mengchengfeng → adhamsalama]

Also fair - bricking it was definitely one of my main concerns.

After going through this process though, I'd say as long as somebody has basic linux knowledge, chances of bricking are pretty low.