Muse Family Calendar on E-Paper: Setup and Limits

A Muse family calendar on e-paper is a Seeed reTerminal E1001 or E1002 running Meta's ESP32 Device SDK, placed where everyone walks past. Muse sends it a picture, such as this week's schedule, a chore chart or a shopping list, and the e-paper keeps showing it with no power. It's a quiet, slow, low-power status board. It isn't a tablet, and it doesn't take voice.

What a Muse family calendar can show

Out of the box, both reTerminals show a still status screen with your agent's name, its character and a line of status text. It only changes when the status does. The useful part is images. Muse can send the board a picture, and the board dithers it to what the panel can show:

The E1001 shows black and white only, 1 bit per pixel.
The E1002 shows six inks: black, white, yellow, red, blue and green. Grays become black and white.

Both panels are 800×480. The firmware's display.draw_url command tells Muse the bit depth, and on the E1002 the six exact colors and how slow the refresh is, so Muse can draw for the screen it has. Meta suggests the E1002 for "a morning briefing, reminders, shopping list, or anything else you think of." A family calendar is the same idea: Muse draws the week as an image and sends it.

What goes on the calendar depends on what Muse can see. If your family's events aren't somewhere Muse can read, tell it what's coming up and ask it to draw that. Meta's example prompts for gadgets include daily jobs such as "Every morning at 7, check if my Pi's backups ran", so a fresh page each morning is a reasonable thing to ask for.

E1001 vs E1002 for a family calendar

Seeed sale prices, checked October 5, 2026. Panel details come from the Muse SDK's device table.

	reTerminal E1001	reTerminal E1002
Price	$69 on sale (regular $79)	$99 on sale (regular $109)
Panel	7.5" 800×480 e-paper	7.3" 800×480 E Ink Spectra 6
Colors	Black and white	Six colors
Refresh	A second or two	About 30 seconds, with a flash
Chip and memory	ESP32-S3, 32 MB flash, 8 MB PSRAM	ESP32-S3, 32 MB flash, 8 MB PSRAM
Battery	Yes, Seeed advertises up to 3 months	Yes, Seeed advertises up to 3 months
Muse build	`reterminal-e1001`	`reterminal-e1002`

For a calendar that changes several times a day, the E1001 is the practical pick. Text is what matters, and a quick refresh means a fixed typo or a moved pickup shows up fast. Pick the E1002 if color coding matters to your family, such as a color per person, and you're fine with each update taking half a minute. Board details live on the E1001 page and the E1002 page.

What to expect from e-paper

Slow refresh. A second or two on the E1001, about 30 seconds on the E1002. Both flash briefly when the image changes.
No video or animation. At that speed, e-paper is for still pages.
It holds the picture with no power. The SDK notes say the E1001 keeps its picture without power, and the E1002 is the same board with a color panel.
Low power, with a caveat. Seeed advertises up to three months of battery life and lists a 2000 mAh battery for the E1001. The Muse firmware keeps an encrypted session to Muse, and the repo gives no battery figure for it, so see how long yours lasts before you rely on the battery alone. Muse can't read the battery level on these boards either.
No voice and no touch. The reTerminals have no push-to-talk under Muse. You talk to Muse in the app or through a separate voice gadget.
Some hardware sits idle. Seeed's board has temperature and humidity sensors and a buzzer, but the Muse SDK lists air-sensor support only for the SenseCAP Indicator, so don't count on Muse reading them here.
Updates go over USB. Over-the-air updates are off on these boards by default, so reflashing means plugging in a cable.

Wall, fridge or desk: where to put it

Seeed's E1001 wiki says a 3D-printed stand comes in the package. It attaches to embedded nuts on the bottom back and holds the screen at a fixed angle. With the stand, the E1001 measures 176 × 120 × 53 mm, and it's 17 mm thick without it. That works on a kitchen counter or a desk.

For a wall or fridge, plan your own mount. Seeed doesn't list magnets, so a fridge needs adhesive magnets or a printed bracket, and a wall works with a small shelf or a bracket that uses the same screw inserts. Browse hackshop's templates for printable stands you can start from. A few placement tips:

Stay in range of your 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. The ESP32-S3 inside uses 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n.
Leave the top edge clear. The buttons, including the green one you press during pairing, are on top.
Keep a USB-C cable within reach. The port charges at 5 V 1 A and is also how you flash the board.
Pick a spot at eye level where people already stop, like the fridge, the front door or the kitchen table.

How to set it up

Get the board and a USB-C cable that carries data. Charge-only cables can't flash.
Create an SDK token at gadgets.muse.ai under Account > SDK tokens.
On a Mac or Linux computer, install ESP-IDF version 6.0.1. The Muse firmware doesn't support other versions, including the newer 6.1.
Clone the muse-gadget-sdk repo and build with tools/board.sh reterminal-e1001 build or tools/board.sh reterminal-e1002 build, with your token set for that build in idf.py menuconfig (under ESP32 Device SDK). Use the E1002 build for the color panel, even though the "Source" link on Meta's E1002 project card points to the E1001 settings file.
Flash it. The reTerminal uses a CH340 USB bridge, so the port shows up as /dev/cu.usbserial-* or /dev/cu.wchusbserial* on a Mac and /dev/ttyUSB* on Linux. On Linux, add yourself to the dialout group first.
In the Muse app, turn on Settings > Devices > Developer mode and add the device. It shows up as MuseGadget-Disp-XXXXXX. Press the green button when asked to confirm.
Ask Muse for a first page, such as "Draw this week's family calendar in large black and white text and send it to my e-paper display."

You can hand the build to a coding agent instead. Muse Code, or any agent that reads the SDK's AGENTS.md, can build and flash it, and hackshop's E1001 build steps include a brief your agent can follow. If you can't tell which port is the board, try the ESP32 port finder.

Questions people ask

How often can a Muse e-paper calendar update?

As often as Muse sends a new image, but each refresh takes time: a second or two on the E1001, and about 30 seconds with a flash on the E1002. Plan for a few updates a day, not live data.

Does the reTerminal run on battery with Muse?

Both reTerminals have a battery, and Seeed advertises up to three months of battery life. The Muse repo gives no battery figure for its firmware, and Muse can't read the battery level on these boards, so check it yourself and keep a USB-C cable handy.

Can my family talk to the calendar?

No. The reTerminal has no push-to-talk under the Muse firmware. You ask Muse in the Muse app, or through a separate voice gadget, and Muse updates the screen. The board is paired to one Muse account.

Should I get the E1001 or E1002 for a fridge?

The E1001 if your calendar changes often and is mostly text: it's cheaper and refreshes in a second or two. The E1002 if color coding matters and a 30-second refresh is fine. Seeed doesn't list magnets for either, so plan your own mount.

Sources

Prices and details checked October 5, 2026.