Electronic shelf labels (ESLs) are now used in many stores and available at very reasonable prices (5-10$ / unit) . These all seem to use ultra-low power eink display modules that only consume power when the content of the display is being changed.

E.g.: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Wireless-transmission-zero-power-electronic-shelf_60256379521.html?spm=a2700.7724838.0.0.M2nZGP

In stark contrast, I still don't see any affordable e-ink modules available for Arduino projects. The 2.9" Adafruit module is 39$ which sounds ridiculous when you consider that a cheapo $10 ESL module contains more components and is still only quarter of the price.

Hopefully, one day ESL manufacturers will start selling their display modules standalone as well.

Until that happens: Has anyone seen a hack for any of the ESL modules so that one could use the display or the whole ESL as part of an Arduino / mysensors project?

This would give us access to affordable, ultra-low power display modules.

Hi All,

Being hit by various problems with noname nRF24 radio modules, I have decided that I try to find a more trustworthy source for my radios.

Ebyte (cdebyte) seems to:

• produce relatively affordable modules
• uses original Nordic chips
• has official store on Ebay and Aliexpress
• has a proper English website with product pages, specs and manuals
• Mysensors forums also seems to be positive around their products (from the limited number of forum entries found around their nrf24 products)

However, they have a fair amount of module types and I am unsure which one can be used for what roles in a Mysensors project (so I speculate here and I await your opinion and experience).

Range at 250 kbps data rate, prices from the official ebay/aliexpress store:

E01-ML01S
0.1 km range, PCB antenna, 0dBm, 1 mW power, non-shielded
through hole/SMD
$3.89 / 1pcs
$1.08 / 10pcs
role: node with short distance to gateway/repeater

E01-ML01D (red)
0.1 km range, PCB antenna, 0dBm, 1 mW power, non-shielded
soldered pins/DIP
$3.31
role: node with short distance to gateway/repeater

E01-ML01IPX
0.2 km range, IPEX antenna connector, 0dBm, 1 mW power, non-shielded
through hole/SMD
$3.89
role: node with short distance to gateway/repeater
notes: can have external antenna but still, 0dBm

E01-ML01DP4
1.8 km range, PCB antenna, 20dBm, 100 mW power, non-shielded
soldered pins/DIP
$3.69
role: node with long(er) distance to gateway/repeater

E01-2G4M13S
0.8 km range
PCB antenna, 13dBm, 20mW max power, advertised as PA+LNA, shielded
through-hole/SMD
$4.50
role: node with long distance to gateway/repeater

E01-ML01SP2
1.8 km range
both PCB antenna and IPEX antenna connector, 20dBm, 100mW max power, PA+LNA, non-shielded
through-hole/SMD
$3.9 / 1pcs
$1.97 / 10pcs
role: node with long(er) distance to gateway/repeater
role: gateway/repeater

E01-ML01SP4
2 km range
IPEX antenna connector, 20dBm, 100mW max power, shielded
through-hole/SMD
$3.89 / 1pcs
$1.97 / 10pcs
role: gateway/repeater
role: node with long distance to gateway/repeater

E01-ML01DP5
2.5 km range
SMA-k antenna connector, 20 dBm, 100mW max power, shielded
soldered pins/DIP
$3.89
role: gateway/repeater
role: node with long distance to gateway/repeater

E01-2G4M27D
5 km range
SMA-k antenna connector, 27 dBm, 500mW max power shielded
soldered pins/DIP
$5.89
role: gateway/repeater
role: node with long distance to gateway/repeater

---

If you have any experience with the above modules in any role in your network, please let me/us know.

UPDATE 2021-JUL-04:
It seems that experiences are very positive with these modules in the community.
The MySensors store now also lists two of these modules as the recommended radios.

@Igor-Antolić @mfalkvidd

Great answers, thank you both.

Thanks, I will try it out.

Thanks for the link.

Still not cheap (1.44" for $12) but at least not outrageous like the Adafruit.

It works, many thanks.

I used a 4K7 resistor as pull-up and it seems to be enough.

I have ordered a set of E01-ML01S and intend to test them against my gateway.

@orhanyor: I would definitely expect the E01-ML01S to do better than a couple of meters. That is the range of the shittiest noname nrf24 clones (when they work at all).

@bjacobse
Couldn't agree more.
This might just be the problem I face.

I have managed to upload with a home made programmer (my Uno as an AVR ISP) and test the behaviour without the bootloader.

It seems to be very fast now even in the setup(), so I think this solves the problem for me perfectly. I guess it is now below 500ms, maybe even less.

Many thanks for the help.

@rozpruwacz
:)
Actually, I considered that as the fallback solution but I do not want to increase complexity if there is a robust, simple solution.