$2 WeAct Display FS adds a 0.96-inch USB information display to your computer

https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/09/18/2-weact-display-fs-adds-a-0-96-inch-usb-information-display-to-your-computer/

120•smartmic•3h ago

Comments

downrightmike•2h ago

dead link

inChargeOfIT•2h ago

works for me

dark-star•1h ago

AliExpress links are often geo-restricted and only work from some country/countries.

VladVladikoff•2h ago

Would be cool if I could reprogram it for some other output, because I don’t really see the need for this except for maybe on a raspberry pi “server”.

squigz•2h ago

You can? As linked in the article, it's open source and supports custom themes/UIs

https://github.com/WeActStudio/WeActStudio.SystemMonitor

gregsadetsky•2h ago

This display is definitely programmable to show any output you'd want. A similar display is the Turing Smart Screen (linked in the article) which is a small image-over-usb display.

((I really wanted the latter display to work on my Mac, but there's unfortunately some OS-level USB buffering (I think) that ends up creating a corrupted image - https://github.com/mathoudebine/turing-smart-screen-python/i... ))

haunter•2h ago

Aand it's gone https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009941797169.html

grizzles•1h ago

Seems perfect for a YubiKey type of device. Know where your authenticating to.

derefr•1h ago

Crypto hardware wallets have had little screens on them for ages now, for this same reason. Rather than trusting the app to tell you the truth about the tx it's presenting your key to sign, your key shows you the tx hash / amount to be transferred / etc, and asks you to make sure the details match before approving.

ahmedfromtunis•1h ago

For some reason, nothing says "future" to me more than having tiny screens embedded where they're not absolutely needed.

When I grew up in the 90s and 00s, screens were definitely the most expensive part of any system they belonged to. And any gadget that came with its own screen attached to it was regarded as a delicacy only for the elite.

Living long enough to see "disposable" screens cheaper than literal candy getting attached everywhere makes me happy.

Can't wait to see Gemini-2.5 Pro-level LLMs embedded inside single post-it notes and thrown away like it's no big deal.

bee_rider•1h ago

I wonder if the previous generation felt that way about the little unlit LCDs that used to be in everything (although, I bet they were more than $2 adjusted for inflation).

p_ing•1h ago

> For some reason, nothing says "future" to me more than having tiny screens embedded where they're not absolutely needed.

Like this?

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/new-ddr5-modu...

to11mtm•40m ago

... I don't get why folks would want to use such ram sticks...

That said, I am very appreciative of my 'inline USB-C power draw monitor' from a standpoint of understanding what kind of draw a given device has (up to it's limit ofc)

QuantumNomad_•14m ago

> inline USB-C power draw monitor

I have a couple of those and I love them!

Mine support up to 100W power draw.

Before I got them, I hadn’t ever considered that a variable amount of power could be drawn by a laptop while charging.

For example, right now my laptop is at 63% battery and currently charging. It’s drawing 36W at the moment. When the battery charge is lower, it’s drawing more power from the outlet, and the higher the battery charge is getting, the less power it’s drawing from the outlet.

larusso•8m ago

The analogy I always use is the filling a water bottle one. In the beginning when the bottle is empty you can go full power and fill it up with high pressure. At the end you need to reduce the pressure to not spill the water. I know it doesn’t work like this with batterie cells but close enough. I had the same aha moment when realizing this. It’s one of the things no one normally thinks about in a world where everything is a given.

estimator7292•36m ago

Innovation at any cost.

amelius•1h ago

I wish my laserprinter had a screen like this.

Its menu is impossible to navigate.

Same for my office phone.

Waterluvian•1h ago

Remember when the future was each AA battery having its own thumb destroying built-in tester?

Imagine AA batteries with little LCD screens.

mhuffman•36m ago

At some point your thumbs wouldn't activate the pads so you had to use your thumbnails and then it was just a matter of time before the tester strip quit working.

makosdv•42m ago

Yeah, I hope they put displays on more things. The trends are weird though, since some things that used to have displays no longer have them; you have to use the app on your phone instead...

lostlogin•20m ago

Some things should never have had a display. Eg touch screen for car controls.

userbinator•32m ago

Unfortunately these are still a bit too expensive to e.g. have one on every key of a standard 101-key keyboard.

XorNot•6m ago

Admittedly at $2, thats within the cost bucket of an expensive keyboard.

leoh•10m ago

I feel that the future may mean non-intrusive E-Ink displays where they are useful.

JdeBP•1h ago

Alarm bells always go off for me when a vendor, as here, blatantly Photoshops an idealized perfectly black, flat, and non-reflective mockup image of what would be displayed onto the picture of the real display.

realo•1h ago

If it is oled it will be a perfectly black background.

userbinator•34m ago

All LCD vendors do that.

rr808•1h ago

One thing I would like is a small portable hdmi display to use with my headless servers when they fail to boot. Even better would show screen over network.

jsheard•1h ago

How small are we talking? There are tons of cheap portable monitors built around laptop panels.

rr808•1h ago

Its for my closet so I wanted smaller - like < 10 inch. You inspired me to look again and you're right they're available in this size. thanks. Still would like a network solution as well btw. :)

jsheard•1h ago

I can't vouch for any particular one, but there are a number of cheap network KVMs now which enable that kind of remote management.

e.g. https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/03/21/jetkvm-a-69-kvm-over...

rr808•1h ago

OK awesome. JetKVM looks perfect, I saw wireless hdmi as well but this is better.

Scoundreller•1h ago

Just be careful with wireless hdmi. 5ghz should go through walls but 60ghz won’t even go through a curtain.

mmastrac•1h ago

AliExpress has a beautiful 7" screen for peanuts. It has a surprisingly clear display and has so many uses:

https://youtu.be/LC3INaZVqFA?si=2BV5N3_7TtWPRlUj

It even has USB power and speakers.

jcul•1h ago

I have a portable monitor I used to use as a second screen while travelling.

I actually used it again recently while setting up a new home server, got me as far as SSH access.

It wasn't super cheap, but not that expensive either.

RenThraysk•1h ago

Peakdo have a miniHDMI 7"

https://www.peakdo.com/PeakDo-Ultra-thin-light-7-inch-Multip...

sowbug•45m ago

Try "camera field monitor." Example: https://www.amazon.com/FEELWORLD-Monitor-1280x720-Peaking-In...

I used one of these to make a teleprompter-style videoconference setup at home during the pandemic, so I could make eye contact with other meeting participants.

weinzierl•1h ago

I recently researched USB connected information displays but I am interested in e-Ink. I want

- USB power + data

- Open interface so I can drive it from my own software on the host (but not like a traditional monitor, I imagine more uploading pre-rendered bitmaps)

- Image retention when powered off

- High resolution paper like appearance

- Between A5 and A4 in size

- At least black, red and yellow as colors

- Buttons or a way to connect buttons would be a bonus

If anyone has a tip, I'd be grateful.

teruakohatu•1h ago

People have had this dream for probably close to 20 years (since Kindle v1).

And yet it still seems out of reach beyond going with a full hdmi eink display.

The closest I have found is the M5Stack 4.7” eink display with built in esp32 and lipo battery.

adolph•1h ago

Seeed Studio is pumping out somewhat smaller sized e-ink with relatively open hardware for Trminal use

https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/09/06/reterminal-e1001-e10...

theossuary•1h ago

I really want a little USB drive with an eink display on it so I can set a label for each of my drives

citizenpaul•1h ago

AAAAANnndd its out of stock. Nice work HN!

amelius•1h ago

What was that extra bar of information called on Macbooks?

Were they a success?

yborg•1h ago

It wasn't worth the extra cost to Apple to support it since the vast majority of consumers didn't care about it one way or the other.

hoherd•58m ago

Sure, but I would never put the linked device on my laptop. I would put it on a headless server.

0x457•54m ago

Touch Bar. Given that it was removed in 2021 I'd say - No. However, the issue for me with it was that it replaced a functional key that I want to be tactile. While it's nice to slide a finger to control brightness and volume... I still want actual Esc and co to be physical keys.

maccard•48m ago

I agree. The contextual UI was great and I loved it, but having it instead of the top keyboard row was a terrible idea

mosura•52m ago

Curious this is so highly voted. These displays are absolutely tiny.

estimator7292•28m ago

That's the point

moralestapia•13m ago

Neat! This is exactly what I was looking for the other day.

$2 WeAct Display FS adds a 0.96-inch USB information display to your computer

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$2 WeAct Display FS adds a 0.96-inch USB information display to your computer

Comments

$2 WeAct Display FS adds a 0.96-inch USB information display to your computer

Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

Designing NotebookLM

Knitted Anatomy

A brief history of threads and threading

A revolution in English bell ringing

Solving a wooden puzzle using Haskell

After Babel Fish: The promise of cheap translations at the speed of the Web

I'm Not a Robot

Scream cipher

Show HN: I Parallelized RNN Training from O(T) to O(log T) Using CUDA

Why do some gamers invert their controls?

Escapee pregnancy test frogs colonised Wales for 50 years (2019)

Images over DNS

FLX1s phone is launched

Vapor chamber tech keeps iPhone 17 Pro cool

Philips announces digital pathology scanner with native DICOM JPEG XL output

Cormac McCarthy's tips on how to write a science paper (2019) [pdf]

MapSCII – World map in terminal

Evals in 2025: going beyond simple benchmarks to build models people can use

Living microbial cement supercapacitors with reactivatable energy storage

PYREX vs. pyrex: What's the difference?

Show HN: Math2Tex – Convert handwritten math and complex notes to LaTeX text

TV Time Machine: A Raspberry Pi That Plays Random 90s TV

Claude can sometimes prove it

macOS becomes iOS: Safari video controls

Systemd can be a cause of restrictions on daemons

Are touchscreens in cars dangerous?

Bezier Curve as Easing Function in C++