Anime Quote Dashboard

I wanted to create something that would serve as a desktop dashboard. Something that would sit at the edge of my desk, not be too distracting, and serve an aesthetic purpose. The E-Ink display is a display that doesn't emit it's own light, allowing it to be on in the nighttime without disturbing my sleep, as well as be legible during the day when more overpowering lights would be hitting it from all directions. This dashboard just cycles through different anime quotes that one can get off of a free public API, displaying the quote itself, the character that said it, and the anime that it is from. There is also a real time clock in the top right corner that updates itself.

This project cost about 100 USD at the time of making (5/2025) in raw computer parts.

1. 32GB Micro-SD Card + Adaptor (Any bigger storage cards will need to be reformatted to FAT32)
2. Raspberry Pi Zero 2 WH
3. Make sure to get the ones that come pre-soldered with header pins to connect to the e-Paper Driver HAT
4. It would be easier to set this up with all the necessary peripherals, so ordering a starter kit from amazon would give you the necessities like:
5. HDMI to mini-HDMI converter (for displaying onto a monitor)
6. micro-USB on the go adaptor (for mouse and keyboard)
7. power cable (to power the board)
8. 7.5 inch E-Ink Display from Waveshare
9. I chose this model off of Amazon because it came with necessary accessory components such as:
10. e-Paper Adaptor
11. e-Paper Driver HAT
12. If you want to have a bigger display, just make sure to get the adaptor and the driver in order to make connect the board to the e-ink display.
13. You can get other sizes here
14. 7.5in picture frame
15. I built this with a laser cutter in our schools Maker space but if you don't have access to that then a picture frame from IKEA would work, just make sure that you can see all parts of the screen clearly.
16. Velcro tape
17. Useful to adhere the Raspberry Pi to the picture frame as you can easily remove the Pi for code modifications

1. Download the Raspberry Pi imager at https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/
2. Plug the micro-SD card into your computer, make sure that the disk is formatted in FAT32. The Raspberry Pi imager also has a function to format an SD card to FAT32.
3. Use the Raspberry Pi imager to install the latest Rasbian OS (operating system) onto your board. This should take about 5 minutes
4. Make sure to click the OS customization option and input your networks information.
5. Put your micro-SD in your Pi Zero 2, connect your mouse and keyboard using the on the go adaptor, connect the power supply, and connect your mini-HDMI and you are ready to roll with the coding portion
6. I do recommend watching a video online about how to set up the Pi zero 2 w as it definitely helps to get visuals to go with the text.

The connection process is rather simple.

1. Connect the E-Paper HAT to the E-Paper adaptor. It should already be connected out of the box but if it isn't make sure to lift the black tabs on the adaptor to slide in the ribbon wire, then close the black tabs top l
2. Connect the Display to the E-Paper adaptor. Make sure to life up the black tabs and close it after making the connection.
3. Connect the Raspberry Pis IO pins to the E-Paper HAT. The two devices should overlap each other.

1. Now that you have the Rasbian OS working, connecting all the cables to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W should boot up the board and display a bare bones desktop.
2. Click here for instructions to set up the SPI interface and click here for instructions on how to download the demo instructions for the E-Ink display
3. IF you decided to get a different e-ink display from Waveshare, you can go through the documentation that they have created for that specific display by finding your display in their marketplace and navigating to the demonstration
4. I also attached the example code given by waveshare below but I highly recommend customizing the board to your hearts content.
5. Now that you have the code necessary to run the board, you can modify it to your hearts content, adding anything you want.
6. Use the API call from here, reading the documentation to fetch the appropriate JSON file, parsing it for the anime quote, the show it came from, and the person that said it.
7. You can add the information from the API into the python code that waveshare uses to demonstrate their boards, and run the code in the terminal like shown in the waveshare documentation to check if it works.

Follow this video to see how to make the board run the code automatically. You will now be able to plug the board into a power bank for it to run.

1. Place the display into the frame. Be careful not to bend the ribbon wire coming out of the display as to preserve its lifespan.
2. Use the velcro tape to stick the tech components so it doesn't shift around too much
3. Voila, enjoy your anime quote dashboard.