Got bored staring at my Pwnagotchi's screen, so I built a plugin that puts games/weather/a clock on it from my phone
First off, massive respect to the Pwnagotchi project and everyone who's written plugins for it over the years. It's open source, it's clever, and it's the only reason something like this is even possible. I'm building on top of your work here, not trying to reinvent anything.
So, the backstory. I'd been looking at the same face-and-stats screen for months and started wondering what else that little e-ink display could be doing while the device is out hunting. That turned into a host plugin that lets you load swappable "cartridges" onto the screen. Little games and apps, that kind of thing. Low fps stuff. You switch between them from a phone app over Bluetooth, instead of ssh'ing in and editing config every time you want something different up there.
The part I was careful about: a cartridge only borrows the screen. It never touches the radio. bettercap keeps doing its thing the whole time, and the second you deactivate a cartridge you're back to the normal face. It's meant to add to the device you already run, not replace it.
Two things I'd want to know if I were reading this. First, the plugin you actually install is open source: one readable Python file, GPLv3, and the cartridge catalog is open too, so you can audit the whole thing before you install it. The companion app is closed-source for now, which I know is a dealbreaker for some of you, and that's fair. Second, I built a lot of this with Claude Code. It was a blast to work with and I picked up a ton along the way.
The apps just cleared App Store and Play Store review after a fairly tedious back and forth, so honestly I'm mostly just relieved they're finally live and I can put this in front of the people most likely to actually use it.
Where I want to take it next, when I find the time:
- A proper dev flow so anyone can build a cartridge and get it into the store without much friction.
- More apps as I go (this is a nights-and-weekends thing right now).
- A small site to show it off, and maybe a short YouTube walkthrough of the install.
- More e-ink display sizes compatibility
- Maybe a standalone rpi image
Mostly I just want a few people willing to run it on real hardware and tell me what breaks or feels off. Bug reports and flat-out "this is a bad idea because X" feedback are equally welcome.
- Plugin + catalog source: https://github.com/cristian-milea/ink-cartridges
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ink-cartridge/id6774989679
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.cristianmilea.inkcartridgeapp
Thanks for reading, and thanks for keeping this community as good as it is.
PS: sorry for the double post, I uploaded the image wrong the first time.