ESP8266 frame
The GeekMagic SmallTV is a series of inexpensive devices powered by an ESP8266 or ESP32 microcontroller, with a screen housed in a small plastic case; they display information such as the time and weather. Previous work on these devices generally required modifying the original software. Yongha Kim’s new method, on the other hand, uses the device’s built-in photo viewer function; it requires neither software modification nor soldering. The image is generated on a computer on the network and sent to the device over HTTP.
Python Pillow digits
In the example, the image is created with the Pillow library in Python and shows Claude and Codex usage data. All that is needed is to prepare a 240×240 image and send it to the device; thanks to GIF support, animation can also be added. The method is presented as a proof of concept. For those who want to go further, completely replacing the firmware is still an option.