EINKSTER
ask out loud, read on paper.
en cuisinewhat it is
A small e-paper creature that answers questions. Hold it, speak, wait a breath: the reply settles onto a screen that reads like print, stays visible at zero power, and never glows at you.
It is the opposite of the AI gadgets you remember. No subscription. No company between you and the answer: your firmware, your server, your API keys. Nothing to shut down when a startup pivots. It ships already liberated.
the bodies
One brain, many bodies. Two are in the kitchen.
the screen is the button
one-line verdicts, weeks of battery
ESP32-S3, mic, cased, pocketable
rock to change tile, hold to talk
real conversations, page by page
ESP32-S3, mic, printable case
the brain
A tiny relay on a free Netlify site does the thinking: it hears through Deepgram, reasons through the Claude API, and hands back plain data each body draws its own way. The keys live server-side and never touch a device. Bring your own: an Anthropic key, a Deepgram key, and, for one tile, a free NASA key.
Every body speaks to the same brain. Adding a new gadget is a profile, not a project.
The brain is alive and public: einkster-brain.netlify.app. Bring your own keys and talk to it from any browser, before you own any hardware. Your keys stay in your browser; the brain uses them once per question and stores nothing.
the tiles
the recipe
Order a body. Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-ePaper-1.54 (cased, battery included) or ESP32-S3-ePaper-3.97.
~30 € / ~40 €
Deploy the brain. Drop the relay folder on Netlify, paste your keys as environment variables, done in an evening.
0 € + a few cents per hundred questions
Print the case for the reader. Arrange the elements in the body editor, check with the 1:1 template, render, print at any fablab. The oracle arrives dressed.
a few € of filament
Flash the firmware from the browser and introduce the body to its brain.
en cuisine · the brain is live, the bodies are crossing the planet
a small complaint
DIY is not "cheap" anymore, and it is worth saying out loud. The boards on this page cost a fair price exactly once: at the source. The moment a batch sells out, the scalpers arrive, and a 30 € development board reappears on marketplace listings at double or triple, sold by someone who has never flashed a firmware in their life.
Add oversea shipping, customs, filament, a fablab hour, two API accounts: the honest total of this entrée is closer to a restaurant dinner than to a free lunch. Build it anyway, but not to save money. Build it because the thing you end up holding answers to you, not to a subscription, and because nobody can discontinue it.
Practical defense: order from the manufacturer even when it means waiting two weeks, and treat any listing above list price as what it is. The waiting is part of the recipe.