This self-hosted e-ink dashboard designer makes creating ESP32 and Pi projects a lot easier

Credit: dmellok Published Aug 12, 2026, 3:38 AM EDT Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech. Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics. Sign in to your XDA account Summary Tesserae makes building custom e-ink dashboards easy, and its creator used it in their new build. xDaftTurtle’s project uses a Seeed reTerminal (1200×1600) to show train times, local weather, and maps. Tesserae is open-source, self-hosted, and tile-based; it renders headless and pushes via MQTT/HTTP. If you learn anything about me from my reporting, it's that I adore projects that use e-ink displays. I'm still thinking about the time someone built their own e-ink watch earlier this week. Fortunately, if you want to make your own e-ink project at home, there are plenty of resources out there to aid you, such as this amazing dashboard designer that lets you create the perfect smart display. Tesserae takes the pain out of making your own e-ink dashboard Its creator has put it to amazing use already Over on the e-ink projects subreddit, user xDaftTurtle showed off what they've made recently. It's a Seeed reTerminal E100413.3" Spectra 6 display running at 1200x1600, and it's designed to give xDaftTurtle everything they need to know to start their day. That includes a timetable from their local train service's API, a weather report, and maps. However, xDaftTurtle is more than just an e-ink builder. They're also the brilliant mind behind Tesserae, a system that lets you design your own dashboard with ease. Here's how they describe it: Self-hosted dashboard companion for e-ink displays. Compose tile-based dashboards in a browser, render the frame headless, push it to one or more panels over MQTT or HTTP. Open source under AGPL-3.0-or-later. No SaaS, no cloud account. The only outbound contact is api.tesserae.ink for update checks, an anonymous install count, and a daily aggregate heartbeat, off by default and opt-in (you're asked once at first-run setup). You can check out the project for yourself over on the Tesserae GitHub repository. It's worth taking a look at the list of supported hardware to see if your device is listed. It looks like there's a good mix of ESP32 and Raspberry Pi-based devices in there, which is excellent news, as both are fantastic for e-ink projects. There's also the official Tesserae website if you'd like to check that out instead.