u/d3fl

A few months ago I posted about reverse-engineering the Hokku/Huessen 13.3" e-ink photo frame and replacing the stock firmware. There were a bunch of things that I didn't like and the install was a pain for most people, so time to fix it.

Introducing v2.0, a complete rewrite — no toolchain needed anymore. You download a zip, run a setup script, and you're done.

Vendor image of the frame

What's new:

• One-click setup — run hokku_setup.bat (Windows) or python hokku_setup.py, it detects the frame over USB, configures WiFi, and flashes the firmware. No ESP-IDF toolchain needed.
• Web GUI — browse your images, configure refresh schedule, see which frames are connected and what they've shown. Just open http://server:8080/ in your browser.
• Multi-screen support — name each frame, the server tracks them independently.
• Fair rotation — least-shown image is always served next, new images get priority.
• Server-driven schedule — set refresh times on the server (e.g. 6:00, 12:00, 18:00), the frame just sleeps until told to wake. No NTP, no timezone config on the device.
• Landscape or portrait — pick your orientation in the web GUI, server handles the rest.
• Debian package — apt install ./hokku-server.deb on your server and you're running.
• EXIF-aware — phone photos display in the correct orientation automatically.

What you need:

1. A Hokku or Huessen 13.3" e-ink frame (~$280 on Wayfair)
2. A computer on your network to run the image server (Raspberry Pi works great)
3. A USB cable and 5 minutes

Snapshot of the web UI

The whole project is AI-generated (Claude Opus 4.6, zero human-written code) which was... an experience. Full write-up in the repo.

GitHub: https://github.com/defl/hokku_epaper